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RE: not your regular cloudy water
Hi-
I wanted to follow up on some of the questions and suggestions people
have made for clearing up my mysterious cloudy water (problem and
pictures outlined at
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~munson/aquarium/index.html).
(1) I got two inquiries about the water going into the tank. My wife
actually gets monthly municipal water quality reports through her job,
so I am lucky enough to know precisely what's in the soup they call
drinking water (which I put directly into the tank). The Ph is 8.9,
artificially inflated by use of calcium carbonate. Nitrates are less
than 0.005 mg/l and Phosphates are 0.011 mg/l. I just don't think the
answer is with the input water. Paul wrote me that I should check to
see if it is calcium phosphate clouding the water, which I'll try to get
some acid to test for. It's unlikely, though, given the other mineral
analysis of the water.
(2) The diatomic filter in question (which cannot clear the water) is a
Whisper Diatomagic. It has worked well for me in the past. I just
replaced the bag on it, so the diatomaceous earth itself shouldn't be
the source of the clouding.
(3) Garrett said he solved a similar problem with bi-daily water changes
to get rid of excess nutrients. I may try this, although nutrient wise
my tank shouldn't be doing too well, as I haven't been adding fertilizer
for several months now, and it hasn't been set up long enough to have a
ton of goodies caught in the substrate.
(4) Is it possible the cloudiness is being caused not by particulates or
algae, but some kind of bacteria NOT killed by the hydrogen peroxide
regimen I followed?
I'd sure like to clear this up, or my wife is going to start
'suggesting' I move the tank somewhere less prominent than the middle of
our living room!
Thanks for everyone's help,
Ziad