Quick question

[ZeroSystem]

No problem, I'm glad I was able to remember how to do it!

Interesting that the tank was hazy before the maintenance. You did cycle the aquarium right? What are the NitrAte, NitrIte and Ammonia levels? If you don't know I would have your water tested at a local fish store and have them right down the results so you can post them here. Don't settle for a "your water is good" comment from the employee, as they often don't know what they are doing unfortunately. You might also want to think about purchasing a test kit of your own if you don't have one already. A large amount of Total Dissolved Organics (if I remember correctly) can lead to hazy water. This is usually caused by over-stocking, over feeding or not enough water changes being done on a frequent basis. Also free floating algae can sometimes cause a hazy apperance. If you leave your lights on for long periods of time, or if your tank is near a window and gets some direct sun light you might get algae of this kind. It's tough to say for sure what is going on. Like I mentioned, I would post the results of your water test here, and once we've gone over the water parameters hopefully we will have a better idea of whats going on.

[lowwing_99]

Originally Posted by ZeroSystem

No problem, I'm glad I was able to remember how to do it!

Interesting that the tank was hazy before the maintenance. You did cycle the aquarium right? What are the NitrAte, NitrIte and Ammonia levels? If you don't know I would have your water tested at a local fish store and have them right down the results so you can post them here. Don't settle for a "your water is good" comment from the employee, as they often don't know what they are doing unfortunately. You might also want to think about purchasing a test kit of your own if you don't have one already. A large amount of Total Dissolved Organics (if I remember correctly) can lead to hazy water. This is usually caused by over-stocking, over feeding or not enough water changes being done on a frequent basis. Also free floating algae can sometimes cause a hazy apperance. If you leave your lights on for long periods of time, or if your tank is near a window and gets some direct sun light you might get algae of this kind. It's tough to say for sure what is going on. Like I mentioned, I would post the results of your water test here, and once we've gone over the water parameters hopefully we will have a better idea of whats going on.

I just took a 5-1 reading with our test strip. Nitrates are between 20-40 PPM (safe zone), Nitrite 0, total Hardness around 150 (GH) PPM we have hard H20, Alkalinity (KH) PPM120 Ideal, but this makes no sense to me PH around 8 very high but alkalinty part of test say ideal but PH is extremely high. I thought high PH is alkaline, & acidic is low so to me the test stip counterdicts itself. For fish we had 13 Neon Tetras, 2 Rasporas, 1 silver dollar, 1 rainbow, 1 congo tetra, 1 angel ram, 1 yoyo botia, 3 yellow danios, 5 angels, & a bush nose plecco. Aquarium faces south window but is accross the room. 1 thing is the ambient temp has been extremely high so the aquarium has been around 84. Would have needed a chiller to lower temp. One question, what does it mean to cycle the aquarium?

[ZeroSystem]

I understand the confusion! KH or Total Alkalinity has a couple of names. It is also called Carbonate Hardness and Buffering Capacity. It's basically a measurement of how much carbonates are in the water. KH protects your PH from changing by absorbing acids or bases that are added to the water, like during a partial water change. Also nitrates are technically an acid, so if your KH was low your PH would also drop as nitrates increase, which wouldn't be good. Having a good amount of KH basically means you are far more likely to have a stable PH, which is always a good thing.

Your water chemistry would be perfect for African Cichlids by the way. Just thought I'd throw that out there. It is kind of totally opposite of what Angel fish, Neons and Rasbora's would like in the wild. Of course your fish are doing okay right? This is because most fish are captive bred and are used to PH ranges outside their native habitats. I still like to replicate their native habitat as closely as possible personally, but this isn't always needed. As I mentioned earlier, a stable PH is more important as many fish are able to adapt to different ranges of PH as long as they are acclimated properly.

Cycling your aquarium refers to the Nitrogen Cycle, a naturally occuring process that happens within every fish tank. There are certain beneficial bacteria that grow within tanks once ammonia is introduced. The bacteria 'feed' on the ammonia and turn into nitrIte, which is still pretty toxic (although a little less toxic than ammonia). A second bacteria then grows as well and turns the nitrIte into nitrAtes, which are far less dangerous except in high numbers. There are a number of different ways to 'Cycle' your aquarium. The most popular I would say these days is 'fishless cycling', which involves adding pure ammonia to the aquarium to start the cycle. Here is a link to the video tutorials, which explain the whole thing in greater detail.

Link:

Just scroll down a bit to the part about the nitrogen cycle.