Eskielvr

I added my weekly dosage of Stress Zyme and Easy Balance to my 20 gallon this morning, and noticed the water is cloudy, and has been for hours. Is it a bacteria bloom since I added some and then put the bacteria fertilizer in it?

Terry

Hi Eskielvr. Is the Easy Balance one of those pH adjusters? I have one that never seemed to do anything so I shelved it. Mine was a white powder that did cause some initial cloudyness but the filter cleaned it up in an hour or two. I suppose it might be a bacterial bloom, but have you checked your filter to be sure it's working well? Temperature OK - some bacteria really take off if it gets really warm.

Edit: I just read another post about the Easy Balance - a dechlor, water treatment thing, so forget my question on that. Maybe it's back to checking the filter, or doing a partial water change if it is a bloom.

Isabella

Well, when did you start to cycle this tank? How large is it? Any fish in it? Did you measure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels?

Eskielvr

The Easy Balance isn't a water conditioner. It's "supposed" to make it so you don't have to do water changes for 6 months if you add it weekly, but I wouldn't go by that recommendation. It supposedly has nutrients and other stuff for the beneficial bacteria.

My tank is 20 gallons, it's had water in it for about 7 or 8 years, but I let the filter dry out and didn't start it up again until about 2 or 3 months ago (but there's still beneficial bacteria living in the gravel), and has a total of 8 fish and 1 shrimp. I'm getting ready to do some water tests in a little bit but they shouldn't have changed since my last couple of posts. Again the cloudiness didn't start until I added the Stress Zyme in conjunction with the Easy Balance.

Water perimeters:
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 20ppm
Ph- 7.6

However, the lot numbers for all the tests except for Nitrate says '02, so I'm wondering if maybe they're expired? I have Acid and Alkaline Buffer, but don't know if those go bad too or not. I don't really understand how to use them together. How would I use them to safely lower the Ph? Then again, if I start lowering it I may have to battle with it all the time since I can never seem to keep it under 7.0