Water cloudy

[k9-fish]

I have a 55 gallon tank, with a protien skimmer, and a 330 penguin filter. My fish are Dogface puffer, spinybox puffer, tomato clown, lion fish, and a spotted grouper. The tank has been set up for over a year and a friend gave it to me. The salinity is 1.023 and the PH is ideal. I did a water change thinking it might help but maybe they gave me bad water? I don't know and I don't want to start throwing chemicals in there just guessing. Thanks for any help.

 

[thomas712]

Welcome to SWF.COM
Is this a fish only? any live rock? what is the substrate?
Your right we should not make and guesses and start adding things. So.
What are your tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Sometimes cloudiness can be the result of an ammonia spike.
Running Carbon? filter clean? How long has the system been up and running?
Thomas

 

[k9-fish]

It is a fish only, there is one piece of live rock. I have a carbon filter and that is the first thing i did was change the filter. I haven't tested for ammonia but have treated the tank for ammonia. I am clueless.

 

[rkhlk]

K-9 I have no advise for you other than you have came to the right place for help. Post any question you have no matter how dumb it may sound. someone here has had that same question and they will help....good luck and welcome aboard...ask away!
rkhlk

 

[k9-fish]

Thanks for the welcome folks, it is appreciated. I think I found my problem. All of them. First, my dogface puffer was in bad shape and I was told to use a little copper. Not knowing better, I did and it killed all of my turbo snails. Poor little guys never knew what hit them. Well it took a little while for me to realize that they were dead and had to remove them. I guess the dying snails would cause a ammonia spike. Also after going back and reading the directions(duh) on my 330 bio-wheel, I never added more carbon to the media inserts so I have on;y been filtering with the bule filters that I bought with the filter. I hope this solves it. I did an ammonia test and it was present so I have taken measures to get it under control. Thanks for the help and for reading this long explanation.