CLOUDY WATER

[RUSS]

I have a 55 gal tank ,after being up for a few months the water started to get cloudy, the marine supply store in my area said its normal and will clear up, well it never did and this is a total of 6 months now
I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks, i rund more filter then i really need, a 400 external and a 280 external hang on with bio wheels
recently i had to do a water change and now my water is crystal clear, I did two things different but not sure what I really did to resolve this
For one thing ive been using instant ocean salt, when i went ot my local supplier he was out and sold me red sea which he said was better so i did a water change using a different salt then ive been using, the second thing i did was I noticed my ph was done ,never had this problem with instant ocean salt so I was sold some ph buffer which i put in, keep in mind the buffer and water change were done with in a day from each other
my tank cleared up and is so clear you cant even tell theres water in it, the guy at the store does not thing it was the salt, i want to go back to instant ocean only because my ph stabled where now i have to watch it but im afrain my tank will go back to being a cloud again, could the kent ph buffer be what cleared my water up

[tendar]

I really doubt it was the salt since it is the most used salt out there. The buffer may of had some thing to do with hard to say though. Not an easy awnser so this one.

[Katspaw]

I agree, it is diffcult to say. I use IO and have never had a problem with cloudy water. Did you test your ph before you did the water change. When the water was cloudy??

Tracey

[RUSS]

Yes I kept checking ph, always good and stable, stayed betweed 8.0 and 8.4, right in the middle
if fact all my test were good, was never able to figure it out, the peoble at the fish store always said maybe tank is cycleing it should go away but never did ,the only thing i could think of was maybe it was a hardness problem or an alkalin problem, I did a water change using the instant ocean this weekend and no cloudyness so it was not the salt, the ph buffer threw kent states for ph and aklalin so thta would make more sence to me then the salt