Cloudy water in my freshwater aquarium

Question
I have a 29 gallon freshwater aquarium that has been active for about 9 months. Our water has gotten very cloudy (like white cloudy). I took my water in to the local pet store and everything checked out fine except my pH was too high (7.6), we figured out that our city water was responsible for the high pH. We have gotten the pH down by doing water changes with distilled water. The pH is now right about 7.0. We have 3 black skirt tetras, 3 serpae tetras, one ram, and one clown loach. Until about 2 days ago we had a pleco. It has since died. Our temperature is always about 76 degrees. We got the cloudiness cleared up for a while (about 2 weeks) but then it got cloudy again. We haven't added any new plants, decorations of fish to our tank. We have done water changes weekly. We tried Clarity water clarifier and that seemed to make it worse.  I had driftwood in my aquarium for about 6 months, but thought maybe it was decaying and that is what was causing the cloudiness.  I also thought maybe the high pH was causing the cloudiness but since we have gotten that under control and the cloudiness is still there, I dont know what to think. Any ideas on what is causing the cloudy water?

Answer
Hi Jill,
Cloudy water problems are usually bacterial blooms from too much nutrients in the water. Persistent cloudiness means that something is out of balance with your system. Probably the best way to help this problem is to start changing 50% of the water everyday or so. And please don't worry about the pH. I have the same pH level as yours and I keep all kinds of fish in this pH range and they are perfectly healthy and even spawn. It is well known that most fish today can adapt to many varying pH levels. It tends to be more trouble than its worth and not really necessary to adjust your pH. The high pH isn't causing the cloudiness. And chemical clarifiers have never worked for me before.

Sometimes hard water will cause cloudiness due to a high level of  phosphates, silicates, and heavy metals. I have encountered this problem before, especially after a water changes, but usually it will clear within a couple of days.


I would try daily water changes for a while. It may seem like forever but eventually most aquariums will clear.

I hope this helps!
Karen~