cloudy water in my saltwater tank

Question
i have a 75g  saltwater tank set up for 5 months,it has a shop lite with 2 aquarium lites from walmart,a 30-60g aqua-tech filter from walmart and a 10-15g aqua-tech filter also from walmart, a aqua-tech heater 200w i had the test strips but i don't have no more but it read that the PH was too low,i have a 6" sweetlips and a 4" tang and i have 2 big live rock and live sand.and i have 4 bumblebee snales.i use tap water and i just done a 50% water change and premixed salt,well when i added the water,stress zymes and put start right in the water before adding it  and added reef buffer my fish were fine the next day i added the premixed saltwater and 5 or 6 hours after that the fish die i had a tang and a sweetlips. and my water is cloudy i know that my PH is low, today i added 2 tsb of reef buffer every 15 mins 4 times and the last dose i added i put 8 tsb of reef buffer in ac cup of water and put it in the tank and it is still cloudy. i know i shouldn't have put the 8 tsb in the tank. what should i do now

Answer
Hi Sheri,

Okay.  First of all, stop dosing it with buffer.  8 tsp buffer was a really bad move...and we need to do an immediate water change.  Get the water OUT of the tank.  Leave 25% of the original water, and replace it with 75% new water.  Don't use tap water, please.  Mix the water with new salt and get that old stuff out of there.  The PH is what is killing the fish.  Not the store water.

That's not good...we have too much going on in there.

The tangs are very, very sensitive and without testing it with test strips, it's dangerous as all getout to put anything in the tank at all without knowing the chemical makeup of the aquarium, first and foremost.

First on the list is test strips.  Please, either pick some up or take your water in to be tested.  Most pet stores will gladly test.

Secondly, the aqua-techs you are running are both not sufficient for a 75 gallon salt tank.  You should be running at least two of the 30/60s.  Maybe 3.

The cloudy water is because it's dirty.  The filters are insufficient.

I would also stop using tap water.  It's much safer to use R/O water, because #1, it has no PH issues.

You can get that water at any water fill station, in any grocery store, for gallon jugs or five gallon bottles.  For five gallons, I spend a dollar.  Worth every cent.

Hopefully this helps you get some control, and if not, please feel free to correspond more.

Renee