New 55gal tank trouble - help!

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surge07

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Messages
1
Well, I just discovered this forum and thought I'd see if I could get a hand on stabilizing my new 55gal tank. It's been an adventure so far (about a week working on it) and would like to try to have it ready to start heavier planting/etc soon.

To start, the tank was given to us by my fiance's mom along with a large bag of the substrate she had been using (gravel/soil/fertilizer mix, worked VERY well for her) and it came with a pretty heavy snail infestation once we added water. We managed to get the snails under control but the thing is the water doesn't want to clear up.

At first (after letting silt settle, adding a top layer of heavier material to keep silt down, and several partial water changes) the water was pretty green. We hooked up a filter (no carbon as there are a few plants in here already and I've read it can mess with them) and put a filter bag over the base of our powerhead - within about 12 hours the green was gone. Now we have another problem to overcome. The water is fairly clear, but has a slightly milky white tint to it.

The color appears to be caused by very small almost hair-like bits of gunk floating in the water that settle very easily onto the few plants we have, as well as settling out to the bottom of the tank and sitting on the gravel. It is pretty easy to shake off of the plants/bottom, and forms into slightly longer fibrous looking bits - the material itself is a slightly off-white/grey/brownish color (pics at bottom). It leaves a slimy white coating on the glass of the tank which is easily removed with tank wipes.

The other problems I'm running into are mostly PH/Alkalinity and Ammonia levels. After 10 gallons r/o water change, the PH is finally starting to drop a little and I'll work on an Ammonia treatment after I get other stuff figured out (it's measuring a .25-.5 reading on a drip-test kit, not too major).

Anyone have any ideas what this might be bogging up my aquarium/how to fix it? I've read on Hair Algae but that doesn't really look like what we've got although I guess it's still a possibility. So far it hasn't really been causing any problems aside from being fugly and it gets stirred up super easily off of the substrate.

Sorry if this was a bit rambly or hard to read, I'm exceedingly tired. Any further questions, I will try to clarify as needed.


Pics here


Thanks!

-Will
 
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