Either the beneficial bacteria has'nt fully kicked in yet , or you are over feeding.. Ph wont cloud the water. I would feed very little till it clears and do a water change now.

i havent added any fish yet because i want to get everything set right first

Is that new sand???

Curtis, get you some feeders and throw in there. The waste helps with the cycle.

I would pick up a sponge filter to polish the water... they are fairly cheap and work great..

ok thanks, yep that its silica sand wes

Roger is right. with no fish in there it takes alot longer for the bacteria to kick in especially with new sand there is no old bacteria at all in there.. what also helps is to take some sand from an established tank and mix some in with this new sand just to add some active bacteria and give it a kick start.. Good luck buddy...

i will do that once i get my ph set, i started the tank using the old filter but i must not have left it in long enough. i dont have any sand form another tank to use. do you know a website where i could buy a sponge filter wes?

Curtis, try kensfish.com

You dont have an LFS close by?? Any fish store will stock them.. I really dont buy anything online so I wouldnt know but you should be able to get them at any fish supplier..

http://www.kensfish.com/

i usually just order my stuff off the net because the closest fish store is about a half hour away and it is very small so she usually just ends up ordering things for me
thanks roger

Curtis he has a good price on his large sponge filters. I would just get a large one for the differece in price. Get one for a 80 gal;. for 6.75 I think.

ok, iv never used a sponge filter before. i looked at a picture of them and im confused, what do they get hooked up to?

an air pump with the plastic tube....i like those soda filters tho>.>

Air line or powerhead. You can run a airline and put a stone on it.

Just plug an air line into it and as the air rises up the tube it draws water through the sponge which holds massive amounts of bacteria, also filters out the small particles of debris.. Roger uses them on all his tanks and just look.. They are perfectly clear.. Another thing for greaty water quality is using Chemi-pure in your filter in the place of carbon.. It lasts 10 times longer and works 10 times better.. Everyone that has tried it will not use anything else!!myself included, been using it for well over 25 years with great results.

how big are your other tank-s?/ get as much water from it or them as possible and it will help along with any rocks or plants or filtration from any other existing set ups you or a friend might have

ok,but the plastic tube looks huge and the line for my air pump is tiny. should i run this along with my HOB filter or should i run only the sponge filter?

Curtis...You put the airline or airstone almost to the bottom of the inside of the big tube and as the air comes up inside the big tube, it draws water along with it which in turn draws water through the holes in the big tube , and through the sponge and up and out the top.. Use your HOB filter along with the sponge filter.

ok, thanks for clearing that up for me wes, hopefully i can get this tank up and running soon. thanks for all the help guys

Your welcome Curtis.. It's so simple once you see it work, and they work really well, and when you have to clean the sponge, use tank water or declorinized water and it will hold much of it's bacteria content...

cool sounds good

Lots of luck Curtis. Can't wait to see fish in here.