I have noticed that cold water tanks tend to be a bit more cloudy than tropical reefs?
Is this generally true? I have noticed my 5.5 has a bit of haze in the water.
I have also noticed the abundant populations of isopods in my tank.
I read somewhere that cold water and temperate water have more planktonic
and bacterial life in the water column. Does this transfer over to closed
systems such as our cold tanks? Hmmm, what do you think?


I know for me, I may need an upgrade in filtration which will be coming soon.


Horus

My tank was having cloudiness problems, but I added a good filter (hang-on-tank magnum) and now the water is crystal clear. So I think it may stem from the fact that biological filtration is not as effective in cw tanks as in tropical tanks, so if you want clear water you need to filter it.

I also noticed huge copepod populations when my tank was in its "cloudy phase." They seem to have diminished now, probably because the filter gets the stuff out that they would normally consume.

Tank is pretty clear now. It just took sometime to clear. I have noticed that my copepods population
have diminished dramatically. All parameters are fine and things are crystal clear. Yeah!

Is this a newer tank? I bet its a bacteria outbreak. I generally have this problem when the seasons change for some reason.

Yes it was a bacterial outbreak. It had all the symptoms. That was my first thought. Thanks for commenting.

H

Hmmm...never had a cloudy period. But neither the previous 10g or the new 40g have heavy bioloads (but no external filtration sources). Could also be due to the slow change from tropical temps down to temperate that I went through with the original beadlets that I had.

Glad to hear that, I think patiences and slow going is key to temperate tanks success. More so than tropicals. By the way where did you get your Beadlets. I would love to score on some of those.

H

In this subject, patience is simply the only option, especially with it being so difficult to get livestock on this side of the country (and since I have no money to devote to shipments from forshores or gulf of maine).

The first group of beadlets were a surprise at a local wholesaler that had them in their tanks for years, and I spent 6 months acclimating them to the cold temps I wanted to keep. Those are the red ones with pointed tentacles and brown, bumpy columns. The second group came from Live Aquaria - the red one with blunt tentacles and smooth red column and the multicolored one. If you watch Diver's Den, they come in every few months. Jamie scored one a few months ago, then I got two soon after.

Yes I saw your earlier posts about Liveaquaria livestock, and that is what turned me on to them. I have been watching ever since. I did score on 3 Waratah anenomes from a different dealer. online. (no pics yet)
They are doing quite well in my 5.5. I also found another Chiton at the local fish market.

H