Cloudy Water Urgent!

[krug1313]

My 40 breeder has been up since early August 2010. I just added a brand new Remora skimmer and did a water change last night. Salinity is at 1.025 no detectable ammonia. Earlier today mypowerheads that are connected to my RKL both turned on at the same time and stirred up the sand bed a bit. For some reason I don't think this is the cause.. Its gotten even cloudier since this happened. My tank has been crystal clear always. My RODI water is at 0 TDS. My fish don't seem to be acting abnormal but as lights went out I did see a piece of one of my frogspawn had detached (a small piece) and was carried off by the flow of my powerhead. This is the very first time this has happened to me in all my 9 years of keeping saltwater tanks. Any ideas guys? I'm running chemipure elite which I just changed a couple weeks ago to a fresh one.

[Chyendra]

Any macro algae like caulerpa that could have gone sexual? Or potentially any corals that might have decided to spawn?

 

If you want to play it safe it wouldn't hurt to do another water change and run some carbon, but I wouldn't panic yet.

 

How deep is the sand bed that got stirred up?

[krug1313]

Any macro algae like caulerpa that could have gone sexual? Or potentially any corals that might have decided to spawn?

 

If you want to play it safe it wouldn't hurt to do another water change and run some carbon, but I wouldn't panic yet.

 

How deep is the sand bed that got stirred up?

 

No algaes in the tank. I couldn't tell you if any corals have spawned..lol. Only thing that's spawned in my tank are my banggai cardinals (male has the eggs right now) My sand bed is a mix of sand and crushed coral it's about 2 inch. My clowns always stir it up but it clears up fast. I will mix up some water tomorrow morning if it hasn't cleared up. Only thing is the dd h2ocean salt has to mix for at least 24 hrs.

 

I've got quite a few zoa frags, pink tip frogspawn, dark green frogspawn, finger leather, Kenya, couple mushrooms, gsp, montipora digitata (at least I think that's how it's spelled) button polyps.

 

My new skimmer is putting micro bubbles into the tank but not crazy amounts and it's actually already frothing up and pulling junk out of the tank.

[krug1313]

And to think.. I went through my then 2 yr old son dumping baby powder in my 15 gallon. Now that was cloudy..lol. But just something ain't right and has me worried. I'm almost ready to pull an all nighter watching the damn tank. I feed NLS pellets daily, frozen Mysis a couple times a week. I just recently put some frozen cyclopeeze in over the last couple days only a small amount (that stuff goes a long way) Once every couple weeks I feed reef roids and add reef fuel but the last two I've been doing for awhile and never had this problem.

[krug1313]

Just went down to check on the tank and it's still the same. Fish are in their usual sleeping spots appear okay.. Would a coral spawn really cloud the tank up? First thing I grabbed for was my ammonia test kit. I have the drops and the 5 in 1 dip strip and neither appeared to register anything bad.

[krug1313]

Sorry for all the posts guys on this topic. I've been thinking what could be going on. Would too much calcium cloud up the tank? I don't dose anything. I just do my water change with DD H2Ocean pro salt every 2 weeks (5 gallons) Yesterday when I added the skimmer it sucked up a bit of water in order to fill the body so I took some water from a tank I had just setup about 48 hrs before (no rock or anything in it just saltwater) and put it in the 40 breeder to replace the water that the skimmer sucked up. Would this make my calcium higher? I'll test it in the morning. If it is too high how do I lower it?

[Mojorizn]

Things that can cloud your water ...that I know of.

 

1) Bacterial bloom ... couldn't say from what without guessing

2) Coral spawn ...highly unlikely

3) Calcium precipitation ... your not dosing, so probably not.

4) Snail spawning ... has happened to me

5) Bad batch of salt mix ... possible

6) Near the bottom of of container of salt if you buy the big buckets ... has happened to me

 

I went through a similar episode for a couple months. One day water was cloudy.

Amm / Trite / Trate = all good.

Tank inhabitants seemed fine and all accounted for.

Alk / Cal / Mg = all good

 

What I did...

 

WC / fresh carbon / fresh floss, filter pad whatever. They were all good anyway, but what the heck.

Tank cleared after 48 hrs then a day or two or four later, the water clouds again.

 

Long story short. This continued for almost two months off and on. Drove me NUTS. Long hours searching, etc, etc.

 

Until.... I spied a snail on the water line (top of the tank) ejecting whatever it is that snails eject (gametes?) into the water. As I watched, more snails followed suit. It was a mass snail ejecting party...and guess what...cloudy water for a couple days.

 

I'm totally and completely serious.

 

I removed these snails from my system and problem solved.

 

Got any of these snails?

 

best-o-luck

[krug1313]

I don't think I bought any of those snails. I have Mexican turbos and nassarius that I know of but maybe one of those do it also. I use the little buckets of salt but the last batch I made was mostly from the bottom of the bucket. It's still cloudy this morning. Very frustrating. Thanks for your reply.

[Lawnman]

I went thru this before. Just run carbon and change the filter floss everyday for a few days. It will clear up. I know it is driving you crazy but it will clear.

[krug1313]

Run carbon or chemipure? I've always had chemipure on the tank

[MitchReef]

Get some carbon...that's what you need to run. and RELAX....it will clear....

 

To quote an ages old statement about reefkeeping....Nothing good happens fast in this hobby....

[krug1313]

Just picked up some carbon. Should I run the chemipure elite also or just the carbon? I'm usually not a worry type person but I have my male banggai holding eggs and want to make sure water quality is perfect.

[Mojorizn]

Run em both....

[cruiZe]

it will clear up. Skimmer will help. my 40 breeder was cloudy for a couple days about a month ago. freaked me out but i think it was the snails spawning.

[krug1313]

I got a perfect filter bag that fits in my Remora on the water return side. I give it a couple days to clear up and let everyone know how it went.

[krug1313]

The carbon is slowly working. I think maybe my chemi pure elite failed me somehow. I've always had crystal clear water while using it. Is it possible to get a bad batch? I just changed it a couple weeks ago.

[Coastie]

Did you rinse your sand before you put it in the tank? I neglected that once and it cleared up but everytime I disturbed the sand (like your powerheads apparently did) it cause the water to go cloudy. One thing I did was buy a filter sock, I cut off the attachment piece and wrapped the sock around the front half of a powerhead. I think secured it so that it wouldn't slip off. It sped up the process drastically. Just an idea (BTW my tank looked ridiculous with a filter sock on a power head). I have since added a sump so no more powerhead filter socks for me

 

 

 

Also... TAKE A DEEP BREATH! HAHA Man I thought I was paranoid

[krug1313]

Did you rinse your sand before you put it in the tank? I neglected that once and it cleared up but everytime I disturbed the sand (like your powerheads apparently did) it cause the water to go cloudy. One thing I did was buy a filter sock, I cut off the attachment piece and wrapped the sock around the front half of a powerhead. I think secured it so that it wouldn't slip off. It sped up the process drastically. Just an idea (BTW my tank looked ridiculous with a filter sock on a power head). I have since added a sump so no more powerhead filter socks for me

 

 

 

Also... TAKE A DEEP BREATH! HAHA Man I thought I was paranoid

 

 

I rinsed the sand very well before I put it in. The clowns always disturb the sand bed but the sand quickly settles. There is the odd spot where I've seen a bit of dust get kicked up. But this really loomed like a huge ammonia spike but that wasn't it.

[krug1313]

Happy to report the tank is clear once again!! My Kenya Tree coral is the only thing in the tank that doesn't appear to be doing well. Not sure what happened.

[d9hp]

Happy to report the tank is clear once again!! My Kenya Tree coral is the only thing in the tank that doesn't appear to be doing well. Not sure what happened.

 

Well if that's the only thing that's not normal I think you're okay. I think you'd have to incinerate that stuff to piss it off for more than a few days.