Its been a week and I cant shake this!

[johnnyvega252]

About a week ago I noticed my water had begun to get cloudy. I have done a couple water changes but nothing seems to help. Last week I did move the clowns into the display tank from the hospital tank. I am not sure if its the bio filter trying to catch up or what. Nothing seems like it is upset. My pallys, montipora, stylophora, cyphastrea, and GSP are all happy. Fish and inverts are also happy. There is no dead anything anywhere in the tank. I have been feeding with pellets and frozen about twice a day in small quantities. I ordered some stuff from Premium Aquatics (my favorite online aquarium supply) to test water quality. I got phosphate ULR Hanna and Alkalinity Hanna checkers, red sea calcium test kit, and all for reef Tropic Marin since I use their salt already. I also got a Tunze 9001 protein from inTank. 

 

Here is a picture! 

 

I don't know what to do! Only other thing I can think of is my skunk shrimp molted and It got blown to pieces all over the tank by the Nero 3. Also I am running ChemiClean Blue ordered a new one just to be sure it isnt that. 

[DevilDuck]

Have you tried running some activated carbon?

If that doesn't help, it maybe a bacterial bloom. Does the water smell off? What are you nitrate and phosphate levels? 

[Tired]

Cloudy water with unbothered livestock is probably a bacterial bloom. They can happen from high nutrients, or now and then they just happen with no evident cause. It should go away on its own once whatever caused it fades out. Just be sure the water is well-oxygenated- IIRC bacterial blooms can lower the oxygen in the water. I may be wrong about that, but hey, oxygen's good either way. 

[Tamale]

Maybe your power head is moving sand around? I accidentally set mine too high while messing with settings and had some clouding for a second haha

 

Also your clowns are gorgeous!

[blasterman]

As tired said its a waterborn.bacteria bloom. Common in young tanks.

 

It will go away on its own. I have seen them stretch out for a week or two. Corals might be aggravated but will be fine.

 

On rare instances they can deplete oxygen, but unless fish are hovering around the surface its a non issue.

 

Water changes will have no affect. Bscteria will quickly multiply to fill the new water. 

[Clown79]

Bacterial bloom which is normal.

 

Other than ensuring you have a good amount of water movement there isn't much you can do besides waiting it out

[johnnyvega252]

So update on this horrible bacterial bloom. I was reading on the internet and watching YouTube videos on people who had similar experiences with a bacterial bloom. Someone recommended to another user to use MicroBacter7 I ordered some added the recommended dose of 4 drops per gallon of water. I remember that after adding the water to this tank I had about 3 1/2 gallons left over so I only added the dose for 11.5 gallons which was about 46 drops. Two days later I woke up to a pristine tank its even clearer than before! Today I did a testing for Ca, dKH, and Phosphate. Readings and pictures bellow!

 

Red Sea Calcium Pro

Ca: 440

 

HANNA Checkers 

Alkalinity: 7.6

ULR Phosphate: 0.02 

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER I know its kind of hard to tell lol! Super clear NOW! 🙂

 

Is this normal for a stylo?

[DevilDuck]

Great that MB7 worked for you! I would raise the phosphates a bit more to around at least 0.05 ppm for that extra margin of safety.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

I'm on a similar path with my tank. Promising to see results like this. Nice work man 👍

[Tired]

Stylo looks okay to me, but I'm not super familiar with them. What are you seeing that looks wonky to you?

 

Interesting that the bacteria worked so well. I guess the theory is that it helps balance out the overgrown stuff? 

 

There seems to be less green algae on the rockwork. Is that actually something that's happened? Because that'd be a bit odd.