Cloudy tank what did I do?

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

I stirred up my sand bed a few days ago and used a turkey baster to get in between my rocks so that I can get all the detritus out of the rocks. I also changed the filter pads but the water is still cloudy.
I did a 10 gal water change on my 40 gal beeeder. Still cloudy what next?

ndrwater · Jul 7, 2017

Going to have to ride this one out. One of two things is going on.

A. Just still suspended detritus still settling out, or...

B. A bacterial bloom from the sand and subsequent biological filter being messed with.

If "A" you will see detritus settling on all of the rock surfaces. I would getting a small (3/8") piece of flex tubing so you can target the settled out detritus while doing another small water change.
If "B" then let thing be and the tank will clear on it's own usually an a couple days.

There is an option "C" but you didn't mention the tank water being green. That would be an algae bloom, and the remedy for option "B" still applies.

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 7, 2017

Yep.
You can put some floss on the return pump inlet as a polish. But ignore it's not gone in the am it might be a bloom.

What kind of sand is it. Not oolitic?

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

I upgraded my 20 gal to a 40 gal about 3 months ago. I went with a dry Aragonite sand. So it was pretty dusty to begin with. I may have kicked up a lot of the remaining dust that was still in the sand bed.

Coastie Reefer · Jul 7, 2017

Dry aragonite can make your water look like milk for days if it's not rinsed well. If you didn't rinse it it's probably just from stirring up the sand and may take a day or two to settle out.

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

Milky looking yes when I started to stir it up. But it also always clears up real quick. Not this time. Anything I can do to fix the milky problem? I won't do anything to it for a while I suppose.

Coastie Reefer · Jul 7, 2017

I don't know what you have for flow but you might try reducing it a little. That or add some fine filter floss to help catch the particulates in the water. A pic may help us figure out what's going on.

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

I will try to reduce the flow. I will also try and take a photo. Last time I had a heck of a time uploading the photo

brandon429 · Jul 7, 2017

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

In my opinion the best way to test a theory is to drop a thread and have other people run a method that involves flipping the tank contents top to bottom and not losing any animals.

To remove all silt all at once and never have the headache again

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

brandon429 · Jul 7, 2017

In time a biological coating on the fine particles will bring it down that's not too bad. If you ever wanted to be totally free of it the option exists though

that's a nice tank

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

Thanks for the compliment I will show you what it looks like when coral is out. I just turned the lights on

Tony Elenbaas · Jul 7, 2017

I had similar experience, disturbed the substrate and got cloudy water, then came the clear slime, I added a UV steriliser and everything went back to clear and slime free in a couple of days. I now run UV on all my tanks.

DentistReefer413 · Jul 7, 2017

The same thing happened to me last week. Normal water change, normal basting of the rocks and sand. Everything normally settles within a half hour. But the next day, all my corals (mixed reef) looked shrunken and angry and my water was cloudy. I checked all the levels - normal. I decided the best route was to leave everything alone. Two days later the cloudiness cleared out and almost everything is happy again. The mushrooms (of all things) are still a little small, but getting better. Sometimes the best thing for me is to leave the tank alone (despite wanting to mess with everything)!

Marine430 · Jul 7, 2017

I think I will leave it for a while! I will only make things worse. I did put an order in for a 50 micron felt pad to help filter it in case it does not clear up in a few days.

DentistReefer413 · Jul 7, 2017

I can't imagine a felt pad would do anything to hurt the tank!

Dallaswinefan · Jul 8, 2017

I've had cloudy tank for several weeks. Five month old 650L. I added some water clarifier and waited. A few days later it very suddenly cleared up completely. I think it was from my sand and sand gobies.