Cloudy tank..

[J Rog]

So over the past week I noticed my tank getting pretty cloudy.. How can I get clear water again without stripping what little nutrients I have already? I’m trying to get my nutrients up because both Phosphate and Nitrates are at zero.. A little history of the tank so we know what we’re looking at. My tank finished it’s cycle around Halloween. A couple of days ago I had a PH spike. It usually stays around 7.9-8.1 and it jumped to 8.3 after I dumped some skim mate from my skimmer.. I had a fire fish, a clown, and a yellow tang die on me within 3 hours of that happening.. I was able to get the yellow tang out but can’t find the clown or fire fish.. so I’m not sure if it’s them clouding up the water but they were very small fish and wouldn’t think they were big enough to make an impact like this.. also I figured my crabs would have cleaned them up.. any ideas?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Have you been using any bottled bacteria?

 

[Coralfuture]

I’m guessing it’s a bacterial bloom. Cleaning the clouds without lower nutrients could be tricky but as a simple attempt I would suggest running carbon and let it sit so that whatever is in the tank can stay

 

[J Rog]

Have you been using any bottled bacteria?

Nope, just seeded the tank with the Dr Tim’s stuff to get the cycle going being that I started with all dry rock

 

[J Rog]

I’m guessing it’s a bacterial bloom. Cleaning the clouds without lower nutrients could be tricky but as a simple attempt I would suggest running carbon and let it sit so that whatever is in the tank can stay

Really didn’t want to run carbon because I’m on the process of trying to build up the nutrients especially because my torch corals are really hurting and I’m almost positive it’s from not having nutrients..

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Really didn’t want to run carbon because I’m on the process of trying to build up the nutrients especially because my torch corals are really hurting and I’m almost positive it’s from not having nutrients..

The carbon won't mess with that much at all. Esp if it's pretty passive. Like a bag on the return pump.

When was the last time you used the dr t ?

It could maybe be a bloom from the ammoina from the dead fish.

Any candles , air fresheners ?

 

[J Rog]

The carbon won't mess with that much at all. Esp if it's pretty passive. Like a bag on the return pump.

When was the last time you used the dr t ?

It could maybe be a bloom from the ammoina from the dead fish.

Any candles , air fresheners ?

Well I used the Dr Tim’s at the beginning of October and dosed the ammonia a couple of times for the cycle through out that month until the cycle was over. But I tested for ammonia and Nitrite yesterday and both came out to zero using the salifert test kits. We do burn a sented candle every now and then on the kitchen counter. But it’s about 10 feet or so from the tank.

 

[J Rog]

Oh I did forget to mention.. I had a hair algae outbreak a couple of weeks ago (new tank syndrome) so I got a bag of the chemi pure blue. But when I noticed my torches didn’t look happy I took it out. Most of the hair algae was gone at that point anyway..

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yes, sounds like a bacterial bloom. One of the best tools I have in my arsenal to combat cloudy water is my UV. I leave it attached to my manifold all the time and only turn on the lamp when the water looks a little cloudy. Works for me.

 

[brandon429]

Not long ago I posted in Randy’s chem forum about cloudy water being associated with ammonia spikes in some settings

Is it true you likely have two dead fish still in there?

Water change time, find the fish. Time = ticking.

Normally I don’t rush on cloudy water threads but if your etiology is dead carcass, time to act was yesterday.

 

[J Rog]

Not long ago I posted in Randy’s chem forum about cloudy water being associated with ammonia spikes in some settings

Is it true you likely have two dead fish still in there?

Water change time, find the fish. Time = ticking.

Normally I don’t rush on cloudy water threads but if your etiology is dead carcass, time to act was yesterday.

Copy that.

 

[J Rog]

Just did an ammonia test again.. still zero

 

[brandon429]

Ok good then I hadn’t heard of them being too stressful if it’s a bunch of mixed aerobes in suspension who found a niche

UV party is possble fix, and for nanos, we would just rip change and clean the whole system and be done with it