Cloudy water and I don’t know why

[telsonman]

I have a 60 gallon frag tank that I’m having issues with. It started out with some weird algae that I was having. It looked like a mix between cyano and Dino’s, so I thought it was calothrix. Brown, slimy, and it would grow over my zoas and snuff them out. I did the Dino test that I read about on here, but after straining, I never got it to clump back up. I had a chunk of live rock in the tank, and that was all. I treated with chemiclean and removed the rock. Immediately the water became cloudy the next day. And throughout the three day chemiclean process. I changed out 15 gallons of water on that third day. Water remained cloudy. I did another 20 gallon change two days later. Still cloudy. It seems to have gotten worse. I can’t even see through the tank from front to back. I have begun dosing 10ml of peroxide every evening just in case it is dinos.

Yesterday, thinking that the cloud was bacteria that had no media to be in, I added some ceramic bio media balls. I rinsed them in RODI water. Well today the water is even cloudier. I bought a UV sterilizer today in an effort to get the water to clear up. But, I’m beginning to get really frustrated.

Specs are 60g frag tank. Eshopps RS75 Sump with a skimmer. BRS dual reactor with GFO and Rox carbon. Running 4 T5 bulbs for coral growth. Plenty of flow.
Alk 8.3
Cal 430
Phos .02
Nitrate .75
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

I’m dosing 30 ml of alk and calcium everyday, and I’ve started dosing 100ml of mag to get the magnesium up. I’m also dosing nitrate for the coral, because I’m sure whatever it is, is sucking up the nitrates. I’m going to do a blackout this weekend if it doesn’t clear up

 

[mcarroll]

My guess is that it's bacterial...a result of too much livestock and related feedings, etc in a tank that's not capable of processing it yet. Waterborn bacterial bloom. Usually harmless if you're aerating via protein skimmer and will probably disappear on its own with a little patience.

Take it easy on any nutrient manipulation you're doing – stop any "extra" nutrient export like carbon source dosing or GFO. Take it easy on feeding as well...make sure you aren't feeding too much. Let your tank mature a bit before adding any more livestock and stop questing for zero nutrients as soon as possible.

 

[telsonman]

The tank is established. I only have three fish in it. Two clowns and a damsel. Everything was fine until I got water algae or Dino that I had. Then the cloud started right when I began the chemiclean. I only feed once a day. This is one of three tanks that I have. The other two aren’t having any issues. Just the frag tank. It’s the only tank I’m running bare bottom too

 

[mcarroll]

Well, chemiclean is allegedly an antibiotic.

I would guess that if this tank wasn't off-balance already (the weird algae bloom indicates something was up...do you know what that was?) that it might be a little off-balance now, post-antibiotic treatment.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If it’s a bacterial bloom, you ph theoretically would be a bit lower than normal.

You may want to run a GAC in a reactor if you haven’t already.
If the antibiotic killed off a large amount of the Brown somthing, then it maybe could be an ammonia spike? Making the bloom?
Uv for the bacteria , the maybe carbon for the dead stuff.

What’s the skimmer doing?

I’ve not heard of this with chemiclean.

 

[ryshark]

Do you happen to have anything in your air feeding the bacteria, such as VOCs from fresh alcohol based paint, burning fragrance candles nearby, etc?
Dr. Tims has two products that will out compete that cloudy bacteria and clear your tank. Let me know you're still having problems and want to give it a try, I'll look up the name of the products and the dosages

 

[telsonman]

I’m running carbon in a reactor. And the skimmer isn’t doing anything abnormal. No fragrance on thi single mans house.

I don’t know what algae I had. I’m beginning to think dinos. I pulled the old white egg crate and replaced it with the black one. I scrubbed all of the frags really well too. I added a phosphate reducing pad in my reactor that has the GFO in case it was an algae.

 

[thejuice24]

What are you dosing to add nitrates? I m with mcarroll on stop manipulating the nutrients. I m kind of thinking the dosing combined with not a lot of surface area for anaerobic bacteria could be the cause for the bloom. I had a similar issue with a frag tank using HOB and with only a little Rock.

 

[brandon429]

I personally would mix up sixty gallons of water and do a takedown cleaning of the tank then set back up skip cycle with the UV in place and not anything dosed or anything besides skimming as filtration, carbon if you want. No other nutrient sequestering dosing or ion dosing for a couple days. Simulate a cloudy but not blacked out couple days since production level lighting isn't what you want during multi stresses. Acclimate over five days back to ion dosing and full light. Fixed due to complete export and rinse cleaning of each frag and the tank surfaces. Whether it's oxygen sapping loss, or precipitate, or other invasion a full wc is harmless when done right. Re acclimate fish back in afterwards

 

[telsonman]

I’m dosing nitrates with potassium nitrate. My sps don’t like a no nitrate environment, so I try to keep it under 5ppm

I added those biosphere things from BRS to give the bacteria a place to grow

 

[telsonman]

I’m hoping the sterilizer and a blackout will do the trick. If not, I’ll try the 60 gallon water change with biospira. My corals wont like that

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I've done plenty of near 100% water changes in the past with no adverse effect to the corals.

 

[brandon429]

I too just changed my whole sandbed out after four years yesterday and a total wc as well. Bright and shiny start to 18 yeps

If I had to estimate, the reefbowl has had hundreds and hundreds of complete changes maybe three thou heh. whatever twelve yrs and once or twice a week is...small tank but same biology and likely same number of frags too... It only feels weird initially agreed

Guaranteed that all actions taken were harsher, even the initial chemi clean not needed, only a simple rip cleaning w no chems

 

[telsonman]

After the chemiclean, I did a full scrubbing and scrapping of the tank. Even the sump

 

[brandon429]

But partial wc, which recirc'd leftovers. The way I'm getting at your fix is by analyzing thousands of nano reefs and recalling ones that had a bloom and how we cured it, I bet fifty times over the years. Yours is just a nano x2 same biology, double work and volume. I understand the hesitancy of the full water change, people are driven that way they never start with it.

Uv is great, but apply it after the tank is made back to zero cloud just my offer. Our nanos are packed to the hilt, three times that much coral per gallon I promise this isn't haphazard it could save your tank. In my opinion it's not worth the delay since massive water changes in a tank with no sandbed are safe. It's the bedded ones that have the waste cloud risk, yours is rare clean.

 

[brandon429]

The best part is, identifying the source of the bloom isn't needed, that's independent of the fix.

Here's one that shows large tanks getting that work
https://reefbuilders.com/2013/05/21/fix-fish-tank-reef-aquarium-problems-95-water/

 

[telsonman]

This was growing on a frag. Pretty sure it’s dinos. Seen at 1200x

 

[brandon429]

The fact your tank is bare bottom makes opting out of that invasion very doable

 

[telsonman]

Here is another pic of that same slide.

Also a pic of the tank

 

[telsonman]

How is it more doable?