Cloudy Water, Bacteria Bloom?

Gregorjw · Sep 21, 2018

Skep18 said:
Well, I went ahead and ordered a Pentair Aquatics Smart UV 40 Watt Sterilizer from @Bulk Reef Supply . Hopefully we won't rely on this long term but I will say, if it helps water clarity, I might use it on time intervals on a regular basis. That or just as needed.

Also I figure it's been shown to be useful for dinos. Idk how you get dinos but if we do I guess we'll be ready.

Smh. Idk. Kinda wasn't impressed with cheaper units and leaking/rust, etc.

That said, it won't get here until Wednesday, 6 days from now... Poor fish can't see food in front of their face. Probably will do a 40 gallon WC tomorrow.

I haven't seen much of a change in my tank either, but I just put my cheapo green machine uv sterilizer in my tank last night. I'll let you know if it seems to clear up for me, since our tanks seem to be in pretty similar situations it should give you a good idea if it'll work for you.

roberthu526 · Sep 21, 2018

Filter socks and protein skimmer.
These two has always worked for me.

Skep18 · Sep 21, 2018

00Barracuda00 said:
Super interested to see how this shakes out in the end.

I hope it goes well! Lol.

Skep18 · Sep 21, 2018

Gregorjw said:
I haven't seen much of a change in my tank either, but I just put my cheapo green machine uv sterilizer in my tank last night. I'll let you know if it seems to clear up for me, since our tanks seem to be in pretty similar situations it should give you a good idea if it'll work for you.

For sure. Keep us posted!

roberthu526 said:
Filter socks and protein skimmer.
These two has always worked for me.

Yea, I'm running both.

Skep18 · Sep 22, 2018

Day 8, I think it might actually be getting better. It's hard to be sure but today when I fed, I definitely felt like the fish had a fighting chance at seeing the food further in the water column as opposed to pretty much only right in front of their faces.

roberthu526 · Sep 22, 2018

Skep18 said:
Day 8, I think it might actually be getting better. It's hard to be sure but today when I fed, I definitely felt like the fish had a fighting chance at seeing the food further in the water column as opposed to pretty much only right in front of their faces.

It could be algae bloom if filter dock and protein skimmer didn’t work. You can either run a UV or dose some Vibrant.

Skep18 · Sep 23, 2018

Day 8, wow! It's actually cleared up A LOT. I can see across the 6ft length to the other side rock work. Too dark to see how much clearer it is yet but it's probably 80% better. I added a air stone yesterday. The skimmer is very full.

Skep18 · Sep 23, 2018

Day 8:

Fudsey · Sep 23, 2018

Looks so much better ! ! !

Skep18 · Sep 24, 2018

I'd say the tank is about the same today. Skimmer is still making some bubble filled skimmate. I can still see cloudy water in the light silhouette of my rock work too. Probably keeping the UV unit at this point just in case. Waiting a week for equipment to solve a problem sucks.

Skep18 · Sep 24, 2018

roberthu526 said:
It could be algae bloom if filter dock and protein skimmer didn’t work. You can either run a UV or dose some Vibrant.

Saw a video on Vibrant last night for a dino issue. Interesting stuff. I guess it works for all kinds of clarity problems?

roberthu526 · Sep 24, 2018

Skep18 said:
Saw a video on Vibrant last night for a dino issue. Interesting stuff. I guess it works for all kinds of clarity problems?

It worked for me once when I had slightly green cloudy water. Clear the tank out in a day. That was the only time I had a cloudy tank that was not due to bacteria or suspended particle. I couldn’t figure out what it was so the tank was cloudy for over a week. After dosing Vibrant it cleared in a day.

Fudsey · Sep 24, 2018

Worked for me with bubble algae and dinos

Gregorjw · Sep 24, 2018

After about 4 days of running a uv sterilizer, my tank just suddenly went from very cloudy to crystal clear. It seemed to all happen in the 8 or so hours I was away at work. Also in that time my skimmer went from empty to completely full of very dark, almost black water, and my filter socks also turned very dark and clogged.

Skep18 · Sep 24, 2018

Gregorjw said:
After about 4 days of running a uv sterilizer, my tank just suddenly went from very cloudy to crystal clear. It seemed to all happen in the 8 or so hours I was away at work. Also in that time my skimmer went from empty to completely full of very dark, almost black water, and my filter socks also turned very dark and clogged.

I get my UV in 2 days!

00Barracuda00 · Sep 24, 2018

Glad to see the progress!! Has the elapsed time helped narrow down potential culprits? Asking as a super nervous new reefer, almost ready to fill my first tank.

Skep18 · Sep 24, 2018

00Barracuda00 said:
Glad to see the progress!! Has the elapsed time helped narrow down potential culprits? Asking as a super nervous new reefer, almost ready to fill my first tank.

I didn't think it was a big deal but my gyre flow makes my corners bare bottom. I pushed sand (CaribSea Special Grade Aragonite) back into the corners and smoothed the surface sand. At the same time I just got in a tool long enough to finally scrape the back glass of dry rock stains from filling the tank. Something between these two clouded up the water. I assumed for the first couple days it was save debris. Eventually it didn't go away. (I tried chemicals to flocculate the debris. Didn't work.) Lesson, if you want to keep a 1 inch and bed stirred clean, do it like twice a month or something STARTING FROM DAY 1.

I'm only a few months in but hadn't done it before. Didn't figure it'd be so bad.

Punchanello · Sep 25, 2018

I had the same issue and it went for weeks. Not sure if it was linked but mine seemed to escalate from milky opaque to a full blown phytoplankton bloom which turned the water pea green. I was told that it had to be from a source of excess nutrients. So I starved the tank for weeks and did huge water changes with no improvement. I changed out 60% on several occasions and it was literally back with a vengeance in 24 hours. I actually think that whatever it is, waterborne algae or bacteria, it is possible that it's rapid die off and reproduction combined with what little nutrient you put in the tank can become an escalating cycle. It will reproduce quicker than you can export it.

A UV skimmer sorted it out in days. In fact I saw an improvement in an hour.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 25, 2018

Has success with Kent marine clarifier. I now use UV Sterilizer which has alleviated this issue permanently.

00Barracuda00 · Sep 25, 2018

Skep18 said:
I didn't think it was a big deal but my gyre flow makes my corners bare bottom. I pushed sand (CaribSea Special Grade Aragonite) back into the corners and smoothed the surface sand. At the same time I just got in a tool long enough to finally scrape the back glass of dry rock stains from filling the tank. Something between these two clouded up the water. I assumed for the first couple days it was save debris. Eventually it didn't go away. (I tried chemicals to flocculate the debris. Didn't work.) Lesson, if you want to keep a 1 inch and bed stirred clean, do it like twice a month or something STARTING FROM DAY 1.

I'm only a few months in but hadn't done it before. Didn't figure it'd be so bad.

If it was caused by stirring your sand bed, wouldn't the gyre flow creating bare spots have shown an earlier indication?

I'm just hoping some answers can be found in the process, not just in terms of how to make it go away. I just finished my final equipment list, and a UV filter was not included. I'm really hoping I don't have to reevaluate here. My understanding was that UVs were optional, almost overkill for most. But here in this thread, it looks like the fix to a whole host of problems of uncertain origin. WHY ARE THERE NO EASY ANSWERS IN REEFING?!