Cloudy Water Help

[Anthony Malagisi]

I need some help everyone, so I have had my tank setup for a 4 ish weeks now and everything is good all the levels are good and my cycle is complete, yesterday I did a water change, vacuumed the sand a bit and put fresh saltwater in and the tank looked great the water was crystal clear and everything was good. Today I come home and the sand is covered in alage again and the water is cloudy I can take figure out what's going on any ideas

 

[mattgsa]

Can you give more info on your tank? What exactly are your water levels?

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Can you give more info on your tank? What exactly are your water levels?

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78

It's a 72 gallon bow front tank with a 100 gallon protein skimmer a canister filter and a wet/dry filter

 

[HiddenUser]

Cloudy water is typically a bacterial bloom and if sand is getting covered in algae that quickly...maybe Diatoms? Sounds like it may still be going through the process of cycling and / or establishing itself.

I would just leave it to run its course...You can turn off the lights for a few days and that should help with the algae...The bacterial bloom should go away on its own as well.

 

[Doclight]

More than likely your in an algae bloom. Did you use RO/di water or tap water?

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Ah okay I thought the cycle was over once all the levels we're zero

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

RO/DI water

 

[Doclight]

Not necessarily. Algae can skew the numbers and mask the readings. I like to cycle my tanks for 3 months. Regardless of readings.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Oh wow I didn't know that

 

[Doclight]

Did you use live rock/Live sand? or dry sand and dry rock?

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

I used dry rock and live sand also added enough good bacteria for 125 gal tank as recommended by my local fish store guy

 

[Doclight]

Any fish yet? Damsel? Sunlight from a window on the tank? turning off lights only help for a short time. You have to find the cause. Overfeeding, old t5 bulbs, extra light from sun, and phosphates all can cause it.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Well I have 9 fish in there 6 damsels 2 blue chromis a maroon clown fish I was told the cycle was complete and it was okay to add fish so I've been adding them slowly, no sun light I don't think I'm over feeding my t5 bulbs should be ok and I haven't checked my phosphate lever

 

[OREGONIC]

I dose ammonia to cycle tanks, works great just need to make sure it is ammonia with no additives. You could try dosing a small amount of ammonia so tank levels read 2-5 ppm. If tank is cycled enough it should drop levels back to 0ppm in a day or two. Usually cloudy water is a bacterial bloom IME. Your tank will go through ugly stages for a few months its just part of the maturing process.

 

[Doclight]

Let me say that Fish stores are in the business of SELLING FISH. They don't always have your best interests in mind. At 4 weeks, your tank isn't established enough to support that many fish. In my opinion...

Do you have a good clean up crew? Otherwise i'd bet you have a build up of nitrates causing the bloom. Skimmers can take a couple weeks to a month to skim good. Are you getting good gunk in it?

 

[Doclight]

If you got fish, DON'T dose ammonia now..

I dose ammonia too.. Works great.. Buy the Dr. Tims stuff.

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

There's a few snails in there and a hermit crab and I have a protein skimmer too

When I test for Nitrates it shows zero same with ammonia and Nitrite

 

[Doclight]

My lfs said buy this item here, and I use city tap water and have tanks up the same day. Same guy who gets 75.00 an hour to clean those tanks and sell fish..

Not saying don't trust them, but on the same token, your loss is their gain.

You should add tubo snails and more hermits. Your crew is lite..

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

I'll probably order a crew tomorrow,,, the fish that are in there seem happy

 

[Anthony Malagisi]

Just tested the phosphate and there around .25


Also yes the protein skimmer has nasty stuff in it daily