Cloudy Water Issue

D's Reef · Jan 23, 2019

So I’m having this issue with a tank. It’s been going for about 4 months now and the tank had a good 7 weeks to cycle. At the end of the cycle the water tested great with little needed adjustments. The light were turned on on the tank December 2nd and the first few fish and coral were added. Setting the tank up I used rodi from my lfs shop and all was well. But when the fish and coral were added I used my own rodi. I have a newly installed water softener and di filer that runs my homes water (well water) . I then purchased a 6 stage rodi unit from BRS to run the water I’m using for my tank through. But after doing my first water change and acclimating fish and corals it seemed over just a few days my tank started getting cloudier and cloudier. So I tested again using Red Sea, Hanna, & Salifert test kits and all parameters were spot on.
Dkh -9.2
Cal - 430
Mag - 1400
Nitrate - maybe 3
Phosphate- 0

So I did another 25g water change and added some carbon and still no luck. It seemed to get worse. After several test again and again personally and having my lfs test I was completely stumped. He explained to me all about bacterial blooms and so we tried to wait it out but still no luck after 3 weeks. He also told me about trying a UV Sterilizer. So I did some research to and decided to try this one before I put the money into a High end sterilizer

After a few days it seemed to do the trick but as soon as I turned it off the haze came back. Any ideas on what this may be or why it’s happening? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Tank was set up using.
Nature Ocean Live sand (Samoa Pink)
CaribSea Life Rock
Dr. Tim’s nitrifying Live bacteria

Here’s a few pics while the tank is cloudy.

lmm1967 · Jan 23, 2019

Following as I added about 60 pounds of Carib Sea Life Rock to an established 120g and have been battling a bacteria bloom for several weeks. It didn't start until over a month of having the Carib Sea rock in the tank.

I'm also trying to figure out if an open jug of NOPOx sitting in my sump room was contributing to the problem. When I removed the bottle the bloom seemed to get better but it's slowly creeping back.

I'm wondering about that rock.

DLHDesign · Jan 23, 2019

Sounds like a bacterial bloom to me as well. Hard to say for certain without taking a sample and checking under a microscope, but the point that the UV reduced the problem is a string indicator.

Most of the time, they work themselves out in time as the tank reaches a balance. But they are generally an indicator of excess nutrients in the tank, so a few actions you can take include reducing your feedings (quantity or frequency), increase your nutrient export (change the socks twice as often, run the skimmer 24x7, more frequent water changes, etc.), and/or adding some more beneficial bacteria into the tank (such as from a bottled product).

tankstudy · Jan 23, 2019

It's common to see blooms after putting in a bunch of new inhabitants. For now, there really isn't much consuming the wastes and excess food in your tank, so bacteria use it up and bloom. It's best to run your UV sterilizer constantly until your tank has other organisms to help deal with the wastes/excess food.

Some corals can tolerate the blooms while others don't.

lmm1967 · Jan 23, 2019

I'll mention - prior to and since my bacteria bloom started - my NO3 & PO4 are both too low.

Both were undetectable - by dosing NO3 I've been able to get it up to 4 ppm(still a little low) and PO4 was .07 at last check.

tankstudy · Jan 23, 2019

lmm1967 said:
I'm also trying to figure out if an open jug of NOPOx sitting in my sump room was contributing to the problem. When I removed the bottle the bloom seemed to get better but it's slowly creeping back.

An open jug shouldn't be contributing to the problem unless it's somehow directly entering the system.

lmm1967 said:
I'll mention - prior to and since my bacteria bloom started - my NO3 & PO4 are both too low.

Both were undetectable - by dosing NO3 I've been able to get it up to 4 ppm(still a little low) and PO4 was .07 at last check.

Just to confirm, your still dosing while having blooms?

DesertReefT4r · Jan 23, 2019

Stop any carbon dosing if you are doing so. After that just give the tank time and it will clear up on its own. What you dont want to do is try throwing a bunch of fixes at it, that will only mess with the balande of the tank. Be sure to have your skimmer going to provide O2 and remove the bacteria, blooms will lower desolved O2.

lmm1967 · Jan 23, 2019

tankstudy said:
An open jug shouldn't be contributing to the problem unless it's somehow directly entering the system.

Just to confirm, your still dosing while having blooms?

Oh No - not at all - I havn't dosed in a long time actually. It was left over from running a denitritor a while back (6 months at least). My sump is in an enclosed closet. Typically I'm in that room at least 1 or 2 times a day. Last week I hadn't gone in there for about 4 days and the room was closed up. When I walked in I smelled the NoPOx - a lot. I immediately recognized the smell and then realized I had placed a 5l jug in the room a coupe weeks earlier while cleaning out a garage cabinet. The top of the jug is still drilled from when I had a dosing tube in it for the denitrator.

I do not know what is causing this - but right now I can't come up with any other possibilities than ethanol evaporation being a carbon source - or the Carb Sea Rock.

I have other tanks in my main display room that are not hooked in to this tank and don't share the sump room - those tanks are doing just fine with zero problems.

All tanks use same top off water and same source for water changes as well.

D's Reef · Jan 23, 2019

tankstudy said:
It's common to see blooms after putting in a bunch of new inhabitants. For now, there really isn't much consuming the wastes and excess food in your tank, so bacteria use it up and bloom. It's best to run your UV sterilizer constantly until your tank has other organisms to help deal with the wastes/excess food.

Some corals can tolerate the blooms while others don't.

Makes since, we don’t feed the tank much but I will keep that in mind.

D's Reef · Jan 23, 2019

DesertReefT4r said:
Stop any carbon dosing if you are doing so. After that just give the tank time and it will clear up on its own. What you dont want to do is try throwing a bunch of fixes at it, that will only mess with the balande of the tank. Be sure to have your skimmer going to provide O2 and remove the bacteria, blooms will lower desolved O2.

Other than the UV and a few water changes that’s all I’ve done for that reason exactly. I didn’t want to start throwing to many things at it at once. Skimmer does run 24hr so hopefully that helps.