Cloudy water, whats up with my tank ?

[joeogio]

Ok my 125 / 40gb reef tank has something sketchy going on. Last night I did my routine 15g weekly water change and cleaned the socks and skimmer, but prior to doing said change I took a turkey baster and blew crud off of rocks and cleaned the glass with a magfloat. Nothing out of the ordinary the water was just a lil cloudy prior to the change and a little less after everything looked normal. But stupid me forgot to plug the skimmer up and this morning my water was pretty cloudy and I plugged the skimmer in and went on to work. When I came home the water was still cloudy and has this orangeish tint to it I flipped out and made another 15g batch of water and did another change and cleaned the equipment out again and im clueless as to why my water is so fogy I haven't had any issues like this before i havent tested anything but I did make sure nothing has died which isnt hard because my system has a pretty lightly stocked. Here are some pics of the orange stuff that was in the skimmer and socks and a pic of my cloudy water. The only think I can think of is some sort of bacteria bloom

 

[NanaReefer]

How old is your tank. I'm leaning towards a bacterial bloom.
Here is a very good explanation. Hope it helps
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/246850-bacterial-blooms-explained/

 

[stigball]

Do you have snails? I have had snail cloud up my tank.. If you have snails, watch them, I've hade 12 of them releasing (sperm) I guess for 30 straight minutes and blow up my tank for many hours... Crazy stuff!

 

[stigball]

One other thing is did you rinse your filter socks good? It could be soap in your socks if you washed them in your washing machine.. Gotta make sure they are totally clean prior to putting them back online!

 

[joeogio]

How old is your tank. I'm leaning towards a bacterial bloom.
Here is a very good explanation. Hope it helps
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/246850-bacterial-blooms-explained/

Hey the tank has been setup about a year, and I think it was a bloom it looked much better this morning I'll update you guys when I get home

 

[joeogio]

Do you have snails? I have had snail cloud up my tank.. If you have snails, watch them, I've hade 12 of them releasing (sperm) I guess for 30 straight minutes and blow up my tank for many hours... Crazy stuff!

I do have some snails not many thought mostly hermits

 

[joeogio]

One other thing is did you rinse your filter socks good? It could be soap in your socks if you washed them in your washing machine.. Gotta make sure they are totally clean prior to putting them back online!

I washed them in the sink they are mesh and easy to clean, I don't bring detergents anywhere near the tank

 

[beaslbob]

Hey the tank has been setup about a year, and I think it was a bloom it looked much better this morning I'll update you guys when I get home

+1

It will probably settle down on its own.

killing the lights and stopping adding food will step up the clearing.

As a last resort a week or so from now kill the filtration and cirsulation.

my .02

 

[Som1else]

Do you dose any kind of carbon, ie sugar, vinegar or vitamin C? It looks like a bloom to me also

 

[philr]

I follow very similar process for cleaning my 90g. When I finish with the baster the water is very cloudy. At this point my skimmer is working like crazy. You probably stirred up lots of stuff and without the skimmer working you had a bacterial bloom. It will almost certainly settle down within a day or two.

 

[joeogio]

Thanks for all the help guys here is the update I promised

When I got home this is what I found

 

[joeogio]

Do you dose any kind of carbon, ie sugar, vinegar or vitamin C? It looks like a bloom to me also

Nope haven't ever dosed anything like that however I wish to give bio pellets a try soon once I order a reef dynamic reactor

I follow very similar process for cleaning my 90g. When I finish with the baster the water is very cloudy. At this point my skimmer is working like crazy. You probably stirred up lots of stuff and without the skimmer working you had a bacterial bloom. It will almost certainly settle down within a day or two.

Looks like thats what happened and all seems well thanks I was getting worried havent had that happen before

+1

It will probably settle down on its own.

killing the lights and stopping adding food will step up the clearing.

As a last resort a week or so from now kill the filtration and cirsulation.

my .02

seems it already has thanks for the help

 

[pam0630]

much better

 

[joeogio]

One thing I have learned out of this experience is that my skimmer is more efficient than I realized it pulled out so much in a short amount of time I have been cleaning it out like every three days along with my socks to try and improve my water quality because ive been having trouble keeping sps like my birds nest grows like weeds but everything else lile montis and some acros I have left dont seem to do much at all while my Duncans are thriving. I also have a ponate birdsnest that is barely hanging on not sure why its so hit or miss for me two purchases im gonna make soon are a bio pellet reactor and a apex controller im currently using a old controller that doesn't have a ph probe

 

[joeogio]

much better

Yup big relief, if something happened to my baby id be crushed inside then have to take out a loan to build a bigger one hehe

 

[Tahoe61]

Excellent it cleared. Some times blooms can hang on for days. Very strange about the orange tint to the water.