cloudy water

Longnose Hawkfish · Mar 6, 2016

So it was time for my monthly water change and every two month rowaphos and carbon change out in my reactors. I did not have time to do the water change today because I got invited to dinner, so I decided to just change out the reactors. My tank is a 93 gallon cube, and probably has around a total amount of water of 80-90 gallons. I calculated it out and added my carbon and rowaphos and put the reactor back online to make sure it was working. I went into my kitchen for about 2 minutes came back and my tank was cloudy like milk. It must have been from my reactor, so I turned the reactor off. Well anyway, I had to go to dinner so I left. Came back water is clear and everything is fine. I tested my calcium and alkalinity because I thought maybe it was precipitation but everything was fine. Alk 8.4 dKH, and calcium 445 ppm. Does anybody have any idea what happened? Maybe dust from the carbon or rowaphos? I rinsed the carbon, but did not rinse the rowaphos. I want to turn my reactor back on tonight, but wanted people's opinions first. Thanks for the help!

Blake

hybridazn · Mar 6, 2016

I'm going to guess it's from the unrinsed rowaphos. Having any kind of media that is unrinsed put in line in a tank will cloud the water up. I would rinse it and put it back online and see what happens

Longnose Hawkfish · Mar 6, 2016

On the instructions is says not to rinse if used in a reactor, but I will take it out and rinse it anyway.

hybridazn · Mar 6, 2016

How I rinse media in a reactor is I let it empty out into a bucket while I do a water change. Depending on the type of media I let 5-10 gallons flow thru before letting it go back into the system. Of course this will vary with system size and media amount.