Coldwater cloudiness?

[john_the_reefer]

Hello, and thank you all in advance It's great to see that coldwater is finally getting our own forums! In any case, i have been having a problem with cloudy water in my tank. Here's what happened: My 10 gallon tank was well established and had been running for about a year, but then I bought an 8 gallon acrylic for better insulation, using the same established sand and water to fill it; the 8 gallon was immediately cloudy and white but i figured it was just because things were stirred around. That was three weeks ago, and the water is still very cloudy, I've done regular water changes and cut back on feeding, and adjusted the filter with super fine filter foam and added carbon, but to no avail. anyone have any ideas?

 

[New Guy]

That happened to me, I came home one day to a white out tank I couldn't see anything and fish and inverts were dying off. I never did get rid of what happened I had to start from square one with new sand and everything. I think it might have something to do with how small the tank is because I've, so far, only heard of this happening with small nanos. With the tanks being so small I was told that they are extremely fragile to any changes. Mine was a six gallon fluval edge. I am still new so I could be very wrong but I just thought that I would let you know what happened to mine, hopefully you find out what happened.

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[rajkovich207]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom to me but that shouldn't last 3 weeks...

 

[New Guy]

Before the white out I had a type of bacteria develop that looked like someone spit in my tank
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[fragmatic]

Are you running a skimmer?

and

Are do you have enough live rock?

EDIT: oh, I just read your post better..I'm so sorry... this is because you completely disturbed that sand bed... you basically "nuked" your tank. You most likely will need to start over, step one, cycle.

Wash all that sand.. no..sorry.. wash everything. But wash that sand through a bucket of running water until it runs clear. Then rinse it in RODI water. The good news is, you get the chance to do it all better this time.

I apologize for the late answer, I just now found your post.

But, you posted the request for help on the 2nd, and this is the 9th, any good news? Did you get lucky and slide by?

 

[New Guy]

I had a small

amount of live rock but no skimmer

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[fragmatic]

I had a small

amount of live rock but no skimmer

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Yeah, you had a mini cycle, but John completely wrecked his sand bed and moved it into a different tank.. big mistake.

Nice looking cold water tank, I'm not understanding how you get away with no skimmer and so little live rock. Do you have a sump? I see no provisions for one and I think I see a HOB filter.

What is the reason for a cold water tank? I'm not up to speed on that thinking. It is for sea horses?

 

[john_the_reefer]

Oh NO!!!!!!!! weird though, I've done that before and it usually settles down in just a couple of days. Unfortunately, it's still kinda cloudy. On the 10 gallon, I did run a skimmer, but on the 8 I'm just doing weekly 20% water changes. Luckily, I haven't lost any livestock. annnnnd, I'm getting a chiller in tomorrow, so I think I may keep things as they are and cycle my ten gallon tank and move the livestock into there, then use the 8 gallon as a sump where I'll but the skimmer and pump the chiller. Do you think that might be okay?

 

[Wilkinsr88]

I'm running a 2800 gal temperate system; cloudiness occurred after the first time we siphoned the sand bed in there, so the size of the tank doesn't seem to matter. The system has been set up since December, was siphoned in late June.Oddly, the cloudiness did not show up until a day or two later, then it persisted for a week. Nothing died in that time, or even seemed stressed. We just pretend that our half dozen pairs of kelp greenlings were spawning

 

[Kataro]

2800G temperate system you say... Pictures please!

 

[Wilkinsr88]

Ah, I should say, the tank was obviously murky during the siphoning, but it cleared quickly, then got cloudy later. There's a large sand filter, four filter socks, and a large protein skimmer on there, any cloudiness should not last long in there.

 

[Wilkinsr88]

As requested. 2800gal including the 500gal sump
This is at the Portland Aquarium where I'm an Aquarist. The tank has about 95% Oregon coast natives

 

[Kataro]

very cool!!

Speaking of cloudiness... My tank just got cloudy today haha

 

[landshark777]

whoah!! Thats a sweet tank!

 

[john_the_reefer]

I know this thread is old, but someone just replied soooooo: yeah, everything was fine, and since then I've upgraded to a larger tank and pretty much started over with new sand, new liverock, and bio-spira, still have the same livestock. Everything's cool as a cucumber.

 

[SantaMonica]

That is my kind of tank

Anyways, about the delayed cloudiness: A reason could be that stirring up the (deep?) sand bed released some hydrogen sulfide gas, but not enough to kill fish. The gas however could have killed a lot of phyto and periphyton, and these would not start decaying immediately but would take more time. As they decay, nutrients are put into the water, and boom, you have nutrients for a bacterial bloom.