Fish tank not deadly crisis

[Aldebaran]

Hello All,

I thought I’d post my fish tank issues with the hopes that someone may have some valuable insight. My fish tank is SOOOO cloudy/murky, don’t know why. We are not strangers to the hobby or newbies (no offense to anyone), we cannot figure out what the issue is. The fish seem fine.

k, so, 210g FWLR, kessil ap700 lights x2, rox 0.8 carbon in reactor, GFO in other reactor, bubble magus DC curve 9 skimmer
We stopped using NO3PO4 (nopox) and vibrant to see if that would change things, it hasn’t.
nitrate was 10-15, phos was 0.03-0.05 but they are increasing now. Tank has been running for 4 months. I have never had this problem before, don know what to do, worried...

thank you

@Humblefish

 

[DJF]

could be bacteria bloom; I’d dose microbacter7 or dr Tim’s. Gives the other bacteria someone to battle against.

 

[Aldebaran]

Thank you,

 

[KrisReef]

Shut the lights off and see if that helps?

 

[lafarrow]

Shut the lights off and see if that helps?

If its an algae bloom this will work wonders. If bacteria I think time wins the battle but might be sped up with the bottle bac suggested above. Ruling out sand storm

 

[vetteguy53081]

Does sunlight hit the tank at all ? It can cause a bloom even with indirect sunlight.

You can do a blackout (lights off) for 5-7 days and add a pouch of chemipure blue which will break down the spores. Other things that cause algae bloom are tanks that have an excess of nutrients, specifically Phosphorus which the levels usually spike because of overfeeding and an excess of leftover food. Algae consumes nitrogen, and phosphorus for growth and reproduction causing the cloudiness.

 

[Aldebaran]

Thank you all who replied. I thought bacteria too but the fish are not in distress, blooms take O2 so I figured not, I will however add some bacteria. The sun hits a small part of the tank for about 30 minutes. The phosphate is almost untraceable—was*. What are your thoughts on a massive water change?

 

[Chrysemys]

I think one reason your phosphate and nitrate is low is it may be tied up in the “bloom.”
I have had success running an in-tank UV to eliminate a similar cloudiness in a 30g tank. At 210g you probably want something more substantial.

 

[Aldebaran]

I think one reason your phosphate and nitrate is low is it may be tied up in the “bloom.”
I have had success running an in-tank UV to eliminate a similar cloudiness in a 30g tank. At 210g you probably want something more substantial.

It’s been a thing that we keep it ultra low, even with so many fish, to prevent unwanted unsightly algae, the tank was reestablished after an crypt outbreak. We have horrid algae and this bloom. We use to get small 24 hr blooms because of NOPOX but it was manageable with the carbon. I thought It was a combo of the NOPOX and vibrant but it’s been 3 weeks since we’ve dosed them both and the nitrate and phosphate is climb steadily. That’s why we are dumbstruck. Thank you for your reply