Green Algae and now cloudy water

[Jenyphur]

Hi all, tank is still very new....approx 2 months. I had the brown diatom bloom, then introduced a cuc and they did a great job at tackling it. About a week ago I started getting a very fine, bright green algae on the glass and rocks. From the research I did I figured it was just part of being a 'new tank' and would go away eventually. I diligently kept the glass clean and although the green algae is still on the rocks it did stop appearing on the glass. That was about 3 days ago...and ever since then I have very cloudy water. Is this a bacteria bloom?

I am changing out the filter floss every few days because it is looking 'icky'. I ordered a new Chemi pure elite and will be here today and plan to change that out also since it has been about 4-5 weeks since adding it.

Any other things I can try? Is this all normal? Any advice and comments would be very helpful..thanks so much.

Also, I checked my parameters this morning:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate : 10 (can never seem to get below 10)
Temp: 78

 

[LBA]

I would say bacteria bloom. Part of the process. Everyone has their methods. You can ride it out. But when that happens to me I do small daily water changes and cut back feeding.

You can also try rowaphos to prevent the initial phosphate spike.

 

[stevo01]

If your having algae blooms your nitrates will read lower than what they are. The cloudiness is probably a bacterial bloom and normal for new tank.

If you have fish I would try to increase your aeration as bacterial blooms can be suffacting. Be careful how much food your putting in the tank. Things are still balancing out.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

+1 to all the above. Normal.
Id love to see pics.

 

[Jenyphur]

Thanks everyone...here is a pic of the tank. I have added aeration as suggested.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

IMO, most of the green you see it the precursor of purple coralline algae, as far as I can tell from the pics.

the bacterial bloom is a bit odd. Air fresheners? a dead snail? Hand sanitizer?

 

[Jenyphur]

Hmmmm...no to air fresheners and I don't think a dead snail...let me see if I can find them all. I will say that last week I had my hands in the tank more than I should have to rearrange things, etc. I wonder if that is the cause.

Also...just found a little critter on my glass. I'll post a pic and see if anyone can identify it. I dip everything so not sure how he snuck in.

 

[Jenyphur]

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

ugg. zoa eating nudibranch. IME when you see an adilt on the glass it means the eggs just hatched.
you might be looking at Flatworm exit treatments.

 

[Jenyphur]

OMG..that sounds horrible. I'll start doing my research now.

 

[stevo01]

Yup that's a nudi, bummer.

 

[anew2thereef]

I'm with @Jenyphur, i'm very new to the hobby and I have my tank running now for about 3 months. My tank has started to have some type of this bloom that I can't figure out! I do a weekly water change to the tank it started out with my rock looking green and now i'm waking up every morning to the inside glass looking slightly brown. I have changed chemi pure blue after the three months to a new one with a poly filter pad. I also added two little fishes (GFO) which I rinsed very well until I saw no brown coming from the bag, but I'm still getting the same issue. I do have some type of livestock (2 clownfish, 3 yellow tail damsel, tiger pistol and yellow watchman goby, tail spot blenny, mexican turbos, trochus snails, nassarius snails. I also use an aquaclear 110 hob and a jaebo Jw8 so I have more than enough flow. So where could the brown be coming from? Also is this just a bacteria bloom? Should I take the livestock back out and put them back into the quarantine tank? Thanks in advance for any advice given to me in order to fix my situation.

 

[stevo01]

I'm with @Jenyphur, i'm very new to the hobby and I have my tank running now for about 3 months. My tank has started to have some type of this bloom that I can't figure out! I do a weekly water change to the tank it started out with my rock looking green and now i'm waking up every morning to the inside glass looking slightly brown. I have changed chemi pure blue after the three months to a new one with a poly filter pad. I also added two little fishes (GFO) which I rinsed very well until I saw no brown coming from the bag, but I'm still getting the same issue. I do have some type of livestock (2 clownfish, 3 yellow tail damsel, tiger pistol and yellow watchman goby, tail spot blenny, mexican turbos, trochus snails, nassarius snails. I also use an aquaclear 110 hob and a jaebo Jw8 so I have more than enough flow. So where could the brown be coming from? Also is this just a bacteria bloom? Should I take the livestock back out and put them back into the quarantine tank? Thanks in advance for any advice given to me in order to fix my situation.

Sounds like the "brown stuff" is diatom algae, the cloudy water is probably a bacterial bloom. Green matting algae sounds like green cyano.

You may have went too fast with an increased bioload. Itll be ok but it takes a lot of work to balance everything out. Skimming would help at this time too. The bacterial bloom can deplete the oxygen in the water A LOT. Could actualy result in dead fish. I would try to increase any aeration you can, adding a bubbler or increase the surface movement by moving powerheads up.

 

[lion king]

Everything you have going on will take time to straighten out, but with your numbers in check everything will be fine in the end. If you want to clear the water fast, try an uv sterilizer. It won't cure everything you have going on but it will clear your water overnight and diminish further algae growth and bacterial blooms. Check out a uv like this one depending on your tank size, cheap and works good: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQRFGT0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So what size tank and how much rock or other bio media do you have for colonization of bacteria. You may need more rock or add marine pure or comparable for more real estate.

 

[stevo01]

Agreed about the UV. Ive got the jebo 36w pond sterilizer. Jebo Aquarium Uv Sterilizer 36 Watt-180 Gallons https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004K0BC94/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_AImzzbYBV39TA

 

[jd371]

Yep, a UV will clear the water up fast or just wait it out and it should clear itself. As for the nudi, maybe a Wrasse. I have a Melanurus that is constantly picking critters off the rocks.

 

[anew2thereef]

Thanks for the advise guys...! Lets keep it going...! @lion king the tank is a 40 gallon breeder I have a HOB 110 with a jw8 jabao wave maker....I also do have livestock in the tank

pair of clown fish
3 yellow tail damsels (i know can be a bad choice)
yellow watchman goby and tiger pistol shrimp
fire shrimp
tail spot blenny
royal gramma
4 trochus snails
10 nassarius snails

2 hammers
1 torch coral
1 small birdsnest
1 tiny colony of zoas
So a UV Sterilizer you think would do the trick? I was thinking keeping the lights off for two days and just give more movement to the water by using two extra power heads I have laying around and replace the filter pad everyday that the light is off...Just add a air stone for maybe a week.... What you guys think? @jd371 @stevo01

Thanks!
@

 

[glb]

Thanks for the advise guys...! Lets keep it going...! @lion king the tank is a 40 gallon breeder I have a HOB 110 with a jw8 jabao wave maker....I also do have livestock in the tank

pair of clown fish
3 yellow tail damsels (i know can be a bad choice)
yellow watchman goby and tiger pistol shrimp
fire shrimp
tail spot blenny
royal gramma
4 trochus snails
10 nassarius snails

2 hammers
1 torch coral
1 small birdsnest
1 tiny colony of zoas
So a UV Sterilizer you think would do the trick? I was thinking keeping the lights off for two days and just give more movement to the water by using two extra power heads I have laying around and replace the filter pad everyday that the light is off...Just add a air stone for maybe a week.... What you guys think? @jd371 @stevo01

Thanks!
@

Have you tested your Phosphate? How quickly did you add all the fish? Make sure to take into account their full grown size when you calculate how many you can have in there. I agree that a skimmer is a good idea. If your Phosphates are elevated that could explain the algae. It could be due to overfeeding or maybe Phosphate leaching from the rock depending on the rock you used. There's lots of moving parts to a reef tank and we all want to help!