Green cloudy water

[Rebecca Duncan]

Hey guys I’ve got an issue. I had my tank running well and took a little vacation. I should say it’s a 20 g tank, canister filter and plenty of flow. I haven’t tested the nitrates and phosphates because I don’t have those testers. However I do have good water I live in Colorado. No skimmer. When I came back from vacation the pump had crashed and a lot of water dissipated. My fish was still alive. So I refilled the tank, added a bunch of phytoplankton and tiger pods and added Coral to it. Everything is good. It is a week later my tank water is Murky green. My salinity is always on the mark. My temp stays at a stabile 78 degrees. We have been doing 5 gallon water changes on it daily or every 2 days at least and it’s clearer for half a day. By the next morning its dark green again I see no algae in tank either I took out fish a few weeks ago so not over feeding. I don’t get what’s up. I have another tank that is new and cycling and I don’t have this problem with it.

 

[sbash]

In my experience, cloudy water is never a good thing (dusty water aside)... Ugh, one time, I bought a full system from a guy. He mixed the crabs with the snails, the cops were involved, I lost a couple fish, all the euphyllia, it was a giant mess... Anyway, I digress...

The canister filter should have enough particle filtration in it, so get that up and running asap. Also add some carbon filtration just in case....

Any signs of stress on the livestock? The acans in the pictures look pretty happy, so hopefully it is just a weird algae or bacteria bloom!

 

[1WildBill]

Hopefully it’s just an algae bloom. Some suggestion, get rid of the canister and go with a Sump if possible. HOB filter is better than a canister.

Are you using RO/DI water? Tap water would cause an algae outbreak.

I would highly suggest you get some test kits for a saltwater tank.

 

[jonnythekid]

This happened to me many times.i ran a UV sterilizer for a couple days and it cleared right up. Got one on ebay for around $30 and it works fine still.

 

[DancingShark]

It's probably a algea bloom from the phytoplankton dosed days earlier. Like @jonnythekid said, phytoplankton are single cell organisms and installing a uv will clear that up for you.

 

[Rebecca Duncan]

So isn’t a phyto outbreak a good thing? It’s a temp tank. I don’t want to kill those so I can feed my other tank, right? Thank you guys so much for your reply’s! My acans are like they are on steroids and have doubled in size in less than a week so I think the tank is somewhat ok!