Hazy water

[XNavyDiver]

My tank is realitivly new. Just been up about 4 months. I started it with dry Pukani. I've been taking it really slowly with just a few small additions of sps frags and 3 small fish. Water parameters have been measuring well. Nutrient export is an oversized skimmer and a fuge growing cheato. I took this picture before the lights turned on in the morning. For a few days now there is a persistent haze. Like a smoky bar room haze. Is this a bacterial bloom? If so, what is causing it? How long do they typicly last? It's just annoying. Nothing in the tank seems to care as everything is doing well both fish and corals. I'm the only one that seems bothered by this. I want the water to clear up yesterday! [emoji35]

 

[jason_mazzy]

bacteria. i don't think its fully cured and cycled. as long as you can keep everything alive wait about 6 months and it should be ready for a 90% water change which would make the water clear. Why did I say 6 months? if you start attacking the issue now you will be in a constant cycling cycle and will have wild swings which will likely kill your corals.

 

[XNavyDiver]

You say not fully cured and cycled. Well ok then. The rock was curing in a brute for three months in heated saltwater before going in the tank. That would make a total of 13 months of curing and cycling if I just let it sit for another 6 months. Just to be clear, are you saying do not do a water change for 6 months?
I can't wait to tell the wife! She just "loves" the glass box of salty rocks...

 

[brandon429]

the option always exists to simply force the tank clear and not id anything. We do skip cycle cleanings for all sorts of reasons: upgrades, moves, emergency tank builds to handle cracked display tanks, and in your case just to make it look perfect again. We have done no less than hundreds of them and most are cataloged in our peroxide threads. its a lot of work, but wow does it reset the tank and last a long time. it involves taking rocks out and holding in buckets of clean sw, fish in other buckets, then take the whole tank apart and rinse the sandbed 100% until it is cloudless. refill the tank with all new perfect water and that cloudless sand. rinse the rocks off well in their holding buckets, put back in, corals, reacclimate fish, done.

there is no age limit you can do this on a tank. once your tank can handle the bioload preferred and show zero ammonia, that's the starting point for this kind of work doesn't matter if the tank is 1 day after cycling or 11 yrs old like my tank that gets this 3x a year (so that I can neglect it and stay gone mostly, I use rip cleaning as catch-ups for not doing normal care)

you can use them any way you want, we've never lost a tank to a recycle. as a matter of pride we skip cycle all the rebuilds. anything from two part doser interaction to sandbed issues (silt) to bac blooms (very highly rare if you aren't dosing carbon) can cause that. algae blooms due to direct sun access is most likely candidate imo

 

[Tony Elenbaas]

If it's bacterial bloom a UV steriliser would clear it in a day or two. I had the same thing and it corrected it. I now run UV on all my tanks.

 

[jason_mazzy]

You say not fully cured and cycled. Well ok then. The rock was curing in a brute for three months in heated saltwater before going in the tank. That would make a total of 13 months of curing and cycling if I just let it sit for another 6 months. Just to be clear, are you saying do not do a water change for 6 months?
I can't wait to tell the wife! She just "loves" the glass box of salty rocks...

No, I am not saying skip your routine. Continue your basic water changes. What i am saying is that pukani is loaded with organics and they take years to breakdown and leach out. I still have occiasional issues well after a year in a DT and I did a full acid bath. Keep up your regular maintenance, run gfo or other things to pull nitrates and po4 and keep from getting a bad algae outbreak, and keep chugging along. For me after 6 months (2) 90% water changes and a little bit of food-grade H2o2 made it 100 clear but occasionally you get little spikes as some organics decompose. It's great rock just full or organics.

 

[jason_mazzy]

If it's bacterial bloom a UV steriliser would clear it in a day or two. I had the same thing and it corrected it. I now run UV on all my tanks.

I much prefer bacteria to eat the organics than GHA, dinos, or worse....

 

[Brew12]

Looks more like an algae bloom than bacterial to me, but it is hard to tell from the pics. If it is bacterial and you run filter socks it will quickly build up a slimy layer in them and cause them to clog.

Either way, it should resolve on its own. There are a few different products you can try to clear the water if you don't want to wait it out.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Is it noticeable when the lights are on? How much food are you feeding and have you increased feeding recently? What do you add to the tank other than food (supplements, dosing, etc)? What are your Ca and Alk levels?

Bacterial blooms generally clear up on their own within a week IME. Your skimmer should be removing whatever it is - have you noticed an increase in skimmate production?

 

[XNavyDiver]

No, I am not saying skip your routine. Continue your basic water changes. What i am saying is that pukani is loaded with organics and they take years to breakdown and leach out. I still have occiasional issues well after a year in a DT and I did a full acid bath. Keep up your regular maintenance, run gfo or other things to pull nitrates and po4 and keep from getting a bad algae outbreak, and keep chugging along. For me after 6 months (2) 90% water changes and a little bit of food-grade H2o2 made it 100 clear but occasionally you get little spikes as some organics decompose. It's great rock just full or organics.

Gotcha. I'm testing on a weakly basis. NO3 undetectable for months now. PO4 .03 according to Hanna. I harvest handfuls of cheato growing under a kessil grow light. I'm guessing this is where most of those nutrients are getting exported out.
Thanks for the heads up on the Pukani. I just need to re-adjust my expectations on this dry rock. I guess in my mind I was thinking after 3 months circulating in a brute that it was "good to go".
Can I write this off as the (continued) New Tank Uglies and nothing to worry about?

 

[XNavyDiver]

Looks more like an algae bloom than bacterial to me, but it is hard to tell from the pics. If it is bacterial and you run filter socks it will quickly build up a slimy layer in them and cause them to clog.

Either way, it should resolve on its own. There are a few different products you can try to clear the water if you don't want to wait it out.

That is EXACTLY what my socks do. A light brownish slime. I'm cleaning them every other day.

 

[XNavyDiver]

Is it noticeable when the lights are on? How much food are you feeding and have you increased feeding recently? What do you add to the tank other than food (supplements, dosing, etc)? What are your Ca and Alk levels?

Bacterial blooms generally clear up on their own within a week IME. Your skimmer should be removing whatever it is - have you noticed an increase in skimmate production?

Yes. Noticeable when the lights on. I feed very lightly (bioload is very light right now). No additives as of yet. Alk is between 8.7-9. Cal is averaging 1400. I have DOS but it's off line as my levels haven't yet dictated enough uptake yet that I need to dose. WC have kept those levels steady so far.

 

[jason_mazzy]

Gotcha. I'm testing on a weakly basis. NO3 undetectable for months now. PO4 .03 according to Hanna. I harvest handfuls of cheato growing under a kessil grow light. I'm guessing this is where most of those nutrients are getting exported out.
Thanks for the heads up on the Pukani. I just need to re-adjust my expectations on this dry rock. I guess in my mind I was thinking after 3 months circulating in a brute that it was "good to go".
Can I write this off as the (continued) New Tank Uglies and nothing to worry about?

Yes sir. Just let it keep going do water changes and eventually do a big water change. Wait it out and if it goes hazy, wait a month and do another huge one. Repeat until you've reached equilibrium. Good thing about running chaeto and skimming is you are minimizing tge chance of bryopsis or gha gaining a foothold with all the leaching nutrients.

 

[XNavyDiver]

Yes sir. Just let it keep going do water changes and eventually do a big water change. Wait it out and if it goes hazy, wait a month and do another huge one. Repeat until you've reached equilibrium. Good thing about running chaeto and skimming is you are minimizing tge chance of bryopsis or gha gaining a foothold with all the leaching nutrients.

This sounds like sound advise. Thank you Jason and all others reponding for all your help and advise. I appreciate it very much.
It's so nice to have a community I can lean on! [emoji106]

 

[beaslbob]

It's photo reactive algae or cyano bacteria. Either way it will die off in total darkness.

That will let the fuge consume the nutrients.

So try killing the lights until the display is clear then resume with less duration lighting and adjust until the water stays clear and the desirable (pretty algae, corals, macros) thrive.

I also very rarely use a diatom filter (water polisher) which would clear that up in a couple of hours. But if you don't make changes it does come back.

My .02

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

This sounds like sound advise. Thank you Jason and all others reponding for all your help and advise. I appreciate it very much.
It's so nice to have a community I can lean on! [emoji106]

I know this is super old post, but how did things turn out ?