Help plz!!

[onlyonelikeme]

Im not a newbie i didnt know where to post this. A couple of days ago i came in to find my tank cloudy as could be. Did a water change and its still cloudy yes i have a skimmer and i am running carbon. What can i do to clear the tank up its a major eye sore atm. Params read 0 ammonia 0 phos. .5 nitrate 0 nitrite p.h 8. Plz help

 

[ritter6788]

Can you list what is in the tank? Fish, corals, macroalgae? How long has the tank been set up?

 

[onlyonelikeme]

Green star polyps Pink palys green leather clown firefish and orange shoulder tang and fire and ice zoas its a 110gal tank been setup 3mths

 

[onlyonelikeme]

Also i have a 250w metal halide light over it and one 48in T5HO dual bulb fixture 1 actnic and one 10k. If its and algae bloom could i run the T5 and the coral be ok

 

[slugwall]

I would do a major water change like 25% and this should clear it up and if doesn't I would continue with more water changes.

 

[onlyonelikeme]

I have done major water changes. And its just as bad a few hours later. I did a 30% change it stayed clear for about 3hrs then bam right back to the same way. Do you think its an algae bloom? If so can i run just the T5's and the coral be ok?

 

[GratefulReef]

could be bacteria bloom, have you added any new livestock?

 

[skinz78]

Can you post a pic? Do you have any clams in there or anything else that can be spawning? What's your skimmer doing? How long has it been since you have changed your carbon?

 

[slugwall]

I would continue to do water changes and if needed I would do a 75 to 100% water change. if your parms are in tact and nothing has died to give a toxic level then your left with water changes until you get the cloudiness under control. If you added something new like water from a LFS and a mini cycle has started then water change...water change...water change...

 

[Young Frankenstein]

1. don't panic and stop the water changes till we have an idea what we are dealing with.
2. is everything doing ok ? any stress in corals or fish ?
3. post photos.

 

[onlyonelikeme]

thats what it looks like now and no clams the skimmer is working well producing alot of skimmate carbon was changed last sat

 

[onlyonelikeme]

everything is fine thats just it everything in the tank looks perfect when you can see it that is lol

 

[skinz78]

Change your carbon again, what type are you using? Usually that stuff clears tanks right up.

How much surface water agitation do you have?

 

[slugwall]

1. don't panic and stop the water changes till we have an idea what we are dealing with.
2. is everything doing ok ? any stress in corals or fish ?
3. post photos.

Whats the point of stopping water changes if he states that everything is fine? it's apparent that everything is not fine and to clear up a tank is not to wait.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk but if you don't panic and wait you could risk losing everything, plus water changes will not hurt in the least.

please explain as this is beyond what I would do in this senario?

Thank you

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Whats the point of stopping water changes if he states that everything is fine? it's apparent that everything is not fine and to clear up a tank is not to wait.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk but if you don't panic and wait you could risk losing everything, plus water changes will not hurt in the least.

please explain as this is beyond what I would do in this senario?

Thank you

I think smaller water changes spaced out would be better than a large water change. This way you are not disrupting the parameters too much too quickly. This can cause the OP a lot of trouble if things go down hill too quick. In this case, the livestock is doing well so I would not overreact. If the livestock was in bad shape, I certainly would do a large water change.

OP,
I would change the carbon. I would also increase the surface agitation of the water. The water looks pretty still in the pic. Have you introduced anything new to the tank lately?

 

[_Alex_]

where are your current makers?? do you hvae any? like mentioned add more water movement and top water agitation, change carbon, and keep up with smaller changes like 10% every few days. change carbon mabe every 3-5 days. also what kind of carbon are you using?

 

[onlyonelikeme]

the carbon im using is 2 kinds actually its the stuff you use in hob filters and i have a cabon reactor with carbon from DR foster smith in it. atm i have 4 powerheads two hob filters and skimmer running

 

[onlyonelikeme]

any idea what it could be i took my light cycle down to six hours and that hasnt helped any i dont over feed prolly under feeding to be honest lol bc i dont want a issue like this out of all the tanks ive had this one has had the best water params yet but has this cloudy issue

 

[slugwall]

This is definately odd to have cloudy water conditions like this? how soon did it happen?
Also thanks for clarifying, I really didn't want to sound like a Jerk even though it probably came out that way.
But, I would still stick with more larger water changes.

 

[onlyonelikeme]

Sadly it started a few days after i started feeding my picky clown flakes i had been using pellets and had no issues til then but that also was the same time i changed my carbon as well. As far as i know my wife dont mess with feeding them after the last time she decided to feed them but thats a different story lol. Also i want to know if i turn off the halide if that T5 has enough wattage to keep the coral alive?