Murky Water

[Nate92]

Hello,

I have a relatively young tank (has been up and running for two months). I recently had to go five days without cleaning algae off the panels of the tank or basting algae off the sand. Since then (it's been about a week now), my tank has been very murky. Any ideas why this might be happening or recommendations for how I can clear up the water? Thank you!

-Nate

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Kinda looks like a bacterial bloom.
And air freshener or painting?

Or is it just the alge floating around. ?

 

[Nokiaec11]

I see a algae clip, please don't tell me you have fish in there...2 months, it may have never finished cycling.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I see a algae clip, please don't tell me you have fish in there...2 months, it may have never finished cycling.

If there are fish in there it wil be cycling.

 

[Nokiaec11]

What type of filtration do you have? Do you have a skimmer?

 

[Nokiaec11]

If there are fish in there it wil be cycling.

Could be, but the post is as if the person feels the tank has cycled and ready to display with show fish.

 

[Nate92]

Could be, but the post is as if the person feels the tank has cycled and ready to display with show fish.

The tank is fully cycled, so I do have fish in the tank. My most recent measurements taken on 2/11 were as follows:

Salinity- 1.029
Ammonia- <.25
Nitrate- <5ppm
Phosphate- 0ppm

I have a 30 gallon sump with an xyclone protein skimmer in the middle of three chambers.

 

[SPR1968]

The salinity is on the high side and ammonia should be 0 or thereabouts and you should maybe do some water tests as the last ones are a few weeks old now

See this
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

You don’t say how big the tank is, but if you’ve been scraping the glass it could be stuff in the water or a bacterial bloom as already said.

I would do a series of 15-20% water changes over a week and get some fresh saltwater in and that should clear it up. Just try and keep the water parameters stable as that’s the key.

 

[Nokiaec11]

There are many post on this forum that people state they have a tank up and after 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months...But it does not work like that...the tank has to read good for 2 or more after the cycle is complete...Green Algae, Brown Algae, and maybe Red Algae, but no matter what your tank has to complete the nitrogen cycyle on its on. Some add chemicals to lower the nitrogen during this process, and they think they has speed up the process when their nitrates read 0, yeah!!!, no!!!..., but once those chemicals dilute, the tank will cotinue its cycle process, and nitrates will rise, and have to lower to 0 through natural process...That's why your water is cloudy...don't worry just keep doing the water changes, stop the chemicals because you get false sense of security...after your filtration has built enough bacteria your nitrates will go to 0. Once tank is completed the cycle then keep the chemicals for emergency...use natural methods if you want to help the process along, macro, denitrate,...natural stuff

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The tank is fully cycled, so I do have fish in the tank. My most recent measurements taken on 2/11 were as follows:

Salinity- 1.029
Ammonia- <.25
Nitrate- <5ppm
Phosphate- 0ppm

I have a 30 gallon sump with an xyclone protein skimmer in the middle of three chambers.

Is that an api test?

Kinda looks like a bacterial bloom.
And air freshener or painting?

Or is it just the alge floating around. ?

And this*^^^

 

[Ubergroover]

if there is any ammonia in the tank after 2 mo the tank is not done establishing its bacteria. It will be easy to unbalance the system even if the test after the first cycle was zero. Do a big water change and wait several weeks before you think about introducing more livestock. As a rule of thumb a tank is not considered mature until it reaches the 1 year mark. Some less time, some more....There's a lot of knowledge with some of the contributors above, they have helped me many times. You are in the right place.

 

[Nate92]

Kinda looks like a bacterial bloom.
And air freshener or painting?

Or is it just the alge floating around. ?

Thanks for your response! Could a bacterial bloom still be happening two months into the cycle? The algae on my rocks has recently gone from brown to green if that provides any context. No real painting and no air fresheners outside of a candle in the room! Thanks again!

Nate

 

[Nate92]

The salinity is on the high side and ammonia should be 0 or thereabouts and you should maybe do some water tests as the last ones are a few weeks old now

See this
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

You don’t say how big the tank is, but if you’ve been scraping the glass it could be stuff in the water or a bacterial bloom as already said.

I would do a series of 15-20% water changes over a week and get some fresh saltwater in and that should clear it up. Just try and keep the water parameters stable as that’s the key.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Nate92]

Is that an api test?

And this*^^^

Yup those are all API tests!!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks for your response! Could a bacterial bloom still be happening two months into the cycle? The algae on my rocks has recently gone from brown to green if that provides any context. No real painting and no air fresheners outside of a candle in the room! Thanks again!

Nate

Bacterial blooms occur quite often in some tanks. Nothing to do with the cycle or what you would think of the stage of cycling. (Bacteria processes Ammona to nitrate he tank is cycling.period.)
You may have heard of carbon dosing (organic carbon dosing ), air fresheners and paint have organic carbons as well and will feed bacteria in the same way and cause a bloom. Hand sanitizers do that too.

If the tank is young and a lot of food or a lot of fish are added too fast there a lot of Ammona and nitrates produced and the biofilter (cycle) can’t keep up. So algaes can feed on the no4 and Po4. (Ugly phase)

So the question is , is this a bacterial bloom (what’s causing it) or a lot of algae floating around and why isn’t it clearing up.
Algae should clear up quickly with a sump unles you have a very low return rate.

 

[EJReef]

Hello,

I have a relatively young tank (has been up and running for two months). I recently had to go five days without cleaning algae off the panels of the tank or basting algae off the sand. Since then (it's been about a week now), my tank has been very murky. Any ideas why this might be happening or recommendations for how I can clear up the water? Thank you!

-Nate

Bacteria

 

[EJReef]

The tank is fully cycled, so I do have fish in the tank. My most recent measurements taken on 2/11 were as follows:

Salinity- 1.029
Ammonia- <.25
Nitrate- <5ppm
Phosphate- 0ppm

I have a 30 gallon sump with an xyclone protein skimmer in the middle of three chambers.

It’s not done cycling you have ammonia

 

[Nate92]

Bacterial blooms occur quite often in some tanks. Nothing to do with the cycle or what you would think of the stage of cycling. (Bacteria processes Ammona to nitrate he tank is cycling.period.)
You may have heard of carbon dosing (organic carbon dosing ), air fresheners and paint have organic carbons as well and will feed bacteria in the same way and cause a bloom. Hand sanitizers do that too.

If the tank is young and a lot of food or a lot of fish are added too fast there a lot of Ammona and nitrates produced and the biofilter (cycle) can’t keep up. So algaes can feed on the no4 and Po4. (Ugly phase)

So the question is , is this a bacterial bloom (what’s causing it) or a lot of algae floating around and why isn’t it clearing up.
Algae should clear up quickly with a sump unles you have a very low return rate.

Thanks for the great info! To me, it doesn’t look like there’s a ton of algae floating around, but that could just be because I have inexperienced eyes. It just looks like the tank is very cloudy. I have a filter sock set up in my sump as well so that’s also why I don’t think it’s algae. Assuming that it is a bacterial bloom, is it just something that needs to play out? For reference, here’s a picture of my tank today... it’s a bit clearer than yesterday I think... thanks again!!!