New Tank Cloudy Green Water

Treefer32 · Sep 17, 2018

O.k. So, I probably did a nono, but I was testing my sump plumbing and design and filled my 75 gallon sump with fresh RODI water (no salt). I had let it sit for a couple months as I finished up my plumbing and setup for my 350 gallon display. I placed "new" live sand 240lbs, egg crate, and about 150 lbs of live rock in my display. (Adding more, but just getting things started).

I've got heaters with apex and temp prob running on the sump now, but with no water flow. Just filling the sump with fresh (RODI) water, then pumping it to the display, then filling the sump and so on. The water was getting a little funky after sitting for a couple months in the sum (formed a slimy skim over the top of the freshwater in the sump)

I pumped it into the display with the live sand and the dry rock. I have 2 MP40s running on it now to circulate the water (No heaters in the display until I get enough water that it starts flowing to the sump.

It's been about 3 days since adding the live sand and the water is yellowish green in the display and very cloudy. I have added the clarifiers that came with the sand (5 or 6 of them) and I've added some salt to the display slowly into the flow of the MP40s to start mixing the salt. It should be a relatively high salinity at this point as I've added enough for about 250 gallons of water at 1.026 and there's probably only 150-200 gallons of water in the display at the moment. (continuously filling it.)

I was hoping the color would dissipate, but.... it's not... I have no lights other than room lights on it at the time. Installing lights will be my next endeavor over the next couple weeks. I thought I'd get things cycling until the lights are installed and finish aquascaping.

I wanted it to clear up before I can finish aquascaping. I can't see my rock yet....

Is it just freshwater algae that built up? Will having added salt kill it off? Other thoughts?

PDR · Sep 17, 2018

It looks like normal cloudiness from new sand. Are you running filter socks or floss? When I added sand I ran mechanical filtration aggressively and it still took 2-3 days to clear up.

pdisner · Sep 17, 2018

This is a really basic thing, but have you then using carbon? Go to Bulk Reef supply, use their calculator to figure out how much carbon to use.
You may just be experiencing a diatom bloom or so,something similar. Now would be a good time to throw in a couple of bottles of copepods because they love diatoms. An Even bigger population will bloom if you use a little phytoplankton. Apex pods (Apocylcopse Panamensis) copepods are great for your situation. They proliferate rapidly and have a fairly short life cycle when compared to others. Reed Mariculture was advertising the release of their “Apex” pods and I asked if I could do a trial for them to back up these claims. They not only worked for my 180g DT, but also saved some Blenny larvae, which were only 8 days old, when my rotifers crashed. It was perfect timing too. They would’ve starved but now are very happy and healthy (you can see the thread in the fish breeding forum under “Breeding the Striped Blenny”. Some really great shots of my last breeding project.
So RG Complete is what I use for feeding all my zooplankton and also nourishes them for feeding. It has an ammonia and chlorine blocker as well to keep ammonia levels in check. That’s a common issue in zooplankton cultures, water fouling. You can get a small bottle for 12$ that will last you forever. It’s concentrated preserved algae, which has all the nutrients of live phyto without the pain of growing myself. I still do grow live phyto as well, but I Culture a few species of copepods and a couple species of Rotifers for breeding fish and shrimp.
Here’s a microscopic pic of Apex pods. I’ll bet they’d love to go at whatever is clouding your tank.

I’ve got some PDFs on breeding Apex pods as well, if you have a side culture. I can send them to you if you want to read them. Anyhow, congrats on the new setup. Looks very nice!

Oshengems · Sep 17, 2018

Looks like sand, get some pillows stuffing aka filter floss(make sure is 100% poly) and place it on your sump or use filter socks. I added my sand after the water and my tank was like this for days filter floss cleaned it up in a day, pay attention to the floss and make sure to switch it up after it gets muddy, I placed mines in the baffle right before my return section, I did a a lot so I stuffed lots of the floss real tight to make sure it was filtering as much as possible as fast as possible

Treefer32 · Sep 17, 2018

Thanks guys. I definitely am interested in the plankton Idea. Once I've got salinity stabilized, temp stabilized, and water flow stabilized, I'll consider that. I'll be starting the cycle off with Dr. Tims One and Only to get things started.

lapin · Sep 17, 2018

Not sure what "new live sand" is. If it did not come straight out of the ocean a day or 2 ago then it is sand and they have added some bacteria. If you did not rinse it really good then you have dust for a while and maybe each time you stir the sand bed.

Treefer32 · Sep 17, 2018

lapin said:
Not sure what "new live sand" is. If it did not come straight out of the ocean a day or 2 ago then it is sand and they have added some bacteria. If you did not rinse it really good then you have dust for a while and maybe each time you stir the sand bed.

Carib sea live sand. And I didn't rinse it to keep the living Bacteria cultures. Which, are probably dead anyways from going into to cold, fresh water, instead of warm saltwater... Oh well, I'll try the floss idea in a high flow area of the sump. I'm patient. It's going to be a couple weeks at least until I get lights active.

lapin · Sep 17, 2018

Treefer32 said:
Carib sea live sand. And I didn't rinse it to keep the living Bacteria cultures. Which, are probably dead anyways from going into to cold, fresh water, instead of warm saltwater... Oh well, I'll try the floss idea in a high flow area of the sump. I'm patient. It's going to be a couple weeks at least until I get lights active.

Floss will work. Bacteria attach to the sand and rock. Its not easy to get rid of it. Its in the air and on all surfaces. Thats why a dead shrimp works. It supplies the bacteria something to eat and they will mulitply. Rinsing sand will get rid of the fine sand dust particles and the dead bacteria but not much of the live stuff. Maybe next time.....