Some Kind of Precipitant?

[splix]

I noticed it yesterday but today it's pretty bad. The tank looks like I just dumped a bunch of new sand in it. Normally it's really clear. I'm just curious if it's something that will go away on it's own or if I need to do something. I tried to turn off all flow for about 20 min to see if it would settle, but it's just staying in the water. I did a 15% water change today to try and see if that would make any difference, but it hasnt. It's an AIO style aquarium, the RSM E260. All livestock looks fine, it's just a little annoying haha.

Alk: 9
calc: 430
Mag: 1430
no3: 2 ppm
temp: 78
Salt: 1.026
pH: 8.27
ORP: 370

Using Fritz Pro salt.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Might be a bacterial bloom.

Are you dosing anything?

 

[splix]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention. I was dosing 5ml/day of red sea no3po4x. My nems werent looking great so I stopped dosing that to take that out of the equation. Also I was just dosing it proactively, but I think I'm just going to leave it off because I have no problem doing water changes on such a smaller than I'm used to system.


If it's bacterial, can I keep running the lights and just let it run it's course?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, a bacterial bloom is not really any concern (except perhaps low O2). The bacteria may even feed filter feeders.

I'd just observe.

 

[splix]

It's definitely a bacteria bloom. Even with the lights on, pods are all over the glass eating the stuff that is collecting on the glass. The tank is a little milky but not horrible. I can still see through the tank long ways (3') but it's not clear. Also you can smell it. It not very strong but when you walk into the room you can smell it for sure, smells like someone cooked broccoli in the microwave.
I've stopped dosing everything. I'm pretty sure it started because I was dosing no3po4x at 5ml/day.
@Randy Holmes-Farley, do you think this will go away on it's own, or should I do anything. Carbon is running as always, I'm trying to skim as wet as possible without the cup filling on me in an hour. I'm just not seeing any improvements each day in the water clarity. Last night my ORP dropped quite a bit. I'm not running ozone. Typically it's around 370, and it dropped to 280. It's slowly climbing back up.

All fish are alive, all cleanup crew is alive. Nothing has died to cause the bloom or as a result of it.

The spikes in change in temp are from a water change I attempted yesterday.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you stop organic carbon dosing it will stop growing, but what is already there may stick around. So you may need to scrape the glass.

 

[splix]

I'm not too concerned about the glass since I clean it a few times a week. It's the milky water that I'm wondering if it'll subside on it's own or if there is something I can do to accelerate clearing it up.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Bacteria blooms are common in new tanks. As they consume the carbon they are thriving on they will eventually run out of food and their population will subside. Just keep the skimmer going for O2 and it'll clear up on it's own.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not too concerned about the glass since I clean it a few times a week. It's the milky water that I'm wondering if it'll subside on it's own or if there is something I can do to accelerate clearing it up.

It will subside in most cases.

 

[splix]

cool, thanks for the help. I've been in the hobby 3 years now and this is the 1st time I've had this. I just want the office to not smell like broccoli haha.

 

[splix]

I just decided to randomly check phosphates and they came back way high. 0.5 I believe (using the salifert). Think this is a false positive with the bacteria? Should I do a massive water change?
Everything else tests fine. Nitrates are around 2-3ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I just decided to randomly check phosphates and they came back way high. 0.5 I believe (using the salifert). Think this is a false positive with the bacteria? Should I do a massive water change?
Everything else tests fine. Nitrates are around 2-3ppm.

It's probably not a false positive. Phosphate tests won't detect most organic phosphate, so won't detect the primary way that phosphate is in bacteria bodies.

 

[splix]

@Randy Holmes-Farley, you've been great with all my stupid questions. I think I figured out exactly what is going on. This explains my confusion of why things werent going as I expected them to.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-found-wood-in-my-rsm-e260.333498/#post-4150793