Tank won’t clear up!

[Dierker2003]

Hey guys I have a ten gallon reef tank that’s been up for about 4 months. The water will no be clear ever since I started this aquarium I’ve noticed the water is slightly foggy. I do weekly water changes and in the filter I am running carbon, filter floss and have some bio pellets. I also dosed some seachem stability at the behinning But haven’t been adding any for A few weeks. A first I thought it was a bacteria bloom but shouldn’t of it gone away by now? I have a blue chromis and clownfish in the tank rught now. When I do a water change I noticed the water is slightly yellowish in the white bucket. Any ideas on how I can fix this?

 

[Dierker2003]

The water isn’t terrible right now but it gets cloudier over time.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Could be a bacterial bloom caused by the biopellets or the bacterial additive. You might be using too much. A bacterial bloom will lower oxygen levels so make sure that you have a powerhead at the top of the waterline to cause some surface agitation

 

[KrisReef]

I've never known why precisely new tanks are often cloudy? Eventually, one day you will wake up and the tank will be crystal clear. No specific reason, it just happens.

You will be very happy then, and a few days later you'll look and you will have algae, or cyano, or dead fish, coral, etc and you will long for these cloudy days.

Moral: Keep your hands out. Do regular maintenance and be happy every day for whatever the tank is doing.

Oh, how long are you running those lights? Sometimes too long of photoperiod may impact the growth of microbes in the tank.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[NS Mike D]

+1 on the bio pellets. They are a form of carbon dosing which feeds the bacteria bloom. carbon dosing is typically done in conjunction with running a protein skimmer. The carbon feeds bacteria that increases it's population and the synthesize organics, the flocks get pulled out of the tank by the skimmer to reduce NO3 and PO4.

Caution, carbon dosing can drive NO3 to zero leaving PO4 in the tank which often leads to a cyano outbreak.

Regular water changes should be sufficient to manage a 10gal nano tank. You can even do a complete water change without harming the tank to get everything back in balance (and take out those pellets)

 

[Dierker2003]

Could be a bacterial bloom caused by the biopellets or the bacterial additive. You might be using too much. A bacterial bloom will lower oxygen levels so make sure that you have a powerhead at the top of the waterline to cause some surface agitation

Thanks I have very high flow at the top from the filter So I should be ok

 

[Dierker2003]

+1 on the bio pellets. They are a form of carbon dosing which feeds the bacteria bloom. carbon dosing is typically done in conjunction with running a protein skimmer. The carbon feeds bacteria that increases it's population and the synthesize organics, the flocks get pulled out of the tank by the skimmer to reduce NO3 and PO4.

Caution, carbon dosing can drive NO3 to zero leaving PO4 in the tank which often leads to a cyano outbreak.

Regular water changes should be sufficient to manage a 10gal nano tank. You can even do a complete water change without harming the tank to get everything back in balance (and take out those pellets)

Thanks I did a 30% water change today. Here are the bio pellets I added. The filter I am using has a built in skimmer but I find it’s to much of a pain on the thing than it is to use it. It’s constantly overflowing and very loud

 

[Dierker2003]

I've never known why precisely new tanks are often cloudy? Eventually, one day you will wake up and the tank will be crystal clear. No specific reason, it just happens.

You will be very happy then, and a few days later you'll look and you will have algae, or cyano, or dead fish, coral, etc and you will long for these cloudy days.

Moral: Keep your hands out. Do regular maintenance and be happy every day for whatever the tank is doing.

Oh, how long are you running those lights? Sometimes too long of photoperiod may impact the growth of microbes in the tank.

Hope some of this helps.

Thank you I’ve been trying to keep my hands out to get things stable and running well. I run the light probably 10ish hours a day. I know it shouldn’t be that long but I have to feed the fish in the morning and night but I leave the house around 8 and like to enjoy the tank when I’m home. Would it be ok to have the lights flick on for 20mins in the morning to feed then click off and come on later in the day?

 

[Cwentz758]

“Green killing machine” small UV sterilizer worked wonders for me when I first started in the hobby with a cloudy tank.

 

[NS Mike D]

Bio pellets can be tricky and so I view them more for an advanced reefer looking to automate carbon dosing as a way of reducing NO3 and PO4. (I have a box of Dr Tims NP-Pearls from about 4 years ago sitting in a shelf) .


Before ever using them, you need to know what your NO3 and PO4 are using a reliable test kit. And given that water changes for a 10 gal should be sufficient, I don't see a need for you to use bio pellets.

 

[NS Mike D]

“Green killing machine” small UV sterilizer worked wonders for me when I first started in the hobby with a cloudy tank.

how do you know his cloudiness is caused by something that needs to be killed by a UV sterilizer.

He's carbon dosing in a new nano tank. Before assuming it's an algae bloom (which can be dealt with by cutting back lights and water changes) and adding an expensive piece of equipment, I recommend first ruling out the obvious culprit - excess organic carbon which is feeding a bacterial bloom.

 

[NS Mike D]

Thank you I’ve been trying to keep my hands out to get things stable and running well. I run the light probably 10ish hours a day. I know it shouldn’t be that long but I have to feed the fish in the morning and night but I leave the house around 8 and like to enjoy the tank when I’m home. Would it be ok to have the lights flick on for 20mins in the morning to feed then click off and come on later in the day?

No problem turning them on for a bit n the morning to feed and then turning them back on in the eve to enjoy them. In a new tank, one of the needles to be threaded is finding just enough light to keep the corals happy while keeping the algae at down while the biofilm and coraline algae form on the rocks.

 

[Cwentz758]

how do you know his cloudiness is caused by something that needs to be killed by a UV sterilizer.

He's carbon dosing in a new nano tank. Before assuming it's an algae bloom (which can be dealt with by cutting back lights and water changes) and adding an expensive piece of equipment, I recommend first ruling out the obvious culprit - excess organic carbon which is feeding a bacterial bloom.

A cheap 30-60$ UV submersible isn’t that drastic.

 

[Dierker2003]

“Green killing machine” small UV sterilizer worked wonders for me when I first started in the hobby with a cloudy tank.

I’ve heard of using a UV sterilizer. Helps with parasites, bacteria blooms, and alge, May have to look into one

 

[Dierker2003]

how do you know his cloudiness is caused by something that needs to be killed by a UV sterilizer.

He's carbon dosing in a new nano tank. Before assuming it's an algae bloom (which can be dealt with by cutting back lights and water changes) and adding an expensive piece of equipment, I recommend first ruling out the obvious culprit - excess organic carbon which is feeding a bacterial bloom.

Oh I never knew this. I always viewed these as just a porous pebble that bacteria can grow on the boost the biological filtration. I will remove them.

 

[Dierker2003]

No problem turning them on for a bit n the morning to feed and then turning them back on in the eve to enjoy them. In a new tank, one of the needles to be threaded is finding just enough light to keep the corals happy while keeping the algae at down while the biofilm and coraline algae form on the rocks.

Ok sounds good. How many hours do you think I should have them on for during the day? I have a few corals

 

[Dierker2003]

how do you know his cloudiness is caused by something that needs to be killed by a UV sterilizer.

He's carbon dosing in a new nano tank. Before assuming it's an algae bloom (which can be dealt with by cutting back lights and water changes) and adding an expensive piece of equipment, I recommend first ruling out the obvious culprit - excess organic carbon which is feeding a bacterial bloom.

Those these pellets release excess carbon into the water?

 

[Dierker2003]

Those these pellets release excess carbon into the water?

Also is it fine if I continue running the carbon chunks in the filter? Or are these adding to the issue aswell?

 

[NS Mike D]

Oh I never knew this. I always viewed these as just a porous pebble that bacteria can grow on the boost the biological filtration. I will remove them.

Let's fix the premise. Aquaclear Bio Max are NOT bio pellets.

They are porous media with a lot of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to call home and perform nitrification - the conversion of ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2) and then to nitrate (NO3). While this is biological filtration, the term bio pellets refers so specialized pellets that are used for carbon dosing. So my apologies the confusion and not looking closer at the product pic you posted.

So, for biological filtration, in reef tanks the rock (and sand) provide huge amounts of surface area for the nitrification to take place, so the filtration media is more important in freshwater tanks.

That is not to say, some reefers add additional media like marine pure blocks, bio balls (similar to your aquaclear) and rubble rock in their sumps in addition to the live rock in ones reef tank.

So the first question to ask is if the live rock in your tank is sufficient to convert ammonia to ultilmately the less harmful NO3? (Note: some bacteria by pass the process and synthesize NH3 into nitrogen gas (N2) which escapes out the water). That can only be known by accurate water testing with reliable test kits.

NO3 and PO4 are the building blocks of life and both the corals and algae use it for photosynthesis. You can look up more on this but in a new reef tank, the rock is being covered in a beneficial biofilm of bacteria and coraline algae that helps keep the nuisance algae from tanking hold. Also, corals reefs are like deserts in the ocean with only trace amounts of NO3 & PO4 - and so the many corals will not do well in tanks with high NO3 and PO4 (phosphates also limit coral skeleton growth. You can read up on this.

So it becomes important in new tanks to keep NO3 and PO4 low. BRS recommends that tanks that are 1 -2 years old target a range of 1-2ppm NO3 and 0.03 - 0.07 ppm. So removal of excess NO3 and PO4 is desired.


In a 10 gal nano, removal of excess NO3 and PO4 is usually accomplished by water changes (and in your case the skimmer by removal of the organics before they break down.


There is little room in a 10gal for a UV sterilizer nor is it needed. The aquaclear may not be needed if your rock is handling NH3 - NO2 - NO3. Thus you may want to swap that out for activated carbon which will help remove any yellow tint from the water (plus coral toxins and other nasty stuff)

1. Make sure your water parameters are good, with reliable test kits including NO3 and PO4

2. Keep up the water changes (with good quality salt water - and use rodi of you make your own mix)

 

[NS Mike D]

Ok sounds good. How many hours do you think I should have them on for during the day? I have a few corals

hard to tell without knowing the lights you have. Also, there is a belief that before you add corals, to run no lights until cycled, then run just enough lights to grown coraline over the rocks so that ship has sailed.

A typical reef lighting schedule is 12 hours with the lights ramping up and then ramping down so the peak lights are not that long.

In addition to the 20 minutes in the morning, try 4 hours at night when you are home. Take note of the corals health, coraline growth on the rocks and algae and make adjustments if something doesn't look right. If the corals are fine, then their is sufficient light for coraline.

If, however, algae is running amok, then cut the light back.