Trying to get to a clear tank....

[nawilson89]

So my tank is a bit over a month old.

It's been looking really good til about a little over a week ago.

The water has been getting really cloudy, or really... hasn't ever been too clear. It's a 20g tank and if i sit on one end and look through the side, i can BARELY see the other end.

So at first I went into... it must be a bacterial bloom. So I did a 50% water change over the course of the weekend. I started the salt mix each morning and changed it mid afternoon. The water spent all that time being churned by a circ pump AND a powerhead. One thing I noticed is that the buckets of water were NEVER clear.

So what I think maybe my issue is my brand of salt. Instant Ocean, it's not really the best salt and I honestly rarely see it used. I checked on amazon and read some reviews and people have said thing about the water never been to clear.

Could this be it? Or is it a coincidence.

 

[redfishbluefish]

First off I believe Instant Ocean is the most popular salt....I use it.

If the salt solution isn't clear after mixing for a couple hours, something funny is going on. Has the salt been open or exposed to moisture. If so, what could have happened is that you get precipitated calcium carbonate that will not dissolve. I'm wondering if that is what you are seeing.

 

[nawilson89]

First off I believe Instant Ocean is the most popular salt....I use it.

If the salt solution isn't clear after mixing for a couple hours, something funny is going on. Has the salt been open or exposed to moisture. If so, what could have happened is that you get precipitated calcium carbonate that will not dissolve. I'm wondering if that is what you are seeing.

I still purchase by 50lb bags because, generally they last months for me and my tiny tanks. Once open, I spin the bag around to close it up so I wouldn't say it's been exposed to moisture. Although. The salt has hardened since opening and it's been a chore to break it up. Could that be a clue?

 

[redfishbluefish]

It sure sounds like that's your problem.

With my bags, I roll down the bag with 1/2 - 3/4 inch folds, eliminating all air. I then wrap with large rubber bands to hold the bag closed, and then it goes into a salt bucket that has a sealed lid.

 

[pickupman66]

the precipitate from salt that is exposed to moisture is normally not cloudy. it is more granular in my experiences. I do think you may have a bacterial bloom here. how old is you tank? have you tested things lately? what were those numbers and results? Newly mixed water does take some time to clear up. I am not an instant ocean user.

 

[nawilson89]

It sure sounds like that's your problem.

With my bags, I roll down the bag with 1/2 - 3/4 inch folds, eliminating all air. I then wrap with large rubber bands to hold the bag closed, and then it goes into a salt bucket that has a sealed lid.

Ah! Thanks for that.

What I can and probably will do is purchase pre-mixed water from my LFS. That can eliminate the issue.

 

[Waters]

Or just by the IO in the 5 gallon containers when can be sealed. I now by the smaller bags and dump them into the 5 gallon bucket as needed.

 

[nawilson89]

the precipitate from salt that is exposed to moisture is normally not cloudy. it is more granular in my experiences. I do think you may have a bacterial bloom here. how old is you tank? have you tested things lately? what were those numbers and results? Newly mixed water does take some time to clear up. I am not an instant ocean user.

The tank itself is about a month old. A few days til a month to be exact. The cycle itself was rather quick and took me relatively a bit over a week. After about 5 days? (not exact) i had a diatom bloom which was gone after about week 2.

Unfortunately I don't have the numbers of when I did my last test which was during the reduction of the diatoms.

The cloudy water was a staple from the beginning and then got extremely murky quite recently. After my water change and not feeding for about 5 days it subsided, back to it's usual fog.

 

[nawilson89]

Or just by the IO in the 5 gallon containers when can be sealed. I now by the smaller bags and dump them into the 5 gallon bucket as needed.

Sorry about the multiple responses. This came in as i was typing my last one.

That's also another option! Thanks!

 

[Breakthecycle2]

How did you cycle the tank? 5 days to cycle?

 

[nawilson89]

How did you cycle the tank? 5 days to cycle?

I'm sorry, my initial statement wasn't very clear. The cycle wasn't 5 days, but above a week. The diatom bloom started 5 days in.

The tank was started from:
live mud
live sand
live rock
macro algae

The mud was from florida pets and advertised as mud straight from the florida coast.
Sand was just a regular bag of sand
rock and macro algae were each from local reefers tanks or from an LFS.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I see. In that case, yeah it could def. cycle in a week. That being said, I believe its a bacterial bloom.

 

[nawilson89]

I see. In that case, yeah it could def. cycle in a week. That being said, I believe its a bacterial bloom.

Thanks! I'll still go with my previous plan of doing a water change then.

I'll try to cut down on my photo-period, but I'm afraid if I do it would cause my macro algae to release to many gasses, then cause my caulerpa to go sexual.

This will be a fun process.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Have you dosed anything in your tank?

 

[beaslbob]

Kill your lights and suspend feedings or at least limit them to once per week.

Keep the lights on the external sump/refugia if you have one.

also could be macros going sexual but even with that killing the lights will clear up the tank.

I have done that for years with cloudy tanks and the tanks always clear up.

After clearing resume with less (than before) lights and feedings. Say 50%. And adjust to the macros grow but the tank does not cloud up.

 

[kimba]

I had been using a bag of salt (instant Ocean) that was around 2 yrs old, hard clumps, moisture got in so it was kinda wet and I never had cloudy water issues.

what kind of filters do you have?

I would suggest a bag of Purigen. I LOVE that stuff.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I had been using a bag of salt (instant Ocean) that was around 2 yrs old, hard clumps, moisture got in so it was kinda wet and I never had cloudy water issues.

what kind of filters do you have?

I would suggest a bag of Purigen. I LOVE that stuff.

Good point. Are you running any carbon?

 

[nawilson89]

Have you dosed anything in your tank?

Iron and Manganese, also Lugol's Solution (this will be stopped)

Kill your lights and suspend feedings or at least limit them to once per week.

Keep the lights on the external sump/refugia if you have one.

also could be macros going sexual but even with that killing the lights will clear up the tank.

I have done that for years with cloudy tanks and the tanks always clear up.

After clearing resume with less (than before) lights and feedings. Say 50%. And adjust to the macros grow but the tank does not cloud up.

A few pieces of caulerpa had started showing signs and were pulled already.

I have no external sump or refugia, all macros are grown in tank.

I'm weary of killing all lights as that would cause definitely the macro's to go sexual.

I had been using a bag of salt (instant Ocean) that was around 2 yrs old, hard clumps, moisture got in so it was kinda wet and I never had cloudy water issues.

what kind of filters do you have?

I would suggest a bag of Purigen. I LOVE that stuff.

Zero filters. All filtration is done by macro algae. I haven't run any other filtration in fear of them starving out my macros

 

[redfishbluefish]

Are you running a skimmer?

 

[beaslbob]

I have a Fw gold fish tank on the back porch that gets direct sunlight for 3-4 hours a day. the lights off was not effective.

And a new marine tank the wife is operating also clouded up.

So I broke down after all these years and ordered a diatom xl. It's a bag filter that uses diatomaceous earth. the goldfish tank is 55g the marine is 60g. Both cleared up crystal clear water totally invisible water type clear in 3-4 hours. a 20g would only take 1/2 hour.
So now on the wife's tank looks like we'll be filtering for a few hours each week.

You can get used one on ebay and they are still available new from innerspace products. As I remember they have always been a mail order type operation. And date back to the days of the silent giant air filters.

But than only people like paul b and me would remember those things.