Trying to get to a clear tank....

[beaslbob]

If the caulerpa is still sending out new "leaves" then it should be fine. Actually let it grow but cut back the duration of lighting. See if it clears up in a few days to a week.

my .02

 

[nawilson89]

Are you running a skimmer?

Zero skimmer.

I thought about running a HOB skimmer, but opted to keep up water changes instead.

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.

I'll look into it. Thanks!

 

[nawilson89]

If the caulerpa is still sending out new "leaves" then it should be fine. Actually let it grow but cut back the duration of lighting. See if it clears up in a few days to a week.

my .02

The caulerpa is growing at a ridiculous rate imo.

I get more than 2 leaves every 2-3 days.

 

[pickupman66]

OK. all this said points me to bacterial bloom. Also, dont dose thing unless you can test for them. and with a system as new as yours you will have no need for the Lugols. Seriously.... and even with all that "LIVE" stuff, you will still have cycles and bacterial blooms as your system stabilizes.

 

[beaslbob]

The caulerpa is growing at a ridiculous rate imo.

I get more than 2 leaves every 2-3 days.

that's great!!!! let it keep going. But I still think that if it doesn't clear up in a day or two you can reduce the light duration and it will clear up.

 

[nawilson89]

OK. all this said points me to bacterial bloom. Also, dont dose thing unless you can test for them. and with a system as new as yours you will have no need for the Lugols. Seriously.... and even with all that "LIVE" stuff, you will still have cycles and bacterial blooms as your system stabilizes.

Thanks. I will discontinue my dosing for now.

I really wanted to get ahead with my macros!

that's great!!!! let it keep going. But I still think that if it doesn't clear up in a day or two you can reduce the light duration and it will clear up.

Thanks for all of your help! All of you!

 

[nawilson89]

I'm having a similar problem in a second tank and didn't want to start anew thread and decided to open this one back up for suggestions.

As for the 20g, it's been fine since Nov, I ran some carbon for a while and everything has been clear since, well save for one time of going sexual.

Now for my second tank.

I started it in late March. Rocks were from my bin that had been running since last year, Sand from a bucket. Mud in an area at the bottom, some chateo ripped up and mixed in. Added rocks and some sand. First mistake some sand at the bottom smelled a bit bad and I stopped adding it. Tank went up fine. Added some macros from my 20g.

In mid April I added a lot more macros that I had purchased and by the end of the month fish were swimming in the tank. Mid-May water became a bit cloudy. Grabbed the filter from my 20g and put some new carbon in it. No changes. Did more frequent water changes. No changes.

Then some hair algae started popping up. Ordered some snails from Reefcleaners and went to my LFS for a few blue legs. Brought some water with me just in case I wasn't doing something right. Salinity a bit higher than I normally keep it. I stay around 1.020 the low side.

In the meantime the molly miller blenny in my 20g was getting a bit aggressive to the smaller fish. Grabbed him up and put him in the 29g with my larger belted sandfish to keep him check. Reduced my lighting to under 8 hours a day. Hair Algae gone within a week!

Now is when the problem started within the week of the blenny being added the water became murkier. He's been digging and got into the mudbank. A similar thing happened with my pistol shrimp in the 20g a few weeks ago, but it never looked like this. During this time I had to go away for 3 days. May 19th to May 22nd I was gone. Once I came back it was really hard to see in the tank. The 20g was still fine. Still clear. No problems.

Over the past weekend I pulled at least 15g of water from the tank and added more. Still nothing. Yesterday I added a aquaclear filter for a 70 gallon tank to the system. Ran from 4PM yesterday to current.

Everyone... nothing has changed even with this. It's running a filter sponge for detritus and carbon. The water is dark green to almost brownish.

I'm not sure what to do other than pull everything from the tank and start over.

 

[Bunnee911]

I remember them also? Hon, did you rinse your sand until it ran clean?

 

[nawilson89]

I remember them also? Hon, did you rinse your sand until it ran clean?

I didn't rinse the sand, when I got to the bad sand I just stopped putting sand in and left it as is. Since it was old sand i should have rinsed in ( i think this now in retrospect), but at the time I thought that the bacteria would have been a help. I would have thought though that with a filter rated twice my tanks size it would help with whatever is going on.

 

[nawilson89]

I can also add that the fern caulerpa I just got wasn't happy and went sexual in the tank.

 

[beaslbob]

I can also add that the fern caulerpa I just got wasn't happy and went sexual in the tank.

that will certainly cloud up a tank in a hurry.
FWIW Most "bacteria" blooms are actually cyano bacteria which needs light to survive. So whether micro algae or bacteria, killing the lights will clear up the tank. the fish stirring up the substrate will settle down in lights out also.

my .02