Ugly water

[Bigrig67]

I added my first corals ever to my first tank…some soft corals and one sps coral for a test.. and my water can’t get clear… fish are happy, inverts are happy, and corals are growing any suggestions? Everything was coral dipped before adding to tank and washed off.. I’ve added new filter floss and did a water change and still this:

 

[A Young Reefer]

Might be an bacterial bloom , what are your phosphates and nitrates at ?
try not to do anymore water changes it wont help .

 

[Spare time]

What type of filter do you have? Make sure to have good surface agitation and circulation. Did you happen to add any rock recently that was previously used?

 

[Chrisv.]

Are you running a UV sterilizer on this system? This is a bacterial bloom.

 

[ying yang]

Maybe add some activated carbon in a bag.
Maybe different situation from you but i had a toadstool coral that got ripped off the rocks as to much flow ( wrong placement) and cloudy water probably from feeding fresh clams/ oysters ( started after this anyhow) but added one small red sea reef spec carbon and cleared my water up massively.
Just put carbon in bag it came in the sump in high flow area and worked a treat

 

[Bigrig67]

I have activated carbon already running in my hob filter(everything I’m running below)

I don’t currently test phosphate, but all other levels are consistent nothing else is out of the ordinary

I have added rocks but they have been there for some time before the corals and it did get a tad cloudy but it’s never been this bad..

I don’t have a uv sterilizer

just a hob tidal 110 filter with 2 pads of filter floss, activated Carbon, matrix media, and a hob protein skimmer ( saving up for the first sump)

 

[Chrisv.]

I have activated carbon already running in my hob filter(everything I’m running below)

I don’t currently test phosphate, but all other levels are consistent nothing else is out of the ordinary

I have added rocks but they have been there for some time before the corals and it did get a tad cloudy but it’s never been this bad..

I don’t have a uv sterilizer

just a hob tidal 110 filter with 2 pads of filter floss, activated Carbon, matrix media, and a hob protein skimmer ( saving up for the first sump)

Chances are good that excess nutrients are rapidly bound up by bacteria in a system like this and may not show up on your test kits.

What are your water parameters?

What, if anything, do you add to your tank as part of your maintenance routine?

I really suspect that this is bacterial and you might gain a lot of ground with UV, especially given that you have carbon already running.

Have you noticed an increase in skimmate production since this took off? Any changes to your sandbed?

 

[MaxTremors]

It’s a bacterial bloom. It will go away on its own (usually takes a week or two). You need to make sure to add a skimmer, air stone, or have tons of surface agitation as the bacteria will consume tons of oxygen and can asphyxiate your fish (we see it here all the time).

 

[Bigrig67]

I’m going to retest after work today but what I tested yesterday these are the results:

alkalinity 8.4

Calcium 390

Magnesium 1350

temp 76
I have been adding these when low but very low amounts. I have snails and a sand star that do a pretty good job of turning over my sand but have started to notice a few different colored brown dots on the sand recently

 

[Bigrig67]

It’s a bacterial bloom. It will go away on its own (usually takes a week or two). You need to make sure to add a skimmer, air stone, or have tons of surface agitation as the bacteria will consume tons of oxygen and can asphyxiate your fish (we see it here all the time).

I have a skimmer and have my powerheads on rotating schedules.. should I have them going both at once to help with circulation? I figured with the hob filter breaking the surface and them rotating it would do it.. but I’ll move up the power heads today with both going and see if that helps

 

[Chrisv.]

Check out this article regarding oxygenation: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/eb/index.php

Particularly figure 4.the take home is that the circulation pumps do little compared to air pumps for O2.

 

[Chrisv.]

I’m going to retest after work today but what I tested yesterday these are the results:

alkalinity 8.4

Calcium 390

Magnesium 1350

temp 76
I have been adding these when low but very low amounts. I have snails and a sand star that do a pretty good job of turning over my sand but have started to notice a few different colored brown dots on the sand recently

It would be worth it to test nitrate and phosphate too.

 

[Koh23]

Similar situation here, still fighting, almost 3 weeks now,nothing helped...

Just trying to get uv, hope that help

 

[Cory]

The only thing that will work aside from a diatom filter which i dont reccomend for the hassel to set up, is a uv sterilizer.

 

[Spare time]

I have activated carbon already running in my hob filter(everything I’m running below)

I don’t currently test phosphate, but all other levels are consistent nothing else is out of the ordinary

I have added rocks but they have been there for some time before the corals and it did get a tad cloudy but it’s never been this bad..

I don’t have a uv sterilizer

just a hob tidal 110 filter with 2 pads of filter floss, activated Carbon, matrix media, and a hob protein skimmer ( saving up for the first sump)

How often do you clean the filter out or swap floss? Often this happens when something is decaying. They are feeding on something.

 

[Spare time]

PS a cheap green killing machine would probably help

 

[Bigrig67]

@MaxTremors was absolutely right it’s cleared up tremendously with moving the power heads up had to have been a bacterial bloom thank you for everyone’s help!

 

[cmoore806]

I’m here from your post about lighting. How are the nitrate and phosphate levels. Pic of the algae might help better identify whether or not it’s bryopsis which would be much simpler to cure