Water clarity - constant issues

[Punchanello]

Hi All.

Feeling a little frustrated and concerned so grateful for any advice you can offer.

I've had my tank running for about 3 months now. I have a 700 litre system. Parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and undetectable nitrates. Salinity is stable at 1.025 using Aquaforest salt. I have a Lawnmower Blenny and two baby clowns and 4 or 5 Nassarius snails.

I started the tank without a protein skimmer and did a fishless cycle. I've changed 3x the water volume progressively since my cycle finished. I've had a skimmer on order for about 6 weeks. Because it was delayed my LFS was kind enough to lend me one which I installed nearly a week ago.

For the past two months of that time the tank has been cloudy - ranging from milky to flat out deep green. Right now it's brown-green water following a week or so of deep green which I assume was a phytoplankton bloom that is now slowly dying off. I haven't seen my lawnmower blenny for a week because of the lack of visibility. I literally can't seem more than 10cm in to the tank.

Is this normal or is there something I could be doing to reduce the cloudy water? Now that a skimmer is online can I expect the cloudiness to reduce? Is there something I am missing here?

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[Punchanello]

I should also add that I use RODI water which is reading at 0 TDS

 

[cmcoker]

Did you start with dry rock? I did and had some of the same issue, I added pods and did a couple water changes and it cleared in a couple weeks

 

[Punchanello]

Did you start with dry rock? I did and had some of the same issue, I added pods and did a couple water changes and it cleared in a couple weeks

Yes I did. It took quite a while for nitrates to drop during the cycle. I had pods everywhere a month ago and now very few at all that I can see.

 

[cmcoker]

I would run socks or floss, skim wet, and turned down/off the lights a few days. If its phyto blacking out the tank may help.

Where are your nitrates now?

 

[Punchanello]

I would run socks or floss, skim wet, and turned down/off the lights a few days. If its phyto blacking out the tank may help.

Where are your nitrates now?

Nitrates undetectable. I am running socks but I suspect the cloudiness is from very small particles that are getting through.

 

[Tft12]

One thing that may helpful in a massive bloom is to be sure that you also have some/a lot of surface agitation for gas exchange/oxygenation so that the stuff that's blooming doesn't sap the tank of oxygen. People sometimes forget that photosynthetic things consume oxygen when it's dark (assuming it's phyto).

 

[leptang]

A UV sterilizer would help clear your green bloom at a faster rate. But your bacteria may not be strong enough to compete with the phytoplankton.
Having undetectable nitrates and phosphate isn't necessarily a good thing either, maybe why your tank is looking green.