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Post by Syntax on Dec 23, 2014 6:14:54 GMT -5
My 5 month old 125 gallon has been experiencing cloudy water since yesterday morning and seems to be a little worse this morning. My livestock is all fine, skimmer is a little more active than normal and the water smells fine as well. I do dose Kalk through an ato... I use 5 tsp for every 12 gallons of water.
Some things that I have done in the past 36 hours none of which are out of the ordinary:
15 gallon water change (water was heated and mixed at the right salinity) blew rocks off with a turkey baster. fed my regular mix of frozen food.
The only thing out to the ordinary was a 5% increase in my led intensity a couple days before this happened. I also extended my photoperiod by 15 minutes.
I don't want to over react so I took the normal steps to try to help: I changed my carbon and added a filter sock and did some tests...
my PH (8.0) and Alk (9.1) are stable and are no different than before this clouding event.
CA: 420 (was 430 on Sunday before my change) Nitrate: 0 P04: .03
My thoughts
1) Bacteria bloom - This is all I can think of as a cause.... the tank is pristine besides the cloudiness... no algae besides film on the glass that grows every couple of days. No hair algae in the display.
Any thoughts? |
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Post by jasonandsarah on Dec 23, 2014 7:57:26 GMT -5
My tank sometimes gets cloudy after a water change but normally gets better within an hour or 2 at the most.
Didn't see any Mag parameters listed? My best guess would be you have low Mag and your getting a little Cal precipitation.
Sent from my SM-N910R4 using proboards
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Post by foggman on Dec 23, 2014 7:59:06 GMT -5
Is all your equipment working properly, didn't melt a pump and blow your heater, could be diatoms, or some sore of alge bloom, can you get a pic?
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Post by gotareef on Dec 23, 2014 8:59:24 GMT -5
sounds like bacteria bloomed... give it a couple days and keep an eye on parameters and have some sw mixed incase you need to do another large waterchange
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Post by Syntax on Dec 23, 2014 10:27:52 GMT -5
Mag was 1305 on Sunday before the water change, I can't envision that it dropped after a water change.
All equipment is working fine.
Skimmer is a little more active and the skimnate is lighter than usual indiciating that it is pulling it out.
The cloudiness can't be algae because it is milky. I'll post a pic.
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Post by Syntax on Dec 23, 2014 10:48:10 GMT -5
Pictures don't show it very well...   Skimmer cup, notice the whitish film  |
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Post by gotareef on Dec 23, 2014 15:07:34 GMT -5
not algae its bacteria
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Post by Syntax on Dec 23, 2014 16:45:58 GMT -5
Wait it out?
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Post by gotareef on Dec 23, 2014 16:55:16 GMT -5
others may know better but, imho- the tank being 5m old... welcome to your second cycle! your tank will probably do it again in another 4m or so... (for me tanks seem to "cycle" 3 times in the first year) I would just keep a close eye on parameters. small water changes wont do much... so if it gets "worse" (coral being effected by it) I would do a large water change around 50g. in a 125 thats about 50% water change do you run carbon? if not I would run some until it clears just because you can  also what were parameters before you did the 15g waterchange in the first place? |
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Post by Syntax on Dec 23, 2014 19:01:06 GMT -5
Parameters were:
Ph: 8.0
Alk: 9.1
Mag: 1305
Ca: 430
Nitrate: 0
P04 .04-.05
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Post by Syntax on Dec 30, 2014 10:49:16 GMT -5
I ended up borrowing a small 9 watt uv sterilizet from Jason a few days ago... Tank was crystal clear in less than 8 hours.
I still have no idea what caused the bloom. I do see some stringy bacteria strands on the top piece of foam in my phosban 150.
A couple of my drags that never fully recovered from the Blenny nipping didn't make it, rtn. Tank seems fine now besides the lightening of most of my corals which I attribute to the water changes reducing the nutrients that were already low. Heavy feeding for a few days should help that.
I'm adding a McCoskers wrasse and a trio of Lyretail anthias (1m and 2f) tomorrow from Dicers Den... That should help with nutrients.
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Post by Lance on Dec 30, 2014 12:24:12 GMT -5
My two cents...
When you experience a bacterial bloom (white cloudy water) this means you have excess nutrients of some sort in the water. These bacteria are performing a service, eating the nutrients. Killing them via UV sterilization removes the symptom, not the problem.
I'd a) turn off the sterilizer and b) keep my eye on things and test params daily.
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Post by Syntax on Dec 30, 2014 13:52:22 GMT -5
...or a sudden increase in carbon. I think I found the source of the bloom: I was researching bacteria blooms and came upon several threads where people experienced bacteria blooms when there was a sudden increase in carbon added to the tank due to when alcohol was spilled in large quantities on the floor, such as dropping a half gallon of vodka on the floor... apparently the vapors contain large amounts of carbon and get sucked into the system via the skimmer and air exchange.
I purchased a used bourbon barrel that was used to age beer, I dismantled the barrel in my basement and the alcohol smell was extremely strong and was prevalent throughout the house. I woke up the next day to a cloudy tank. I don't have any way to prove this theory; however, it is the only thing that makes sense as my nutrients are very low in the tank.
My nitrates are at 0 and my p04 is hovering a little below .03 and there isn't any algae in the tank... I'm actually trying to increase my nutrients because my turbo snail population is slowly starving. I only have to scrape the glass every 4 or five days, and even then it is just a light coating. I've done two water changes to try to mitigate the bloom without any success but I'm sure they have also lowered the nutrients even more.
I don't want to run the UV indefinitely, I'll take if offline and keep an eye on things.
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Post by Lance on Dec 30, 2014 14:59:48 GMT -5
^ Interesting theory. File under "Who knows..?" |
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Post by spotfin on Dec 30, 2014 17:07:27 GMT -5
For fun and games, bring the barrel back into your basement.
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