Tank is cloudy

[jaustin]

I got up today and made my usual "b line" towards my reef tank and noticed it was all cloudy. I looked around the tank to see if anything was out of place and everything looked fine.

The only thing i can think of is maybe the gobies are moving some more sand around, but i can't see any new piles or evadince of their handy work. The substrate is new but it's live sand that came in a bag. The tank has been set up for almost 3 weeks and all of the sudden this cloudy mess.

PE on my acros is low but the montiporas are fine. I do have a Kalk reactor but it's a home made one that doesn not use a stirrur so i doubt that's it. I'm thinking is some kind of spawning event but i don't see eggs mixed within the cloudyness.

Test results are as follows.

Amonia Nitrite and Nitrate all 0
PH is 7.8
Calcium 470
Mag 1420
Alk 9.3 DKH

Other than my ph being a little on the low side everything looks good. I run my skimmer line outside to keep my ph up and i haven't been doing that for a couple of days so that's why that's low.

Any ideas?

 

[tokejr]

Do you have caulpera in the tank? in a fuge?

 

[jaustin]

I do have some in my fuge.

 

[tokejr]

Uh oh..........could be caulpera going sexual.

Look at the fuge....when caulpera is ready to reproduce, many of the tips of the stem and the grape clusters get white/clear.

If it is a caulpera sexual event, change water. Fast.

 

[tokejr]

from WetWebMedia:

Green Water & Caulerpa (1/19/04)
Dear WWM Crew, I have been reading a lot on Caulerpa and its use in refugiums. I understand why and how the Caulerpa can have a catastrophic outcome. My question is once the Caulerpa has gone sexual and started to turn the water green, then what? Is fish loss inevitable?? Will the entire system need to be sterilized?? Instead of me listing off a hundred questions, could you please list what steps need to be taken once this event takes place?? Thank You, so much!! And I will certainly spread the word "Friends don't let friends buy
Caulerpa" Amen!!

 

[jaustin]

the caulpera looks green and normal. It has been removed though. I maybe had a handfull of it.

 

[tokejr]

Check your nitrate levels. If it was a caulpera event, they will spike.

If it's just fish kicking up sand, put some poly batting in a HOB and run it for a few hours to clear the water. If you don't have a HOB, can you stick some in between the baffles in the sump/fuge?

You just want something the water can move through that will catch particulate matter to clear the water.

We use the poly batting instead of a sponge because it doesn't clog as quickly.

 

[jaustin]

amonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0

I'll check nitrate every couple of hours.

Thanks for your help. I didn't know that algae could go sexual. I just have cheato in there now.

 

[kernelpanic]

You said the substrate is new "live" sand. Live sand in a bag has alot of dead material with it. The cloudiness is probably a bacterial bloom. Break down of dead material leading to organic acids may also explain the low pH. Keep your oxygen level up.

 

[tokejr]

JAustin;348111 wrote: amonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0

I'll check nitrate every couple of hours.

Thanks for your help. I didn't know that algae could go sexual. I just have cheato in there now.

It's just the caulpera that does it. Not all macros.

I put ulva in my seahorse tank because it helps to filter the water and it doesn't grow into the rock. It's one of my favorite macros. But I use chaeto in my fuge.

 

[jaustin]

I'm thinking it's the sand now. It's just wierd that it would take 3 weeks. It was a little cloudy last week and then it went away. Last night it was 95% clear and then today it's all cloudy.

I will keep an eye on params and change some carbon out again tonight. I've got a TLF reactor full of carbon and the stuff in there now is about 5 days old. It seemed to help out.

 

[tokejr]

JAustin;348124 wrote: I'm thinking it's the sand now. It's just wierd that it would take 3 weeks. It was a little cloudy last week and then it went away. Last night it was 95% clear and then today it's all cloudy.

I will keep an eye on params and change some carbon out again tonight. I've got a TLF reactor full of carbon and the stuff in there now is about 5 days old. It seemed to help out.

Actually, depending on what fish you have in the tank, some could be kicking up sand when it's time to go to bed. My skunk clown, lawnmower blenny and mandarin dragonette all dig a hole in the sand to sleep in. Every night, a new hole.

 

[jennm]

Nobody else picked up on this but pH of 7.8 is too low. You should add some pH buffer, post haste.

I doubt it caused the cloudiness but you still should address it.

Jenn

 

[tokejr]

JennM;348139 wrote: Nobody else picked up on this but pH of 7.8 is too low. You should add some pH buffer, post haste.

I doubt it caused the cloudiness but you still should address it.

Jenn

He actually did say he was addressing the low pH in the first post:

Other than my ph being a little on the low side everything looks good. I run my skimmer line outside to keep my ph up and i haven't been doing that for a couple of days so that's why that's low.

 

[jennm]

Oops I missed that.

Keeping a skimmer line running outside to up pH? That doesn't make sense to me...

Buffer will get it up and keep it up and stable.

Jenn

 

[tokejr]

JennM;348159 wrote: Oops I missed that.

Keeping a skimmer line running outside to up pH? That doesn't make sense to me...

Buffer will get it up and keep it up and stable.

Jenn

Adding outside air to the skimmer. Haven't tried it yet, but many say it really helps the pH numbers, especially if your house is closed up pretty tight.

 

[jennm]

Heh, once I drew a parallel between low dissolved oxygen and low pH and somebody tarred and feathered me for it.

If the air in the house is that "stale" that it would lower the pH, one would think the human inhabitants would also be suffering from headaches and other complaints.

Seems like a lot of trouble to run a venturi line out a window or whatnot, as opposed to just putting some pH buffer and solving the problem.

Jenn

 

[jaustin]

running my skimmer line outside raises my PH to 8.2. Also this reading is in the lights out hours. Once the lights turn on the ph sits at 8.

Buffer doesn't work in my situaton, i've tried it. Adding buffer will raise ph for a short while but it will fall back to where it was leaving alklinity elevated.

My problem is CO2 in my home and carbonic acid in my tank.

 

[jennm]

That's kinda scary.

Odd that the pH is higher at night than during the day. For most it's the opposite.

What buffer were you using? Some, IME work better than others.

Jenn

 

[jaustin]

i may have gotten it backwords. My ph is lower at night...7.8. When the lights come on it goes up to 8-8.2. If i leave the skimmer line outside the ph never falls lower than 8 at night.

I don't remember the buffer name. Is there one you recomend, i've got no problem giving one a shot. I'm just not a fan of raising alklinity and every buffer i've seen used has done that. Not that that's a bad thing but I take pride in having stable alklinity of 9 DKH.