# white cloudiness



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

i cant seem to get rid of this cloudiness at first i thought it was copepod larva, but i dont know anymore.ive already changed the water (20% at a time). the fish are fine and my skimmer wont get it.heres a couple pics


----------



## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

how long has this tank been running for? are you using RO/DI water? running carbon? is your powerhead blowing sand?


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

The tank I wanna say has been up since oct,but it was an upgrade so I had cured live rock to aid the cycle. setup with cured tap water.i dont think its the water type cause my seahorse tank is crystal clear.I am running carbon through a biofilter and no the sand is not bothered by the powerhead. At the risk of sounding foolish, could it be that I rinse my carbon rather than replace it?


----------



## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

i dont know if its the carbon, but personally i would replace it rather rinse it. 

if you have a sump i would try using a filter sock and see what that does. make sure it gets cleaned every couple days.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

No sump but is a filter sock anything like those super microfiber sheets cause I added one to my biofilter


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

Ok, I don't see enough Rock for one, and not enough flow for 2. You can't rinse out the carbon, once its full it will leach back into the water column. 2 Powerheads would be great, one in each corner blowing at each other, slightly across the top, to break the surface up some, better gas exchange.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

I have one submersible pump as a powerhead ,and I will get new. Carbon ASAP but I don't have a lot of cash to dish out after my seahorse tank so additional current will have to wait


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

George9617 said:


> I have one submersible pump as a powerhead ,and I will get new. Carbon ASAP but I don't have a lot of cash to dish out after my seahorse tank so additional current will have to wait


 :thumbsup:


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

ok i replaced all three parts of my filter this morning,carbon, sponge and pellets .its 6:30 and ive yet to see a change, also i do have a water fall from the biofilter making more flow(prob to cloudy to see)which would make for both corners, and there was more rock but i had to put some in my new tank.how long should this take to clear....or am i looking at a bigger problem?


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

George9617 said:


> ok i replaced all three parts of my filter this morning,carbon, sponge and pellets .its 6:30 and ive yet to see a change, also i do have a water fall from the biofilter making more flow(prob to cloudy to see)which would make for both corners, and there was more rock but i had to put some in my new tank.how long should this take to clear....or am i looking at a bigger problem?


Filters are not considered flow in a tank, they usually just break the surface when returning water. If you had the correct rock and flow, it would only take a 24hr period. Even without a whole lot of flow, I've never seen a tank take more than a week to clear up by itself.


----------



## ladayen (Jun 21, 2011)

Maybe try taking a cup or somethig and scooping some water out and letting that set by itself. See if that reveals anything.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

Wow I didn't realize, I guess time will tell


----------



## kangy (Nov 4, 2011)

I just setup my 'new to me' 40g breeder reef tank. I bought it from someone who had it running for 2 years so I took about 80% of the water with the liverock in icechests. Trying to keep the system as intact as possible. I completely underestimated how bad the fine sand would cloud up the water during the "rebuild" and cleaning, was worse than yours. Anyways, I ran my 4 powerheads, protein skimmer, and three biowheels with only the filter medium (carbon removed) and it was crystal clear in 24 hours. I had to rinse the filters about 6 times though as they were getting completely stuffed with dirt. The previous owner only had the skimmer, no other filtration than the live rock/corals but I left one of the medium size biowheel in place with only the cartridge (no carbon) for mechanical filtration and pulled the other two off as they were just hanging out on the front of the tank temporarily.

I'm not sure if removing the carbon helped or not, I just cut a slit at the top and dumped it out, I'm new to reef tanks and have two freshwater planted, from that I know with a "natural" setup you don't want the carbon so I carried that philosophy over with me. Either way, rambling now, that does sound like it's taking too long to clear up, do you have any other filters you could borrow temporarily if only to aid in the mechanical filtration? Possibly you could try a sponge over the intake to further aid in the cleaning. Could just be minute suspended particles that need to settle. If the cup trick posted above works maybe cutting off the powerheads/filter for a short period might help with the settling.


----------



## jeffnsa (Jan 3, 2012)

The amount of rock is alright for now and not the cause along with water flow, it will help but not alot. It looks like you have fine sugar sand and it takes time for it to settle. Try adding a small shot of vodka or a teaspoon of sugar to the tank to help grow extra bacteria that can attach to the sand particals and hold them down. Rinse the filters every hour or so and leave the carbon in the pads for now, there is not enough in it to affect anything. Make sure the power head is not stiring up the sand and don't worry about expensive models, a couple of max-jets will work fine, they made the industry run for years on them.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

Not sure it's the sand I turned off flow for almost a day with only a air pump breaking the surface with no prevail ,it's starting to tuen green so I'm thinking it's algae bloom,but I don't want to waste 50 bucks if it's the wrong solution I've never heard of adding sugar or vodka so a little research is in order thanks for the tip...also is that jeffnsa as in Jeff in San Antonio?


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

You don't want to be Carbon Dosing at this point. That won't help a bit if its algae.
But, now that I've read back through your thread, you didn't see any water parameter numbers, do you have those? There may be an indicator there. Not sure, but worth a shot, all the info we can get is helpful. Could it be a micro bubble issue from your power filter?


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

I don't have an ammonia test kit but nites are both under .5 ph is ideal but could stand to be lowered, alkalinity could be lowered a little test kit says ideal


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

With any fish be it freshwater or saltwater, you want ZERO ammonia and Nitrite, 0.5 is too much.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

The strip test square was white with a slight outline of pink so I say less than .5


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

When you do a water change, how do you refill the tank? Using RO/DI water?


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

Tap and I know ur gonna say that's the reason but where am I supposed to 55 gallons of purified water
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## Tazman (Jan 15, 2012)

I was going to suggest that yes if you are using just straight tap water then it could easily be that..

I was also going to ask if you mixed in hot water when doing the water changes as well. I had one of my freshwater tanks cloud up once with running too much hot water in my python during a change. I really do not think and algae bloom would happen that fast.

It turns out it was a calcate deposits coming from the heating elements inside the hot water tank, over about 4 days it settled.


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

I used tap water a while ago, for years, and never had any issues with cloudyness, so I really don't think thats it. Only other thing would be a Calcium precip. WHats your Calcium, Magnesium readings?


----------



## jeffnsa (Jan 3, 2012)

George9617 said:


> Not sure it's the sand I turned off flow for almost a day with only a air pump breaking the surface with no prevail ,it's starting to tuen green so I'm thinking it's algae bloom,but I don't want to waste 50 bucks if it's the wrong solution I've never heard of adding sugar or vodka so a little research is in order thanks for the tip...also is that jeffnsa as in Jeff in San Antonio?


 

Yes, i moved out of San Antonio a year or two ago into Floresville but I'm close enough to it.

Good call on calcium precipatation. I also wonder if the anenome is causing it .


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

how could the anemone cause it. as for cal and mag i dont have test kits for that ,just the basic .also heres an updated pic ...im thinking its for sure algae bloom now


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

Reefing Madness said:


> I used tap water a while ago, for years, and never had any issues with cloudyness, so I really don't think thats it. Only other thing would be a Calcium precip. WHats your Calcium, Magnesium readings?


 yea my freind from the LFS is a badass dude when it comes to marine knowledge told me san antonio has the best tap water for fish.only he left so i cant ask about this problem i have now also do u think my fish are in any danger?


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

As for hot water is was a bit warm as it was from my tub but was cool before Adding it and when I top off water it's cold only with a water change il warm it to reduce shock to my horses


----------



## Reefing Madness (Jun 26, 2011)

WOW. Picture worth a thousand words. WOW. I'd start with water changes every 3 days for now, to get that mess outta there. Lets see what happens from there. I'd definately get a CA and MAG test going there. Gotta find out what we are looking at. Right now, I don't think your fish are in any danger. Whats your ALK DH read?


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

Reefing Madness said:


> WOW. Picture worth a thousand words. WOW. I'd start with water changes every 3 days for now, to get that mess outta there. Lets see what happens from there. I'd definately get a CA and MAG test going there. Gotta find out what we are looking at. Right now, I don't think your fish are in any danger. Whats your ALK DH read?


Alk is the only thing outa whack but thats been since day one and it's a little high is what I mean. I went ahead and bought the sterilizer 24 watt let's see what happens :-D


----------



## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

if i was going to use tap which i personally wouldnt and would use RO/DI ( even fish only to prevent algae ) i would use cold tap water. this takes longer and more energy to re-heat but more minerals will come in hot water. youll have to wait atleast 24 hours to pre-mix your salt with and powerhead in the water anyways so it gives plenty of time to add a heater to get your pre-mixed water matching the display tanks temp before doing a water change.


----------



## George9617 (Nov 28, 2011)

onefish2fish said:


> if i was going to use tap which i personally wouldnt and would use RO/DI ( even fish only to prevent algae ) i would use cold tap water. this takes longer and more energy to re-heat but more minerals will come in hot water. youll have to wait atleast 24 hours to pre-mix your salt with and powerhead in the water anyways so it gives plenty of time to add a heater to get your pre-mixed water matching the display tanks temp before doing a water change.


I'm saving up for a RO/ DI unit.I have cash but don't like spending lump sums on Stuff unless it's urgent. And I just bought a sterilizer that wasn't too cheap. thanks for the tip


----------



## kangy (Nov 4, 2011)

You can always get a couple 5 gallon jugs and get some RO drinking water. It's at least better than tap, not as good as RO/DI though.


----------

