Brown Silt Looking Stuff Everywhere with Cloudy Water

Fish76 · Mar 11, 2015

So my tank is 3mon old. The tank cycled @1mon and everything was looking good. I added 4 small zoa colonies and have a flame hawk, 2 black ice clowns and about 15 small trochus snails (120g) over the past 2 months. I have all base rock and no live rock. I got the diatom bloom early on that still hasn't fully gone away yet. My current readings are:

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
3 nitrates
420 calc
8 alk
1260 mag
0 phos
34.4ppt
8.24 pH
78.5 temp

My water has been crystal clear but since about a week ago the water started to get cloudy and I had an increase in brown stuff on the sand/rocks that looks like silt. Also I started to notice a ton of small white "bugs" everywhere on the glass (pods?). I've turned off my Kessils during the day (just DIY LED's come on now) and started using a 200micron felt sock (vice the mesh) and have been changing every other day but the water still is cloudy and doesn't seem to be getting any better and there's an increase of what looks like silt on everything. I have a Reef Octo XPS1000 that doesn't really pull anything but after talking to CoralVue they say it's because of such low bio-load right now. I also have been using Ecobak Plus bio-pellets from day one. I also have continuous water changes via a Apex DOS. Pics are the silt in my sump and on the rocks. Any idea what is going on or what I'm doing wrong? Just not sure what's going on cause the water was so crystal clear for the past 3mom and then now it's soo cloudy and hasn't cleared up.

143MPCo · Mar 13, 2015

Bump...

bairdimusprime · Mar 13, 2015

looks like diatoms on the rock, and the sump looks like settlement of silt from the argonite

zemuss · Mar 13, 2015

Brown stuff on the rocks and on the glass are diatoms or film algae mostly. Don't add anything too quickly yet, including fish because what is happening is a algae bloom. I would suggest that you start tracking the po4 (phosphate) and nitrate levels. They might be tracking a bit high and will come down as the algae starts to grow.

your water chemistry is pretty good right now

The white bugs are mostly likely pods. if you want the water to clear up quickly run some carbon which will scrub the water for you.

Remember you tank it still new and adding things too quickly will unbalance the cycle and might cause a mini cycle. You added 3 fish almost at the same time which isn't bad or good, just watch you tank for a few weeks / month and let the biological organisms catch up.

Another thing, Live rock versus base rock does not matter, live rock is simply just established rock and base rock is something added to a tank as a foundation and will add other rock during the cycle. Don't add any new rock right now you will start a soft cycle if it is not cycled.

I hope this helps you and please take things slowly because going to fast cost money and dead fish.

Fish76 · Mar 13, 2015

Thanks guys. Well, I started changing out the felt sock filters everyday vice every other day and the water has gotten much clearer. Using a turkey baster to clean the rocks and running my gyre full blast a couple of times a day to get the silt stuff into the overflow has seem to be workin also. Params still solid and all fish and zoas are looking good so just a waiting game at this point.

So I'm wondering, should I continue leaving the Kessils off and just run my supplemental DIY LED's? Do the lights contribute to diatoms? I've been running the Kessils at 40% but turned them off about a week ago.

zemuss · Mar 13, 2015

I would turn the lights back on. I would keep doing water changes and run some carbon..

Just let the tank settle for another couple of months before adding any more fish.

Fish76 · Mar 13, 2015

zemuss said:
I would turn the lights back on. I would keep doing water changes and run some carbon.

Ok thanks. I do have a AWC running everyday and have been running carbon since day one. Are you thinking I should do a large WC? Currently, my sys is setup to do approx. 1.15gal/day WC.

143MPCo · Mar 13, 2015

deleted.

zemuss · Mar 13, 2015

I am not saying to do a larger water change , but the smalls ones might not be enough.

I think the norm is 20% of total water as a WC.
I do about 16% weekly or bi weekly most times. Thats on a 60 gallon tank too. I am currently fighting cyano and algae bloom. I am mostly fighting this with a ATS currently and winner. The cyano is very stringy and dying. So now I am just waiting for the algae to die off.