horrible water clarity need help

[holyscoly]

to make this long story short i have a 120 with a good sump and protein skimmer, this tank was up about 2 years and had a huge caluerpa and aptasia outbreak, i remove all my live rock and kept my sand bed i used about 60 lbs of dead rock that i cured with muratic acid and seeded with a 7 lb live rock,i transfered over my lps and sps and everything is doing great but my water clarity is horrid ive been dosing continum gen-m to establish bacteria in the tank i also use carbon and purigen what can i do to help with the water clarity

btw i have a med bio-load 1 yellow tang med,1 tomini tang,1midas blenny,1clownfish,1rock hawkfish,1corris wrasse 1 red stripe wrasse

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is it white or green?

It might be a bacterial bloom, or phytoplankton, or detritus.

Filtration will take out detritus, and blooms may go away ion their own, but a UV can greatly speed that process.

 

[eagle]

U can try filter socks. I have used a vortec diatom filter for years. They're clunky units but nothing cleans water like them. Maybe ozone but it's crystal clear with either one. You don't see many diatom filters but they're great for maintenance polishing.

 

[holyscoly]

it is white it looks likw when u dose kalkwasser im hoping its a bacteria bloom but iots been 1 month since i made the changes and somedays its clear somedays its very murky.

 

[eagle]

Probably a bacterial bloom. I had a bad one the first time I tried biopellets. If so it will fade. I had to clean all my equipment pretty good with vinegar baths to get that gunk out. Lost a pump it was so bad.

 

[holyscoly]

i think it is a bacteria bloom just cause all my sps are ok i just hate the murky water,randy for a 120 how large of a uv sterilizer do u rec.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sorry, I've never really sized them since I never had a need, but a small one should be fine since you wouldn't be trying to sterilize the water rapidly.

 

[eagle]

I have a small coralife twist that I don't use anymore. PM if you want it lol

 

[holyscoly]

thanks for the offer but i got one locally

 

[eagle]

No problem. I have a 40 watt one too and ozone equipment. Just haven't needed it in a while.

 

[eagle]

Hey Randy, what are your thoughts on carbon dosing and bacteria dosing (to increase bacteria) and uv/ozone. I've been reading some people are eliminating the cyano outbreaks associated with carbon dosing by using ozone. I just use gfo myself to keep phosphates low while using pellets for nitrates. It just seems counter intuitive to be adding bacteria and trying to kill bacteria with uv/ozone. I had a bacteria bloom when running pellets in a single pass reactor on a dirty tank. I haven't had those issues with recirc reactor on bb tank. But it's interesting to me people are using ozone and carbon dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've not seen that reported before. I can't see why ozone would impact cyano with carbon dosing. Almost no one uses ozone in a way that will sterilize the water (unlike a UV), and cyano grows on surfaces anyway.

A UV will certainly kill cyanobacteria passing through it. Can that stop benthic cyano? Not sure but I've not heard people report that.

As to organic carbon dosing, generally I wouldn't want to kill the bacteria in the water because that just releases the nutrients back to the tank and creates a bunch of dead bacteria bodies in the water,.

 

[eagle]

I'll try to look up the threads I've read about the ozone. I run my biopellets effluent to my skimmer intake. Just from reading about where other people are running theirs I seen that some are running ozone too. I'm not sure if it matters. Greg from warner marine (ecobak) said in a thread they aren't sure if it matters. But from the article you showed me from Advanced Aquarist,
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/3/aafeature
Skimming didn't seem to affect bacterial population much. I'm on the fence about it.

 

[mmatspr]

Bacterial bloom, just stop adding anything and give it time, it will go alone as it came.

 

[Havoc615]

Have to agree with mmatspr the only thing you should be adding is trace elements when needed. Also what light are you running and how old. Different lights have been linked problem kinda like this. Also try this: Over feeding maybe? Magnum 350 diatom powder (local pool or spa shop) and a power head. "Storm" the tank every 3 months or when needed. So far it hasnt failed me in 16 years of reef keeping. Someone already mentioned the old version of doing this. The good thing is the magnum 350 is still around.

 

[laineyg6]

UP sterilizers make a world of difference. I would recommend against adding a bunch of "stuff" to treat it, other than elements. Definitely sounds bacterial based on history. Having a skimmer helps a lot.