Cloudy milky water from kalkwasser or bacterial bloom?

Anturaju93

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 12, 2021
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Location
Romania
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi.
I have a new (5 week old) 10 gallons nano reef tank with live sand and dry rock (reef saver). For the last 2 days my water is cloudy - milky white and I don't know if its a bacterial bloom (I had one, it lasted 24 hours) or its from dosing kalkwasser with ATO because I want to maintain PH. I run an internal Tunze DC skimmer and HD prime in acclimation mode as my lights. Tanks is stocked with 2 clowns and 1 lawnmower blenny. I also have a good stock of LPS and SPS corals, only one softie.
Parameters are:
Salinity: 1025
Temp 78
PH 8.1 during the day, 7.8 during the night
Alk 9
NO3 10
Po4 0
Calcium - test is coming
I started dosing kalkwasser 7 days ago with no problems, but now all of a sudden water is cloudy. Corals and fish don't seem to care about the cloudy water. Today it got really bad when power was out and tank was with no flow for 2 hours. Brown mist was lifting from the substrate (I also have diatoms growing everywhere, especially on substrate) and I decided to do a 50% water change, vacuum the substrate and clean the glass. Tank looks cleaner now, but the water is still cloudy. I stopped dosing kalkwasser, cleaned my ATO container and pump and added RO water again for top off.
Here you can see the cloudy water and brown mist lifting from the substrate:
20211129_131224.jpg
Bellow is a picture of the tank right now, after the cleaning and water change:
20211129_165053.jpg
I can see that when kalkwasser enters the tank its milky white so I don't know if that is my problem.
So what do you think caused the milky water: kalkwasser or bacterial bloom?
What to do next?
 

HuduVudu

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 2, 2020
Messages
3,241
Reaction score
3,663
Location
Houston
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If it is calcium storm your calcium test will tell the tale.

Most likely it is a bacterial bloom. If you have a skimmer it will handle it.

Some 10% water changes might be in order.
 
OP
OP
A

Anturaju93

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 12, 2021
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Location
Romania
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for your reply. Can you tell me what level of calcium is too high? Also, can to much calcium cause cloudy water?
 

High pressure shells: Do you look for signs of stress in the invertebrates in your reef tank?

  • I regularly look for signs of invertebrate stress in my reef tank.

    Votes: 36 31.0%
  • I occasionally look for signs of invertebrate stress in my reef tank.

    Votes: 28 24.1%
  • I rarely look for signs of invertebrate stress in my reef tank.

    Votes: 22 19.0%
  • I never look for signs of invertebrate stress in my reef tank.

    Votes: 30 25.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top