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:
Bellow is a picture of the tank right now, after the cleaning and water change:
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?
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:
Bellow is a picture of the tank right now, after the cleaning and water change:
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?