Cloudy Tank / Green Algae / Fish Struggling

[FrickMasterFlex]

Came home 10 hours after feeding a crystal clear tank to cloudiness, green algae on the rocks, and fish struggling. Did a 5 gallon water change, doing another 2.5 gallon water change tomorrow AM, and then re-stocking on water to hopefully do one more larger water change. The way my fish look I doubt they make it through the night, which is INSANELY depressing as everything was going so well as a new reefer. Should have known it wouldn’t last. Any idea what happened? Only thing I can possibly think of are some fumes from the work we’re getting done on our house, which is unavoidable unfortunately. Just seems extreme tho, as they’ve been here for over a week doing the same stuff, so what was the difference today?

Details:
- Aquaclear 50 HOB Filter w/ carbon, Phosguard, Purigen
- 2 Powerheads (Vortech introduced 3 days ago as I had some dead spots behind my rock
- Ammonia - 0
- Nitrates - 0!!!!!!!! this was shocking
- 5 corals introduced just about 2 weeks ago.
- 2 clowns have been in since Jan 31

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Mike from TN]

What kind of work is being done to your house? You mentioned fumes!

 

[lafarrow]

I’m going with new tank, algae bloom. fish on Jan 31 so just post cycle, young bacteria and powerful lights.

 

[FrickMasterFlex]

What kind of work is being done to your house? You mentioned fumes!

Painting cabinets, new countertops, etc. But they’ve been priming and prepping since Friday and weren’t here all weekend. I understand why this could cause a problem but seemed extreme considering how the tank was this morning.

 

[FrickMasterFlex]

*Bump & Update*
Fish made it through the evening! Both are struggling still but they made it through. Tank is still very cloudy but SLIGHTLY better. Doing another quick water change this AM. And another tomorrow.

 

[Wen]

What’s your salinity level?
your topping off with RODI?
How are the corals doing?
Did you start with dry rock?

I’d keep doing small water changes, and make sure the surface water is moving.
Also, your tank looks very young, don’t stress about some algae, algae will come and go as the tank matures.
If you have a trusted, ich free, reef tank friend, ask for a dirty section of filter floss and put in the canister...or live rock rubble...or clip a clump of macro algae from a refugium
In your display. This will add diversity of life forms the tank needs.

you got this!

 

[FrickMasterFlex]

What’s your salinity level?
your topping off with RODI?
How are the corals doing?
Did you start with dry rock?

I’d keep doing small water changes, and make sure the surface water is moving.
Also, your tank looks very young, don’t stress about some algae, algae will come and go as the tank matures.
If you have a trusted, ich free, reef tank friend, ask for a dirty section of filter floss and put in the canister...or live rock rubble...or clip a clump of macro algae from a refugium
In your display. This will add diversity of life forms the tank needs.

you got this!

- Salinity - 1.025
- RODI top-offs
- Corals looks fine just closed up cause light has been off a bit
- Yes, started with dry rock

Was just confused with the 0 Nitrate readings. The fish are struggling but they’re moving around, albeit it in a small area. One from last night has worked his way out of the corner and is moving around, the other found a nice low flow spot in the aquascape and is breathing heavily but he’s alive.

Definitely going to jeep doing small 15-20% changes as often as I can. I did 5gal last night, 2.5gal this AM, will do 5gal again tomorrow. Issue is I don’t have a RODI system installed (yet!) so I’m in the lugging buckets phase to my LFS. Thanks for the insight, hope I can get through this! I’m thrilled they made it through the night I thought for sure I would lose both.

 

[vadajo]

Point that power head to the surface to increase the O2 in the tank. Nitrate is zero most likely bc of the bacterial bloom. I recommend no water changes and allow the bacteria to stablize. A small UV sterlizer will help too. I

 

[FrickMasterFlex]

*UPDATE*

After this morning’s 2.5gal water change at 7am my wife sent the attached photos 5 mins ago, and the cloudiness is gone, and the fish were both sleeping in their favorite corners of the tank. RELIEVED. But, want to make sure I make my way through this fully.

I kept the light off all day as well. Wondering if maybe that helped and if I should do that again for the next day or so to be safe? Or, does anyone think it is safe to turn it back on again? Was thinking one final water change but maybe wait a day or so to let things stabilize before doing another. Thanks again for those who have assisted and please if you have any more suggestions for the above let me know.

 

[lafarrow]

Lights off for 3 days. Skimmer will fill up. Be patient

 

[zalick]

Sounds like bacterial bloom depleted oxygen. Glad the fish made it!