CLOUDY TANK :(

[Mitch Green]

I moved my saltwater tank two days ago, and its still CLOUDY. The tank was up and running for the last four years ! Looks like my Undata, and GTO are DONE :(
I know the tank should clear up in days or a week, but does anyone know ANYTHING I can do to help it ? THANKS AGAIN

 

[Crabs McJones]

I moved my saltwater tank two days ago, and its still CLOUDY. The tank was up and running for the last four years ! Looks like my Undata, and GTO are DONE :(
I know the tank should clear up in days or a week, but does anyone know ANYTHING I can do to help it ? THANKS AGAIN

First of all. Welcome to R2R!!

what do you mean when you say you moved the tank? Like you transferred everything over to a new tank? or moved it to another part of the house? Need a little more detail :)

 

[Mitch Green]

Moved it 68 miles to new house !

 

[Crabs McJones]

Moved it 68 miles to new house !

Did you use new sand or re-use the old sand?

 

[Mitch Green]

Used Old sand and added some new sand !

 

[Crabs McJones]

Used Old sand and added some new sand !

Chances are that reusing the old sand is causing your problem. When you stir up the sand bed you release a bunch of trapped detritus (from the past 4 years) back into the water column. So the bacteria in your tank is going nuts consuming the excess nutrients, plus all the small free floating particles. You can start with a series of small water changes and run mechanical filtration such as a filter sock to catch all the particles in the water. And it should slowly start clearing up. Also do some testing and make sure your levels are staying down. Often with cloudiness your levels will start to increase as stuff starts breaking down.

 

[Humblefish]

Used Old sand and added some new sand !

Reusing the old sand from a 4 year old tank was a mistake. Does the water smell like rotten eggs? The old sand might have released Hydrogen Sulfide into the water. Start doing WCs and run carbon ASAP.

 

[Mitch Green]

Reusing the old sand from a 4 year old tank was a mistake. Does the water smell like rotten eggs? The old sand might have released Hydrogen Sulfide into the water. Start doing WCs and run carbon ASAP.

DEF a mistake using old sand, the water has no foul smell, just cloudy as hell.

 

[Humblefish]

DEF a mistake using old sand, the water has no foul smell, just cloudy as hell.

Could also be a bacterial bloom in progress, starving O2 from the water. Start running airstones and point all your powerheads towards the surface of the water.