Cloudy water caused by UV light?

[schafon]

Hi everyone!
I recently setup my RedSea 750xxl, it was a tank transfer from my 120G system.
Everything moved from there including live rock minus sand (got new).
The transfer went pretty well, everything looked very good till today.

I've changed 3 things today:
1. Plumbed a 55 watt UV light from Amazon

2. increased dosage of All For Reef
2. set up a RO top off directly from RODI system.

After setting up the UV light I didn't see any effect on the tank after 1-2 hours.
I went away from the tank for around 3 hours and when I got back I've noticed cloudiness in the tank + elevated temp.

I've immediately turned off the UV and the AFR dosing.

I think that there are 2 options for the new cloudiness in the tank:
1. UV heats the water which causes a bacteria bloom
2. UV light is not compatible with reef aquarium?


PH: 8.15 - 8.33
Alkalinity: 7.6 (Thats why I've increased the AFR dosage, aiming for 8.5)
Phosphate: 0.07 - 0.09
Nitrate: 19.7
Salinity: 1.025

What do you guys think?
I've order SeaCam clarity in case it will still be cloudy tomorrow, should I use it?


Thanks!

 

[The Roaming Reefer]

Check the Uv to see if water leaked into the quartz sleeve. If the bulb or connection to the bulb got wet, it could be shorting out in your tank. 1/2 degree temp increase wouldn’t cause any issues.

 

[schafon]

Check the Uv to see if water leaked into the quartz sleeve. If the bulb or connection to the bulb got wet, it could be shorting out in your tank. 1/2 degree temp increase wouldn’t cause any issues.

First thing I've checked, took the bulb out, nothing there, not even humidity.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Temp increase is due to the UV for sure, dont worry about it You did fully disassemble the uv before install? There is usually packing crap inside the housing. Also how long since transfer? New sand?

 

[schafon]

I've took out the bulb just to see what inside and washed the water pass-way with tap water than salt water, didn't noticed anything inside.

Transfer was a week ago from today, new sand and some new rock (dry).
Started to get brown and ugly (both sand and rock) in the last 2 days, but seems to be under control.

BTW, i've noticed the cloudiness coming out of the return nozzle to the display, so that's defiantly coming from the sump.

 

[MrGisonni]

Probably a bacterial bloom. AFR does add a bit of carbon dosing. And I am not surprised this is happening after a tank reboot. Ironically I think the tool you need to add here IS the uv. Imho

 

[littlefoxx]

Hi everyone!
I recently setup my RedSea 750xxl, it was a tank transfer from my 120G system.
Everything moved from there including live rock minus sand (got new).
The transfer went pretty well, everything looked very good till today.

I've changed 3 things today:
1. Plumbed a 55 watt UV light from Amazon

2. increased dosage of All For Reef
2. set up a RO top off directly from RODI system.

After setting up the UV light I didn't see any effect on the tank after 1-2 hours.
I went away from the tank for around 3 hours and when I got back I've noticed cloudiness in the tank + elevated temp.

I've immediately turned off the UV and the AFR dosing.

I think that there are 2 options for the new cloudiness in the tank:
1. UV heats the water which causes a bacteria bloom
2. UV light is not compatible with reef aquarium?


PH: 8.15 - 8.33
Alkalinity: 7.6 (Thats why I've increased the AFR dosage, aiming for 8.5)
Phosphate: 0.07 - 0.09
Nitrate: 19.7
Salinity: 1.025

What do you guys think?
I've order SeaCam clarity in case it will still be cloudy tomorrow, should I use it?


Thanks!

I stand by UV lights. They make my tank water crystal clear. I doubt that the uv is the cause. Now maybe the heat is causing it. I actually have two tanks. Red sea 70 gallon and a 125 (unknown brand). So my 70 got super cloudy after the UV like yours, but I checked the temp and it was very high. So I took the heater completely out of that tank and just keep the UV in the back of the tank (the “sump” is in the back compartment) and it cleared in a day or so. But my 125 has a UV and a heater and no issues. Maybe taking the heater out and see?

 

[schafon]

I control my heater with a heater controller + the APEX, I can see when it's on or off and I verefied it was off using the power consumption.

This morning the tank is clear again.
Now I will turn the UV on and let it run for few hours, then turn on the AFR and see if there is any cloudiness.

 

[schafon]

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm all in for UV, I've used a UV in the other tank before the upgrade and now I've purchased a bigger UV for the new one.

I don't know anything about that uv but are you sure it's ok to use with saltwater?

That's my biggest worry, I've send the manufacture a message using Amazon, but logic says that it's basically a plastic tube with a clear sleeve inside, the UV bulb is the same UV bulb.

I've increased the flow rate to hopefully get the temp down, I guess not it's just a waiting game.

 

[The Roaming Reefer]

Do you have the all for reef dosing into your sump or your display? It could be depositing for some reason if it’s flowing through the UV sterilizer and coming out of your return as calcium carbonate or some kind of flocculant

 

[schafon]

So so far no cloudiness, water is clear.
I've turn the AFR back on.
The AFR is being dosed into the return pump section and from there to the UV and then to the display.
I've thougt it might cause a reaction but I can't find nothing about it in the forum.

 

[schafon]

So the story continues.
The water are still clear, but now i'm facing a different problem.
I think the PH is going down when I use the UV!
I'm still making some tests but so far it looks like this is the cause.
Check the PH VS UV light:

Blue is the UV light wattage, orange is PH.
What do you guys think?
Maybe the UV kills algea that consumed CO2 and now it's more abundant in the tank?

I'm using CO2 scrubber all the time, I used to turn off the skimmer at 8.3 to stop it from going any higher, now i'm getting below 8.

 

[blecki]

If it's stable there I don't see that there's an issue. PH issue might be related to your bacterial bloom and if so it will even out. You've got a lot of equipment and you're dosing things... you'll drive yourself nuts chasing numbers that way.

 

[schafon]

PH was stable before using the UV, I had no obvious bacteria bloom before turning the UV light on.
You think I shouldn't be concerned with the lower PH?
I dose AFR but thats it.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Could also be electrical inteference from the UV.

 

[schafon]

If it would have been electrical interference I would expect it to be more drastic and immediate.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

If it's stable there I don't see that there's an issue. PH issue might be related to your bacterial bloom and if so it will even out. You've got a lot of equipment and you're dosing things... you'll drive yourself nuts chasing numbers that way.

This. I bet its just the tank balancing itself out.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

If it would have been electrical interference I would expect it to be more drastic and immediate.

Depends, Ive had wonky apex issues due to a dying ballast on a jebao uv. Those off brand uv's aren't known for the best hardware.

 

[schafon]

That's interesting.. I had basically the same setup on my 120, the skimmer with CO2 and different smaller UV light.
When I moved I was worried about unstable parameters but everything seemed to be fine.
Only when I turned the UV on the PH got out of balance.

I think my old UV probably wasn't doing anything, I don't remember when was the last time I've changed the bulb, definitely didn't clean it.

But in that case I would expect to see more people getting weird PH when installing UV light for the first time.