Cloudy water is actually cloudy glass!

b4tn · Oct 29, 2015

The other day I was looking straight down and noticed how brilliantly clear my water was. Yet looking from the side it looked cloudy. After looking closer I noticed a slight film even though I had just cleaned the glass the day prior. My magfloat was not getting it all that well but if I used some felt cloth and scrubbed really well it would come clean. The next day it looked as if I never cleaned the glass! I have roughly 100 snails, a mix of cerith, dwarf cerith, nerite, and nessarius. They clean the heck out of my sand and rocks but rarely do I see them on the glass.

Tank is just over a month old with only two fish and a couple corals. I just added an algae scrubber today and have a reef octo 150 running full time. This cloudy film on the glass seems to come back in a matter of hours. Are there any snails that will work on it? Is this like my diatom bloom that came and went as expected with a new tank? Any tips?

Jdog5450 · Oct 29, 2015

Just my own thought on it, could be phosphate or co2, I've been running my tank like 6-7 months, same problem, turned out it was phosphate in the water supply... what are your water parameters. Tank Size, etc. How old is the tank? margarita snails tend to do really well for me, as far as cleaning the glass is concerned

b4tn · Oct 29, 2015

Thanks, I use RODI water and phosphates are not detectable. As a mater of fact my nitrate is also 0. I thought it was my test kit but I get 5ppm using the same kit in my sons 15 gallon SW tank. I do have a little bit of cheato in the sump and now the algae scrubber so will see if it helps out.

Reefing Madness · Oct 29, 2015

Its just bacteria, wipe it off, it happens to everyones tank over time. Just quicker in some tanks than others, I gotta wipe my glass off every 5 days to keep it clear. No big deal.