Morning Clouds give way to Afternoon Sunshine

[Cheeze]

Hi all!

My tank finished cycling with dry rock & dry sand about 3-4 weeks ago, and I added my first fish (Cardinal) about 2 weeks ago. When my AI16 lights start to ramp up, I notice the water is slightly cloudy (scale of 1-10 with 10 being thunderclouds, it's about a 5). But after a few hours, the water is crystal clear again.
I am also noticing the start of the "uglies"...some brown and even green forming on my rocks but not so much on the sand yet. Is this morning cloudiness and clearing up normal and part of the ugly phase?

38 gallon peninsula tank (about 34 inches long) with 2 AI16 lights that I run 9 hours/day
Nitrates 2
pH 8.2
Ammonia near none
Phosphate near none
Salinity 1.025
Temp 76-77 degrees
Also have my skimmer on and a bag of Purigen

I feed the Cardinal mysis shrimp very little once a day, and it pretty much eats the whole serving right out of the syringe I use.
I do a 5 gallon (bit more than 10%) water change every week using RO/DI water and RedSea blue bucket salt

 

[KingTideCorals]

First off you are on the right with your system and doing all the right things but noting your parameters and asking these questions.

As for the cloudiness, most of the time cloudy water refers to bacteria in there, but due to the fact it disappears after time with the light on I am not totally sure what it could be entirely. As for the brown those are diatoms beginning to form in your system and absolutely part of the ugly phase! I would do some digging here on R2R and see if anyone else has had that experience with their water

You got the right recipe for a successful reef, keep us updated and let us know if anything changes!

 

[MnFish1]

Hi all!

My tank finished cycling with dry rock & dry sand about 3-4 weeks ago, and I added my first fish (Cardinal) about 2 weeks ago. When my AI16 lights start to ramp up, I notice the water is slightly cloudy (scale of 1-10 with 10 being thunderclouds, it's about a 5). But after a few hours, the water is crystal clear again.
I am also noticing the start of the "uglies"...some brown and even green forming on my rocks but not so much on the sand yet. Is this morning cloudiness and clearing up normal and part of the ugly phase?

38 gallon peninsula tank (about 34 inches long) with 2 AI16 lights that I run 9 hours/day
Nitrates 2
pH 8.2
Ammonia near none
Phosphate near none
Salinity 1.025
Temp 76-77 degrees
Also have my skimmer on and a bag of Purigen

I feed the Cardinal mysis shrimp very little once a day, and it pretty much eats the whole serving right out of the syringe I use.
I do a 5 gallon (bit more than 10%) water change every week using RO/DI water and RedSea blue bucket salt

Do you dose anything overnight (Calcium or alkalinity? ) When do you feed the fish? The only thing I can think of is that you're feeding at night - perhaps a little too much - and there is an excess of nutrients - causing a transient bacterial bloom? Algae shouldn't 'grow at night'. To me the key is when you say 'the fish eats most of what you feed' - and then there is the waste produced by the fish. My guess is this will resolve over time.

 

[Cheeze]

Thanks both! This helps relieve any concerns a lot...

- I don't dose anything at the moment, since my tank is empty minus the Cardinal
- I feed normally late afternoon/early evening and very little, so as not to overfeed or let any food waste away in the tank

My skimmer has also been pulling mostly clear water in the cup. I don't know if this is part of it, but I also notice a bit of that surface slime(?) in the water when I look up while kneeling in front of the tank. I have my return nozzle agitating the water surface but it's still noticeable, especially when the lights are on.