Persistent cloudy water

[Deep_Six Corals]

hello everyone!

I have a custom 55 shallow reef that has been running for just a bit over 2 months now. I'm now having a problem with some cloudy/milky water. It has been like this for going on 6 days now. It's not horribly bad, but it is annoying as hell. It also seems to get worse at night, might just be in my head. I did a full panel water test today and here are my results:

Temp:80 degrees
Salinity:1.025
Ph: 8.3
Ammonia:0
No2:0
No3:0
Kh:8.5
Ca:420
Po4:undetectable (Api)

Here's some things that have changed within the last week:

1. I added a power head (it is quite powerful, and at first I attributed the cloudiness to sand particles, but I would those would have long since settled)

2. I mixed my own salt for the first time using reef crystals.

I have tried everything thing. I've cleaned and replaced carbon, replaced filter floss, moved and aimed the power head so it doesn't disturb the sand bed at all, throw out some mangroves in my fuge that weren't looking the best, tried shutting off all flow for a few hours to see if it would style. Ive be ruled out bacteria bloom ( I have no ammonia and I had a bloom when I was cycling, doesn't look like this)

I have basically pinpointed the problem to the salt mix I used. I've read that reef crystals can make cloudy water when any moisture is introduced to the salt, making chemicals precipitate and not able to dissolve during the mixing process. Though the bag of salt was not clumpy, the salt did mix a tad bit cloudy in the bucket. I added it anyways, not thinking twice.

Idk. This is just ******* me off, sorry for the long drawn out explanation, I hope someone can give some insight/advice as to what is going on and how to remedy this problem. Thanks in advance!

Hers some pics for reference:

 

[gemini9]

Looks like cloudiness you would normally see with new sand. Do you a filter? I'd say that powerhead has indeed stirred up some sand. when I first added sand to my tank, it was very cloudy. Any time I would disturb a rock or move around any of the sand, it would get cloudy again for another day. I had to keep changing my filter pads regularly because it kept clogging up. Algae blooms can cause some cloudiness, but I'd bet on the powerhead throwing stuff around. If you don't have anything to filter it out, it won't settle as long as the powerhead is throwing it around.

 

[franciscosalazar]

Has any livestock gone "missing"?

 

[fishroomlady]

I'm stumped, I would think changing out floss and carbon should take care of it. I'd probably keep doing that more aggressively and if it is the sand, hopefully it settles out - I don't blame you on being mad about the cloudiness.

 

[Deep_Six Corals]

Thanks for all the replies! I think this may have joggled my brain a bit. I "had" an extra large emerald crab that got relocated to my sump, I haven't seen him in a week. I also had an anemone crab (small) that I haven't seen in like 2 weeks. Also I used a pair of damsels to help cycle my tank. One has been missing since the beginning, I never found him. the second is still with me. I would think his body is long gone tho. I'm gonna shut down the RW-8 for the night and see what happens. I guess my next step would be a large water change, maybe 50%.

 

[Acromaniac]

Did you do the large water change yet? And did that help at all?.. I am currently experiencing the same problem that you are with a new 120 gallon tank that I started up about 4 months ago and my water is cloudy like yours and won't clear up and my water params are test perfect and I can't figure it out for nothing, the only thing I can think that could be the culprit is I started my tank up with dry rock that use to be live rock from an older system that I had running a few years ago.. My tank use to be just as cloudy as yours when I was around the 2 month mark and I was doing crazy water changes and replacing carbon and Gfo every 2 weeks and it seemed like everyone I changed the water a few days later my water would be even more cloudy then it was before so I decided to stop with the water changes and stop changing the carbon and Gfo and just let the tank sit and mature for awhile well now that has been 3 weeks and I can say that my water is starting to slowly clear up but it's still not crystal clear yet but it is def looking a lot better maybe give that a try and see if it helps?..