I posted this in the main forum but it quickly fell to the 4th page with no responses, maybe I will have better luck here!
I know there are a lot of cloudy water threads, and I think I understand the typical root causes. But I have mostly seen cloudy water anecdotes in combination with low/falling PH, and yet my PH has been climbing.
PH is now at 8.4, up from about 8.0 a week ago when this started. The water has become very cloudy/milky over the last week or so. I don't believe it is microbubbles - cloudiness did not go away during an hour long quiet pump period. I figured it was a bacterial bloom which is no big deal, but the climbing PH is puzzling. I think maybe some kind of precipitation issue? I admit I don't fully understand this or know how to solve it.
Relatively new to the hobby, but have done a lot of research and things have been going pretty well until this point. *I don't dose anything*, use filter floss, and added carbon to try and combat the cloudiness with no impact. Small skimmer, good pod population, small ball of chaeto. Details on the tank:
~4 months old, 2" sandbed, Reefer 170.
2 clowns, a BTA, a starry blenny, and a cleaner shrimp. various snails/hermits
several small/frag LPS including a goni, frogspawn, alveopora, and a couple SPS.
All inhabitants are doing great, in fact i daresay they look even better since this cloudiness has begun. Everyone full extended/open all day, shrimp doing his thing, fish are happy and the clowns are mostly bonded with the BTA.
Parameters:
Phos - 0.09
Nitrate - 9.5
Calcium - 530
Alk - 9.1
Mg - not tested
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Temp - 79 f
Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.4 and climbing, after many, many stable weeks right at 8.0. Measured with Hydros probe
I change about 25% water every 2 weeks, including this last weekend which only made the cloudiness worse, if anything. Using Red Sea Coral Pro recently, though I started the tank with Aquaforest until I ran out. All params have been incredibly stable - I was testing daily until recently since it was kind of a waste, and now I test every 2-3 days. I noticed PH rising via my Hydros4 probe. Virtually no algae so far except I think the beginning of some coralline that I seeded a couple months ago.
Anyway - it's the rising PH that really seems strange. I don't mind waiting out a bacterial bloom or whatever, but have a feeling now that maybe it is something else...?
2 weeks ago:
Today:
Thanks for any insight!
I know there are a lot of cloudy water threads, and I think I understand the typical root causes. But I have mostly seen cloudy water anecdotes in combination with low/falling PH, and yet my PH has been climbing.
PH is now at 8.4, up from about 8.0 a week ago when this started. The water has become very cloudy/milky over the last week or so. I don't believe it is microbubbles - cloudiness did not go away during an hour long quiet pump period. I figured it was a bacterial bloom which is no big deal, but the climbing PH is puzzling. I think maybe some kind of precipitation issue? I admit I don't fully understand this or know how to solve it.
Relatively new to the hobby, but have done a lot of research and things have been going pretty well until this point. *I don't dose anything*, use filter floss, and added carbon to try and combat the cloudiness with no impact. Small skimmer, good pod population, small ball of chaeto. Details on the tank:
~4 months old, 2" sandbed, Reefer 170.
2 clowns, a BTA, a starry blenny, and a cleaner shrimp. various snails/hermits
several small/frag LPS including a goni, frogspawn, alveopora, and a couple SPS.
All inhabitants are doing great, in fact i daresay they look even better since this cloudiness has begun. Everyone full extended/open all day, shrimp doing his thing, fish are happy and the clowns are mostly bonded with the BTA.
Parameters:
Phos - 0.09
Nitrate - 9.5
Calcium - 530
Alk - 9.1
Mg - not tested
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Temp - 79 f
Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.4 and climbing, after many, many stable weeks right at 8.0. Measured with Hydros probe
I change about 25% water every 2 weeks, including this last weekend which only made the cloudiness worse, if anything. Using Red Sea Coral Pro recently, though I started the tank with Aquaforest until I ran out. All params have been incredibly stable - I was testing daily until recently since it was kind of a waste, and now I test every 2-3 days. I noticed PH rising via my Hydros4 probe. Virtually no algae so far except I think the beginning of some coralline that I seeded a couple months ago.
Anyway - it's the rising PH that really seems strange. I don't mind waiting out a bacterial bloom or whatever, but have a feeling now that maybe it is something else...?
2 weeks ago:
Today:
Thanks for any insight!