Super cloudy water for days

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

Hey guys, I can't figure this out or clear it up.

Had my tank cleaner here Tuesday he did a waterchange and cleaned the tank. It's always a little cloudy for at least an afternoon after a cleaning. This time was a little different though, I asked him to bring a soft toothbrush and brush all of the alge off the rocks because it was caked on pretty gnarly.. (had a previous post about the alge and why it was getting so bad in such a short period of time) other than scrubbing the rocks off nothing about this cleaning was different.

The next morning (wednesday) my wife and I noticed our elegance was dead and decaying on half of its body. So, RIP we took it out. The water was still cloudy, hadnt really subsided from the cleaning. The next morning (2 days later, thursday) I noticed one of our rock flower anemones looking funny and kinda colorless. Tried to remove it and it balled up pretty good and wasn't having it so I left it alone. We had 2. That evening the water was still cloudy and I couldn't stop thinking about the rock flower anemones possibly dying and causing this plus poisoning my other corals so I went to work and finally got them both out. It was not easy.

Here we are Saturday morning and the water is still not cleared up. Everything is within parameters.

Calcium-420
Magnesium-1290
Alkalinity-10.2
Nitrates- 0
Phosphates- 0

We have 2 clowns, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 royal gamma, I diamond goby, 1 hippo tang. Tang and goby are the largest both just under 2 inches. Everything else is smaller. Cleaner shrimp are probably full grown. 125G tank. Been established 3 months almost to the day.

Before anyone says feed more, I give them either a half or a full frozen brine shrimp cube daily. All of the corals are going strong, zoas and Duncan's are growing. Acopora is even growing so I know I'm not starving anything. We also spot feed at least once a week.

Can anyone tell me what they think? I've read maybe alge bloom or bacteria bloom or corals spawning but I think I've ruled out corals spawning, not sure how that could happen. I've attached quite a few pics in different lighting to show how cloudy it is

SPR1968 · Jan 13, 2024

Have you got mechanical filtration in the system or filter wool/skimmer to remove it all. It should normally clear it within a few hours

Maybe try fine filter socks/wool to pull it all out as it looks like the cleaning has released a lot of debris

Assume the toothbrush was a new one as well and not used for something else……

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

We have carbon pads and ceramic little circles and extra carbon pads. Don't think the filter was addressed with the last cleaning. He's coming today to do that with another water change.

Toothbrush was new, I saw him pull it out of the packaging. I don't have a filter sock currently on there, we converted our freshwater tank so instead of using a sump we have a big fluuval filter and so far it's been great. I'm in the process of building a 200G with a sump to transfer it all to. But that's probably a month or two out from completion.

SPR1968 · Jan 13, 2024

saltnewbie101 said:
We have carbon pads and ceramic little circles and extra carbon pads. Don't think the filter was addressed with the last cleaning. He's coming today to do that with another water change.

Toothbrush was new, I saw him pull it out of the packaging. I don't have a filter sock currently on there, we converted our freshwater tank so instead of using a sump we have a big fluuval filter and so far it's been great. I'm in the process of building a 200G with a sump to transfer it all to. But that's probably a month or two out from completion.

You could try water changes to get rid of some of it, but ideally you need to run it through some mechanical filtration media to clear the water up, although I understand the situation

You could even do something fairly basic like just running the water through filter wool in a bucket and then back into the tank. Not ideal but just a quick idea…..

SWFT · Jan 13, 2024

Do you have a UV set up? If not, I would set it up asap. It could be the bacterial bloom from all that cleaning and disturbing the substrate/rocks.

ryanjohn1 · Jan 13, 2024

100% it’s not just film on glass?

Dom · Jan 13, 2024

saltnewbie101 said:
Hey guys, I can't figure this out or clear it up.

Had my tank cleaner here Tuesday he did a waterchange and cleaned the tank. It's always a little cloudy for at least an afternoon after a cleaning. This time was a little different though, I asked him to bring a soft toothbrush and brush all of the alge off the rocks because it was caked on pretty gnarly.. (had a previous post about the alge and why it was getting so bad in such a short period of time) other than scrubbing the rocks off nothing about this cleaning was different.

The next morning (wednesday) my wife and I noticed our elegance was dead and decaying on half of its body. So, RIP we took it out. The water was still cloudy, hadnt really subsided from the cleaning. The next morning (2 days later, thursday) I noticed one of our rock flower anemones looking funny and kinda colorless. Tried to remove it and it balled up pretty good and wasn't having it so I left it alone. We had 2. That evening the water was still cloudy and I couldn't stop thinking about the rock flower anemones possibly dying and causing this plus poisoning my other corals so I went to work and finally got them both out. It was not easy.

Here we are Saturday morning and the water is still not cleared up. Everything is within parameters.

Calcium-420
Magnesium-1290
Alkalinity-10.2
Nitrates- 0
Phosphates- 0

We have 2 clowns, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 royal gamma, I diamond goby, 1 hippo tang. Tang and goby are the largest both just under 2 inches. Everything else is smaller. Cleaner shrimp are probably full grown. 125G tank. Been established 3 months almost to the day.

Before anyone says feed more, I give them either a half or a full frozen brine shrimp cube daily. All of the corals are going strong, zoas and Duncan's are growing. Acopora is even growing so I know I'm not starving anything. We also spot feed at least once a week.

Can anyone tell me what they think? I've read maybe alge bloom or bacteria bloom or corals spawning but I think I've ruled out corals spawning, not sure how that could happen. I've attached quite a few pics in different lighting to show how cloudy it is

That is a bacterial infection. I would clean all sponges and other methods of mechanical filtration in OLD tank water and replace.

Looks worse than it is.

Clean the filters and install a UV light. It should clear up in a week or less.

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

I don't have any UV set up, I've thought about doing it though.. Hopefully the water change will help a little today. I'll have him address the filter, maybe replace the carbon pads.

Definitely no buildup on the glass, wiped it down yesterday just to clear my mind of that.

If I'm running this fluuval filter, where would I put the UV?

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

What I also find to be extremely strange is how the lighting effects this.

Using the full RGB spectrum the water clears up a little bit but as soon as I take it to blue only its gets worse. Is that just the lights deceiving my eyes or will the lighting add to or diminish the bacterial infection?

SWFT · Jan 13, 2024

saltnewbie101 said:
I don't have any UV set up, I've thought about doing it though.. Hopefully the water change will help a little today. I'll have him address the filter, maybe replace the carbon pads.

Definitely no buildup on the glass, wiped it down yesterday just to clear my mind of that.

If I'm running this fluuval filter, where would I put the UV?

The easiest is to have the UV run with its own pump so that you can control the flow. You can plump the UV into the main return but will require additional valves to get the flow just right. In either case, having UV is better than no UV during a bacterial bloom.

Brs goes into more detail here: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/adding-a-uv-sterilizer-to-your-reef-tank-can-be-easy

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

Great video very helpful.. thank you for that. Now to figure out where and how to plumb it all up.

ScottJ · Jan 13, 2024

Do you have any mechanical filter material (sponge, filter pad, floss) in that canister? +1 on the UV. Also, what are you using for lights?

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

ScottJ said:
Do you have any mechanical filter material (sponge, filter pad, floss) in that canister? +1 on the UV. Also, what are you using for lights?

There are carbon pads, the ones it came with and we've added some extras. There is also some ceramic rings in there, two levels of the ceramic rings and 6 carbon pads.

(3) 165W philizon lights. Super strong, at full power RGB I get 600+ par at the top and 450 at the bottom so I can't use full power full spectrum. 100% blues I get 165 PAR at the top and 85 at the bottom. Picture of the lights attached.

raulyacoub · Jan 13, 2024

Big water change
Carbon and Uv filter

OceanMinded · Jan 13, 2024

Bacterial bloom. It will go away on its own. Water changes should be enough. It was for me anyway

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

Are these little white fuzz looking things on the glass bacteria? Been seeing it for like a week or two. I clean it off and it comes back.

ScottJ · Jan 13, 2024

saltnewbie101 said:
There are carbon pads, the ones it came with and we've added some extras. There is also some ceramic rings in there, two levels of the ceramic rings and 6 carbon pads.

(3) 165W philizon lights. Super strong, at full power RGB I get 600+ par at the top and 450 at the bottom so I can't use full power full spectrum. 100% blues I get 165 PAR at the top and 85 at the bottom. Picture of the lights attached.

Some floss type media as the first stage of your filter wouldn't hurt. Just make sure to clean it/change it out every couple days. They are marine lights, not FW, right?

Also, a 3 month tank is still a baby. It's going to go through a lot of changes as it matures.

saltnewbie101 · Jan 13, 2024

They are marine lights. Meant for coral aquariums or at least the documentation on them says so. But out of curiosity, what are FW lights?

I don't know about the floss media, I think I'll pass on that. I don't have the time to change it every couple of days honestly.

Dom · Jan 13, 2024

saltnewbie101 said:
I don't have any UV set up, I've thought about doing it though.. Hopefully the water change will help a little today. I'll have him address the filter, maybe replace the carbon pads.

Definitely no buildup on the glass, wiped it down yesterday just to clear my mind of that.

If I'm running this fluuval filter, where would I put the UV?

Canister filter? The filter media inside the filter probably has a bacterial infection. I would suggest increasing the frequency of cleaning to once weekly.

You don't have to continuously run a UV (although I do), you can borrow one and run it in your tank for a week.

If you continue with a canister filter, you would have to plumb your UV into the system. My UV sits on the floor of my sump.