Tank emergency came home to cloudy water.

Mattc123

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Earliere today I added 6 new corals to my tank, two digis, one acan, one goniopora, one Stylo, and one Monti. I added them at around 1pm and they all opened almost right away. Went to work and came back at around 12:30 to extremely cloudy water but everything is alive in the tank right now. Did some water tests and the only problem I found was slightly lower pH at 7.8-8.0 and a higher Kh although I expect that to change as I just did a water change. I just got a new canister filter (the fluval 106) and I have the first stage mechanical foam blocks, second stage of some polyester stuffing fill below my bio pellets, and he third stage is in order of carbon, seachem purigen, and phosguard (just removed phosguard to put in gfo after cleaning mysterious gunk out of the filter in which picture is attached.) I'm not sure what the stuff is in the filter but I have a feeling it has something to do with the cloudiness. Please help me as I just bought these awesome corals! (Attached pics of corals is when I got them.)

23E1A6D5-B725-43E0-B323-44971D2C262D.jpeg 3A271767-8BC5-468C-B588-54318937D644.jpeg FB466E57-53E7-4548-BB1F-8AC224952D9F.jpeg
 

vetteguy53081

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Is the canister your only filter? If so- what size tank?
If you have it, add carbon to system
 

Katrina71

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You're on the right track. Water change+carbon.
 
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Mattc123

Mattc123

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Is the canister your only filter? If so- what size tank?
If you have it, add carbon to system
My canister is my only filter now and the tank is 20 gallons. I have carbon but wouldn't know exactly how to put it in the system.
 

vetteguy53081

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How do I dose carbon?
Add a cup or a little more to the canister unit. Not the best filter to use and will require frequent cleaning. Look at hang on back refugiums
 
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Mattc123

Mattc123

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Add a cup or a little more to the canister unit. Not the best filter to use and will require frequent cleaning. Look at hang on back refugiums
I have quite a big bag of it in there now is that ok? I have another bag I can just hang over the side in the aquarium if need be.
 

vetteguy53081

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If its fresh, that’s adequate
 
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Mattc123

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If its fresh, that’s adequate
Any idea what that stuff was in the filter? What could have caused such cloudiness? I was thinking the filter was sucking stuff out of say the purigen bag but I don't know if that's possible.
 

DarthSimon

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This could be a bacterial bloom. Usually they subside 24 to 48 hours.. I know you stated above your using bio pellets. Do you Dos any sort of carbon source like vodka or NoPox??
 

ScottB

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My guess is the biopellets are over-achieving, creating a bacterial bloom. I don't run biopellets as I have the opposite problem (no/low nutrient) but review the directions on the pellets for proportion (grams/gallon) and make sure you are not overdosing. (If that's a thing with pellets like it is with vodka.)

The pellets reduce PO4 and NO3 and now GFO will further remove PO4. Are you battling an algae outbreak? Are you measuring NO3 and PO4 and are they well above 0?

Anyway, as has been said, bacterial blooms typically exhaust themselves in a day or two. Carbon (GAC) and WC will help clear.

Salinity, temp, ALK all OK, right?
 

Dom

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How do I dose carbon?

I don't think of using carbon as "dosing". I think of it as a layer of mechanical filtration.

All of my tanks have Aqueon 70's. They are HOB filters. I don't keep any media in them. I let them run to add flow to the tanks. But, when the need arises, it provides me with a place to add a bag of carbon or whatever else I may need as necessary.
 
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Mattc123

Mattc123

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This could be a bacterial bloom. Usually they subside 24 to 48 hours.. I know you stated above your using bio pellets. Do you Dos any sort of carbon source like vodka or NoPox??
The cloudiness has subsided and I do not dose carbon in any way.
 
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Mattc123

Mattc123

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My guess is the biopellets are over-achieving, creating a bacterial bloom. I don't run biopellets as I have the opposite problem (no/low nutrient) but review the directions on the pellets for proportion (grams/gallon) and make sure you are not overdosing. (If that's a thing with pellets like it is with vodka.)

The pellets reduce PO4 and NO3 and now GFO will further remove PO4. Are you battling an algae outbreak? Are you measuring NO3 and PO4 and are they well above 0?

Anyway, as has been said, bacterial blooms typically exhaust themselves in a day or two. Carbon (GAC) and WC will help clear.

Salinity, temp, ALK all OK, right?

I will check the pellets now, I'm also not battling algae and my NO3 Levels and PO4 levels have not changed they are basically just over the threshold of detectable. The water has also cleared itself now. Salinity temp and ALK are all ok too but pH is a little on the low side but coming back up.
 
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Mattc123

Mattc123

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I don't think of using carbon as "dosing". I think of it as a layer of mechanical filtration.

All of my tanks have Aqueon 70's. They are HOB filters. I don't keep any media in them. I let them run to add flow to the tanks. But, when the need arises, it provides me with a place to add a bag of carbon or whatever else I may need as necessary.

I've never quite had such an emergency so I didn't quite use the right terms haha. Thanks for the tip though I'll probably do that next time is anything happens!
 

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