Tank got super green and murky almost instantly. What was it?

exalectric

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Hi guys, so this one seems super weird to me. Hoping you have insights.

I walked downstairs this morning to my bowl tank, and the water was a little cloudy. I normally do my 30% water change every Friday, but decided since it was a little murky I would just do it a day early. I wish I got a picture of the murkiness before starting a water change, but I wasn’t expecting this result. So for description sake it was maybe a touch more clear than the second photo.

So as I’m draining my standard 5gallons out I notice the tank getting darker and darker and I couldn’t even see the zoas about 2inches from the tank wall anymore. If I didn’t see it with my own eyeballs I’m not sure i would think that can happen? But anyways I go fill a 5gallon bucket of newly mixed saltwater from the mixing station and when I get to the other room where the tank is, my clownfish is now laying on the bottom of the tank gasping for air. (He’s the only fish resident) Thankfully there’s a quarantine tank set up nearby that didn’t have any residents at the moment so I transferred clownie to it and he seems totally fine in there.

After all that, now the water is insanely dark green (the first picture where the tank is half full) so I said what the heck and drained almost all the water from the tank leaving about 2inches at the bottom for my emerald crab and peppermint shrimps to hang out in. I cleaned the canister filter out, vacuumed the sand bed, and refilled the tank with new saltwater. Which brings us to the current state photo, where it’s still cloudier than when I started this whole adventure. The emerald crab and peppermints seem to have survived the event unscathed. And the clown is still in the spare setup because I’m afraid to return him until I know what happened.

I did save some of the gross green water I took out and ran tests on it. The ammonia is higher than I would like but everything else seems pretty much the same as usual. I still have the water if there’s something else I should test it for. We use Hanna checkers for everything except alk which is nyos test kit.

Ph 8.1
Ammonia .25
Nitrite .07
Nitrate .12
Phosphate .09
Alk 8.2

The tank is a gigantic bowl that holds just under 13 gallons of water after all the rocks/sand were added. It’s running a canister filter at the moment with 30% weekly water changes. I test 2x a week and everything’s been stable. Tank is about 6 months old but was built from live rock and sand transferred out of a system running for just under 2 years. It has one clownfish, 2 peppermint shrimps, an emerald crab and less than a dozen corals.

any insight is appreciated!!!
What happened here?
How can I prevent this occurring again?
Is there anything else I should do to get the tank to clear up?
Is it safe to put the clownfish back in his home?

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1ocean

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looks like either it is the dark muck that happens when sand is stirred up from not cleaning the sand or a algae bloom.
Sorry I am just guessing here from pictures....
And since you said your clown was gasping for air, my guess is that it is a algae bloom and the algae is sucking out alot of o2 from the water...
 
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exalectric

exalectric

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looks like either it is the dark muck that happens when sand is stirred up from not cleaning the sand or a algae bloom.
Sorry I am just guessing here from pictures....
And since you said your clown was gasping for air, my guess is that it is a algae bloom and the algae is sucking out alot of o2 from the water...
It started getting darker before I even touched the sand bed but I clean it every water change. My guess was algae but I’ve just never seen them grow so instantaneously
 
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exalectric

exalectric

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Your nitrogen and phosphate numbers are an algae's dream.
It started getting darker before I even touched the sand bed but I clean it every water change. My guess was algae but I’ve just never seen them grow so instantaneously
So long term: reduce the nitrate and phosphates.
But short term? Should I do more regular water changes? Is it safe to put my clown back or will this likely happen again so suddenly? (like say later today when I have to go to work and can’t watch them)
 

shwareefer

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The fact that you have ammonia and nitrite present means your filter is not keeping up. You should likely add some Prime if you have some. Is your cannister clogged and channelling maybe? A 50% water change might be prudent. Increase internal flow in the tank and don't feed for a week. You should be able to get a good rolling flow in that tank considering it's round.
 
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exalectric

exalectric

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The fact that you have ammonia and nitrite present means your filter is not keeping up. You should likely add some Prime if you have some. Is your cannister clogged and channelling maybe? A 50% water change might be prudent. Increase internal flow in the tank and don't feed for a week. You should be able to get a good rolling flow in that tank considering it's round.
I just changed almost 100% of the water. Left 2inches at the bottom for the shrimps and crab. I did add some prime after adding the new water. I cleaned out the whole canister filter and tossed in a bag of carbon.
 

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