Venting, I messed up my tank when I knew better

[SakuraSky]

So I guess the whole point of this post is to vent (and maybe provide knowledge if someone happens to read it and can learn from it too) as I'm pretty sure I'm doing everything I can already ;Nailbiting
I have a 90g established FOWLR tank. I wanted to amp up my filtration so I added some Brightwell aquatics Xport Bio blocks months ago. I had them in my sump ontop of the bioballs. They worked great until they started crumbling into the bottom of my sump. I was worried they were going to clog and ruin my eflux pump as they were deteriorating rapidly. I had 2 bottles of MATRIX in 4 bags pre seeding overnight to added in replace of the blocks.
WELL..... I was dumb (and even though I TOTALLY know better ....what was I thinking???)
I took out all the blocks and into the trash they went and put the seeded matrix in its place. I also dosed the tank with stability. Should have done 1 or 2 at a time but lol why not just throw them all out??? *eye roll*
Well then my tank started getting cloudy. UH oh. My mistake was coming to bite me.
I have a biopellet reactor and that helps the cycle a bit.
Water tested 1.0ppm nitrites. No ammonia, nitrate 30ppms (which is fine) 25 g water change.
2 weeks later I am still reading .8ppm nitrites, its going down but they water is still cloudy.
I run purigen and chemi pure blue too but the cloudy water is driving me nuts. I just ordered a gallon of stability and am going to dose daily for a week to see it that helps get the bacteria up more quickly since I removed a lot. I'm impatient. I realize this will go away on its own eventually. But I've got new fish on order before this happened.
I am already dosing prime for my fishes, they seem good and keep doing water changes.
But. Ug. What a setback.

 

[stanlalee]

This is exactly why I use matrix instead of bio blocks and similar fragile media. They may have superior surface area but they don't last.
I'm not sure how cloudiness is related beyond stirring stuff up taking them out. Usually bacteria blooms cause cloudiness not the other way around. If no fish died I see no need to do anything except use ammonia detoxifier if your getting ammonia readings. I don't even think removing the bio blocks at once in an "established" 90 gallon is an issue (you said you had bioballs and more importantly I assume you have the WLR in the FOWLR). If there was a mistake it was the one day seeding. Need more time than that to seed media effectively.

 

[dhnguyen]

Your skimmer should take care of that cloudiness in no time. Unless of course you are running skimmerless.
Why did you use the bio blocks in the first place? Your LR not doing their job?

 

[SakuraSky]

This is exactly why I use matrix instead of bio blocks and similar fragile media. They may have superior surface area but they don't last.
I'm not sure how cloudiness is related beyond stirring stuff up taking them out. Usually bacteria blooms cause cloudiness not the other way around. If no fish died I see no need to do anything except use ammonia detoxifier if your getting ammonia readings. I don't even think removing the bio blocks at once in an "established" 90 gallon is an issue (you said you had bioballs and more importantly I assume you have the WLR in the FOWLR). If there was a mistake it was the one day seeding. Need more time than that to seed media effectively.

I read after the fact about the blocks crumbling, which, was also dumb of me too. I should have just gone with matrix from the start, but yes they do have an amazing bio surface! I do not have ammonia, only nitrite. Which was the first indicator of a mini cycle going on, but at the same time, you could be right too. It might just be a bacteria bloom! Which...is a good thing? lol. I don't HAVE to use the stability. I ordered it because well I do like using it from time to time as I have 3 other tanks as well and although they don't need it, it's good to have on hand when an emergency happens or starting a new tank.
Also I should have said I seeded the matrix for 5 days....not overnight, I did seed overnight but forgot to add into my post I left them in the bucket for 5 days after lol
And yes I do have live rock too. But I removed 6 bioblocks that were heavy with bacteria, that was the only change to the tank. But thanks for mentioning that a bacteria spike can cause cloudiness too... forgot about that.

 

[dhnguyen]

if it's a bacterial bloom (likely it is) make sure you have plenty of flow and water is well aerated. Bacterial blooms can cause oxygen level to drop drastically. Do you have a protein skimmer? Besides taking out DOC, a skimmer is also very useful for oxygenating the water.

 

[SakuraSky]

Your skimmer should take care of that cloudiness in no time. Unless of course you are running skimmerless.
Why did you use the bio blocks in the first place? Your LR not doing their job?

I have a good skimmer, hasn't really helped at all with the cloudiness!
I use the bio blocks because I have a very heavy bioload. It helps keep the nitrates down. I have large fish that are messy and the bioballs/liverock just weren't cutting it.

 

[Rrb1399]

Usually my uv light will clear that up you could give that a try .most likely a bacterial bloom

 

[dhnguyen]

The bioballs are the reasons your nitrate is so high. I'd get rid of them.
They're detritus trap and nitrate factory.

 

[Dolphins18]

Curious if your PO4 is high
Doubt nitrates is the cause of cloudiness, ive seen crystal clear Fish only systems with 100+ nitrates

 

[SakuraSky]

if it's a bacterial bloom (likely it is) make sure you have plenty of flow and water is well aerated. Bacterial blooms can cause oxygen level to drop drastically. Do you have a protein skimmer? Besides taking out DOC, a skimmer is also very useful for oxygenating the water.

Yes thank you (another person mentioned it too) about the bacteria bloom! I totally forgot that bacteria blooms can cause cloudy water too. I've got good flow and a good skimmer.

 

[Rrb1399]

True bio balls have been hit or miss for me over the years

 

[SakuraSky]

The bioballs are the reasons your nitrate is so high. I'd get rid of them.
They're detritus trap and nitrate factory.

Well...there's kinda a backstory with the nitrates lol. In short, transported tank that was poorly maintained with VERY large messy fish too large for the tank. 7" of crushed coral and only bio balls. The nitrates were over 300ppms .I've since reduced the coral bed by 80lbs so I can vac it better. I've added a bio pellet reactor. I've since gotten the nitrites down to 30ppms. With good water changes and maintenance. I rehomed the larger fish. But I do keep a heavy bioload anyway.
I've honestly had a plan for getting rid of them. Just haven't planned out what I'm going to put in their place just yet.

 

[SakuraSky]

True bio balls have been hit or miss for me over the years

Yeah I've done my fair research on how people do with them and I eventually want to get rid of them. Just haven't done it yet. They came pretty established with the tank when I got it.

 

[SakuraSky]

Curious if your PO4 is high
Doubt nitrates is the cause of cloudiness, ive seen crystal clear Fish only systems with 100+ nitrates

Well it's the nitrites that had a little spike. My nitrates were MUCH higher a few months ago and I had crystal clear water also. My PO4 is 1.0 so it's a bit high but it's been at that reading for a long time when the tank was clear too

 

[SakuraSky]

I actually didn't think I would get that much feedback on my tank issue, so thanks! Helps a lot!
Well I feel better that it's probably more of a bacteria bloom than an actual cycling problem (or maybe a combination of the two) removing the bio blocks definitely did something. Guess I'll just do a few more 25g water changes. Not sure if I should add the stability now. Probably not. But I have in anyway. My skimmer is quite decent and I've got an extra power head in there right now so I'm glad that will help.

 

[SakuraSky]

Usually my uv light will clear that up you could give that a try .most likely a bacterial bloom

I've never needed to use a UV sterilizer so I don't have one. :/

 

[SakuraSky]

My hawkfish hasn't eaten in over a week, tank is still kinda cloudy from bacteria, water changes aren't helping so I went ahead and order an aqua UV 25w sterilizer for the tank. I hope to God the pump I ordered fits in my sump, lol cause I'm out of room in there. But can't wait to not worry about bacteria blooms and it'll probably help with the algae too.