Yucky water

[Brittany Marie]

im not really sure what’s going on. Tank had been perfect and now I have to scrape the green off the glass everyday...and the water seems off. There’s a definite film of green/brown algae. But everything is in order. My parameters temp:78. NO3: 0, cal: 523, Dkh: 11.5

Why is my water so dirty

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Are you missing fish?
Are all the large snails accounted for ?
And food changes in the last week or so?
How are the sump or filters looking ? I was having issues a while ago and it turned out to be the chato had become compacted and was dying off pretty fast.

 

[Brittany Marie]

Are you missing fish?
Are all the large snails accounted for ?
And food changes in the last week or so?
How are the sump or filters looking ? I was having issues a while ago and it turned out to be the chato had become compacted and was dying off pretty fast.

No fish missing. All larrge snails and hermits accounted for. Same feeding. New filter media(nitrate pad, carbon pad, floss, and chemi pure blue) last weekend, and cleaned protein skimmer. I thought it was from sunlight coming in from a nearby window, so I covered with window last week. I’m going to inspect the socks this evening...when I target fed last night and pulled my arm out, I had specs of brown (algae?) all over my arm. I don’t know im at a loss

 

[JoshH]

Pictures atall?

 

[Brittany Marie]

Pictures atall?

I don’t. I’ll take a few this evening

 

[Brittany Marie]

I’m going to re test as well

 

[Brittany Marie]

Alright so just re test.
PO4: 0.14 ppm
Alk: 10.7 dkh
Cal: 544 ppm
pH: 8.3
NO3: 2 ppm
Temp: 77.4 F
Spacific Gravity: 1.025

 

[Brittany Marie]

I used the white cup to show the particles that are on the water’s surface. The green on the glass is just from today

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Weird. It’s like you had a phytoplankton bloom.

 

[Brittany Marie]

Weird. It’s like you had a phytoplankton bloom.

Ha right! Nothing is dying. My corals are honestly looking the best they ever have. The water doesn’t have a smell to it. I don’t get it. I think im going to take a few samples into my internship on friday and have at it with testing

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ha right! Nothing is dying. My corals are honestly looking the best they ever have. The water doesn’t have a smell to it. I don’t get it. I think im going to take a few samples into my internship on friday and have at it with testing

That would be cool!

 

[Brittany Marie]

Hmmmm I cam get sediments and water samples on the gas chromatographer and look at the CH4 (I have been wondering that because I’ve lost 3 very healthy diamond gobys) I can test water on the ion chromatographer for Cl and SO4....

Because all of my tests seem fine to me. I don’t dose anything else so i don’t know what else to test

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hmmmm I cam get sediments and water samples on the gas chromatographer and look at the CH4 (I have been wondering that because I’ve lost 3 very healthy diamond gobys) I can test water on the ion chromatographer for Cl and SO4....

Because all of my tests seem fine to me. I don’t dose anything else so i don’t know what else to test

It honestly could just be a bloom.
May never happen again.

Most greens imo , are due to an ammoina , thus a nitrate, spike.

 

[Brittany Marie]

It honestly could just be a bloom.
May never happen again.

Most greens imo , are due to an ammoina , thus a nitrate, spike.

You’re probably right. Im still going to do sediment tests in the lab, because those gobys are still bothering me. 3 healthy fish, tore up the sand, looked happy, then kicked it. (Not recently, just venting) lol

 

[pecan2phat]

I see this happen to new tanks sometimes, it's like a green water bloom in a pond. Don't know why but I suspect when this happens to an established tank (not newly setup), it could be a mini cycle to the bio-filter, silicate leaching into the makeup water. Doesn't matter how many water changes you do, it usually does not help and then after x-amount of days or weeks, it's back to normal again.

 

[Brittany Marie]

I see this happen to new tanks sometimes, it's like a green water bloom in a pond. Don't know why but I suspect when this happens to an established tank (not newly setup), it could be a mini cycle to the bio-filter, silicate leaching into the makeup water. Doesn't matter how many water changes you do, it usually does not help and then after x-amount of days or weeks, it's back to normal again.

Hmm okay. I still consider my tank new, only 7 months. But I get what you’re saying, it’s not thay new setup cycle. It just baffles me that there’s all this green, but nothing really reflects it in my readings ‍ I’m sure I’ll find something interesting at the lab...im getting a methane instinct