Hazy tank

[mrg02d]

Hello all,
I have noticed that over the course of a week, my new 7.5g pico tank has become hazy. There is just this haze in the tank. At first glance, it looks like the glass needs cleaning, but a closer look shows its the water itself.

I added carbon yesterday and the haziness hasnt gotten better at all. I added some GFO today.

Im wondering what could cause a haziness that carbon cannot cleanup? Maybe I am overfeeding? I add a pinch formula 1 pellets every other day for my two sexy shrimp and add some nori for the tailspot blenny. I did go a little overboard adding pellets trying to see if the blenny would eat them. (Algae blocks and nori are messy!)

Could my lights be fueling some sort of bacteria bloom? Its a 12 led light I made with 6 cool white xr-e and 6 royal blue. I have the whites on at 30% for about 8 hours and the blues on at 70% for about 10hours.

Ive never had haze in a tank before...any ideas?

Matt

 

[melosu58]

What are your water test results? Sometimes ammonia spikes cause hazy water. Overfeeding could do it also.

 

[mrg02d]

Hello,
The only things that stand out are:
Nitrates at 10-15ppm
Alkalinity at 12dKH

Ammonia and nitrites are zero.
pH is 8.2

I need to test calcium.

Temp stays constant at 78F
Salinity is 1.025

Maybe it was the overfeeding...I will back off on the feeding some. I am just suprised to see the haze is carbon resistant.

Matt

 

[Jimbo7]

Try some filter material in a high flow area. Carbon is great, but for particulates i usually have more success with a simple filter pad.

 

[mrg02d]

Hello,
Tank looks to be clearing today. I read up about bacteria blooms and immediately sucked all detritus off my sandbed. Then I wake up to a clear tank.

Turns out there is this other type of bacteria related to the nitrifying kind we love that breaks nutrients down into ammonia. Since they would rather eat ammonia, they then go nuts on the ammonia. They reproduce every 15-20mins while the kind we love takes over 24 hours. So PWC do not help unless they suck out detritus too.

Remove the detritus and there goes the bacteria bloom. I need some critters to eat detritus. That blenny is a messy eater. He wants his food to soak, then break up into tiny pieces that go everywhere! Its too bad my sexy shrimp wont go clean up. At least the porcelain crab sits back and does his thing.

Any good detrivores for a pico tank?
Matt