Milky/cloudy water

[Ice Man]

Two to three days after PWC water in my 30g FOWLR start to look a bit cloudy, just like adding some milk to it. Fish tank has been cycled and running since July 4th. There is 40lb of live rock and 40lb of dry rock, 20lb of fine aragonite and 20lb of course aragonite. 10gallon refugium with deep sand bed and macro algae and 4 mangroves. HOB protein skimmer powered by rio 600 pump. Live stock:
2 ocellaris clowns
1 fire fish
2 peppermint shrimps
1 cleaner skunk shrimp
1 Astrea snail
1 emerald crab
1 brittle star
12 blue leg hermits
4 scarlet hermits
2 red leg hermits
1 thin stripe hermit
30 dwarf cerith snails
5 dwarf planaxis snails
10 nerite snailsp
1 fuzzy chiton.
I added cuc to controls massive hair algae outbreak. They took care of it in 48 hours and it was then when water started to be cloudy. I noticed thin stripe hermit "pooping" white substance out of his shell. I looked like cloud of dust. So, can cloudy water be caused by too many inverts? Or is it substrate making my water cloudy? I use 2 power heads, one Aqueon 700 and Aqueon 500 (temporally replaced with azoo powerhead). I am not seeing any sand to be lifted up. Even when powerheads were turned off for 12 hours, it didn't make any difference.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

What are your water params? That's a hefty crew for a 30 gallon IMO, and that rock looks extremely dense, if so could have really took away some water due to displacement...

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Plus it's better to figure out why you are having a hair algae issue instead of a CUC to put a band aid on it. You could have high phosphate numbers that caused the algae bloom..

 

[Ice Man]

Plus it's better to figure out why you are having a hair algae issue instead of a CUC to put a band aid on it. You could have high phosphate numbers that caused the algae bloom..

Phosphates and Nitrates are at 0!

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

What about ammonia and nitrites??

 

[Ice Man]

What about ammonia and nitrites??

Ammonia and nitrates are at 0.

 

[ccCapt]

I added cuc to controls massive hair algae outbreak. They took care of it in 48 hours and it was then when water started to be cloudy.

They ate the algae, but all they are doing is recycling the nutrients in the form of their poop. They are just removing one form and adding another. My guess would be a bacterial bloom is making your water look cloudy.

 

[Ice Man]

They ate the algae, but all they are doing is recycling the nutrients in the form of their poop. They are just removing one form and adding another. My guess would be a bacterial bloom is making your water look cloudy.

I have never seen white bacteria bloom. I will do some research about it.
If it is bacteria bloom, would uv sterilizer help?

 

[ccCapt]

The answer is in your signature. Do more water changes.

 

[reefrunner69]

You can wait it out, once whatever they are eating is gone they will die off. Since it appears to be a waterchange that sparked the bloom, i would hesitate to do more as there seems to have been a catalyst in the last pwc. FWIW, I've never seen a bacterial bloom that wasn't white

 

[Ice Man]

The answer is in your signature. Do more water changes.

I do about 30% once a week.

 

[ganiel]

Is your skimmer working well? I can imagine your skimmer getting crazy with all this cloudiness. Do you have filter sock in your sump's inlet?

 

[Ice Man]

Is your skimmer working well? I can imagine your skimmer getting crazy with all this cloudiness. Do you have filter sock in your sump's inlet?

Skimmer is working overtime. I have to empty collection cup every day. Instead of sock I got flat floss filter in my sump. It is DIY sump.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

How does your macroalgae look? If it's transparent you have your culprit. If not... humm, we'll go from there.

 

[Ice Man]

How does your macroalgae look? If it's transparent you have your culprit. If not... humm, we'll go from there.

Hmmm Chaeto looks good. For first few weeks it grew like crazy but now it's slow down.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Hmmm Chaeto looks good. For first few weeks it grew like crazy but now it's slow down.

Oh, it's cheato. That doesn't usually spawn like some macroalgae. Not the cause then. I've had other types of plants that would go sexual and cloud up the tank from time to time.

It may be snails spawning. If so it's harmless. Just do a water change and freshen up your carbon. In a day it should clear up if that's the case.

 

[Ice Man]

Oh, it's cheato. That doesn't usually spawn like some macroalgae. Not the cause then. I've had other types of plants that would go sexual and cloud up the tank from time to time.

It may be snails spawning. If so it's harmless. Just do a water change and freshen up your carbon. In a day it should clear up if that's the case.

I don't have carbon there yet! I will put some in the morning and see how it goes.

 

[Ice Man]

This morning water was more cloudy. I didn't put carbon yet. Planning 50% PWC in the evening.