Cycled but still cloudy water

[Scoot]

Did a 30% PWC yesterday, still haven't gotten over the perpetually cloudy water. Its white, and look like little thunderstorm clouds, when viewed from the bottom looking up. In other words, the cloudiness is specifically visible when you look at it with a light source behind it, not just consistently whitish water (does that make sense).

Full-sized photo here, which shows the cloudiness much better.
http://usera.imagecave.com/Scott/Fish/DSC00242.JPG

I'm running AC, which has been replaced in the last week or so, I vacuumed the sand with the PWC yesterday, ammonia is at 0 (was 0.25 yesterday), nitrites are 0 to 0.25 (can't quite tell), nitrate around 10ppm. SG is right at 1.022, where I always keep it. I think there was a bit of an ammonia jump after adding two anthias this weekend.

pH is low - back down to 7.8. It was 8.0 when the cycle finished, had been low all through the cycle.

I'm running a dual bio-wheel HOB filter. The filter cartridges have been rinsed in tank water after the PWC.

My cyano and algea problem has vanished since the cycle wrapped up (algea started dying off just before it finished, and I think my turbo snails have cleaned up most of the cyano).

I'm thinking about getting some "chemi-pure" which I've seen mentioned here a lot.

I have a hard time with the charcoal in the filter cartridge, it I have to rinse it like heck to get all the little chunks out, and even then, a little of it still seems to get out of the cartidge box. I'm using Black Diamond AC from Marineland, but it doesn't seem to be clearing up the water any more (it did have some effect during the cycle). I tried overnight running some of it in nylons (new, rinsed in SW), and it seemed to have no effect, things were actually worse this morning.

Can't think of anything else to offer for info.

 

[dskidmore]

This tank just finished cycling?

How much are you feeding the fish?

Have you started a PWC routine yet? What is it?

I'm guessing:
Since you just finished your cycle, many of the required bacteria are still floating in the water instead of colonized on surfaces. This will pass with time. It is also possible that your PWC method is allowing insoluable particles into the tank.

 

[Scoot]

Finished cycling about 4-5 days ago.

Barely feeding - just what they'll eat in 30-60 seconds, and then a bit more. Pretty consciensous about overfeeding.

Anything that does make it to the floor is caught by the cleaner shrimp or arrow crab. They're pigs.

Did a 30% change Sunday. It was cloudy before the PWC. Didn't change the cloudiness a bit. Maybe a hair worse. Will plan to do 20% every 2 weeks. With 75g I just don't have the ability to pre-condition much more than that at a time (or the space to put all that water).

The cloudiness faded, a bit, about halfway through the cycle, but came back in the last 3 or 4 days pretty strongly.

Its a very milky cloudy look. When you look at the tank from a distance (10 feet), its like looking through a photo filter they use on hollywood starlets to hide the blemishes Very soft and fuzzy looking.

I've got a bag of zorb in one side of my HOB filter, and a nice big bag of AC in the other.

My LPS suggested a sump - that I won't get crystal clear water, or very high water quality with a HOB (dual bio-wheel emperor 400 with separate AC and flossy filter cartridges). Maybe that's so, but seems like I should be able to get "decent" water, and some level of clarity.

 

[dskidmore]

It's good to hear you're pre-conditioning your water. I assume you mean mixing it up the day before and letting it ciculate? Not pouring that precipitate in the bottom of the buckets into the aquarium? If storage of the water is an issue, you might switch to 10% weekly instead of 20% every two weeks.

A sump in and of itself won't do much for water clarity, but it will provide a good place to put a high quality protien skimmer and a refugium, both of which could help. If you don't want to go for the sump right away, you could try a HOB skimmer.

Is there much live rock in this tank?

I still think patience might cure your problem, but it certianly couldn't hurt to get a skimmer in there, either HOB or in a sump.

If fresh carbon doesn't help any, then you're looking at particulates, not chemicals. You could try a finer floss cartridge as a stopgap measure, but it will likely clog frequently, and you don't want to deal with that on a regular basis.

 

[Scoot]

Yeah, water is mixed a day ahead - and there's only about 13 pounds of LR - I'm adding more this month. I siphon all but the last inch or so into the tank.

I can do almost 20% ahead of time (that's how big the biggest container I have is) pretty easily.

Are flocculants (floc, as its called for my swimming pool) safe or recommended?

 

[roka64]

I bought a big container at Wla-Mart for like $5. Actually I bought two, one to pre mix and the other to remove from the tank.....I pre mix it in the container the day before, in my back bathtub.
I have to clean my PH because the lime and Ca buildup is huge, since I am on well water!

 

[dskidmore]

Are flocculants (floc, as its called for my swimming pool) safe or recommended?

Not really. They do sell some in the aquarium trade, but they can have detrimental effects on some sensitive organisims.

Do you have sand for a substrate?

 

[Scoot]

Yeah - about 2.5 to 3 inches.

Its been thoroughly vac'd a couple times, very little dust comes up when I move something on the bottom.

Still cloudy today - maybe a tiny bit better.

When you look up at the tank from below, it looks like a mist coming down. My circulation with the PH and HOB filter moves water across the top from back to front, then down the front, and the back along the bottom, so what you see in front is a down-drifting of the "mist".

Could it just be a bacterial bloom from adding a couple fish after the cycle completed?

 

[dskidmore]

It could be. I'd just sit tight for a week before doing anything drastic.

 

[Scoot]

It cleared up overnight quite a bit. You can still see a mist, almost like a fog in there, mostly when looking up towards the light. But its much better today.