I Have very cloudy water....can anybody help?

[gump3842k]

I woke up today to find extremely cloudy water so i checked everything and it seemed fine. My ph is 8.2, ammonia 0,nitrite 0, and nitrate 0. I have a protein skimmer that is producing about 1/5 of the cup per day and a proquatics power filter that has a chemi-pure bag designed to make very clear water... Please advise i just put 11 margarita snails in yesterday, i have no fish, a leather toadstool, polyops, and some pumping zenias that are all doing fine. Help if you can please..TIA

 

[Atari]

Are all snails accounted for?

How old is the tank and do you use RO water?

 

[gump3842k]

All snails are accounted for except one fell of the rocks and landed upside down and i cant get to him, and i allways use RO water

 

[Atari]

You need to get to the snail or it will foul up the tank. That may be the reason there's a bloom in the water right now.

 

[gump3842k]

I just got it from behind the rock and put him on the glass he was alive and well...

 

[Atari]

In that case it could just be an algal or bacterial bloom.. has the tank been up long?

 

[SquishyFish]

Any time you have a cloud in the tank there is one major question...what color is it.

White can either be a bacteria bloom or a mild ammonia bloom

Yellow...bad ammonia

Green...Algae bloom.

The one exception to the "white" bloom is caulerpa. When it goes sexual it will turn the water white. Do we have any of that in the tank?

 

[gump3842k]

It is a very white cloudy color...and no caulerpa in the tank to tell the truth im not even sure what that is..and my tank finished cycling about 2 or 3 weeks ago

 

[SquishyFish]

I would double check your ammonia test kit. Have your LFS run an ammonia test. Do you have corals in the tank? If so, are they open?

What your describing sounds like ammonia.

Oh, Calerpa is a grassy type plant that is put into refugiums to help filter the water. You would know it if you had it...a lot of the types grow so fast they can consume a tank in a very short time.

 

[gump3842k]

My leather toadstool is open all the way with all of his polyops, and my zenia's are open and pumping strong, also all og my zoanthids are open

 

[Atari]

I'd put it down to NTS.

EDIT: Hmm there's no mouse-over explanation for that one.. New Tank Syndrome.

 

[scuba_steve]

is a toddler in the house?

 

[gump3842k]

This does kinda suck i wish i could figure this out, anyway no toddlers lol, just me and my mom and dad, and i keep them and there hands out the tank ( my dad likes to feed my fish 5 times a day to watch them eat )

 

[scuba_steve]

5x a day is your issue for sure along with no ro water !! i feed my fish only every otherday and my reef 2 times a day !! and no more than they can eat in 5 min

 

[Atari]

Overfeeding stikes again.. .. That's gonna be the first thing I ask about from now on!

 

[kidafius]

Before you settle on the over eating, make sure you do a full range of tests. Calcium precipitates at around 500 ppm, and can cloud up a n aquarium. Just a thought, but don't surrender without knowing all of your element levels, just to be extra safe.

 

[fishy929]

It sounds like the snails are spawning. This happens in my tank at least once every six or so weeks. See if you can't see a few of them huddled up in a group, probably near the top of the tank. That's where it seems to happen most. One or more of them will be letting out a small white stream of white milky stuff.

It should go away naturally in a day if that's it.