Cloudy water and film on glass

[dmreichman]

A few months back, everyone helped me out with my first fish loss. Thank you, I learned quite a bit about the mistakes I had made.

I have a 34 gallon SW tank (Redsea Max). Initial set up was May 19th, 2008 (still new a rookie at this). Pretty basic setup and the tank is designed to be fairly turn key. I comes with pretty much everything you need except for water, rocks and fish.

After my bout with Ick, I was left with 1 Chromie, and my cleaners (SLF Crab, Aneome Crab, assortment of hermits and a Bristle Star) I figured that the lonely Chromie would be next and I would then just wait for Ick reproductive process to stop with the absence of fish in the tank. Low and behold the Chromie (who we now call "Lucky") survived and is thriving. No signs of Ick since but I have been very reluctant to add any new fish.

My issue now is water clarity. I went through a period where it looked like my tank went through another "cycle". I am now wiping a "greenish/brown" film two to three times per day from my glass and my water is normally cloudy. Up until about a week ago, my live rock was 100% covered with green algea and it's now going away. This morning I have about 50% coverage of dark brownish red algea.

I live in the country and use very good filtered well water (no R/O system yet due to budget). I doing my regular partial water changes.

Here are my tank stats as of this morning:
Temp: 78 f
Salinity: 1.021
PH: 8.0
Alk: "normal"
N02: 0
N03: 0
Amonia: 0
Calcium: Normal

Is there anything else that I need to test for? I'm using everything that came with the standard test kit. Also, if the tank cycled again, why?

 

[Fluff]

Hard to say without photos of what your experiencing but it sounds like you are getting some cyano. This is pretty typical in a new tank, especially one that gone through issues such as yours has. Really the best way to battle it is to do more frequent water changes as well as syphoning as much of the brownish red algae as you can. Also, lessening your light cycle may help. As for the cloudiness, try running some carbon in a filter sock through a high flow area for a few days and see if that helps your water clarity. It may be a bacteria bloom that will burn itself out, but carbon should help clear your water up.

 

[Fluff]

Oh, also try testing your water for phosphates. Algae thrive on them.

 

[dmreichman]

Hard to say without photos of what your experiencing but it sounds like you are getting some cyano. This is pretty typical in a new tank, especially one that gone through issues such as yours has. Really the best way to battle it is to do more frequent water changes as well as syphoning as much of the brownish red algae as you can. Also, lessening your light cycle may help. As for the cloudiness, try running some carbon in a filter sock through a high flow area for a few days and see if that helps your water clarity. It may be a bacteria bloom that will burn itself out, but carbon should help clear your water up.

Fluff, since I have a carbon bag already... do you think I should replace it? I'm not sure what the replacement period is for the carbon bag. Or are you suggesting adding a second carbon bag as a temp?

 

[Fluff]

I don't know how long yours has been on there but would replace it weekly.

 

[melosu58]

I agree with weekly. They are really only good for 1-2 weeks. Cindy gave very good advice on what to do. I believe it is cyano also. We have an article on it in our articles section.

 

[dmreichman]

I don't know how long yours has been on there but would replace it weekly.

Oh my..... I've never replaced the carbon bag. That could be my problem! I'll give it a shot and see what happens. THANKS.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I think you'll be happy with what you see after you replace the carbon!

Regarding the cloudy water though... did you ever add any type of "ich medicine" to the main tank?

 

[dmreichman]

I think you'll be happy with what you see after you replace the carbon!

Regarding the cloudy water though... did you ever add any type of "ich medicine" to the main tank?

I was using ParaGuard but it has been 4-5 weeks since.

 

[dmreichman]

Just tested for Phosphate level. Zero

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Hmmm... paraguard has Malachite Green and aldehydes in it. Have you done several water changes since using it?