cloudy tank?

raymond4133 · #1 04/23/2006, 11:30 AM

I just woke up this morning to a cloudy tank....All the fish and corals look normal and my skimmer is not picking up any dirty material to the point that it would alarm me as a dead or dying animal....I also did a water change 2 days ago and all amonia, nitrates,nitrites, ph, etc. all were fine....

Is it possible that my corals are just spawning....?

dots · #2 04/23/2006, 02:41 PM

Cloudy gray or cloudy yellow?

Yellowing or brown could be something dead.

Greenish could be a algae bloom

Gray could be a bacterial bloom, which in my opinion is a good thing, eats up all of the excess nitrate in the tank if there are any. could come from sugars in the tank....ie something got in.

raymond4133 · #3 04/23/2006, 03:58 PM

well quite frankly it looks kind of whiteish or grayish in that matter.,,,,

It does not look yellow or even green in color.....WHen the lights are off its looks like the cloudyness just made my water a little mercky like when you put in calcium or something like a liquid supplement that would cloud your water for a little while than go away....It is that kind of cloudy.....

Nothing is dead or dying either so iam not really sure what it is....

What is a bacteria bloom necessarily.....Is it as good as you say sacramentodots.....(what usually start or causes bacteria blooms

dots · #4 04/23/2006, 04:45 PM

Bacteria blooms are when the food is readily available for the bacteria in your tank to grow to higher population levels, hence being able to see the super colony.

I can't remember which type it is, but I believe it is both the nitrosoma and nitrobacter. (Sorry bio-guys probably misspelled)
Both of which are part of your cycle.

To fix it do nothing, it will clear up on its own, by the end of the day, if it is a bacteria bloom

Causes: sugars usually make them multiply like this, it is common when vodka or sugar dosing.

Why sugar or vodka dose? They are means to eliminate nitrates out of the system and make the system more "nutrient poor" esp for SPS tanks.

I read about the vodka (alcohol is a simple sugar) and ran across the table sugar dosing recently.
In short, the sugar is a means of carbon, which the bacteria use and eat up the nitrates. Now, don't quote me on that, it is deep in chemistry and biology details, which I can understand, but didn't want to read the 10 page thread completly. I have enough homework as it is!

Recently, I had a high nitrate level of about 40ppm that I overlooked after adding a bunch of liverock. After doing a 50% and 20% water changes I only got it down to 15ppm. Getting tired of large water changes that involved tap water instead on my usual RO, I decided to try the sugar dosing to see if it worked. Within 24 hours, my nitrates were 0. SInce then my SPS have stopped browning, I have less algae overall, and my cyano is dissapearing. Though, I have been feeding less and added to 820 Seios, and upped my cleaning crew, which could be the result of this. But I digress, that is why I said the bloom wasn't a "bad" thing. I am sure, however that someone who has taken the time to understand the chemistry and biology a little more can give you more details on the bloom, if you like.

If I had to guess, somehow some sugar based substance got into the tank.-Doug

Did you mistake Nerds candy for cyclopeeze?

raymond4133 · #5 04/23/2006, 05:14 PM

well yesterday moring i fed a dose of phytoplex........or that green bottle of kent marine phytoplankton stuff....

would that perhaps cause the inherent bloom....

I never did feed this to my tank till yesterday and i suppose that feeding might have caused this....you think?

dots · #6 04/23/2006, 05:32 PM

When my cars were running bad, my dad would always say "what was the last thing you did and look there."

Nu2SW · #7 04/24/2006, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sacramentodots
When my cars were running bad, my dad would always say "what was the last thing you did and look there."

SO SO true, When Im helping someone fix there computer thats what I ask,"what was the last thing done"

ID lkike to touch base on this sugar dosing, I have 10ppm of nitrates in my tank. So we dont Hijack His thread can you PM me, how much you use and such info?

boviac · #8 04/26/2006, 01:39 AM

Could anything have spawned? This can lead to cloudy water in a confined aquarium.

kappaknight · #9 06/23/2007, 09:06 PM

Does adding vinegar also cause a bloom like this? My tank right now is cloudy and the only thing I can think of is maybe I poured a bit too much vinegar into my kalk mix which is causing it. I really haven't added anything else unless cocoa butter lotion (from my arm) has sugar in it.