clowdy water

[mrcopitr]

Hi guys,

My reef has been up and running for almost 2 months now. I currently have 3 fish, 4 corals and a reef custodian package from J&L aquatics.

So far I haven't been able to achieve the degree of crystal clear water clarity that I have seen in other reef.

My water apears to be clowdy...I do a water change, and it aleviate the problem for a day or two and then clowdy again...

What do you think might be the problem...is it because my tank is still in the breaking period???

I use ro/di water, 5" deep sand bed, berlin protein skimmer...I do a 25 to 30% water change weekly and still that clowdiness!!!!

Hoping to hear frok you on this

best regards

Marco

[Jack]

what colour cloudyness? I don't know what it could be. Maybe something is kicking up sand.. like a fish or something..?

[Jack]

what colour cloudyness? I don't know what it could be. Maybe something is kicking up sand.. like a fish or something..?

[mrcopitr]

Hi Jack,

thanks for responding...

clowdish white....I use the very fine southdown sand...I used to have a problem with a tomato clown stirring a mess...but he has been removed from the tank...

I know southdown is very fine...could it be that there is still some very fine particule in the water colum???? Could my power head be the problem..no of them is pointing to the bottom..

My tank has been up and running for 2 months now...if you look a the tank from the front it is not obvious...but from the side panels the clowdiness is there....

I would really like to clear this problem....

Hoping someone can suggest something

thanks

Marco

[Silverfish]

Hi Marco, it could be cloudy because your tank is still so young, the fine sand hasn't become coated with bacteria enough to let it settle down yet. Has your tank been clear before and just started becoming cloudy? If it has been cloudy all along, just give it some more time and it will eventually calm down.

If a powerhead is banking off of the glass it can stir up the sand quite a bit. Maybe try pointing the outputs of your PH's at one another to get the turbulence, but not stir the sand so much.

You could also try less powerheads for a bit and see if that changes anything.

Also, is your skimmer running well? That will help clear out your water fast too.

Hope this helps you "clear" up your problem. :D

[Jack]

Haha, good one... :rolleyes:

:D

My guess is it would be your sand and like what was said before me, It will clear up. Don't panic to much!

[mrcopitr]

thanks guys for the good advice....I will wait and see...in the meantime I did shut down of the PH to see what happens...

again thank you

Marco

[Troy F]

Are you dosing anything? Can you use anything to polish the water? I don't think you should shut down any powerheads, waterflow is important.

[terryp01]

You could also add some carbon in the sump for a couple of days and see if there is something in the water. This would pull some of it out.

I do agree with the previous post about the sand. Any disturbance to the bed will create a dust cloud until the sand bed matures.

Just curious, what are your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings?

[Chin_Lee]

I'm not sure what type of cloudiness you have but make sure small minute bubbles are not being leaked into your tank from your skimmer causing a cloudy effect.

[mrcopitr]

Originally posted by Dussumieri:

Just curious, what are your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings?[/QB]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ammonia (ppm):
0ppm

Nitrite (ppm):
below 10 ppm

Nitrate (ppm):
below 10ppm

I will only be able to check for Phosphate, Alkalinity and Calcium next week when my test kit is received from J&L.

thanks Marco

[Dale D]

If there is a whitish colour to the water and it is not being caused by the powerheads stirring up the sandbed it could be a bacterial bloom.

Especially if your tests are showing 10ppm Nitrite.

How much live rock do you have in the tank?

How big is your tank?

3 fish is not a big load on a tank. Unless it is a small tank with big fish.

Make sure you are not over feeding also.

Sorry about all the questions. Just curious about the nitrite reading.

[ 06 April 2002, 23:57: Message edited by: Dale D ]

[mrcopitr]

Originally posted by Dale D:


How much live rock do you have in the tank?

How big is your tank?

3 fish is not a big load on a tank. Unless it is a small tank with big fish.

The tank is 86 gal...with 100 pds of live rock...a 5 inch deep sand bed (semi live from being seeded from the live rock)..and I currently do a 25 gal water change weekly...

Can to many water changes be a problem when establishing a new tank???

Thanks Marco

Sorry about all the questions. Just curious about the nitrite reading.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[CHEAPREEF]

You really shouldn't be doing any water changes until everything is zeroed out.

Clinton

[SuperFudge]

Are you using buffers or Kalk ?

Marc.

[mrcopitr]

Originally posted by Superfudge:
Are you using buffers or Kalk ?

Marc.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not so far....I was planning to start dosing in a week or so....