Green-ish cloudy tank? Is it just a cycle?

[mandyplo]

Hello all. So I have finally done the big tank move from my boyfriends house to mine.

Our tank is a 1 year old fish only with live rock (for now) tank.
I tried some beginner corals a few months back such as pipe organ, zoanthids, palys, but the boyfriend killed them (this is why the tank is now under my care)

Anyways, when I did the move I performed about a 50-75% water change as the water was COMPLETELY green when it was at my boyfriends house, to the point where you literally could not see the rock structures through the water, it was AWFUL! (my suspicion is that he stirred up the sand bed, releasing all kinds of crap into the water)

The water is much more clear now, I can see everything in the tank and for the first week of it being at my house it seemed to start getting more and more clear, but as of the past few days its starting to get cloudy again. I have done one 20 gallon water change since the move (that was when it started to get clearer). I ran out of salt, it is being shipped to me now as we speak or else I would have done another water change today...

I did some tests immediately after the water change I did a few days ago, and the nitrates and ammonia were a bit high. Is my tank just going through a cycle? Is this why its green-cloudy ish? Or is there something else going on here....

If it makes any difference, I stuck two al-b-gone pouches in the filter that I had lying around to see if they will make a difference.

[Reefer Rob]

If your tank is reading ammonia then it is still cycling. To start with you need a protein skimmer... or a better one if you already have one.

[Reef Puffer]

Is suspended algae. I ended up with it after i moved my tank. I tried everything for weeks! In the end, i blacked the whole thing out for 4 days. Duct tape and cardboard. A large water change and i was all good again. The biggest thing when blacking the tank out for suspended algae is aeration, make sure you got bubbles if you dont have a good skimmer. Also absolutely NO light to the tank! Dont look at it, not even for one second! Good luck.

[Reefer Rob]

Don't shoot the messenger!

Algae, like Cyano is telling you that there's a problem in your tank that needs to be addressed.

You likely have very high nutrients with no way of exporting them. Remove the algae, and your tank may look nice and clear, but you'll still have the high nutrient levels.

This is not likely to be a problem if you're using a good quality salt, but I would also test alkalinity and calcium if you haven't already.

[Lonster]

This happened to me once as well, I did water change after water change and it did not help. I added a uv sterilizer to kill the suspended algae and it cleared up in a week (depends on the size of the unit).

With saying that, there is a nutrient problem that caused the algae bloom and it will need to be addressed to make sure that it doesn't come back. I found that the algae kind of reached a tipping point that no matter how much I did water changes, it didn't clear up. Blacking out the tank I have read works well, but this is anotehr option for you.

[mandyplo]

Thank you all. I have had the lights out completely since we moved the tank from the boyfriends house to mine, but the room its in does get quite bright from sunlight during the day even though there is no light directly hitting the tank.

I do have a skimmer, but I have not hooked it back up since we did the move as its currently being put in a sump that we are finally adding to the tank.

Might I add I am using tap water, I just ordered the 5 stage plus RO/DI unit from BRS. I'm super excited to finally get this thing and I'm hoping it will help with the algae problems.

I also purchased a GFO/Carbon dual reactor from BRS which will be going in the sump as soon as the reactor comes in.

I'm also making a refugium compartment in the sump for some chaeto.

So to come in the next few weeks: Sump with chaeto refuge, carbon/gfo reactor, protein skimmer, and ro/di water(finally).

When I add all of these things is it likely that my high nutrient levels will go down, and algae will finally be taken care of? I don't dose anything, currently all I do is feed my fish 1/2 a frozen cube a day... Is the fish food enough for the high nutrients and algae?

I also removed the deep sand bed that used to be in the tank, we are basically running bare bottom with a 1/4 inch of sand just enough to cover the bottom for aesthetics. I cleaned this sand like CRAZY before putting it back in the tank when we moved it to my house.

Thanks, sorry I forgot to add all of this before.

[Reefer Rob]

Looks like you've already got it sorted out

Most likely the high nutrients right now are from die off in the rocks from the move, especially since you have ammonia.