Any ideas why my tank gets cloudy ?

[shilo_1]

I added some macro algaes about two weeks ago to my 65g tank. Up until about a week ago, I have had no water quality issues. For the past week though, when I turn on my lights, my water is crystal clear...then about 2 hours later it gets cloudy looking. You can see the water (whitish look) moving in the tank. Then at around 6pm every night, it clears up again as if nothing was wrong.

All my corals and fish look great, even when its cloudy - great polyp extention, etc. Just looks cloudy. Any ideas what could be causing this ? Nothing has changed other than adding some caulerpa and halimeda.

 

[graveyardworm]

Hows the caulerpa looking. Stressed caulerpa has a tendency to sporulate and cloud the water.

 

[shilo_1]

Its all looking great. The caulerpa is sprouting new leaves and attaching to the rock. Also, all my zoas are open nicely, as are all my lps. Fish aren't breathing hard either, and are swimming around normally and eating.

I don't have a ph test....someone mentioned that is could be a fluctuation in ph, thus the cloudy tank at only certain times yet crystal clear at night.

I need to get a test kit for ph...

 

[graveyardworm]

Could be a water born algae bloom too. Can you post some of your tank parameters? If ph drops enough you could be seeing a precipitate in the water, but other basic parameters would need to be way out of whack or the pH is getting bad low.

 

[tmz]

If your calcium and alkalinity are high ,you might be precipitating calcium carbonate. This is more likely to occur during periods when you ph is higher,such as daytime hours when the photosynthetic oraganisms in your tank are consuming CO2

 

[graveyardworm]

After tmz's post I neede to go read and figure out precipitation events. I found this article to be really helpful. A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between
Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH
. Tom is right at higher pH a precipitation event is more likely than at lower pH. Basically one thing helps to keep it from happening, Magnesium. If magenesium is low then calcium carbonate precipitation can occur. I would suggest reading the article, and doing some testing.