bacterial bloom or calcium suspension problem?

[AndyT5]

Hello all. I'm on my 6th day of milky white cloudy water. Very small particles can be seen, but its not sand. From my reading, best description is a bacterial bloom, but should havr subsided by now.

Ph 8.2
Nh3/4 0
NO2 0
NO3 0
KH 10
CA2 520
PO4 0

I'm usinf IO reef crystals, and know calcium is high, but it has been trending down. Water changes don't seem to help at all. Have filter socks, but only 200 micron.

110g display, 38g sump. Reef octopus 150, 130lbs lr, 60 lbs ls.

Any help would be great...

 

[brandon429]

I would rate this as a moderately spirited discussion centering around your exact topic heh

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2308997

wouldnt mind getting an update in that thread too

 

[AndyT5]

Thanks for the read. Sounds more like precip now, mostly due to the amount of time its been going on. I only have 5 small frags, so I'm guessing it will take awhile for this to settle. Probably due to the way I mixed my salt. Any idea how long this may take to settle down? Not interested in a 140g water change to be honest

 

[zombiereefer]

time. and make sure the water is passing through your filter socks ok and i wouldnt do anymore water changes. look at your equipment after make sure your not having a white build up on them if so clean it off asap good luck

 

[brandon429]

yes I agree thats a good course if no big wc can be had, no prob.

 

[AndyT5]

Gonna ride out the storm. Hard to say if its clearing up, I stare at it too much

 

[bertoni]

If you could borrow a diatom filter, that might clear the water a bit more quickly. A very fine filter socket might help, too.

 

[AndyT5]

Welp, although progress is slow, it IS clearing up a bit. I can finally see (halfway) through it Im leaning towards my crappy water mixing technique for the cause. Still waiting for calcium levels to come down as well.

Thank you guys for the help, its much appreciated.

 

[bertoni]

Okay, that sounds like good progress.

 

[tombone86]

sorry im new but what is a calcium suspension problem?

 

[brandon429]

Diatom filters mentioned above are fine straining external canister filters for items suspended in the water column, if some of that matter is calcium carbonate precipitate they can be an effective water polisher. If you take a two part doser mix, and put the two parts together in a mixing container, that white cloud which is actually a suspended solid is what is being referred to as calcium precipitate

If you dose two part solutions back to back and too much at a time, or you mix or store change water in certain ways, you can cause this white clouding in your display tank. Cloudy tank issues are almost never bacterial in nature and are usually precipitation issues somewhere down the line

 

[tombone86]

Thats crazy because I had that happen right when I started dosing a 2 part. I could not figure out what it was. Thank you, so a doser would stop this from happening?

 

[bertoni]

sorry im new but what is a calcium suspension problem?

Seawater contains a lot of calcium and carbonate, so if a carbonate supplement gets overdosed, for example, you might see a white cloud of calcium carbonate particles. They tend to be very fine, so they can remain suspended in the water column.

 

[AndyT5]

Water is clear as a bell now... Finally, now to find a happier place for my zoas seems they liked the partial light they were getting.