cloud of doom

G

geekengineer

Member
I been having this issue with a reoccurring bacteria bloom (i think) but it looks more whitish than green. It seems to peak about three hours after my mars aqua leds turn on for the day. My one fish looks like it is about to die and I have lost others before i figured out this was happening. I got a bigger pump for my media record l. I'm using carbon and phosphate reducer. I got a UV filter even and this is still happening. :( any suggestions. I also did a 15% or so water change but i got another bloom today.
 
Do a 25% water change and cut back on feeding. Possibly do a two day blackout to make sure it's not cyano/dino related. Also tune your skimmer to skim really wet for a few days. Remember: this requires a lot of husbandry to not overflow.

What are your parameters? Do you dose any organic carbon?
 
I didn't have time to check today but last time I checked all the basic stuff was in undetectable like nitrates,nitrites, ammonia. The hardness (EDIT: alkilinity) was around 7-8 DH. I did have a PH spike this morning cause I changed out my top off water and I think it got overdosed with kalk a bit by accident. Usually been running around 8.1-8.3 PH but it got up to 8.5 :( this morning tappered off to 8.4 now. I didn't check calcium and phosphates but I probably should. I don't think the cloud was the kalk but hard to know it looked similar to other clouds I have had.

I am using a media reactor with carbon in it if that is what your asking? It also has some phosguard in it. So I was thinking it should be keeping the phosphates lower but maybe not.

So far I only have a remote camera since I am at work but looks like the cloud has subsided some.

So what would a canyo/dyno cloud look like? I do have this white hair like stuff in my tank which I don't know if I seen before.
 
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Ok so I tested some more parameters.

alk 7 KH, 340ppm calcium, hard to read but less than .25mg/l phosphates. 0 nitrates,nitrites, ammonia.

So what is a cyano/dino outbreak I not sure if I heard of that?
 
Do you have caller pa or Sawgrass looking plants in a sump or refugeum? Sounds like when plant life reproduces.
 
well I do have some green hair algae in the sump refugium don't know if that would be it? would it drive all the oxygen out of the tank? I have sand in there would that be an issue maybe?

I forgot to mention I'm using a filter sock maybe that is bad?
 
Well since the skimmer is putting out more stuff I think my ATO is working more and now I got KH of about 8 now lol for what it is worth. I did see it was low last night. :(

I don't have enough saltwater right now to do a 25% change I am working on making more. :( I also changed out my filter sock with a clean one.

I got the light on this morning just to see if it looks like its going to go cloudy again. Then I may shut it off.
 
geekengineer said:
So what would a canyo/dyno cloud look like? I do have this white hair like stuff in my tank which I don't know if I seen before.
Click to expand...

The white hairy stuff makes it sound like a bacterial bloom. Cyano and Dinoflagellates can sometimes reproduce in such numbers that they start to cloud the water. However these blooms are brownish in colour.
When the cloud is clear and you say you have white stringy growth on the rocks, it sounds like "regular" bacteria. I asked if you were dosing any organic carbon, such as vodka, vinegar, sugar etc, because additives like these can really spark a bloom like no other. More so these blooms are always white in colour.

Are you feeding/adding something unusual?
 
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Yeah did one 5 gallon W/C (which is what I been doing weekly which might not been enough I guess.) Then I did a 10 gallon the other day.

Then I beefed up my media reactor which has carbon cause maybe the pump wasn't powerful enough, but I been running carbon the whole time. I added a UV filter but didn't seem to help the fog the other day.

Trying to work on having 20 gallons ready just so I have a bunch. I guess I should do another 10 gallon W/C here. I been running my skimmer full speed ahead and put a bucket on the output so it can run while I am out for the day. So far it was cloudy today but it wasn't death cloudy like it has been before.

I must a built up something nasty in this tank :(

today the Alk is probably getting closer to 9 cause the skimmer has caused a lot of kalk water change over. PH is like 8.5 which I hope is ok. lol
 
Moeshi said:
Are you feeding/adding something unusual?
Click to expand...

I just been mainly feeding petco pellets for my inverts when I moved them to this tank no so much lately. Then frozen fish food (mix of mysis, brine shrimp,krill, and such), freeze dried mysis when I'm in a hurry for the fish.

I think mostly this started trying to get a fish in the tank is when I had problems, and didn't realize this is what was killing them. I just thought it was dust from sand and something else went wrong. However, the tank been going for at least couple months and it had quick moved live rock from 10 gallon tank that been going for long time. So I would have thought it should been ok.
 
back from the dead.

back from the dead.

Yes.. :headwally: I was looking for the post that was talking about what did me in the last time and made me give up. Granted some of it was I found a girl (now my wife) and well that caused some distractions.

I don't know if I wasn't trying the things being told to me enough or what exactly was happening. If anyone might have some ideas without really being able to offer any more information that would be helpful??

I'm thinking if I start it all up again I try to get an auto water changer system going first this time. I wonder if I should not dose the Kalk water either.
 
Lol Would 2-3 years of stopping feeding count? Now I got to start it up again and see what happens. :) I can't remember for sure if I tried to stop feeding but I think it just kept coming back even if I quit feeding. It also seemed to do it more often in the day after the aquarium lights came on.
 
How much live rock did you have? You mentioned moving LR over from a 10 gallon tank. Is it possible you overstocked/overwhelmed your tank's ability to provide surface area for the nitrifying bacteria to colonize?

Kevin
 
Well I took over a small bit of rock from the 10 gallon tank but put in a lot of new clean rock also. I don't think I had added the fish until maybe 3-4 months later. Duno.. I couldn't seem to measure any ammonia or nitrites which is what I was worried about
 
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