clouded tank mystery

[pascal32]

The 120 display is slightly clouded, nothing dramatic, however it does not appear to be getting better since this morning.

last 48 hours:

Fri 4pm -
* shut down remote sump for renovations.
* Heater placed in display along with additional koralia for circulation
* relocated contents of attached frag tanks to 20 long with heater and koralia
* rest of water stored in misc tanks, only one was not heated and circulated
* NOTE: refugium with Macro Algae was NOT heated or circulated

Fri night - redid all the plumbing at the remote sump and installed a 50 gallon stock tank

Sat - 9AM arrived with missing fitting and finished 4 1-1/4" drain joints on the stock tank. changed one fitting on a 1/2" supply to the stock tank

Sat - AM - noted that display was 2 degrees below normal temperature (76-76.5). anemone took a hike to a place he shouldn't be

Sat - noon - moved all the water back into the sump, brought the stock tank on-line first. allowed temperature to match display, brought display on-line. re-installed heaters.

****this is when i looked in the display and saw a few pieces of something clear shoot through the water and dissolve as it was going. I'm assuming this was solvent of glue. how it didn't dry in the 2-3 hours is beyond me.

Immediatly got two phosban 150's packed with Carbon and got the running. shut off halides in case water clarity jumped. after 4 hours I removed the one on the display and have let the sump one run.

sat night - catch breath, scary moment. inhabitants of tank are alive, though SPS does not look happy. LPS much better, though some sliming. fought a while with the anemone trying to get it off the rock it's on, I lost, looks upset.

NOTED PH was 8.05 compared to usual 8.25-8,3 (likely because the skimmer has been off-line which has the soda lime reactor attached.

Sun - AM - woke up and tank is lightly clouded. noticed allowed the halides to come on. anemone is in the same place and is partly inflated. during the course of the day all LPS is out in full force. some SPS still looks stressed, though a couple are still lacking PE. PH back to 8.26

Sun - PM - same as AM.

I didn't want to be hasting in posting this. The lack of change today has me stumped. any thoughts?

 

[Gravesj1s]

i dont really know but in general a cloudy tank is one of two things .
disturbing sediment or bacterial bloom.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

i dont really know but in general a cloudy tank is one of two things .
disturbing sediment or bacterial bloom.

or a spawn

obviously......undissolved solvent/glue could cause problems. Got any dead critters in there?

 

[Johnny C]

I would prepare a large batch of SW and do a WC; dilution is the solution for pollution. If you have PolyFilter, use it.

 

[pascal32]

just did a 20 gallon change, prepping another batch. I have poly-filter pads in my emergency stash - just relized i never figured out where to put them...

I have a traditional sump

Refugium | return with socks + skimmer + reactors ||| returns

where do i put these pads?

 

[pascal32]

just stuck two of them poly-pads inbetween the baffles which is messing up the water level in the sum (about a galon or two's worth).

thikning i should have kept a canister filter!

 

[Johnny C]

Are you using Polypad or PolyFilter? If you can put it near the drain you'll be golden, but it's not a big issue as long as it's submerged.

 

[pascal32]

found a HOT magnum canister filter I was given and managed to cram about 2/3ds of a pad into the media container (two pieces). That is on the display and dual pads wedged inbetween the baffles in the sump.

thanks for the help!

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

My first hunch was something going sexual: algae, snails, corals... changes can help that happen, but its always better to be safe; carbon and polyfilter material are good choices.

 

[pascal32]

thanks to all. I put the second 150 reactor full of carbon back on the display along with moving one of the poly pads directly under the returns in the filter socks.

The fish are all alive and *most* of the corals look alright. just saw a bit of slime off the orange torch and the green birdsnest is all pulled in again.

this is gut wrenching!

 

[pascal32]

checked all the parameters and everything looks good. calling it a night!

 

[Jacwil]

Keeping my fingers x'd for ya bud!

 

[pascal32]

thanks.

first hard damage observed I made another round to check on the tank (mostly worried about water leaks off the canister filter) and I noticed the entire base of my nicely growing blue Hydno has RTNd. Now I have 5 pieces from 1-2 inches. I cut each of them about a 1/4" from the lost tissue.

Guess I really need to get the SPS frag tank on-line. I have no room for these in the display, so in the LPS low light tank they go.

 

[pascal32]

AM update - water still looks the same. I can easily see through the tank in all directions, just hazy.

Poly pads still look white. getting worrief about running this much carbon for tool long - two 150 reactors full.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

strange. Keep us updated.

 

[pascal32]

got home, maybe a wee bit better, but still not crystal clear. Corals and fish look good. Acans in the new stock tank with low flow and low lighting look better than ever!

I pulled the extra phosban on the guess that the carbon has neutralized anything that could have been in there.

the HOT Magnum is now running with a micron polishing filter.

fingers crossed!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

looks like we're on opposite shifts.

update needed!

 

[pascal32]

Tank looks crystal clear . Must have had something harmless floating that the micron filter pulled out. Yeay

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

clear is a good sign :fish1:

 

[tmz]

Crystal clear water is usual in the aftermath of a bacterial bloom s they strip the water. They also deplete the O2 which could have been exacerbated by the lack of skimmer operation.
A bloom could have been occasioned by a spawn or a release of organics as things got stirred up particularly with the skimmers off. Don't know why the hydnopora would rtn and not other lps or sps for that matter.

Good luck