Cloudy tank help on info.

[Dive4hollis]

Hi everyone.

New to the forum and I'll try to keep this short, I have a cloudy tank going on not terrible but I want to pinpoint why as I've made two changes which can be the problem.
Cycled my 230l tank for around 8 months and used aquaforest reef salt that has always..! Gave me readings of low alk high mg and cal. Nothing was in the tank to use mag & cal so not changed the salt brand.
About 3weeks ago I prepared to stock my tank so 50% wc over the course of a weekend some fresh media. I've stocked it now few fish and 3 SPS. All going good but still low alk 7.3 and mag 1500+ cal 1500 so I bought aq kh buffer and over the week I been dosing .5 dkh a day now it 9 where I want to keep it so doser is off, still high mag and cal but I'm sure the tank now will start to bring them down over time??

Now My water isn't clear so is it from using a buffer or adding more media to my reactor which was 100ml of seachem seagel now a total of 200ml for a 230l tank which I think is required. Any thoughts much appreciated.

Nitrate 2
Alk 8.8
Mag 1500+
Cal 1500
Ph 8.4
33ppm
26c

 

[Rover88]

Are you positive your calcium is 1500, and not 500?

Cloudyness is usually a bacteria thing from my understanding (unless its stirred up sand).

How long has it been cloudy for? The whole three weeks since the change?

It is likely that if you were 'cycling' for 8 months with a low/no bioload, there will still be a small bit of rockiness now that you've added fish and SPS. But you did it right by going slow!

 

[Dive4hollis]

Sorry 500*, my last hanna reagent was 466 and now I'm using the aquaforest test that is showing around 500 until I receive more reagents. It's been cloudy for about 3 - 4 days it's when I got my system to 8dkh. Tank looks good but just the water clarity for the last few days. Thanks for your reply

 

[Uncle99]

Sounds like your filtration was lessened through large water change and changing filter media. It will recover.

 

[Anemone]

As others have indicated, the "cloudiness" may be a bacteria bloom due to your addition of fish.

What type of filtration do you have, and what did you do to initiate/complete the nitrogen cycle during the 8 months you had nothing in your tank?

Kevin

 

[Dive4hollis]

Yes it was a bacterial bloom. When I researched they say a snail can cause big problems, I'm missing my big sand shifting snail that I haven't seen for a couple of weeks that has been in the tank since it cycled back in March.. Also say air fresheners can cause blooms which I use a lot. So maybe a big water change and a dead snail that caused the bloom.
A lot happened for my system in 3 weeks so it proble was fragile

Today I would say 90% has cleared up now finally after about 10 days haha. Now I'm interested in trying a UV on my system med flow after reading up on them?

I cycled my tank with LR LS and a prawn for a few days. Took around 5 weeks I think.