Cloudy Water

wsboyette

New member
My fish-only 60 gallon has just completed its startup ammonia/nitrite cycle, and the water is still very cloudy. Does cloudy water normally clear up on its own after cycling, or is it necessary to replace it ? I cannot recall ever having to replace all the water in a setup in the long past....
 
That sounds like it may be a small algae bloom. I had that in my latest tank when first set it up after the initial cycle. It cleared up within a week. If this is what you have then just make sure you have a skimmer running to take out the dead algae.


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That sounds like it may be a small algae bloom. I had that in my latest tank when first set it up after the initial cycle. It cleared up within a week. If this is what you have then just make sure you have a skimmer running to take out the dead algae.

Algae ? I hope not, because if it is, my algaecide is not working. I have been using the Red Sea algaecide to ensure no algae grows in the tank. I am hoping it is just a bacteria bloom; as I had double-dosed it initially with the Fritz Aquatics turbo starter bacteria culture.
 
I have never heard of anyone using algaecide on a marine tank. Do you mean NoPox? And simultaneously double-dosing a bacteria culture. Please let us know how this works out. I don't say it absolutely won't work, but if regular algaecide, it's not by-the-book, as t' were. You might be safer to rein in the magic-bottle solutions and go slow from here on. You may have a successful cycle, but ask around about a product. We've tried most of them.

As for your cloudiness, gravel dust very frequently makes cloudy water and won't settle and clear until individual dust grains have coated with enough bacteria to make them sticky and sink.
 
I have never heard of anyone using algaecide on a marine tank. Do you mean NoPox? And simultaneously double-dosing a bacteria culture. Please let us know how this works out. I don't say it absolutely won't work, but if regular algaecide, it's not by-the-book, as t' were. You might be safer to rein in the magic-bottle solutions and go slow from here on. You may have a successful cycle, but ask around about a product. We've tried most of them.

As for your cloudiness, gravel dust very frequently makes cloudy water and won't settle and clear until individual dust grains have coated with enough bacteria to make them sticky and sink.

Well Sk8r, in the last setup I had (a FOWLR), I ran into an algae problem despite using a skimmer and everything to keep nitrates down, so I was determined not to have any algae this time around. The algaecide I have been using here is by Red Sea and is reef safe (though I don't have a real reef in the tank). Therefore I believe I am OK with the use of that one thing. One of my LFS's said that the cloudiness is most likely a bacteria bloom, but I forgot to ask him if it would clear up on its own. I have a skimmer, but am currently battling a problem with over-foaming so I have not been able to run it yet. When I get it going, I wonder if it will remove whatever is clouding up the water. At any rate, for the time being I am just leaving it alone until it either clears up on its own or the water has to be replaced.
 
My bet (which I cannot confirm without being there) is that it's simply rock dust that will settle. Hard to water a tank without kicking it up. Bacterial bloom is also well possible. That also will sort itself out. I take it you've got live rock in there, all the necessaries for setting up your ecosystem. If you've had a towering bad time with algae in the past---first of all, ro/di; and also check the phosphate level and track that. That's the stuff that's going to fuel algae outbreaks, and a fading ro/di cylinder or use of conditioned water can let it accumulate in your tank to extraordinary levels, because of course it never evaporates: it just keeps piling up. It can also get into your tank via not-fully-conditioned rock, notably by sand, and once it's in your tank with all that light and warmth, it's bound to be a pain. NoPox is good stuff. If that doesn't do the job, you might be up against bryopsis, and if you have THAT nasty stuff, Reef Flux is your ticket. Most of all track that phosphate level and hammer it down to 'low', and you should not have a recurrence of the algae issue.
 
Well, I shotgunned that cloudy water problem yesterday..... I had been unable to run my new skimmer unit because it was over-foaming like mad, and its mfr. suggested that the water might be the cause. So I did a 100% water replacement, and voila ! The skimmer went to operating properly, and the water is much, much clearer now !
 
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