Dusty water/copepods?

[QuickCarl]

For about 3 weeks now, my water has had a cloudy appearance. When I at it look up close, it looks like white "dust", for lack of a better word, is in the water. It almost looks like undissolved grains of sugar. Then, a week or so ago, when I had the pumps off for routine maintenance, I noticed hundreds of very small white specks accumulating at the surface, some if not all of which are alive.
I've had suggestions that they are baby brine shrimp and/or copepods.

specifics:
75g F/O, cc bed, wet/dry, set up one year. water has always clear until now. Water changed and filters cleaned regularly.
80 degrees, very slight traces of ammonia and nitrite (I've always had very slight traces of ammonia and nitrite, it seems), PH 8.2, nitrate 40.
I've never used live food, and only rarely used frozen brine cause the fish won't eat it.

My questions: if these are copepods (or baby brine shrimp), would there be so many that they would give the water a dusty apppearance? I forgot to mention, none of these things are on the glass, just floating in the water.

Any input or advice appreciated.

 

[bertoni]

If you could get a picture through a dissecting scope or the like, that might help a lot. They aren't brine shrimp, unless you're adding eggs.

If you just want to get rid of them, borrowing a UV unit for a few days or so might do the trick. Otherwise, you could try in the invertebrate forum.

 

[QuickCarl]

Appreciate the tip, but my dissecting scope is in the shop...anyone else have any ideas? Would the little critters make the water appear cloudy, or am I dealing with two different problems?

 

[Paintbug]

sounds more like a dust storm from the sand or micro bubbles. but being your tank has been set up for a year i dont know. if you turn off all the pumps can you see them swim?? do you have any snails? have you done any tank maintance like cleaned something, or changed the filter pad on the W/D filter, etc?

 

[QuickCarl]

Yes, if I turn off all the pumps I get a collection of them at the surface swimming.
I don't have any snails; and yes, I recently changed the prefilter pad in the wet/dry. I could see cloudy water for a day or two if I stirred up some sediment when changing the filter, but this has been going on for weeks now...

 

[Paintbug]

being a FO tank im stumped. i was thinking it maybe a spawn from something in the tank. but if it was it would have cleared in a few days. do you add anything to the water?

 

[bertoni]

I would guess (wildly) that they are some sort of crustacean that are reproducing well in the system. They might subside over time, or you might have to take more drastic action. Any chance of a picture?

 

[QuickCarl]

I caught some of these things in test vial and looked at them through a magnifying glass, but I can't tell what they are. Whatever they are they are fast...they flit from one side of the vial to the other in an instant. They remind me of gnats.
I can't see any legs, fins, anything like that, they are just too small.
As far as getting a picture, I'll try, but I don't know how to magnify them enough short of getting a microscope.

 

[bertoni]

Hmm. I think you got the short straw in the live rock lottery. I wish I could help more. You could try in the invertebrate forum. Someone might have some ideas or an idea on how to get access to a scope.

 

[Paintbug]

this is out there, but do you live near the coast? i see your in NE FL. do you think its possible that some type of insect laid eggs in your tank, and you are seeing the larva stage? i know there are insects that lay eggs in salt water. and it has happened before. i just dont see how you could get a population of copepods without live rock or algae for them to live off of.

have you looked at www.melevsreef.com/id yet? he has some nice pics of common pods in tanks. maybe something there will look close to what you have.