Grey Hazy water....

[MADtanks]

Ok i have been searching all morning since I arrived at work. Needless to say i have not done any work today! lol.

Tank specs:
Fresh tank about 4 weeks old
80G total volume system
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 20ppm

Eheim return pump
BM150 Skimmer
T5 Ligting

Proble: so after installing a new sump i noticed the water was a little murky but i figured it was just the new saltwater and the sand bed shaken up a bit from my vortech repositioning. a few days a later i noticed the water getting more cloudy?..... then last night i noticed oily surface in the sump... and we have all seen that oily look in the top of th ewater but this was bad... like a rainbow on the surface of my water!! shining an LED through the side of sump i saw what looked like i guess the only way i can explain it is fog in the water. Picture a jet flying through a cloud and the clouds moving around, well thats how it looks when the water goes over the baffle....

I am stumped! i actually think it might be the rubber pad i used to dumb the vibrating noise of the return pump down. Its one of those pads that are placed ont he dinner table, i have seen on here that they are used for vibration cancelation on the return pumps.... but then again it might not be that. I removed it anyways.

I did a 10ish gallon water change last night to see if that would help some, and i also started up the carbon reactor. I added about 1 full cup of carbon to try to help get it out, and the skimmer is still skimming..... i woke up this morning, and still noticed a murky tank!

Most of my corals look fine, polyp extension is good, but im actually loosing my purple plasma. I think that is due to the fact that i just glued it to its permanent location and while i was doing that i got some of the glue ont he side of the coral so its been STNing the last few days.

I was also thinking maybe one of my pumps is busted but they all sound fine. I will tak ethe return pump out and check it, im just worried that this might have a long term effect and almost makes me wants to just start over....

input please and thank you.

 

[jenglish]

My first guess would be bacterial bloom. How much coral do you have in a 4 week old tank? Going off the idea of bacterial bloom... skim wet, keep running GAC in case of toxins being released and hold off on any feedings. Generally these things clear up on their own more or less.

Bacterial blooms often happen when their is ample food for them.

 

[MADtanks]

that makes a lot of sense.... i have around 9 frags.... they seem to be fine, cept for the plasma that did not like the glue sticking to the side of the flesh... oops.

Thanks will, cut on the feeding for the next few days.... but did read on the bacterial blooms in the past and out of all the tanks i have had never did i have something like this, so kind of made me panick a but i guess.

Thanks for your input.

 

[spamreefnew]

oil from new sump?

 

[MADtanks]

well i built the sump out of acrylic and cleaned the heck out of it before i did a fresh water test at which point i cleaned some more then emptied and put it on my system... so not sure, in any case the water actually looks a bit clearer. So my guess is def bacterial bloom, have not fed much, and been running the skimmer really wet.

Thanks for the input

 

[fishguy85]

Rich,

Obviously I can't say for certain, but it sure sounds to me that the case of one of your pumps is leaking oil. That would of course produce the oil sheen, but it could also cause the gray water, as the oil is emulsified by passing through the pump (think shaking up a bottle of oil and vinegar salad dressing).
Pumps that are leaking oil can still run, especially if they are submerged. I think that at least some pump companies use a vegetable oil, so it wouldn't be as toxic. The only stumper is that the skimmer is still working - I know that fats will cause a skimmer to stop foaming, and I'd think that oils would also....

 

[MADtanks]

Yea, i thought the exact same thing.... if its a pumps oil then the skimmer should have been a nice paper weight just sitting in the sump. But it kept on chuggin along. For the most part the tank is clear now.

My problem now is that my drain going into the sump i thnk is too far and is causing a lot of back pressure. It here tons of gurglin in the sump. The pipe is only going in about 2- 3"into the water so im guessing its sucking in too much air. I am going with the thought that my Gurgle buster is too small... im going to go with Durso 1 1/4" pipe and hopef that will be enough to keep a smooth siphone going.

thanks.