HELP! green/cloudy water

[fish04]

I have never had this happen to me in my 20 years of salt/reef keeping so I need some help. Beginning Saturday I noticed that my tank was a bit cloudy, so I decided to do a water change (which it was due for anyway). I have a 20H and changed about 20% as I do weekly. In the drain bucket I noticed that the water was a bit more brown than usual. I didn't think much of it and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and the tank was still cloudy. This continued into Tuesday at that point I added what little carbon I had laying around (not much). Wednesday still cloudy. So, against my better judgement I did another 20% change Wednesday night. This time I noticed the drain bucket was tinted green. Looks like an algal bloom? Thursday I went out and bought more carbon and added 100g in a sock to the filter system. I checked this morning still cloudy. I am sort of beside myself at this point. The water parameters are normal (ammonia is just barely green), the tank occupants are all happy.

Since the drain bucket was greenish and I am thinking it seems like an algal bloom, I thought it would be a good idea to limit the energy source a bit so I reduced my light cycle today from 12 hours down to 8 hours....just to see if that makes any difference.

Any other ideas? Please help!

Next step is to do a complete (80-90%) water change, and I REALLY don't want to do that!

 

[pinnatus]

I had green water, and did several 98% water changes to try to get rid of it. It helped for a day or so, but it came right back. Only thing that worked for me ultimately was I got a UV and within a week water was crystal clear again.

By the way, I tried many other things before finally getting the UV. Practically lost my long tentacled anemone due to lack of light, it turned translucent white. Also, the brain did very poorly and eventually died, all due to lack of light from the green.

 

[fish04]

Wow! That looks like my pool when I go away for a weekend , LOL!

My tank isn't THAT bad, but it is definitely cloudy. I can see everything in it, and everyone seems happy, and all of my test are normal.

It's sort of weird because I hadn't added anything, and it had a water change (using RO water , I always use RO) the weekend before. I can't think what could have ignited the problem. I don't have any pictures right now as I am away for the weekend, but hopefully reducing the light cycle and adding carbon will help....we will see when I get back on sunday, fingers crossed.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

I had a big phyto bloom a few years ago, overnighted a UV unit then added carbon. The carbon cleared it out before the UV arrived.

 

[fish04]

I had a big phyto bloom a few years ago, overnighted a UV unit then added carbon. The carbon cleared it out before the UV arrived.

Yeah, I am hoping the carbon will do the trick, I am trying to stay away from buying a UV if I can help it. I know lots of people use them on a constant basis, but in 20 years I have never had to.

 

[pinnatus]

Me either. I didn't want one either, but I tried everything else. And it was only $40 including pump for my little bitty 10 gallon tank. Money well spent in this case.

 

[fish04]

So this weekend it went from cloudy to green...pretty similar to Pinnatus' picture. I did a 85% water change yesterday, turned the lights off, covered the tank so no light can get in at all. I am going to give it 48 hours and see what happens. I am still trying to avoid the UV purchase. I wish I knew what triggered the bloom, so i don't have a repeat performance. Everything still seems to be happy and healthy...i will update in 48 hours when the tarp comes down.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

Yeah its weird, in 13 years I had one bloom, I've heard people say it can be from a live rock with a culture of phyto going sexual, but most people never have this happen. I thought it was really cool... .you know.... once it went away and my first SPS pieces were still alive.

 

[pinnatus]

(You're gonna need the UV. I tried all those things.)

Don't wait so long that your photosynthetic animals suffer, like i did.

 

[fish04]

Ok, I caved.

I ordered a UV this morning. had it shipped 2nd day it should be here Thursday. hopefully before I have to do ANOTHER water change!

This better work!

 

[pinnatus]

Best of luck. I think it will be cleared up fast with the UV.

 

[fish04]

Here's the update ( I always hate threads that aren't updated!). I ran the UV for 24 hours the tank went cloudy, but the green tint was gome. Did a 30-40% water change and within another 24 hours the tank was crystal clear. We are 3-4 days post treatment and still clear. On a side note there has been one issue, an ammonia spike. Yesterday I was between .50 and 1.0 and this morning it looked like it came down a bit. Have to keep an eye on that as the dead algae cycles off.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Jovandfigueroa]

Do you have corals? Turning the lights off for a couple days might starve the algae bloom

 

[fish04]

Do you have corals? Turning the lights off for a couple days might starve the algae bloom

Yes, (if you read the posts above) I actually turned off the lights with a blanket over the tank for two days...it just laughed at me.


UV is the only thing that worked. I am going to let it run for a few more days then shut it down and use it again if needed (since the bulb is only good for 4-6 months). I am not enjoying the extra equipment anyway.