Help: White Cloudy Water

[NJS7x7]

My tank is young, 21 day, however all my water perimeters have cycled nicely. However for the last week I have been pledged with moderately cloudy water. From my research I think it may be a bacterial bloom, but I do not know how to fix it and seek advice.

My tank is as follows:
Red Sea Max 130D (34 gal)
27.5 lbs of cured RealReef live rock.

Stock:
1x Firefish
5x blue dwarf hermits
5x Turban Snails

My latest water specs are:
78*F, 1.024
PH: 8.2
KH: 15
NH3/NH4 (Ammonia): .2
NO2 (Nitrite): 0.05
NO3 (Nitrate): 2


I initially cycled without carbon, then added in carbon a day before I added my live stock. It was crystal clear for quiet a few days until one morning. When feeding the fish I soak the food and shut off the pumps and try to feed a pellet at a time so no excess food gets away, but a few pellets a day do go uneaten. The ammonia and the white cloudy water came after first day of feeding.

Again I assume its the food, but the fish has got to eat... Should I add more cleaning crew? They don't seem to be keeping up with the detritus very well. If so, what? At a bit of a loss of what to do at this point...

 

[thegrun]

A little food should never cause an ammonia or nitrite spike, I wonder if the tank really did cycle or if it did the cycle must have been very small producing little bacteria to process the waste. Also your alkalinity is very high if that number is correct. If your alkalinity really is at 15 it is likely combining with your calcium to form calcium carbonate which would explain the cloudy water. Are you dosing anything that would raise the alkalinity? Something is off.

 

[whosurcaddie]

Your tank wasn't done cycling. You complete the cycle when you have a zero reading of nitrite and ammonia. Even .2ppm is bad. It takes a good 6 to 8 weeks to cycle a tank. Firefish are pretty hardy so it will most likely survive but don't add anything until both your nitrite and ammonia levels are 0.

The reason your tank is cloudy is because of a bacterial bloom. It will pass in about a weeks time. There's really nothing you can do to clear the water of a bacterial bloom. If you have some seachem prime I would use it to reduce the toxicity of the ammonia.

 

[jrr98002]

With an alk that high I agree with the above posted that you very well could be having a CaCO3 precipitation causing the cloudiness, but you didn't mention doing anything other than feeding. Feeding shouldn't cause calcium carbonate precipitation, at least that I know of, but other than that, I really have no clue either.

 

[NJS7x7]

Thanks for the replies guys. Besides feeding I am using the Red Sea Reef Mature Pro Kit as per instructions which includes Bacto Start, Nitro Bac, and NO3O4-X. I haven't added any of the KH Coralline Gro buffer because my Alk was so high. My first reading came in at 18 so I am not sure whats going on there, but it appears to be dropping. I am using natural creek water (boiled) with Coral Pro salt until my RO unit arrives in the mail.

 

[Fishfreak_MA]

I would use distilled water before creek water. There is going to be a ton of organic matter in that water that will contribute to an algae bloom.