Milky water?

Notathumpa

Notathumpa

New member
My tank has been up and running with spot on water chem. for a couple of months now. Today when I checked it in the afternoon the water was cloudy.....almost milky! It looked perfect at 10:00 AM? I looked closely with a hand lens and noticed that the cloudiness was comprised of tiny particles, but I couldn't tell if they were moving. Could this be anything other than some sort of hatch? My Sarcphyton has only been in the tank for a little over a week and is still not fully happy, but I don't think it to be the cause?? The water in the refugeum is cloudy as well, which is expected, but I can't determine if the milky stuff started in it or the main tank. I have had a critter hatch before, but it was easily recognizable as one. Any insight?
 
C-balance and Iodide..that's it! The cloudiness cleared out after 24 hrs. or so. Very wierd to see so sudden a change like that??
 
This happens from time to time, usually because something's spawning. But, it can also be what they call a "snow storm"--calcium precipitates out of solution, usually because your concentrations get too high.
 
Thanks for the reply. My Calcium has been in the 420-440 range and I hadn't done my dose for that day. I'm not sure what could have spawned in my tank to produce that 'Milky' look, but considering the stuff that sneaks in on LR...? A microscope would have been ideal for this........I'll have to look in to getting one. I don't know if the 9 Astraea could have had a mass cluster_ ? Seems that they would be the only quantity to produce that much "Milk"!
 
One thing I failed to consider. I have started putting a tiny pinch of "Coral Frenzy" in every other day. Any experience with that?
 
It could be that the of coral frenzy supplied just the right nutrient source for a strain of bacteria to reproduce exponentially creating the "bloom" . The only other thing I have seen turn a tank milky was a mass spawning of stressed out clams which doesn't apply here. But I have seen bacterial blooms do so.
 
What type of macro algae do you have in your refugium? Is it Caulerpa? Bacteria bloom is probably a possibility as well, but I've never experienced one and don't know much about them.
 
Chaeto in the 'fuge'. Note that my tank and refugeum are less than 3 months old and during that time I have been adding LR and the few critters that I have. My tank does seem to be well cycled, but I'm just learning the fundamentals of captive reef maintenance! I have a sand bed and LR in my refugeum and run the lighting on an opposite cycle from the reef. I have not added to the refugeum for over 2 months. I do have a spattering of cyanobacteria in the reef, but it is well under control. I fed a little more 'Coral Frenzy' today, so I'll watch for any reation to that. Thanks for the input....much appreciated!
 
Yeah, it's not the chaeto, and even caulerpa probably wouldn't have sporulated in that short time.
 
I have had this problem before. I am going to say it was a bacteria bloom but mine got out of control due to my mistake. Didnt know what happend first reaction was to do a water change this made the problem worse and I lost all my fish. Now when I see this the first thing I do is add some cycle or other good bacteria booster.
 
IslandCrow...I guess I'm behind the times. Spent my time with B-52's and FB111A's. Was it one flight for the B-2?
Tc269...Any descriptions of that found in the books that you know of? I'm very curious as to the mechanisms involved since I had never read of such a thing?? Is this confined to captive systems or known on the a natural reef?
 
I dont know to much about it but this is what Drs F+S told me and it was confirmed when I did the water change because than I also took out the good bacteria which let the bad get even more out of control and kill all my fish. I belive this does happen in nature I thought I read it some where, pools of excess bacteria form clouds in the ocean and flow with the current. I dont know what caused this to happen in my tank but I believe as crazy as this sounds that it was something I was cooking in the kitchin due to I live in an appartment and the kitchin is close to my tank prob 25 feet. I was making apple pie (not the food but an alcoholic drink where you boil apple juice and apple cidar and sugar) and than that night my tank did this. Well than my friend a month latter was making this pie at his place and his tank did the exact same thing but I told him to add a bactiria booster and his tank cleared right up in like 1 hour. Dont know what would cause this but it did happen. I think in my first tank all the fish died because it was only a 24 gallon nano which would not host as much benifical bacteria. Tell me what you think?
 
I think that even my college Chem. classes didn't prepare me for this. Time for a trip to the Library! My tank is in my basement so I don't think that any kitchen vapors wafted down there. The only thing that I know of that was a new addition was the "CORAL FRENZY" and then only a tiny bit, and I've used it since with no cloudiness. I may now never know because my tank unexpectedly emptied itself through a split seam in about a 20 min. timespan! I've come up with a replacement and am "In process" one more time! Fortunately, I was right there at the time and was able (after a short Curly Shuffle) to get everything moved to holding containers. Saved about 30 gals of water. I'm so glad that this happened at a time when my tank was lightly stocked.
 
Wow when it rains it pours I guess. But its a real good thing that you were there when it happend. Let me know if you find anything in the library and good luck with round two. And VacavilleFC3S we thought it would of been the PH also but they said a water change would of helped the Ph balance out instead of the reaction we got which was water change than the tank got a little clearer and than over night looked like the tank was filled with milk.
 
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