My water is cloudy!

[cowbell]

Over the past three days my water has become cloudy white. The mechanical filters when I clean them are slimy. My Skimmer is going nuts working like I have never seen it work and the stuff that is coming out of it smells worse then anything I have emptied before. I have checked my nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia all are zero. Phosphate is very little, (will be fixing that today). I have done a 15% water change also. Nothing at this point has helped clear up the water. I was wondering if I have a algae bloom problem or if it is something else. The tank has been running for 10 years. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[alan214]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom but the question is what triggered it.

 

[jimwat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9306246#post9306246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alan214
Sounds like a bacterial bloom but the question is what triggered it.

Exactly! Had to have had some type of "event" in the tank. When I have had this happen, it is always something has died or something is spawning.

Run run your skimmer wet and do water changes.

 

[illal]

try more than a 15% water change you should be doing a 15% anyways even if it wasnt cloudy but you should try more like 25-30%

 

[cowbell]

I have seen my Ricordea spitting things out of their mouth but though that they were just unhappy like everything else. I was having a problem with low calcium and had been dosing the maximum ammout the past 4 days. Could the problem be to much Calcium? I have read that the tests can go bad, I could have to much i guess.

 

[joyski58]

I'm thinkin' more like your calcuim is bad. I recently went through that. Dosed with CA (that was apparently too old) one evening. Was cloudy white by the next afternoon. I think it's called a calcuim precipitation event. I did 2 big water changes and it cleared up and harmed nothing. Might want to add lotsa carbon.

 

[jimwat]

Ahh, you had a snow storm. Adding too much calcium and/or alkalinity will cause this to happen (calcium precipitation). However, this should not cause a "smell" on its own. The snow storm is probably causing some other problems (like with the rics) that is creating the smell and your skimmer to go crazy.

When I have caused a snow storm in the past the precipitation coats everything in the tank, but the water usually clears up in 12-24 hours. My biggest issue was that my softies and LPS would not open up for a few days.

 

[cowbell]

Snow storm, well it sure is ugly. I will do a large water change tonight and will be throwing in more carbon. Thanks for all your help. Just one thing, I have noticed that my SPS have lost some of their color, not bleached out just don't have the colors that they have in the past. I am sure that with them not extending out the polips that they are not feeding and could be causing the issue. Thanks.

 

[cowbell]

I got home tonight and wow what a difference one day makes. The water is clear again thank God and some f my softies are out. I will still do the carbon and water change but it looks like the "snow storm" is over and that my tank made it through. Thanks to all who helped.