I am experiencing a bit of a cloudy water situation with my reef tank. Any thoughts? Please read below for background. I believe it to be a bacterial bloom though not sure from what. Can I cut nopox to zero for a time and not make too much shock to the tank?
I imagine it is a bacterial bloom from carbon dosing, though I have been dosing NoPox for the better part of 2 years and the last increase was in June (7 ml to 8ml) when I added a new fish. The bloom started a week or so ago. I noticed my skimmer was not working as well as usual so I cleaned it, and my main pumps were due for a cleaning so I cleaned them as well. Same process as always, 1-2 hrs in 50/50 vinegar/water solution followed by a cleaning in fresh water, then I let them dry before returning them. I cannot remember if the bloom started before or after, as I have foolishly stopped writing mundane things like water changes and pump cleanings down. Regardless, it all happened at the same time. Could the new fish have caused it by adding to what has been a fairly stable bio-load? If so would the bloom continue for over a week?
I have also had a recurring high Alk (11.5 dkh when I have been right around 8 dkh for years) issue for the past month or so. I have been cutting back my 2-part since I discovered the issue this past month. Day before yesterday I have turned the doser off entirely to let it drift back down naturally. Odd thing here is that the reading of 11.65 on Monday (when doser was shut off) only drifted down to 11.2 by Tuesday (measured at same time). This corresponds to about 40.1 ml of dosing solution I have been around 100 ml/day for years (recently I have been having a problem in my frag tank that caused a lot of coral to pale (accidentally changed light schedule and had mp10 shaft break and need to be replaced) so they may have slowed but they account for maybe 10% of my coral). Could the excess alk be responsible for the cloudy water? Would a precipitation storm persist for 48 hours after dosing has stopped? What could have caused this drop in usage? I get that the kits (salifert) aren't perfect so I don't plan on doing any more than holding until I am back in the 8-9 dkh range).
I have also seen a measurement in phosphate. I use the hannah low range phosphate checker (not the ultra low range) and for the first time I have EVER owned a tank I had a positive reading on the checker (0.03 ppm and 0.19 ppm on two tests - I have to do a better job with the phosphate reagents the packet is a terrible product when it comes to consistency, and they are expired by almost a year so until I have new reagents I'm not sure I would read much into the results). Nitrates (on Red Sea test kit) are at 0 still, which I have been trying to fix forever but instead of more nitrates I only get more algae). I plan to add GFO to the tank anyway (currently only run the NOPOx and chemi-pure blue).
I imagine it is a bacterial bloom from carbon dosing, though I have been dosing NoPox for the better part of 2 years and the last increase was in June (7 ml to 8ml) when I added a new fish. The bloom started a week or so ago. I noticed my skimmer was not working as well as usual so I cleaned it, and my main pumps were due for a cleaning so I cleaned them as well. Same process as always, 1-2 hrs in 50/50 vinegar/water solution followed by a cleaning in fresh water, then I let them dry before returning them. I cannot remember if the bloom started before or after, as I have foolishly stopped writing mundane things like water changes and pump cleanings down. Regardless, it all happened at the same time. Could the new fish have caused it by adding to what has been a fairly stable bio-load? If so would the bloom continue for over a week?
I have also had a recurring high Alk (11.5 dkh when I have been right around 8 dkh for years) issue for the past month or so. I have been cutting back my 2-part since I discovered the issue this past month. Day before yesterday I have turned the doser off entirely to let it drift back down naturally. Odd thing here is that the reading of 11.65 on Monday (when doser was shut off) only drifted down to 11.2 by Tuesday (measured at same time). This corresponds to about 40.1 ml of dosing solution I have been around 100 ml/day for years (recently I have been having a problem in my frag tank that caused a lot of coral to pale (accidentally changed light schedule and had mp10 shaft break and need to be replaced) so they may have slowed but they account for maybe 10% of my coral). Could the excess alk be responsible for the cloudy water? Would a precipitation storm persist for 48 hours after dosing has stopped? What could have caused this drop in usage? I get that the kits (salifert) aren't perfect so I don't plan on doing any more than holding until I am back in the 8-9 dkh range).
I have also seen a measurement in phosphate. I use the hannah low range phosphate checker (not the ultra low range) and for the first time I have EVER owned a tank I had a positive reading on the checker (0.03 ppm and 0.19 ppm on two tests - I have to do a better job with the phosphate reagents the packet is a terrible product when it comes to consistency, and they are expired by almost a year so until I have new reagents I'm not sure I would read much into the results). Nitrates (on Red Sea test kit) are at 0 still, which I have been trying to fix forever but instead of more nitrates I only get more algae). I plan to add GFO to the tank anyway (currently only run the NOPOx and chemi-pure blue).
