Orange cloudy water!!!! PLEASE HELP!

[evo.howard2010]

Every once in a while this is the third time! My tank will become cloudy and everything will get covered in orange what I think is algae everywhere in my pumps, on my rocks! I have dealt with it by doing a lot of water changes and running carbon but I'm interested to know what would be causing something like this? Plzzz help!

 

[johanasu]

Orange/rust colored covering sounds like a diatom bloom. They sometimes occur in the first 6 months a tank is up. Some think it is from silicon leeching into the water from sand and rocks. It usually has a finite timeframe and doesn't come back after a while.

Cloudy water is usually a bacteria bloom. This is often caused by dosing carbon or other nitrate reducing products. It can also be caused by spikes in nutrients in the water.

What do you add to the water other than fish food?

 

[evo.howard2010]

Reef roids, liquid calcium, stontium, iodine all by kebt marine, but the calcium is bright well

 

[evo.howard2010]

Is running carbon the problem how should I try and fix! My tank is 6 months old

 

[evo.howard2010]

 

[johanasu]

Running carbon is not the problem, when I said carbon dosing I meant adding vinegar, vodka, or synthetic carbon (this is used as bacteria food for good bacteria, but can also cause blooms in the water).

We need to get your parameters. What is your nitrate, calcium, alkalinity and temperature? Do your inhabitants seem distressed, or are they ok?

I generally don't dose things like strontium and iodine because we cannot test for them accurately. There are a few specific things you might dose those for, but overall water changes are going to keep your levels at a good range.

I also wouldn't dose calcium without measuring your levels regularly. if you have very few corals then your calcium shouldn't be decreasing rapidly. Again, water changes should maintain your calcium and alkalinity if you don't have a lot of corals.

What are you trying to feed with your reef roids?

I would cut back on all dosing and take measurements and let us know.

 

[johanasu]

Also, try not to freak out, bacterial blooms and diatoms are not big problems and typically not harmful.

 

[evo.howard2010]

Everyone seems fine my fish is normal other then them being a little closed up they all seem fine. I would have to my parameters when I get home from work! Its not stressing me out its just annoying! I was was wondering how to make this stop!

 

[evo.howard2010]

I feed all my corals the reef roids! But the hammer,sun,Duncan, frogspwan, and acans get misis and well!

 

[dream54ing]

Everything Jonathon said... I personally would not introduce anything, including food, supplements/additives etc. for a week.

Maybe runs carbon (charcoal) and frequent small amount of water changes for anything that might be affected by it.

 

[tcamos]

Also, try not to freak out, bacterial blooms and diatoms are not big problems and typically not harmful.

I agree with this. Cloudy tanks are common and often caused by bacteria which is beneficial. It takes a good six months or more for a tank to stabilize. In that time you will see cloudy water, diatoms, cyanobacteria. There's a period of time at about 3 months that I call "the uglies" that a tank looks bad, but really isn't. This passes with time and water changes then balances out.

Running activated carbon can actually help with the cloudiness and water discoloration. Just be sure to change it regularly.

 

[evo.howard2010]

Its clear today! Water did a 180 from last night! Water is clear now I just have orange aglae all over! No I just need to clean!! Lol thanks for all the info guys!

 

[evo.howard2010]

No2: 0 ppm
Ph: 8.0
No3: 20ppm
Ammonia: 0
Ca: 360ppm
Kh: 160ppm
Salinity: 35
Temp: 77°

Nitrates are out of control! Is there anyway to reduce them other than water changes? Way better though

 

[cpap0802]

You can try Biopellets to reduce NO3

 

[evo.howard2010]

This seems to keep happening when I add algae to my fuge and lite it! What should I add for now to help with filtration that not a macro algae? Or just something that does not need lighting

 

[TangingOut]

More live rock. Stick it in your sump if you want to maintain a minimalist look in the display.

 

[tcamos]

I like macro and I think it has many benefits to a tank.

If this is happening when add it that's okay, like I said it should even out in time. My current tank was cloudy for 3 or 4 weeks but it went away and now it's just fine.

 

[kjonulak]

I added a Marine Pure Block to my sump on my 45 gallon and a 1/4 block to my nano. NO3 is zero in nano and barely measurable in my 45 gallon. It takes 4-6 weeks to start seeing results. I am dosing vinegar ~ 5mls in 45 gallon. I am not dosing vinegar in nano.

 

[BobthePhotoGuy]

Why are you having to add macro. Once macro is in the sump you usually end up having to trim.

If you can't keep macro alive you have something else going on? Macroalgae reduce the available levels of phosphates and nitrites/nitrates. Pretty hard to kill off macro algae.

 

[evo.howard2010]

Well the first time I placed it in the tanks I did not realize the light I was using was not good for algae so it died! And then I had the orange cloudy water the first time. So I removed it and placed a large amount of live rock in the tank for filtration that like 1 month ago I got the correct k light and added cheto but after adding the orange algae in the sump went crazy! So I turned it off and with no light on the algae I removed it as well! I'm not quite sure what prompted it this time!