Woke up to a cloudy tank??

[rutz81]

This morning I woke up and looked at my tank when the lights came on and for the second time in about 2 or 3 months that the aquarium looks cloudy in the morning. Both times I tested for all the usuals(nitrates,phos.,ph, cal., alk) All tests seem to come up normal. By normal I am mean Nitrates=0, Phos.=0,Ph=8.4, Cal.=450, Alk=9.
Other than the cloudiness(that only lasts an hour or so) nothing else seems to be affected. My SPS and fish all seem happy,polyps out, and fish are seem to be acting the same. Another thing is that skimmer seems to stop producing foam until it clears up;just as if I just fed.

I am completely lost as to what this might be.

Any opinions, similar experiences would be great,

Thanks,
Dave

 

[chrismhaase]

your snails are spawning. What happens at night they admit "juice" and this mixes and in a little while you might notice little snails, provided they are not getting eaten. Do some searching on there because I remember seeing this awhile ago. You can also do this if you take a glass of cold water, warm in another. drop one snail into one and the other in another and mix the glasses.

 

[chrismhaase]

I will try to find the old thread.

 

[rutz81]

thanks chris. really appreciate it the info.
anyone else on this snail spawning?

Dave

 

[Mariner]

Do you have caulerpa macro algae? If it goes "sexual" it can really cloud a tank for a few hours. IME, this usually happens just as lights are coming on in the morning.
FWIW,
Mariner

 

[chrismhaase]

he is right about the caulerpa

 

[chrismhaase]

if you do increase your fuge light cycle

 

[rutz81]

In my fuge I have only chaeto. The light cycle is 24 hours on. so, dows that mean it is definitely the snails?

 

[rutz81]

Can this cloud or "snail juice" harm anything in my tank? CAn anything be done?

 

[Maximus]

It could be a bacteria bloom.

 

[rutz81]

Bacteria Bloom?? Can anyone explain this?

 

[rutz81]

Any input from the night people??

 

[Tyrosinase]

Do you happen to have a clam in the tank? If you do, the clam may have spawned.

 

[rutz81]

Nope, no clams. Here it is almost 12 hours later and it's like nothing ever happened. I'm just interested in what actually happened and why.

 

[sreefs]

The same thing happened to me several times. One night we got home late all the tank lights were off and the tank looked like someone dumped a gallon of milk in it! I had two turbo snails and one was squirting what looked like smoke out of it. 12 hours later tank was crystal clear. two weeks later I had many small turbos. They did this many times with no tank problems.

 

[Mariner]

I'm thinking that a bacteria bloom would not clear up by itself in twelve hours. Bacteria blooms sometimes occur in newer tanks or tanks where the bio load greatly outstrips the biofilters. That just doesn't sound like what's going on in your case. The snail spawn seems like the best guess so far.
FWIW,
Mariner

 

[rutz81]

First off, I really appreciate everyone's input.
Question: Let's say that the snails were spawning, do they form shells as well?? Or do they look around tryong to find another shell to live in?

Dave

 

[samwheat]

How big is your tank? I had snails spawn in a 29 gallon and it wasnt enough to cloud the water. I dont see snails clouding a tank of any decent size. Do you have a sandbed? Do you have any gobys or other types of jawfish? Sounds to me like stirred up sandbed.

 

[rutz81]

I have aboout 20 large zebra snails, along with 30 or so Cerith snails. I'm pretty sure its not the sandbed, considering I don't have any. It's not even anything in the water of any size at all. Meaning, there is no real size particle matter to the cloudiness, it just seems like what "sreefs" said, "like someone dumped some milk in tank"

Dave

 

[rutz81]

btw, the tank is a 75 Gallon, total volume about 105-110.