Cloudy Water

[Sherman]

So my tank's doing something weird tonight. The water is clouding up significantly, and there's lots of "snow" in the water. I tested every test kit I have, and here's what I can tell you:

Temp: 78.8
SG: 1.026
pH: 8.30
dKH: 10.4
Ca: 370ppm
Mag: 1350ppm
Nitrates: <2ppm
Ammonia: not detectable

Today was a big maintenance day. I cleaned out all powerheads and the entire skimmer and HOB filter. I also swapped out the carbon for new today. In the midst of all this, lights came on two hours later than usual. However, nothing new was added to the tank. Looking at the perameters, I don't think it's a chemistry issue. I'm starting to lean toward a spawning event, or some sort of stress situation. Notice all the snails piled up all over each other at the water surface on the right? That's not normal. Including the snails hiding behind the trim, about half of all my astreas are parked up there tonight. A handful of the acropora are also extending mesenteries, which is an obvious sign of stress. The fish are acting normal, as are many of the corals, and all the clams.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

And a closeup of all the debris

 

[Elmo18]

Did you do a water change as well BEFORE you noticed this happening?

Best,
Ilham

 

[diablo]

is there any way that with your cleaning of the power head you have created more flow than normal which is kicking up the debris? have you tried a filter sock on the over flow.

 

[angelfish]

my tank had this situation about 1 month ago. i noticed that the snails are expeling out a lot of white stuff causing the water to cloud. spawning i guess :|

 

[NaH2O]

I was going to say the same as angelfish...either your snails had a spawning event, or your clams did.

Here was from my Mass Trochus Spawning. I think Chuck has some pictures on here somewhere of his clams spawning.

 

[Sherman]

I haven't done a water change in a week, so there's nothing going on there. This is the same water that was clear yesterdya morning.

As for the powerheads, there wasn't a significant difference in flow, and I've even had more flow in there than this before. All the sand is sitting quite still on the bottom. And it's actually a lot milkier than a sand storm.

I'm glad a couple of you leaned toward a spawn event, as well. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. However, I'm still going to be testing ammonia pretty regularly, just to be sure.

Here we are, 8 hours later. Lights don't come on for another 4 hours, so I had to light this with a flash.

Edit: Thanks Nikki for the link, I'll be taking a look. And Diablo, I don't have an overflow or sump, so there's not a lot I can do there. I did put some mechanical media (filter floss kinda stuff) in the HOB though, just as a precaution.

 

[Krish]

I agree with the spawning Jason...I honestly can't see it being anything else

 

[DonW]

If you look closely at this picture you can see one of my clams spawning. Make a cloudy mess and gets the skimmer going.

Don

 

[Sherman]

The water is clear, as of early afternoon. However, many of the corals look pretty bad. All the LPS are hunkered down into their skeletons, withdrawn, and not fat-n-happy like usual. A couple SPS still have mesenteries showing, and my Idaho Grape (M. Undata) looks like it got a nice peppering of white spots all over it. The white is the skeleton showing through, so I may still deal with RTN. The verdict's not out.

Skimmer filled the cup in half day, instead of a week, but it smells different. It actually smells like an acropora when you pull it out of the water.
There's a significant diatom bloom going on the glass.
Ammonia still tests at zero.
All the fish are acting normal.
All perameters are normal.
I'm about to do a 30% water change.

 

[angelfish]

maybe you should try to add some activated carbon in the filter :doubt:

 

[diablo]

do you have a calcium reactor? If you do did you change the media?

changing the media and trying cheaper methods (in my case) could have caused a rise in the phosphate. (from carib sea using snail shells for crushed coral) my phosphates spiked, diatom's everywhere, and lost 3 acro colonies due to RTN. But I did not have cloudy water.

check your phosphates possible culprit for the diatom bloom.

sorry bud good luck

 

[Sherman]

Thanks angelfish, I'm already running tons of it, and do so 24/7 normally, anyway.

diablo, I didn't change the media. However, I'll test phosphates, as well, just to be sure. Unfortunately, phosphate tests are notoriously inaccurate, but since I have the test kit, I might as well use it.