Help, I have an EMERGENCY!

[Ugla]

I just got home and my tank was turning cloudy. There are millions of tiny yellow specs in the water. Ove the last 20 minutes the cloudiness got worse. I can barely see in the tank now. Nothing has changed. The tank has been stable for 10 years. Temp and ph are normal. Have rnot had a chance to check nitrtes yet. I don't have any warm water mixed at the moment. It will take till morning before it comes up to temp. I am considering using tap water that I can get to temp to do a water change. My skimmer is going crazy. The fish seem to be eating the specs almost like they are some kind of pods. it is a 100 gallon tank with a 30-40 gallon sump. Any ideas of what it could be?

I am stumped and don't k now what to do except water change and carbon.

Jim

 

[tri_pod_rod]

sorry to hear, good luck on your quest

 

[gas4544]

Do you have coral spawining in your tank? How do your fish, coral and inverts look?

 

[Ugla]

My rbta still looks ok. Most of the corals look ok one hard coral has died. Fish seem fair. Though they can't have much air. I just added 10 gallons of hot tap water to the 30 cold ro water to warm it up. Gonna mix salt and do a change if it gets warm enough. Added carbon to my phos reactor.

 

[jhampton_wsu]

You can always boil a couple gallons of your ro water to mix with the cold ro water. Do you have a fuge with macro? I've heard some macro going sexual can cause cloudy water. I don't really know much about macro or fuges. Also you could pull your heater from you're sump to help heat your ro water and start mixing the salt before it gets to temp. Good Luck.

 

[soyadrink]

Sounds like a spawning event. You can do a water change with coldish water as long as there isn't too much difference in temp. My tank has gone down to 67 degrees without anything even looking different. I'd say its most important to just get it cleaned up.

 

[Ugla]

It is getting a little clearer with less of the floating stuff. It looks like yellow sticky slime in my skimmer each time it fills up. So far my candy canes, frogspawn and bubble corals are still open and looking ok. The fish are still looking healthy from what I can see in very cloudy water. I do have cheato in the fuge. I don't know what else could spawn that hasn't over the years.

My tank is at 80 and the new water is up to 74.

 

[MC Lighting]

you may want to throw a airpump with airstone into the tank to get more O2 into the mix so the fish do not suffer... I also would not worry about boiling some water to add to the mix but make sure you have de-chlorinator for the tap or you could cause other problems....

 

[Tangee]

I would just warm some of the new water in a pot or the microwave and mix it in with the colder water to bring the temp up. I do it all the time in the microwave if I need to get the chill off and there's never a problem.


Susie

 

[MC Lighting]

I agree with that small of a temp difference give it a minute in the MW and put it in....

 

[Ugla]

I have 50 gallons coming up to salinity. Kinda hard to microwave enough to make a difference. I am gonna do the change soon.
This is the first emergency I have ever had since 1974 when I had a fish only saltwater tank in the early days. Used to have them every few months.

 

[artguy1]

You don't have grape type caulerpa (Racemosa) in your system do you? I have seen this expel a similar "stuff" to what your are describing, leaving an empty shell. Just a thought.

I believe the Racemosa can/does go "Sexual" in terms of reproduction at this point...Perhaps someone can shed more light on this...

 

[Ugla]

looking in the fuge, there may be some calurpa mixed in. I will definitely go now.

 

[Ugla]

Well it looks like I dodged the bullet. The tank is still somewhat cloudy the morning, but all the corals seem happy. I have only seen a couple fish, but it is still the middle of the night for them. What troubles me is I still have no idea what caused it. There was no calurpa in the fuge. I took everything out and it was all cheato.

Thanks for all the suggestions and support!

 

[returnofsid]

Do you have any Clams? Sounds like a clam spawning event. Very strange!!

 

[ashton]

Jim, How is that kole tang you got from me doing? Still having any issues with it?

 

[vinny2261]

Bristle worms can make a mess when they spawn also...Sounds differently spawning. If you are not sure what kind of Calurpa you have then there is probably not enough to cold the tank to that degree. Also the fish where eating it, If it was bad I am sure they would not eat it.

 

[Ugla]

The Kole is doing great. He is fat and happy.

I have never seen bristle worms, though they could be hiding.

No calurpa at all. I am still baffled.