My water turned Milky white over night.

[King_Neptune]

Most of my corals look fine, a few are closed, but overall 3/4 of the population is open, albeit a little bit stressed. Water color has never looked like this before. Its cloudy white. Not dirty or brown. Not green. Just like someone added a quart of milk to the tank. Obviously I'm about to start doing a full battery of tests. I got a fresh batch of water already warming up, ready for a %15 water change.

On a quick glance, salanity and temp are ok.
.025
79 degrees

Its been a week since my last water change, and all my parameters checked out fine as of 3 days ago, save my nitrates. Ive been battling it for weeks and they are in decline, but not yet at what I consider acceptable.

Last known reading's a few days ago:
MG 1300
Calcium 420
Alk 9 dkh
PH 8.2
Phospate 0
Amonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 30(again, I know this is bad...but it is in decline)

I really only have a few theories.
In order of what I think it may be:

1. I changed my fuge light to a 120w plant grow bulb at home depot. This happened last night, so its the only thing that's new to my system. Its odd to me that I wake up the next morning and the tank is getting milky. However I wont know for sure whats up till I check all my readings.

2. Cleaned out my skimmer. I empty the cup every few days, but haven't touched the neck in a few weeks. It had spoonfuls of poo wiped off. But I don't see how water goes from clear, to milky in 12 hours.

3. I may have my alk/mg/ca off balance somehow. It was cool last I checked and nothing new has been added since last readings a few days ago.

 

[jrgilles]

I'd say retest. Could be a snowstorm if your chemistry went out of wack with the last waterchange. Sometimes the salt buckets settle out if old, so maybe your Ca went too high, and it is precipitating out of solution (since we keep our tanks more or less super-saturated with calcium.)

OR

Maybe the change in fuge lighting instigated your macro algae going sexual, and it did its thing in your water. If thats the case, I'd guess run some carbon and do water changes, but never dealt with that. How big is your fuge?

 

[mojoreef]

Are you dosing kalk or similar?? Perhaps have some clams, oysters??

Mojo

 

[DonW]

Whats in your Fuge. Macro gone sexual????? If so dont wait for the water to warm up just throw in loads of carbon.

Don

 

[King_Neptune]

I'd say retest. Could be a snowstorm if your chemistry went out of wack with the last waterchange. Sometimes the salt buckets settle out if old, so maybe your Ca went too high, and it is precipitating out of solution (since we keep our tanks more or less super-saturated with calcium.)
OR
Maybe the change in fuge lighting instigated your macro algae going sexual, and it did its thing in your water. If thats the case, I'd guess run some carbon and do water changes, but never dealt with that. How big is your fuge?

Carbon is going full bore now. Im headed over to the aquarium room to begin the tests.

Sump is a 55g for my DT, but I have a 3g tub with macro algae in it that drains from the DT and spills down into the sump. Im actually in the process of upgrading everything and plan to introduce a 30g fuge that sits above the water level of the DT. I just put on my final coat of laquer on the table and will be sealing the seams with silicone.Once it dries tonight, Ill begin building the frame to hold the new fuge. It will still be a few days if not a week before I get it up and running.

Are you dosing kalk or similar?? Perhaps have some clams, oysters??

Mojo

I dose with a dry mix(two part) solution from bulk reef supply.
Two Part Calcium and Alkalinity Total Package (Large) - English
I do it in small increments and the last actual dose was a week ago. The water params I listed are three days old. Since I was satisfied with the results I obviously saw no need to dose any further.

Whats in your Fuge. Macro gone sexual????? If so dont wait for the water to warm up just throw in loads of carbon.
Don

Chaeto and a little bit of Marginata(red macro algae). I got a carbon reactor going, replaced the media this morning as well. It was fresh(a week old), but since its inexpensive to replace. I figured why not, I got gallons of high grade carbon on standby.

 

[DonW]

If its not a clam spawn or snail spawn event its probably your macro. If so pull it our and just leave the chaeto.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

Do you have any Halimeda algae, in the display or fuge? If so, is it all white now, or even gone? I've had it go sexual, in several tanks. When it happens, it happens rapidly, turning the tank water milky. The algae, itself, also turns pure white and then disintegrates. As Halimeda goes sexual, it actually turns into Aragonite Sand. A few hours later, the water clears up. It's never caused any ill effects and I've had HUGE populations of it, all go sexual at once.

 

[King_Neptune]

No halimeda aglae.

My KH was a little low at 7.5(I like to keep it at 9.0)

I turned up the carbon reactor pump, to get the water flowing faster. Normally I like the slower contact time, but I felt it was better to get as much volume through it as I could. I also ended up doing a 20% WC and the water looks about 90% better. Still a tiny bit milky, but not nearly as bad.

Honestly, I think it may have been a coral spawning event. All my Stylo and Pocillipora is looking stressed and closed. All my other species of coal are either thriving, or only mildly stressed. This is opposite of what has been the norm in my tank. In tough times my Stylo and pocillapora corals are the ones that outshine everyone else. In fact, they never even so much as flinch.

I don't know what triggered the event, I did get a wave maker last week, that is a possible theory.
But why they chose to protest a week later...I don't know.

 

[BackwerdsMan]

Yeah, My first thought was something got horny.

 

[King_Neptune]

everyone outside of my pocillapora and stylo corals are happy as can be. But the stylo and poccilla are only slightly better. Very interesting and new for me. Kinda sucks since I really like them over my other species.