Water Clarity not so clear

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MC Lighting

A Little Overboard!
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
517
Location
Issquah, WA
Hi everyone my 180 has been crystal clear for ever and a couple of weeks ago I decided to do a little reaquascaping after that time I have had a milky haze to my tank and it won't go away! I wet skimmed 5 gallons of water over a 2 day period with no success I just did a water test and here is what I have but nothing looks out of wack. Anyone have any ideads before I go to the pool store and get Diatomatious Earth poweder and build a filter...

Ca 440
KH/Alk 3.20ml
Mg 1110ppm a little low?
Amonia 0
Phosphate <.03
Nitrates <2
Nitrites 0

Any ideas are appreciated
 
Try Carbon? How about a filter sock on the return line, that also helps, last a diatomatious filter would work as well but I never liked dealing with that powder stuff.
 
I agree with Scooty! Also, you can try running a power/canister filter with a polishing/micron cartridge in it that should pick up and remove any free floating particles. In addition, you can also try a small water change :)
 
Hey Mister California...

Get you a RO/DI filter Buddy! I remember you. You are not letting the cat out of bag so I will. I have a diatom filter you can have. But promise me you will get a RO/DI soon.

Pleasure meeting you, Awesome person from Cali.
I hope you and Ron had a good time this week end.
Your friend,
Ed Hahn:)
 
I'm for am the diatom filter. They are great to clean up the messes we make in our tanks and disasters. The vortex filters are inexpensive and will clear most tanks in a hour or so.

Don
 
Don or MC,
Either of you can have it. Its been sitting in my garage for years. First one to speak up can have it. Its a vortex XL filter.
Ed
 
Don or MC,
Either of you can have it. Its been sitting in my garage for years. First one to speak up can have it. Its a vortex XL filter.
Ed

Thanks Ed. I have one already. Sure came in handy to clean up my clam death disaster.

Don
 
Your Magnesium is a little low. Your mag should be 3x's your Calcium or you get fast fluctuations. 400 Cal should be 1200 mag (ppm) for example.
 
Hey Ed your right on the RO filter however I have been running it without one for the past few months with actually better water clarity than when I was running the RO and this is something that just started a few weeks ago directly related to when I did the reaquascaping...

As far as carbon and a filter sock I already have both of those as I run carbon 24/7. For whatever reason the last day the water has been clearing up just as quickly as it went cloudy.

Thanks for the offer on the filter I went ahead and made one with Ron's help between the 2 of us we can come up with just about anything (scary) and it was very nice to meet you as well and loved your tank!

Sorry for not replying sooner however I came down with a nasty case of the stomach flue Sunday night and slept all day yesterday in between trups to the BR :oops:
Get you a RO/DI filter Buddy! I remember you. You are not letting the cat out of bag so I will. I have a diatom filter you can have. But promise me you will get a RO/DI soon.

Pleasure meeting you, Awesome person from Cali.
I hope you and Ron had a good time this week end.
Your friend,
Ed Hahn:)
 
Sounds like a bacterial bloom, which is one of the things that diatom filters are great for. Might have just opened a pocket of crud in your rocks which the bacteria fed on. Once it was gone they disappear. The main concern is that they can use up all the oxygen at night, so make sure that water flow and aeration are top notch and look for signs of fish stress (up near the surface gulping air.) It sounds like the situation resolved itself, but it might be a sign that it's time to get a small powerhead and really blow out the rock structure.

Also, running RO/DI water on a reef tank is one of many basic practices that go a long way to reducing fluctuations and mysterious changes. I've seen plenty of tanks that do without (I did for a long time) but it just makes for more hard work in the long run.

Good luck! (And welcome up from Cali! I'm a transplant from Sacramento and the Bay Area about 6 years ago.)

Josh
 
yeah the only reason I have not run the RO here is I am now in an apartment for the short term and not realy wanting to drill the sink as then they require IU leave the unit or replace the sink... Thanks for the welcome I realy like it here...
 
Hey "murky water" is just mother nature cleaning up a water quality issue that our limited test kits can't test for .. no big deal and once the bacteria have consumed the "crud" then your skimmer will take care of the dead bacteria.
 
yeah it was not much that I was worried about the "look" if the water more that I knew something was not quite right and it looks like things are swinging back over to normal so I feel better now...
 

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