did some testing again tonight.

sg = 1.024
nitrate = 9
PO4 = 0
Alk = 223
Calcium = 360
MG = 1460

Tank is still pure white.
Rocks are slightly slimy

The readings are starting to look better. Hopefully the calcium will creep up on its own.

I did find one more thing today though. I found one of the heaters cracked and was leaking some current into the sump downstairs. Maybe thats the source of this bacterial bloom.

Todays values

alk - 237ppm
ca - 370
mg - 1460


Still really cloudy - no change. fish still swimming in there somewhere.
interesting that the alk went up since yesterday.
Im going to start adding some ca tomorrow if the numbers stay steady.

Is your doser still running? How did the alkalinity go up?

Im not really sure what happened there. My doser is shutdown. Im going to verify what I get tomorrow for alk.
The only thing that I can think of is the slight increase in SG by evap, but thats pretty remote.

Heres a quick pic of what I have.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB...ew?usp=sharing

I was told that the tank isnt as cloudy as it was...

I cant seem to make the image show so heres the link


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB...ew?usp=sharing

I did a quick read on your entire post and I see few things that really not needed to be fixed or at least one issue at a time.

1st why are you trying to play so much with chemical imbalance in your tank..is it full of SPS or LPS? If not then leave the chemicals and the testing out for now till you fix the other issues.

A broken heater could lead to few problems one possibly a bacteria bloom.remove the dead heater do a water change, replace your Activated carbon and make sure your skimmer is running properly.

I think your cloudy water started by chemical imbalance by your doser crapping out then it lingered few days as you kept trying to fix the imbalance,..You cannot see your fish so you probably added more fish food more often for them to survive, from doing so you created alot of proteins running in your tank then the bacteria bloom started taking over and you still have it mixed with chemical imbalance and nothing will get better unless you take it one step at a time.

Most replies are above are great for getting your chemicals properly in check.

Take slow and I mean very slow.
Tune down your lighting period or percentage, replace the Activated carbon, fix the skimmer, keep temperature between 78 and 80 degree (slows down the bacteria bloom), do a couple water changes directly from and by over driving your skimmer (wet skimming), keep feeding your fish as you did in the past, less food is always best as you want the fish to scavenge around your tank, of course keep the tank turn over as much as possible (the more oxygen the better)
in no more that 10 days (max) and your water should clear out fine.
then go ahead and tackle the chemical imbalance again very slowly.

Hope that helps:biggrin:

There you go

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UN...21N=w1506-h653

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/U8...PjE=w1506-h653

Take care to test accurately. Make sure you measure water accurately and use level scoops, etc. This is likely testing error. Then just wait for the bacterial bloom to go away. :)

Thanks for the reply.

I havent really been messing with a whole lot during this. The tank is alot of acans, zoas, other lps some sps. I started dosing a little while back and figured that the imbalance was causing the issue. Heater is removed when I found it. Carbon is fresh recently. The skimmer is tuned so that it will actually skim something. If I put it any wetter it pops the lid off the cup and makes the sump look like someone tossed brown dishsoap in it.

I lowered the feedings. Noone wants to eat. I feed very minimal (about 50% ) what i used to feed since no fish are eating when I see them. I never really did feed high amounts.

My temp today is 24.5-25C (76-77F) It has been around this temp forever.

I have been thinking about putting an air stone in the tank to help oxygen.

Hopefully now that the chemical imbalance is mostly taken care of now the bacterial issue will slowly be dealt with. I have read many articles about bacterial blooms and most say to wait it out.. Some say that water changes can make it worse. It has been 12 days and the fish I occasionally see seem fine.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwB...ew?usp=sharing

This revolting thing was cleaned 2.5 hours ago. When I came home from work the lid was popped off and the foam was covering the sump to the skimmer cup. There was about 1" liquid in it.

Hopefully soon the tank will turn around soon.

Thanks

Im usually pretty careful to be exact on my tests. Your right that this probably is a testing abnormality. I re did the test and got 210ppm.