Whoa holy cloudy water batman
 

Anyone know what would cause my water to go extremely cloudy? I had a fish die, rainford goby...i took him out when i found him. Tested ammonia, test revealed a little, like .25 or so...the lowest i can read thats not 0. did 10 gallon water change (20 gallon tank) everything looked okay then abmmo 6 hours later water looked like water that had milk poured into it. Damn i can wait to get the bigger tank.

you should check nitrites as well, might just be a passing bloom

I would run some carbon for a few days.

Are you using tap or RO water?

Cloudy Water
 

Any chance that you triggered a precipitate snow storm?:question:

Shane

tapwater....

I am unsure of what this is...i did notice long white stringy things in the water...looks like thread almost...

Okay. The facts so far 50% water change with tapwater. That's a pretty big water change. You probably have a bacteria bloom from the declored tapwater due to the fact that Edmonton's tapwater is treated chloramine. Chloramine is a compound consisting of ammonia and chlorine, with about 1 ppm ammonia.

We had a recent discussion on chloramine in Edmonton's tapwater here....

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...light=ammonium

Instead of waiting for a bigger tank, you should invest in an RO or RO/Di unit, or else use RO or distilled water from the grocery store for water changes.

Since i am not allowed to install a Ro/DI unit in my apartment, is there anywhere in edmonton where i can buy bulk distilled water? i don't want to haul 5 gallon jugs from the damn grocery store :)
Also if there was a problem using tap water wouldn't it have shown up early, not after 4 months?

What do you mean, "not allowed" to install an RODI unit? Is this the landlord trying to say that?

You can always get a faucet adapter so you don't have to tap any pipes to install a RO unit.

That is how I ran my RODI when I was in an apartment. I used a 50g rubbermaid container to store the water so I didn't have to run the unit too often.

well i will look into, buty i think it is too late for my current tank....i just did another water change (tested the new water...all seemed ok) when the new water hit my galaxea it turned it white....so i don't know what the hell went wrong...if the system can recover hopefully i will be able to at least save the liverock....but it doesn't look good...clowns are hanging out in the corner gasping for aIR...I'M SCREWED!


Is there a way i can re-do my tank if this explodes on me...which it looks like it has, I AM SO ****ED right now, i just don't know what happened...should i keep the rock in some salt water then make up a new batch and wash the substrate off and re-cycle it...? even if just to keep the liverock going untill new tank....lots of money just went down the drain :(

When the new water hit your galaxea, the water turned white, or the galaxea? How do your other corals look?

What water tests have your run? Can you post your results?

This is serious, but I have no idea what the problem is right now I am afraid.

I would head down to the grocery store for a couple 5g of distilled water, buy a new bag of salt, mix it up, heat it & aerate it in anything (5g bucket, rubbermade, spare tank), and transfer your livestock over right away.

If possible, I would have two temporary containers, one for fish & inverts, the other for corals. Try to save what you can. You can also seperate your live rock into a 3rd container, but remember everything has to be heated, and have a powerhead in it at least.

I would also run carbon right away, and any future water changes use new salt, and non-tap water.

Where are you from?

If you are in Edmonton I can help you out tonight with some supplies, I have spare tanks, heaters, salt, and powerheads you could borrow.

The Galaxea turned white, it looks like a skeleton...mind you some got exposed when i drained the water...but only a tad for about 3 seconds...
Tests for water are as follows

Ph 8.3
Calcium 480 or so
nitrate 10
nitirite 0
ammmonia 0

i am confused as hell....

I wish i could runto get distilled right now, but i am on a fixed income for school....hell i can't buy more salt till next month... :( i have enought for 25-30 more gallons though..but thats it....

Me thinking i am defn going fish only with next tank...at least until i not so limited in funds...
tank was doing so well for 3.5 month xenia was beautiful, mushrooms were huge galaxea...was well galaxeaing...(whetever they do).....

damn damn damn damn damn

Exposing it for that time wouldn't hurt it.

Your calcium is really high, are you dosing calcium? What salt are you using?

Now I can tell you the white cloud is likely precipitated calcium. Water can only hold so much, then it turns into a solid, which would appear white which sounds like what you are describing.

But your Ph is in line, so that is good.

I would go get a different brand of salt right away, mix it heat it aerate it, and transfer your animals right away.

Where do you live? Lets try to keep these animals alive. Maybe a fellow reefer from your city (wherever that is!) can lend you some salt, and/or keep your animals alive for you in their sump/fuge.

I would have expected your Ph to be out of whack if it was precipitated calcium.

Anyone else have any ideas?

I live in edmonton...about 8 blocks from the university....so far the crabs
Electric blue and emerald seem okay....my urchin is doing it's urchin thing...the clowns are gasping like mad....

if anyone could help me out that would be great....umm...i don't have any buckets or anything to trasnfer livestock though...


i just did another alk and ph test alk is way high....ph is way low.....below 7.4 i would guess from the test
i have buffers but i've never needed to use them....only occasionally iodine and occasionally purple up....
so is this a precip..whater storm? water smells wierd...i can't place it. what do i do now?
i've done three alk and ph tests one showed okay...then the other two didn't....bloody hell..er heck....anyone want to come over and see a tank slowly dying and figure out what to do?

When this happened, was it the first use of this batch of salt? Or had you used it before without problems?

If you want to come pickup some stuff to help you out (5g tank, powerhead, heater, 5g pail of RODI water, and salt)

I will be home around 6:15pm tonight, leaving again at 8:30pm.

You could also call the LFS you got most of your stuff from, and see if they will take any of it for you.

I would say the tests saying your alk and Ph are off are correct! Sounds like a salt problem if you are not buffering with anything, what brand of salt are you using? There is a post here about bad Kent salt here, I haven't read it, but check it out.

no it wasn't the first batch of salt used...it was the second time i used it....
i would love to come over and borow those items if it would be okay....hopefully i can salvage somethings....should i put everything in there?
any chance you could come over...i hate to ask but maybe seeing the tank first hand might give you some clues...
yep i'll snap a few pics right away..,..

You said you dont have a bucket, but you have to have something that would work to transfer your animals.

Large bowls, sandwich bags?

I could fit your stuff in my fuge until you can afford to buy new salt and correct this problem.

You could also try your alk and Ph tests a few more times, try to average the results, and then use the buffers you said you have.

You seem to like editing your posts right after I read them! :)

I can't make it over tonight unfortunately. But you can come between 6:15 and 8:30 for those items, no problem.

Take a few more alk and Ph tests and add the buffers accordingly, and your stuff might pull through, but do it quickly.

pictures
 

here are some pictures...
i hope that worked

can you pm me instructions how to get to you?

I would use the buffers ASAP.

PM sent with directions.

what did the pictures look like to you?

Tough to tell what the water looked like, but your coral is definately dieing off quickly, which would be consistant with a rapid change in Ph and/or alkalinity.

Pics look bad, I'm afraid :sad:

Dying/bleaching corals are going to release ammonia, which might explain the fish gasping.

Did you remember to use dechlorinator with last water change? Also, a 50% water change is pretty drastic. Was there a reason you did one so large?

I wish there was something I could do to help figure out what happened to cause such a catastrophe :sad:

I did such a drastic change cause i had a fish die on me and the water went cloudy....so i figured better safe than sorry...that coral bleached when i put the new water on it...as soon as the new mix of water hit it it went white.

It's quite depressing actually to know 4 days ago i had what i thought was a nice little thriving community...cute little gobi...sniff sniff....clowns are hanging on, but they must feel like they are being tortured.

Strange. A fish dieing should not make water cloudy, any idea how long it was dead for before you got it out?

But from the fact that pouring the new water on your coral bleached it, I suspect your salt, or something terrible in the Edmonton water supply. So you need to use RODI water and new salt to put your animals in.

Have you re-tested Ph and Alk and tried any buffers yet?

Did you dechlorinate your water and leave it overnight with a heater and powerhead before use? Otherwise a 50% change will significantly reduce the oxygen and temperature of your water.

re stuff
 

if u want, i can hold everything for you till u get this sorted out
call me..i will pm u the number
if not, I hope everything works out for ya
Neal

Sent you a PM.

Ron, if you can get your stuff (fish and corals) to Neal faster than waiting for me to get home (because then you still have to get home and setup the temporary tank) then do it, time is of the essence.

Thanks, yep neal said he would take my fish...and possibly the inverts.
The galaxea, well i threw it wentt it went completely white.
the xenia is shrivelled but hopefully...and the mushrooms who knows....

maybe i could come over tomorrow and borrow the heater pail and ro/di water..put the live rock in...then i can clean the substrate and everything then
well...start over.

Yep, no problem.

Best of luck, and if you lose the xenia and want more when you re-start I will frag those, a colt coral, and a kenya tree for you for free.

My god you have been so helpful, you don't have to do that....

Okay whoa...i put fresh mixed salwater (over night) into a bucket for the fish, it went white to. I think maybe i have bad salt?

whoa even the worms are dying...

Test the Ph and alk of the water when you make a new batch up, before adding it to your tank.

My softies grow quickly, so dont worry about it. My colt would just barely fit into your 20g :)

Wow....
you think i should drain the tank and set the live rock in some water...then clean the substrate?
Going to have to buy some rock from you when i get the new tank...seeing as my car just cost me 2500 bucks i've had to stall the custom tank build...lost my deposit as well. Thats why i was hoping someone would trade the speakers for a tank and stand....