Cloudy Water Ideas

kien · #1 03-29-2013, 02:15 AM

Caulerpa has the potential to go sexual on you and cloud your tank. This is the reason why people will tend to stay away from caulerpa as a macro algae in refugiums.

A pH range of 8-8.4 is fine during the day. Unless there is a specific reason why you want to keep your alk at 9 and calcium at 530, I would personally lower them if you plan to continue with bioPellets. Those numbers should not be catastrophic as there are many people running high alk and calc. However, generally speaking if you are doing probiotics in your tank (bioPellets, zeoVit, vodka/sugar, etc) it is recommended to run your alk in the 7-8 range.

ruslicus · #2 03-29-2013, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

Caulerpa has the potential to go sexual on you and cloud your tank. This is the reason why people will tend to stay away from caulerpa as a macro algae in refugiums.

A pH range of 8-8.4 is fine during the day. Unless there is a specific reason why you want to keep your alk at 9 and calcium at 530, I would personally lower them if you plan to continue with bioPellets. Those numbers should not be catastrophic as there are many people running high alk and calc. However, generally speaking if you are doing probiotics in your tank (bioPellets, zeoVit, vodka/sugar, etc) it is recommended to run your alk in the 7-8 range.

so my plan is to test tomorrow with Denny.
1. remove caulepra from refugium
2. another WC
3. monitor Alk and keep at 7.5-8.0 level
4. Keep Biopellets on

any ideas how i can drop the Calcium?

kien · #3 03-29-2013, 02:32 AM

Allow the levels to drop naturally from coral uptake or water changes is fine too. Just don't drop alk too aggressively or you may shock corals. All should go down on its own quite easily and quickly over the course of the week. Extra carbon (if you run carbon at all) can also help clear up the water.

subman · #4 03-29-2013, 02:38 AM

What concerned me was the rtn on the corals. It makes it seem like there is something more wrong than high calcium. It could be the the Caulerpa spawning for sure, but I don't think it would cause the corals to run . That's why I thought it could be bio pellets. I lost an entire tank when I ran bio pellets and the water was cloudy.

Do the fish seem ok?

kien · #5 03-29-2013, 02:53 AM

There is certainly a lot going on in the tank ATM so ya, it will be challenging to pin point the exact cause. Certainly bioPellets could be the culprit as well. At this point it wouldn't really harm anything if you took the pellets offline if you wanted to. Get everything else in check first and then bring them back on line. And yes you will be resetting your seed time for the pellets.

In the end it's probably a series of things going on making the corals unhappy.

subman · #6 03-29-2013, 02:57 AM

Why did you start the bio pellets in the beginning? High nitrates? Phosphates?

It could be a combination of many things. I would do a water change anyway it can't hurt.

ruslicus · #7 03-29-2013, 03:39 AM

Thx guys. I started Bio Pellets to get low nutrient tank mainly for SPS. Don't have many yet. Have couple bue and one creme and one green frags. I removed all caulepra from refugium. Changed water and cleaned my overflow. I found lots of debris - not sure if it was due to feeding?! But that might be a cause of some phosphate. I ran Carbon and GFO as well, might change GFO. Ive notice in my sump lots of small flower type things exactly the same as flowers on my caulepra, so i can think it is the problem. does SPS gets upset due to caulepra sexing?

kien · #8 03-29-2013, 01:53 PM

If it is in fact the caulerpa goin sexual then the turbid water could potentially make sensitive corals like SPS unhappy. It could also be the tipping point if the corals were already stressed but still doing OK. Adding one more stress factor could have done them in. Again, suggesting that potentially a series of events causing this rather than just one.

On another note, do you light your fuge 24/7? I recall this being a suggestion to help keep caulerpa from going sexual. Although I suppose you've ditched them now so it doesn't really matter going forward.

ruslicus · #9 03-29-2013, 02:00 PM

I was going lights 8pm to 8am only. But I have removed and just left chaeto. I changed water about 10% second time. I will check Alk, CA and PH today and see if it clears out. Should I keep feeding fish or better to have 2 days diet just to reestablish the tank?

Proteus · #10 03-29-2013, 02:09 PM

What's your total livestock.
I ask because 2 years ago I watched a urchin spawn making the water cloudy.