Can Calc and Alk imbalance cause persistent cloudy water?

jostafew · #1 09-27-2013, 05:14 AM

Hey tang daddy, thanks for the story

In all seriousness, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I never dose anything without measuring a deficiency which is why I was so baffled with that whole swapparoo! In any case, I've been dosing Alk supplement and the levels are rising at an expected rate, now up to 8.0 which agrees with what I've dosed. I also tested Mag tonight which came out at 1070ppm, so I dosed to bring that back up to 1300. The Calc supplement is Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium, same stuff I've always used.

When things settle down and corals start growing quickly again I may consider automating the dosage of Calc and Alk to keep up with things (already have 1 dosing pump).

I'm still baffled about the cloudiness though. Aside from the Calcium being higher than I'd like the params are now back in the acceptable range, but the water is still just as cloudy as ever. I think the only possibility left is a stubborn bacteria bloom that the Microbacter doesn't seem to be offsetting. I'm working on a UV sterilizer as a last stab in the dark.

tang daddy · #2 09-27-2013, 07:14 AM

Run carbon

jostafew · #3 09-27-2013, 03:27 PM

One of the first things I did. I have a TLF 150 reactor running with a fresh batch of carbon.

toytech · #4 09-27-2013, 04:43 PM

What salt are you using , when I got the to bottom of my bucket of instant ocean I suffered through a few weeks of un explained cloudiness
, switch to a new batch and it went away . I wasn't testing at the time so I don't know if cal and alk where out of wack but there was definitely something in the salt .

iceman86 · #5 09-27-2013, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toytech

What salt are you using , when I got the to bottom of my bucket of instant ocean I suffered through a few weeks of un explained cloudiness
, switch to a new batch and it went away . I wasn't testing at the time so I don't know if cal and alk where out of wack but there was definitely something in the salt .

My reef looked like crap when using instant ocean reef crystals. I had all sorts of issues. I switched to h2ocean and it's now a completely different reef. The colours and growth are way better and my parameters are more stable too. Everything looks a lot more healthy. I'll pay the extra $20 to have a beautiful reef.

jostafew · #6 09-27-2013, 05:19 PM

I too had a bad experience with a bucket of IO, it wiped out all of my fish and inverts and about half my corals. By the time I figured out that the salt was to blame it was too late. I've since switched to DD H2Ocean. I did start a new bucket of that recently, I'm trying to think back on whether that coincided with the start of the cloudiness.... I did a 10gal (20%) WC somewhere around that time but I can't say for sure if it was before of after the cloudiness started.... Maybe I'll try to mix up a fresh bucket and see how that looks. Thanks for the input, will update after I've investigated the salt.

jostafew · #7 09-28-2013, 03:44 PM

Water cleared up! Made a deal with a fellow Canreefer for a UV sterilizer and set it up yesterday around dinner time. By 10:00 the water was noticeably clearer and by this morning it was pretty much perfect! Looks like it was just a bacterial bloom in my case after all, was sure lasting for a long time though.

Thanks for everyone's input