Cloudy water - what happened?

[FishyReef]

Came in to work today to find my tank cloudy (white). I did a 15g water change yesterday and also added PhosGuard in a filter bag to my sump. I thoroughly rinsed the phosguard first to get the dust off, but maybe there was still dust on it? Or could this be a precipitation event? (I haven't dosed anything for about 5 days, only did the water change). All of my corals and fish look okay, but for how long? I've ramped up my skimmer to try to pull out what I can. There is a fine white powder on my powerheads, etc., like there would be after a precipitation event. I'm leaning towards this being something to do with the phosguard but have no idea. Will my skimmer be enough to fix this, or should I rush out and buy chemi-clean or a poly filter pad to throw in the sump?

 

[Cheeser]

r u running carbon? u should get urself a reactor if u dont have one already.

 

[hazelsdad]

check the salinity. if it is to high the water will cloud. Water change with rodi will fix. MAke sure you arent topping off with saltwater.

 

[FishyReef]

Well, after removing the phosguard and ramping up the skimmer, the water has cleared significantly! I'm thinking it must have been phosguard dust... or else I had too high of flow on it and it was breaking the pellets down into dust (I had the phosguard in a filter bag hung on my skimmer outlet). I still have white powder on the powerheads, walls, and rocks. that I've been trying to periodically blow off into the water column.

I am going to look into getting a reactor so that I have it on hand to run phosban and/or carbon. I need to find one that is not an in-sump reactor as I simply have no room for one inside the sump. I see that BRS makes one that isn't in-sump. Does anyone have recommendations or has anyone used the BRS reactors?

 

[Cheeser]

yeah i have one. works great. i have the dual reactor but if i could i would get 2 seperate reactors so i can adjust the amount of flow in each one independently. no biggie though. im happy with mine.

 

[AdeptMrSniffles]

Well, after removing the phosguard and ramping up the skimmer, the water has cleared significantly! I'm thinking it must have been phosguard dust... or else I had too high of flow on it and it was breaking the pellets down into dust (I had the phosguard in a filter bag hung on my skimmer outlet). I still have white powder on the powerheads, walls, and rocks. that I've been trying to periodically blow off into the water column.

I am going to look into getting a reactor so that I have it on hand to run phosban and/or carbon. I need to find one that is not an in-sump reactor as I simply have no room for one inside the sump. I see that BRS makes one that isn't in-sump. Does anyone have recommendations or has anyone used the BRS reactors?

I use the NextReef MR1 dual reactor. I use it for phosban and carbon, change the carbon once a month and phosban every 2 months. It's extremely easy to use, setup, and also has a hang-on attatchment. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a reactor.