Cloudy water

Shishimon

Shishimon

Reefing newb
Well I took the advice of some local reefers and added a unit of chemi pure to my tank 3 days ago. My tank has become extremely cloudy with particulate matter flowing everywhere. Water had been clear but I was constantly having diatom outbreaks. It was suggested I use chemi pure to clear it up. I have what I thought was green algae but it is brown. Seems my Protien skimmer can't keep up with this problem. I have removed the chemi pure and added back a bag of activated carbon. Really strange part is after my lights are off for the night the next more it's somewhat clear. Within an hour of the lights coming on I can't see through the tank. I been to to add a sump, I've been told to add a gfo reactor. Can any one help me with what could be going on? My next step is drain clean and do over which is a bummer because my tank has only been running 40 days.
 
i added three pictures to my photo album of the growth on live rock and current water test using API saltwater master test kit. Maybe this will help you guys figure out what is going on
 
This part :

"extremely cloudy with particulate matter flowing everywhere"

It almost sounds like you didnt rinse the bag well enough before adding it to your tank. Sometimes it takes FOREVER to get it rinsed properly.

As far as getting instantly cloudy after the lights come back on almost sounds like you are having a bacterial bloom. Are you dosing any type of bacteria to your tank like MB7 etc. ?
 
I use RODI and no I'm not dosing with anything. Should I add the chemi pure back after a strong rise? I believe I have dead spots and I think it's detritus I moved my rock around and it is everywhere.
 
if its detritus , I would siphon out as much as you can, followed by a good water change. The chemi pure is a carbon/gfo mix, you want to place it in a location where water is forced to flow through it. Water will take the path of least resistance so if it has the opportunity to flow around the bag it will, thus ,making the media inside the bag useless . Also do what you can to eliminate those dead spots or you will be in the same position is a very short time.
 
I took out my main display live rock place a power head toward the front bottom of the tank and one on the back top of the tank to try to stir up what I can. Hoping Protien skimmer may take out some. I'll let it settle vac it out. Do a 20% water change and do a better job of stacking rock. I had a lot of rock touching the back of the tank, so I'm going to do two islands with plent of flow. I added the chemi pure back after a super rinse. I placed it behind my stock over flow of my bio cube. We will see what happens...
 
Diatoms are very normal in this stage of a new tank. They will go away on their own over time, as they use up any silicates in your tank. Once the tank runs out of silicates, the diatoms will die off (they build their shells out of silicates). I wouldn't worry about diatoms at this point -- they don't hurt anything; they are just ugly.
 
What are you guys thoughts on Chemi Pure? I ve had people say take it out. I've had people say its awesome. I'm so confused. I bought one unit which is good for tanks up to 40 gallons. My tank is 29 gallons.
 
I have always had great results from it, I always pair it with purigen when I do use it. I have moved on to using a reactor so I really dont use the bag anymore.
 
I would recommend the BRS reactor over the TLF. the removable cartridge makes swapping the media much easier.

I have had both
 
What brand of tank? What kind of filter? If you are using a sponge switch to floss for a couple of days and see what it collects....Chemipure is a great product IMO
 
29 gallon Bio Cube with no stock filtration. I have added a Red Sea HOB Prism Skimmer. I will be updating that to a Hydor Slim Skimm within a few week. I figured out what my problem was. I removed my rock and let everything settle I have a ton of detritus in the tank. I am going to have to improve on my aquascape. I am running 2 Hydor Koralina 425's and stock return. This gives me about 1000 gph turnover. But I think my rock work was blocking flow. I am going to vac out all I can reset aqauascape into 2 islands to maximize flow. Then add floss to help removed ditritus in the future. My skimmer is having to run extremely turned down or it just produces wet skimm.
 
I removed 5 gallons today and I'm not sure if this will help but I smelled awful like a dead fish. I tried to suck up everything on the sand bed. I think I may add more live sand to the tank. Right now I have an inch of sand.
 
I wouldn't add more. An inch is fine. Any more than that and you will just be creating a trap for detritus. The less sand you have, the easier it is to keep clean.
 

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