I've had coudy water for days now

[fasteddie]

Just what the title says, I've had it for about 5 days now and it hasnt gotten any better. I did a search on this sight about cloudy water and came up with a few ideas of what the problem could be and inevitably figured out that I had something dead behind my base rock. So I did a small water change, took out all my rock and sifted the sand and came up with 3 dead astrea snails that smelled horrible. Put everything back in and plugged in all my equipment and just hope for the best. My question is will 3 dead astreas in a 55gal make the water so dirty and cloudy that I couldnt see 5" into the tank?

BTW, has anyone every used "clarifyer" to clear up your water?

 

[yote]

Its very possible Eddie.A couple of dead snails can be as bad as a dead fish.
Keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels for a couple of days,just to make sure they dont spike.

 

[fasteddie]

good to know, thats just it, my numbers were good so I did suspect death. thanks yote. I will let you know if this worked.

 

[Reefgyrl]

What is your calcium level? I have heard that too high of ca can cause cloudiness?

 

[messiah023]

Eddie,

Do you have a sump?
Do you have a filter sock?
Do you have a way to run some activated carbon?

Usually, you can clear up "particles" with the filter sock.
If it's still cloudy, throw in a filter bag of activated carbon.

Did you just put in new sand? That will take a couple days to settle (with the right particulate filter in place).

BTW.....try not to stir your sand anymore.
Once it's in, don't touch it. Too much movement will disrupt the good bacteria that is trying to get established in there.

Good luck!

 

[Bifferwine]

In a new tank, it doesn't take much to cause cloudiness (usually a bacterial bloom caused by overfeeding or something dying). As your tank matures, things like snails dying won't have an impact. But for now, keep up with water changes and your parameters and things will sort themselves out.

 

[ccCapt]

I agree with Biff. Is it a cloudy white or green?

 

[fasteddie]

What is your calcium level? I have heard that too high of ca can cause cloudiness?

Calcium is at around 400-420, it was as low as 3?? when all of this started happening.

 

[fasteddie]

Eddie,

Do you have a sump?
Do you have a filter sock?
Do you have a way to run some activated carbon?

Usually, you can clear up "particles" with the filter sock.
If it's still cloudy, throw in a filter bag of activated carbon.

Did you just put in new sand? That will take a couple days to settle (with the right particulate filter in place).

BTW.....try not to stir your sand anymore.
Once it's in, don't touch it. Too much movement will disrupt the good bacteria that is trying to get established in there.

Good luck!

I am very new to all of this so I may not be able to answer your questions correctly, but I will try.

Not sure if a skimmer is the same as a sump or not but I have a Coralife 125 hanging on the side of the tank.

Never heard of a filter sock

As far as activated carbon I have the filters that go into the biowheel and just replaced them a week ago, there is carbon in them. Is that the same?

Thanks for the heads up on sand stirring. I will try to let it go from now on.

 

[fasteddie]

In a new tank, it doesn't take much to cause cloudiness (usually a bacterial bloom caused by overfeeding or something dying). As your tank matures, things like snails dying won't have an impact. But for now, keep up with water changes and your parameters and things will sort themselves out.

Thanks for the tips Biffer, you seem very knowledgable in this hobby and I appreciate the feedback.

BTW, The cloudiness is partially my fault, I have been running the lights 10 hours a day which was making it green on top of the clouds. I put some water clarifyer in last night, cranked up the skimmer and shut the lights off completly and today when I got home from work, it looked 75% better. Hopefully within a couple days it will straighten out completley.

 

[messiah023]

Hey Eddie,

You should go to the introduce yourself forum and tell us what you have going on in that 55g of yours.

You mentioned biowheels.
I started this hobby the same as you with the biowheels.
I actually went through 2 biowheel fixtures in 2 months. They do really bad in saltwater (from experience).
Also, the biowheel is a haven for nitrates. I had 20ppm + contently with my medium stocked tank. After I got rid of the Biowheels, and added a skimmer, I am down to 5ppm nitrates at any given time.

You seem to have liverock from some of your other posts. Liverock, Livesand and a sump with skimmer should be all the "bio" filtration you need.

Good luck, we love pics too so let's see your setup sometime.