Oops. Lysol.

C

Commodore Greenhorn

Reefing newb
My wife went nuts with a can of Lysol in the room where my tank sits a few weeks ago. Not knowing what else to do, or even whether the tank had been contaminated (though I can't imagine it wasn't), I did a large water change and added some carbon. I've done three ordinary water changes since.
I've been having issues with white cloudiness. A couple weeks ago, the tank was very cloudy - I added an air stone on a big air pump and turned off the lights for a few days. That cleared up the cloudiness almost completely, but it's never gone back to being quite as clear as it used to be. The cloudiness is beginning to increase again. Could it be related to the Lysol bomb? What should I do?
The tank is a 20L AIO running since March.
Thanks.
 
Nitrifiers, you mean? I don't know, wouldn't everybody would be an awful lot sicker if that were the case? The tank is still crawling with little bugs and my snails are ok..
 
No sliminess on the rock.
I am not running a skimmer, having been told many times that it was not necessary on a tank so small with PWCs being performed once a week. I'm thinking I'll add one now, anyway, though. I don't want to spend the money, however, until I'm confident I know what's going on in the tank and that it's going to survive long term. I've been looking at a Remora-S - how do we like those?
 
Oh, how big is your tank? I change 5g everyother day and i have great results. The protein skimmer will give you clearer water for sure. Maybe nothing is wrong and you just have no way of exporting nutrients. Its hard telling from lack of information on a fourm page.
 
I know, sorry - there's so much to tell in these situations and I'm not always sure what might be relevant.

It's a 20L AIO - the refugium is around 1.5 gallons and full of chaeto. I've never had a discernible nitrate reading. Total water volume is probably around 16 or 17 gallons.

This is my first reef tank after having kept FW for years. Even though I barely know what I'm doing, it's honestly always felt "wrong" not running a skimmer. I think now I'd like one to make me feel better even if I knew it would of no benefit to the tank.
 
I didnt know your volumn. W/c's is the way to go. Just do a 1g w/c per day for 2 weeks and youll see a big improvement. With a tank this size, adding all those big tank features tends to make the tank look mechanical. All the components sticking all over the tank gets to be a little much.
Make sure you constantly reduce that cheato. Cheato is a great for pulling out mag, a good indication of that is the cheato strands become more fiberous and thicker. You need mag to achieve cal. intake for snails and if you have corals. This will get that coralline algae to grow fast too. Good luck
 
So when should I let go of the worry over the Lysol bomb? I'll double check when I get home to be sure my nitrification process is still going. Still, though - cloudy water. PWCs seem to make it worse, really.

I can live with the skimmer's appearance - there's no way it will look worse than the white cloudiness. Will the skimmer correct it, though, or would a sterilizer be more effective?
 
White cloudy is usually a bacterial bloom (that is, if you haven't stirred up your sand or anything). Keep up with the water changes and it'll go away.
 
I'm with Erin in this one, sounds like a bacterial bloom to me. It may have been kicked off by the 'Lysol bomb' but if your inverts are okay at this point I wouldn't be overly concerned. Keep up on your normal water changes and change you'd carbon often for a little while longer - I do not think adding a skimmer is neccesary
 

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