Green cloudy water.....

[friction32]

over the past couple of days my water has went from clear to a cloudy milky green color. A couple of pieces of live rock have a bright colored green layer on them. Noticeable on the bottom center rock in the pic. Any ideas? Suggestions? Fixes?
Tank is 90 gallons with about 80lbs Live Rock
1.026 salinity
0.00 Nitrites
0.00 Nitrates
0.00 Ammonia
460ppm calcium
1560ppm mag
9.2dkh alk
78deg temp
getting a phosphate tester tomorrow
1st pic is from 3 days ago 2nd pic about an hour ago

 

[lmforbis]

I'd guess a bacterial bloom. Are you using a skimmer? Carbon dosing?

 

[friction32]

yes I am using a skimmer its barely pulling anything out
no carbon use yet

 

[lmforbis]

With water like hat your skimmer should be pulling a lot of crap out of the tank.

 

[friction32]

Tested for phosphates and there are none.
I have a 6 bulb T5 light setup over a 90 gal reefer350 tank and was told by a couple of experienced reefers that the lighting could be what is causing my algae bloom. The tank is only 4 months old and was told in layman terms that the tank has to do sort of a cycle for the intense lights
Anyone else heard of or experience anything like this.
Thanks!!!

 

[jay0705]

It does look like alage to me. Increased lighting will cause that. Now is it just on the glass or is the water it self murky?

 

[beaslbob]

It is phyto (either micro algae or cyano bacteria). If only lives with nutrients, co2 and light.

If you kill the lights and limit feeding to once per week, it should clear up in an day or two. Then resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust so it stays clear but fish and corals thrive.

Another option is to filter it out with a water polishing filter like the diatom xl DE filter. But that is a pain to use. It does clear up a tank is a few hours to a day or so. (costs $180 or so mail order and the filter media/powder is like $5 a box or so)

The wife also just got a mechanical filter with a UV tube section. It is a small filter when compared to large canister filters. for instance it was about 3-4 inches square and about a foot long. But it also cleared it up and the tank has remained clear for months now. (costs $60 or so)

I prefer to just kill the lights and rebalance out the tank.

my .02

 

[beaslbob]

ps
this does seem to happen to many new tanks at the 4-6 month time frame. But once it is balanced out things go much better and betterer.
ny .02

 

[friction32]

It does look like alage to me. Increased lighting will cause that. Now is it just on the glass or is the water it self murky?

the water is murky green colored nothing on glass

 

[friction32]

It is phyto (either micro algae or cyano bacteria). If only lives with nutrients, co2 and light.

If you kill the lights and limit feeding to once per week, it should clear up in an day or two. Then resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust so it stays clear but fish and corals thrive.

Another option is to filter it out with a water polishing filter like the diatom xl DE filter. But that is a pain to use. It does clear up a tank is a few hours to a day or so. (costs $180 or so mail order and the filter media/powder is like $5 a box or so)

The wife also just got a mechanical filter with a UV tube section. It is a small filter when compared to large canister filters. for instance it was about 3-4 inches square and about a foot long. But it also cleared it up and the tank has remained clear for months now. (costs $60 or so)

I prefer to just kill the lights and rebalance out the tank.

my .02

Thanks I may take your advise and see what happens. I assume the corals will make it through with no lighting for a couple of days? would you just kill the lights only or would you cover the tank so no ambient lighting gets through. the tank is set where no sun light at all can get to it and very household light reaches it.

 

[beaslbob]

Thanks I may take your advise and see what happens. I assume the corals will make it through with no lighting for a couple of days? would you just kill the lights only or would you cover the tank so no ambient lighting gets through. the tank is set where no sun light at all can get to it and very household light reaches it.

Corals will be fine for a couple of days or weeks for that matter. Actually they may grow faster looking for light. Just as some plants do when in darkness. Obviously that is not a permanent thing and both would need the light to return so they can replace the energy they used up in the darkness.
The ambient light in most homes will still allow the cloudiness to die off. I have a FW planted on the back porch with 2-3 hours of direct sunlight each day. With that tank I did have to block out the sunlight but for tank with just normal room type lighting, the vast majority of the light is the tank lights. So the cloudiness should clear up.

 

[friction32]

Thanks everyone for the advise. I turned the lights off for 3 days and installed an uv sterilizer. My water is clearer than it has ever been. So hopefully with that an a 10 gallon water change every 2 weeks it will stay this way.