bad alga bloom / cloudy green water

[Skinr1]

hello all ,
im new here but not new to the hobby .
i have been keeping tank for years and have never honestly ever experienced anything like this . now right up front i want to say i been keeping salt water fish the old school way , strict weekly water changes , not alot of chemical additions nothing like that . keep it basic and simple . have always kept fish and inverts , was never really into the reefs and honestly dont have the time for it . so im really not up on the latest and greatest so to speak .
about 3 mo. ago in my 90gal tank i experienced a nasty alga bloom the hole tank went totally green in a matter of days . and honestly this is the first time i ever ever seen anything like this , this bad .
so heres some basics .
im running a 90gal , with wet dry . i do strict water changes weekly i only keep the strongest and hardiest fish , always keep my salinity at .025 sea water . make my own water . i have a sand bed bottom . resin style coral ornaments etc again just keep it simple . LED lighting 10hrs a day .Note : tank is 2 years old .
this all began after a water change . a few days after the water change the tank started to develope a haze and got real cloudy , as the days went by it got worse , to a point where it was so bad i couldnt even see through it anymore .
whoa ok first thought i need a serious water change badly i did a 30 gal water change . i also changed the medias in the wet dry , left the lights off for 2 days haze thinned out greatly . then here it came right back . tested everything across the board ammonia ok nitrates etc etc all good i was baffled .
i went to the local petshop and they informed me that it was an alga bloom , uuummm duhhh and my fosphates were very high . so i added at their suggestion at the time
fosphate pads for the wetdry and some fosphate reducer stuff they gave me .
ok a week later no change tank got worse . totally frustrated i moved the hole tank community to a medical 30 gal i always keep on stand by . by this time i was totally pissed i had poured alot of $$$ into this and it is getting worse so at this point i broke the entire tank down .
and to make a long story short i restarted it . new everything .
ok cycle begins . tank is clear good , great im happy . threw in a few starter damsels
now the fun begins about a week later what do i see ?....the green haze returns i was like beside myself . took photos , water sample , everything went back to the store
i was then told that i needed to a UV sterilizer . well OK .
i added the 13 watt UV Sterilizer .at the cost of $115 got on Youtube to check out any videos they offer on them and was like ok that looks like it will work . well i was mistaken .
the UV sterilizer has been in the tank and running for 23 days with minimal change , i even did 2 more water changes that would thin it out alittle but that was it .
ammonia was stable nitrates ok PH ok etc , damsels are doing fine eating well and seem un effected in anyway by the haze at all .
what the heck is going on ? Can any of you pros offer some advice thanks ......

 

[silverado61]

I'm not an expert by any means so this is just a shot in the dark:

What type of water do you use? Plain tap water? Do you have an RO/DI unit or do you get it from, say, Walmart?

If you use just untreated tap water and it hasn't given you problems before, maybe your city supply changed their water or something has gone wrong with their system.

Again, it's just a shot in the dark. I'm sure someone here with much more experience I, can help better. Sorry.

beaslbob is old school like yourself. I'm sure he can help.

 

[jay0705]

I was thinking the same thing as silver

 

[Skinr1]

silver hit it right on the head . thanks I spoke to city this morn and apparently they are indeed using new stuff with higher phosphate levels in our water supply stations .as of july so that explains what and where this came from certainly would of been nice if they informed the residents . I been doing nothing but pouring high concentrated amounts of phosphates in my tank . wonderful
so
since regular visits to the nearest pet shop which is like an hr away are out of the question, and hauling water and all that , I have decided to go another route since I like the ease of making my own water a friend suggested i get with home depot and install an in line pre filter water system on my utility sink on my porch cause its to big to put in the house ,under the kitchen sink cabinet because its a double canister filter system and see how that works to get all the junk out the water dept is putting in the water . plus now that I know this and after what I saw it did to my tank I darn sure aint drinking that water , im adding PUR water systems to all my sinks in the house today also .
another UV sterilizer is being picked up today and added to the tank so i will have 2 working to help out and im doing another water change once I get this canister system installed checking the phosphate levels first
to see if I can get it cleared back up .
Mental note : if your using city water in your tank always make an effort to check with them on occasions to see if they are doing anything different and save yourself the hassle I just went through . I lost a 2 year old tank and had to start all over because of it . no fish lose though . I had to learn the hard way I suppose . thank god I don't have a live reef tank like some of the rest of you guys do . hopefully with the new inline and some other steps will clean up this problem , I will post in a week or so on this and let you all know the progress .
many of you pros prob knew all this , but maybe its a good watch out info for the New people to be aware of . lesson learned here the hard way .not to mention costly

 

[beaslbob]

thanks for the kind comments here.

Let me see if I got the facts correct.

You have been keeping your tank(s) old school with no chemicals for many years.

then you did what should have been a routine water change and in a couple of days the tank was all clouded up.

(rereading to see if you lost any fish) ...

....

....
...


no fish deaths

But you killed the lights and it cleared up or at least got better after a couple of days then clouded up again.

so you restarted the tank, went through a new cycle, and low and behold it's all cloudy again.

My analysis:

Keeping it really really simple.

you didn't kill the lights and stop all feeding until the tank was clear. Then resume with less lighting and feeding. And adjust until good stuff grows like corraline but the cloudiness doesn't return.

That would have saved all the tear down and future problems.


And you can still do that now.


In the mean time


(rereading again LOL)



....


....


...
I read you never mentioned macro algae or an algae turf scrubber.

To help out, I would partition you tank so that an area 3" from the glass has an eggcrate partition and that 3" can become a refugium for chaetomorphia or other macro algae. And some side lighting as well.

Once the tank becomes controlled, balanced out and stabilized with the macro algaes you should not have these problems and things will just take care of themselves.


Finally, and what gets me into trouble more than anything else, all this happened after a water change. So it provides another datum as to why I don't do water changes.


best tank every and hope this helps.


Still it's just me and my little itty bitty .02 worth.

 

[flower]

Hi,

...Low oxygen will cause cloudy water. I don't like UV sterilizers because it kills the little tiny critters that float in the water at night...we need those little critters to keep the tank stable. If you use a UV sterilizer at least turn it off at night.

Green water is the result of bad water, direct sunlight or old bulbs. It's also possible to overdo the water changes, and it is preventing the tank from maturing. A mature tank will balance everything out, including the algae growth in the water.

Also, I just want to address this, using damsels to kick start the cycle is unnecessary cruelty to the fish. A chunk of raw shrimp, or ghost feed for a few weeks, or just use pure ammonia...but never a live fish. I know it's all said and done now, but anyone else reading this post, I would like to encourage to not use a live fish.

 

[Skinr1]

well once I deal with getting my water supply cleaned up at my residence today and get the filters in , and I know its clean , through testing I will work on getting the tank cleaned up .
as for the damsel use for cycling .
I am sure that over the years new and improved stuff has come along but keeping tanks old school like I do
I have always stuck with the old ways .we have had tanks in my family since I was a kid back when I started ,there was no such thing as LED lighting it was unheard of . and UV sterilizers were very rare .
all the fancy choices they have on the market today weren't avail back in those days .... now many may not agree with the old school ways because of all the new stuff on the market today etc . but it has always worked for me
in my experience in this hobby years ago when I had more time to devote to the tanks I had an invert tank 100 gal .... seahorses etc
and a total fish only tank 100gal .
never had any issues . and never once did I ever use anything out of my ordinary old school ways . but to each his own .
but I am sure I will get this matter cleaned up now that I know the city water was the culprit . I gotta fix that first then deal with the rest . I gotta get this tank stabilized again so I can reacclimate the community back in the big tank and get them out of the med tank . the ammonia and nitrates etc are holding steady for now but im sure they will rise the longer they are all in there .

 

[jay0705]

With alage generally you can get it cleared up w/o a tear down. You just need to remove whatev is helping it thrive. Fish deaths usually mean something serious, but w the fish being ok, water chem was my guess. Now that u have it figured , good luck to you.

 

[jay0705]

I use live rock/sand and my tanks cycle fine. I agree many methods wrk. So keep what works for you.

 

[Skinr1]

was never really big on life rock use but I have heard and read a lot about the use of live rock and I may add some . the local shop has loads of it at a reasonable price per pound . would anyone know if the use of UV sterilizers will cause problems with live rock or would they be ok ?
I am running sterilizers on the tank now to clear up this water issue I don't wanna waste my $$$ on the rock if the use of UV is gonna cause a problem with them

 

[jay0705]

Live rock is amazing stuff. In 2 of my tanks my filters are prob under sized. But w the live rock in there, its a natural bio filter in its self. Both tanks are pristine

 

[silverado61]

silver hit it right on the head . thanks I spoke to city this morn and apparently they are indeed using new stuff with higher phosphate levels in our water supply stations .as of july so that explains what and where this came from certainly would of been nice if they informed the residents . I been doing nothing but pouring high concentrated amounts of phosphates in my tank . wonderful
so

Well, I guess even a shot in the dark can sometimes hit a bulls eye.

Looks like all my reading and research might finally be starting to pay off after all.

Btw: I may not be old school, but I definitely respect the old school ways. I've learned a lot from beaslbob.

 

[flower]

Bad water... Time for an RO (reverse osmosis) unit of your very own.

 

[beaslbob]

Or just no doing water changes and the tank processing the water all by itself.

IMHO Phosphates come overwhelming from the bioload but in this case the small amount from the replacement water tipped that tables.

all skin had to do was leave the lights out and suspend feeding longer than two days and until the water was clear. Then continue with less lights and feedings so it stayed clear.

The addition of macro or other algae would have been more then enough to handle and variance in the input water.

And of course not doing water changes insure the tank conditions are a function of the tank and not the tap water.

my .02