Cloudy tank water that will not go away!!! Need help

[asbury030]

Okay well to start off I have a 20gal reef. my issue all started when I switched over to my drilled 20gal I setup along with my 10gal sump, I made a rookie mistake by use that damn GE II silicone but only on one baffle of the sump. So then when I found out it was mildrew resistant I decided to take the sump out and scrape the silicone off and start with new momentive silicone from grainger before problems ensued. Unfortunately the sump is in the stand and no way to get it out so I did all this in my room and can you say smelly!? Well after I got the new silicone in the sump (which it is still sitting dry to let the silicone cure as long as possible, which I did all this last Saturday) I started noticing my tank was getting really cloudy my urcin lost all his spines and died along with starfish and gorgonias but my fish and rest of my coral looked okay. So after my starfish died I did 2 10 gallon water changes 24 hours apart and am running carbon through a hang on filter but my tank is still cloudy as ever (milky) and my corals look real crummy. Than yesterday night I tested my ammonia and it was at 1.0ppm and ran to the store to get something to correct this thinking maybe this is what is causing the cloudiness so I checked it again this morning and the ammonia was back to 0 but still very cloudy tank!:headwally: Also my KH, Ca, and Mg are really high What could be my issue here? This is driving me nuts.
My parameters are.
salinity -1.025
pH - 7.8 a little low
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0
Magnesium - 1600
Alkalinity - 14.0
Calcium - 500

 

[flower]

Hi,

Ammonia isn't the only cause of cloudy water, a bacterial bloom can do it, and so can lack of oxygen.

I'm not an expert like some of the really smart folks on here, are such as Bang Guy or Mr Llimpid...but below is what I would try....

Add an air line or two (no stone) to add some oxygen...if you can, open a window to get some fresh air in the room. Bacterial bloom also sucks up the oxygen from the tank, so the air line might get that under control. I got a cloudy tank from doing nail salon stuff in the same room as the tank...the extra air cleared it right up.

 

[asbury030]

Thats what I was thinking that maybe it was a bacteria bloom... but wasn't sure wanted to run everything by you fellow fish ppl. I will give the air line a try today and see what that does.

 

[tthemadd1]

If you have a protein skimmer one that hangs on the tank that would also inject air into your system.
High ammonia could be caused from the death of your inverts so pull out anything that didn't make it snail shells hermits etc.
The loss of your beneficial bacteria from the loss of 1/3 your tank, Sump/fuge, is most likely the cause of the bloom or ammonia spike. High all and calc usually means low ph which would result from lack of air an or bacteria bloom.

 

[asbury030]

well I decided to plug in my skimmer I stopped running it because it wouldn't fit in my sump. But as soon as I plugged it in the cup filled filled up immediately. I have the valve wide open also wth is going on?

 

[flower]

Bacterial bloom, the skimmer removes organics from the water. The only time I ever had a skimmer act like that was after using red slime remover.

 

[tthemadd1]

Start it with as little air as possible. Also when you first run a skimmer it will go nuts. Put it in a five gallon bucket and let it remove some of the goo. Close air valve and slowly open it.

 

[asbury030]

Well I took the thing out because it was driving me nuts! I put 2 air lines in my sump for about 2 days to get extra O2 in my tank and it has finally cleared up... not all the way but it is about 80% clear. I really appreciate all of your guys help. Would be lost without you guys!