Cloudy water, please help

[mag395]

My 29 gallon tank finished cycling about 2 weeks ago. I did a small water change with distilled water a few days ago because some of the water drained into the skimmer when I set that up. I also started using Purple Up to accelerate coraline algae. My water is very cloudy now. It's a kind of a greenish white cloudiness.
I have an eclipse hood and I changed the filter because it's been in there a while and I wanted to see if that would make a difference. No change.
I'm not sure what is causing the cloudiness. I just looked closer and I noticed that sand, or what looks like sand is coming out of the return from the filter.
Possible causes:
- Purple Up (calcium precipitation)
- Lighting (maybe it's algae related)
- New filter
- Distilled water change
- Some kind of bacterial bloom
Water Parameters:
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Ammonia: 0
Alk: High
Ph: 8.2
PLEASE HELP!

 

[reefrobert]

Might be the purple up.
White clouds from the calcuim percipitation.
I heard it rasies your calcuim level, can you check your level?

 

[mag395]

i have to go get a test kit. ill post my levels later. thanks

 

[mag395]

Is it possible to have a bacterial bloom and algae bloom at the same time? Because the water is green.

 

[mag395]

I shut the light off for a while and it cleared up alot but it is still somewhat cloudy. What does this mean?

 

[timdaddie]

are you leaving your lights on all the time or are you turning them off at night.

 

[pallan]

Purple up really clouds the water when used. ussualy clears up in an hour or so. are you using it as per directions. do you have enough flow to get it mixed up.

 

[mag395]

I dont have any powerheads but the flow is pretty good just from the filter and the skimmer. It stays cloudy for alot more than an hour.
my lights are typically on for about 8 hours. but recently i've had them on for about 1.5

 

[drewsta]

just an FYI if you change out filters you could cycle your tank again... Test your water often

 

[saltyreef7]

I was told by many to leave the skimmer off for the first 6 weeks......

 

[mag395]

yeah, it may be re-cycling. at least a small cycle. the nitrites went up to .2 from 0

 

[jhov2324]

Well i'm having the same problem, it might be the substrate your using, if it's cc then it will settle, clean out your sump also, alot of fine sand settled in my sump and kept being pumped back into the tank, it should clear up give it time,

 

[mag395]

I don't have a sump. It is an eclipse hood with a built in filter and biowheel. However, when I changed the filter pad i did notice some sand in the tray. Do you think that could cause the cloudiness?

 

[mag395]

apparently the phosphates are at .7 mg/l. I guess I should do a water change

 

[mag395]

i went to my LFS. They said I was feeding them too much and I was. I reduced their feedings and the tank cleared up in about 3 days.