cloudy water!??!

[kaleysalen]

hey guys. I think I need some help......
my 55g hex tank has been up and running for a few months..... right now I have a scooter blenny, yellow tailed damsel, 4 astrea snails, 12 blue legged hermit crabs, and a peppermint shrimp - also live rock and live sand. for filtration I have the standard HOB filter and power head.
Everything was going great until I left for a few days for Thanksgiving. When I came back.. my water was unbelievably cloudy!?!? I checked the water and all the levels were fine. I thought maybe I didn't have enough filtration so I went and bought a Protein Skimmer and an additional powerhead. I put those in the tank on Friday.
Today (Sunday) it's still looking cloudy??
now... I know everyone is goin to respond w/ "do a 50% water change" which is fine...if thats what needs to be done.... then I will.... BUT - I have another tank and it has been up and running for a little over a year.. and I have NEVER done a water change and the water is crystal clear!!??
any suggestions would be great.
-kaley

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by kaleysalen
hey guys. I think I need some help......
my 55g hex tank has been up and running for a few months..... right now I have a scooter blenny, yellow tailed damsel, 4 astrea snails, 12 blue legged hermit crabs, and a peppermint shrimp - also live rock and live sand. for filtration I have the standard HOB filter and power head.
Everything was going great until I left for a few days for Thanksgiving. When I came back.. my water was unbelievably cloudy!?!? I checked the water and all the levels were fine. I thought maybe I didn't have enough filtration so I went and bought a Protein Skimmer and an additional powerhead. I put those in the tank on Friday.
Today (Sunday) it's still looking cloudy??
now... I know everyone is goin to respond w/ "do a 50% water change" which is fine...if thats what needs to be done.... then I will.... BUT - I have another tank and it has been up and running for a little over a year.. and I have NEVER done a water change and the water is crystal clear!!??
any suggestions would be great.
-kaley
You've never done a water change???
The first thing is DO A WATER CHANGE!! It doesn't have to be a 50% change, but do a 10% change this week, then again the next , then again the following week...you get the idea. To not change the water on a regular basis, forces your critters to be living in their own waste. Not cool. Also, the changes replenishes the water they are living in with vital nutrients...you've got to change the water on a regular basis.
Are you sure all of your parameters are on mark? Do you run carbon in your filter? The next step I would take would be to change the filter cartridges to run carbon...have you changed the filter cartridges before this??
Keep us posted on what's going on...
Lisa :happyfish