cloudy water

[jgcurt]

I am hoping someone can help me figure this out. I am having a real problem with cloudy water. Every morning when we turn on the lights our water is really cloudy. Usually by the end of the day it clears up. When we set up our tank about 8 months ago the water stayed clear, but for the last few months we have been having the problem with cloudy water. Anyone know what might be causing this?

 

[newbiesalttank]

Have you recently shifted the sand bed around or increased the lighting for your tank? You might also want to do a check on feeding amounts for your tank including checking your water conditions including calcium levels.
Do you have any signs of brown algae around?

 

[broomer5]

If the cloudy water follows the cycle from dark tank to lighted tank and back - it could be due to a few things.
To try and narrow it down - may I ask a couple of questions about your tank.
Do you dose any additives or drip kalkwasser at night ?
Do you have a relative heavy bioload of fish compared to the size of the tank ?
What do you have in way of internal tankwater circulation ?
Do you have a lot of green algae growth ?
The cloudy water could be a result of Ph swings - affecting alkalinity / calcium balance.
The pH could be swinging due to CO2 gas, algae, fish consumption/production of this soluble gas
Or
Dosing an additive
Or
A bacteria respose to changing water conditions from day to night.
Have you tested the pH, alkalinity and calcium lately ?
If so, what readings ?
Does your pH vary from day to night ?
Lastly - do you have any nocturnal sand dwellers/fish/inverts that may be stirring things up a bit down there at night ?
( I just realized I'm in the disease/treatament forum )

 

[jgcurt]

We have a 29 gallon tank with three filters. One aqua clear 200, 1 regent, and another small trickle filter. At this time we have 1 peppermint shrimp, and 2 red leg hermit crabs. Also two small pieces of live rock. There are no other fish in the tank. I had two other fish that died a couple of months ago and I haven't wanted to add more fish until I figure out what is going on with the cloudy water. The substrate is crushed coral. No underground filter. We did change the lighting a couple of months ago. We went from the regular aquarium bulb that came with the tank to three lights. 1 blue, and 2 daylight 20 watts each. A total of about 60 watts of lighting. We check for PH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. The PH is 8.0, Ammonia 0.25 (can never seem to get this to 0), nitrite 0, nitrate 0. At one time we had massive brown algae everywhere, we cleaned most of it out of the tank thinking that might be what is clouding the water (Now no algae will grow back). We don't treat our tank with any addatives. Any suggestions would be appreciated as far as equipment we might need, what might be causing this, ect.

 

[broomer5]

Are you feeding the few tank critters you have in there now jgcurt ?
An 8 month old tank - this has me stumped.
My guess - that you may be overfeeding - adding excess nutrients to the tank - causing bacteria blooms.
Cloudy water - can be a result of an increase in bacteria populations - and this may explain the constant ammonia.
It's seems like your situation is cyclical.
Day to night to day to night.
Possible scenerio ?
Food ~~ > excess waste ~~ > bacteria consume the waste ~~> bacteria blooms=cloudy water ~~> some bacteria die off ~~> ammonia ~~> more beneficial bacteria produced=cloudy water ~~> more die off ~~ > more ammonia ~~~~> and it just keeps going this way over and over again.
There's no "load" on this tank really. Consumers and producers of wastes.
I'm guessing at this - by the way
What are you feeding the tank ?
When do you feed ?