my tank is so cloudy!!!!

[karvis]

the tank water looks milky.
i added calcium buffers, because i was told it would help my coralline growth, ammonia lock, stress zyme, and stress coat.
three days later it looked like some1 poured a gallon of milk in my tank!
i put carbon in the chemical drawer but that only helped a tiny bit!!!!
nitrate-0ppm
nitrite-10ppm(working on it)
amonnia-.50(dont know what happened!)
calcium-375-400
pH-8.1-8.2

 

[karvis]

help!

 

[birdy]

I hope someone more knowlegeable answers this posts, but you may have oversaturated(I am sure there is a better term)your tank with calcium I have heard it called a snow storm. my understanding is that if the calcium is too high it will precipitate out as a solid.I think you should test your calcium to see how high it is. What type of calcium supplement did you add, how did you add it and how much did you add.

 

[deucey]

Usually calcium buffers don't cause cloudy water but alk buffer can....are you using a two part buffer.....what exactly are you using as a calcium buffer.....and with stress coat if you have a protein skimmer you will not want to use this product it will cause excessive bubbles in the skimmer and tank....and i donno about the ammonia lock....i don't know why you would want to use it if you are cycling your tank with damsels....

 

[richard rendos]

Do you have a protein skimmer? I bet it went nuts when you added Stress Coat. That stuff has so much aloe vera that it makes skimmers foam like crazy. If you want a better dechlorinator, try Prime from Seachem. Don't think that would make it cloudy though. Mixing that many different chemicals together at the same time though, who knows what kind of chemical reactions are going on there. I don't like to mix to many additives together cause you never know if one ingredient will not react well with another.

 

[krusk]

this is what I think it is, but no certain
your tank are at it peak of the cycle.
because I have this problem about 2 months back with my tank setup
he also have 72 Bowfront and about 15 lbls of lr and cc
but he did strange things to his tank, so i'm not sure this is the case.
The water are white, it seem like some one have added milk to the tank right?
It will goes away in few days, hope so
I have 3 tanks and cycle but I never have seen the cycleing tank are so white, maybe I have all livesand and lot of liverocks

 

[tellico tornado]

If I were you, id do about a 25% water change. Use RO/DI water if you possibly can, if not no biggie. Be sure to get the fresh water your putting in the right salinity and all. See what a 25% change does, and if that dont work, try another 25% change on top of that one. You need to get your water diluded back to the way it was before and try again if you know what i mean. You put a overkill on your tank. Did you add the supplements strait to the tank or did you dilude them in top off water? IF you added strait to your tank it can cause this too.

 

[nm reef]

From the information in your post you are currently cycling your system... right?
You show nitrites as well as ammonia...so I assume your tank has not completed the initial cycle. I keep a low tech approach to my reef and the way I understand it there are lots of things happening in a system as it goes thru a cycle. I think maybe you have thrown yours out of wack using calcium additives along with the other stuff combined with the cycle itself. Makes me want to ask a simple question...."If I add all these things at the same time do I have any idea how they will react with each other?"...if my answer was..."nope I have no idea what the chemical reaction will be"...well then I wouldn't do it!!
Myself I'd seriously consider a slower approach without the chemical cocktail.....it may be the cause of your problem.
At this point I would continue the carbon and start some water changes of approximately 10% until the system becomes stable.
Keep us posted on your course of action and the results.

 

[broomer5]

Sounds pretty weird for sure.
Cycling tank doing it's normal thing.
Add ammo lock = less ammonia for bacteria during cycle.
Add StressZyme = flooding the tank with even more bacteria - but possibly little ammonia still due to ammo lock. Tank cycle stalls.
StressCoat = who knows for sure - slime coat and another ammonia remover though.
Calcium = depending on your alkalinity level - you may have precipitated some calcium out of solution causing some cloudiness of water.
Is there any white fine particles on the powerheads or rocks, or is the water the only thing that appears milky ?
Bacteria blooms sometimes will cause cloudy whitish water as well. If by chance you overdosed the StressZyme - I could see this as a possible cause as well.
Sounds like a combination of all of these possibly lead to milky white water.
Adding ammonia removing/reducing additives to a cycling tank is sort of self defeating. The ammonia is the fuel source the bacteria need to continue on with their lives = which leads to converting the nitrogen compounds and cycling the tank.

 

[karvis]

well i did a 50% water change and all levels are down
amm-25
trite-0
trate-0
ca-325
i woke up and all my fish were dead, since i changed the water and my levels were down i converted my freshwater mollies to saltwater. they look fine. my hermit was hardy and its doing great! btw i used 'calcium reef suppliment' it came with the testing materials. the water is settled down and my protien skimmer is doing fine!
thanks you guys!