Something disastrous must happened!

[olga]

Today the morning my tank was ok.
I comeback from work and water gone milky white, still somehow transparent, but nothing in comparison as it was before.
I checked all livestock and they fine also. (for now at least)
I done a test:
Nitrite-4
Nitrate- more then 100
Ph is fine-8.2
Don't know ammonia, as I lost the test bottle, but I am sure with such other tests above it will be quite high too.
All my stock still alive, as well anemone (which I thought might cause the problem, as it did last time, when my previous anemone was tangled in the pump). What could cause it?
I changed 20% of water on Saturday, all tests were perfect. I no idea. Please help!

 

[olga]

Please! Surely somebody had similar problem before.
It might be some crabs or snails died, but surely they would not cause it such condition of the water?
I have a sea cucumber also, he was stuck at the same place on the glass since I bought him about 6 weeks ago. He is still alive, otherwise he will drop down and will be attacked by cleaning crew, if he was dead. Can he put some poison in the water?
Sorry, I should make research from the past threads on the forum, but I am just panicking now. My apologies.

 

[yimmy]

I've never encountered this...but I might be able to narrow it down for you.
How long has it been up?
How big is it?
How many fish?
and how long did it cycle for?
do you have Live Sand?
I'm guessing it could be stirred up sand because my jawfish did this and when I came home it looked like someone poored milk in. I also think it could be the sand because if it got stirred up a bunch of junk could be stirred around and raise your nitrates.

 

[yimmy]

I'm not sure but I read about this with octopus and starfish that if they die while they were on the glass they will stay attached unless you pull them off. Don't move it until someone else replies to this thread and knows a lot about sea cucumbers.

 

[petjunkie]

Do you have a fuge? Give us some info on your tank. I would do several big water changes, add some amquel, put in new carbon.

 

[michaeltx]

the first thing that comes to mind to me is do you have macro algae like grape calupera.. when these go sexual the expell a lot of stuff into the water and it will be cloudy like what you mentioned.
Mike

 

[olga]

Originally Posted by MichaelTX
the first thing that comes to mind to me is do you have macro algae like grape calupera.. when these go sexual the expell a lot of stuff into the water and it will be cloudy like what you mentioned.
Mike
Yes, I do have variety of different kinds of caulerpa, but even if its gone sexual it can't be the reason for tests gone off the scale.
Yuimmy, 60GL tank was set up for almost a year, its just might be only a bit overstocked.
2 clowns
2 yellow tailed damsels.
1 regal tang
1 stripy blenny
1 Royall glamma
2 cleaner shrimps, about 20 various blue and red legged hermit crabs, and about the same amount of various snails, few urchins.
I done 30% of water change today, which predictably so put nitrate and nitrite down (60-80 NO3, and about 2: NO2).
Water gone completely transparent now, but condition still horrendous. All fish and critters seem perfect. (but for how long?)
I've run out of options, what caused it, even thought some hitchhiker which I did not noticed before died, and somehow caused it.

Thank you to all people who responded.

 

[24aqua]

whats the water temp. mine got all cloudy too but temps were in the upper 90

 

[olga]

Originally Posted by 24aqua
whats the water temp. mine got all cloudy too but temps were in the upper 90
Temperature is stable: 76F-78F. I thought about it too, even put spare thermometer in the tank, to be sure.

 

[michaeltx]

yes it can be the cause of the readings being out of whack as the algae grows it will abosorb alot of those things when it goes sexual it releses it all back into the water column as it spawns. thats why we harvest the algae to export these nutrients out of the tank.
FWIW
Mike