ktracy

Hi all.

I am wondering if any of you have had this problem.

My water gets cloudy, milky in color a couple weeks after a good water change.

I had some decorations in the tank from when I bought the tank used that I have since removed. Two weeks ago I broke the whole tank down, changed the subtrate from a blue large bead type to white marine sand, scraped the glass down real good and cleaned every individual piece of the set up. two weeks and it is starting to cloud again.

The tank is a 55. I have two aquaclear 70's hanging on the back and two power heads running. PLENTY of water movement. Not enough to stir up my subtrate though.

I am close to having the tank at full salt water as my fish is around a year old now. I have it set at 1.018 on this last water change. He eats great and looks very healthy. He doesn't explore much of the tank, basically he owns the bottom right side of the tank. He will eat up to 13 waffers every other day or so depending on his mood.

His lack of swiming makes the tank kind of boring so I just threw to yellow tail damsels in to liven it up a bit. I will have the tank full salt in the next two water changes 1.023 so the damsels will do fine. Right now they are eating well and look great.

So anyway, I am wondering if this is a slimey type of fish or something like that which is clouding the water. Any idea's?

Thanks,
Keith

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore keith!!!!

sounds like a cycle issue...or a mini cycle....what are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates? what test kit are you using?

im not a salty person so hopefully some SW members will help out more with that area!

TedsTank

Not familiar with salt water but if a lot of water is changed you can on occasion get a few days of cloudy water. It could be bacterial bloom and will correct itself as your filter adjusts. Keep an eye on it and your parameters as Shawnie suggested...IMO it will clear up soon, your filter is adjusting to the salinity change.

aquarist48

Hello KTracy and Welcome to Fish Lore. So that you will get more responses from Salt members I've moved your thread to the "More Salt Water Topics/water perimeters" section of the forum. Have fun and enjoy the site.
Thanks!
Ken

ktracy

This has been an ongoing issue. I almost gave up on the tank because of this but I like the big guy too much so I thought I would start over again.

The tank has been doing this from the begining, from pure fresh as a baby until now at almost full salt and he has been in it for over a year now.

I understand the tank cycles and algea blooms and such but this looks more like I am doing a heavy caulkwash drip. Almost as if the saltwater is disinegrating something chalky in the tank.

I have not run any tests on this new set up yet. It's a fish only and my well water is great for setting these tanks up! pH and hardness are just about always in good range. My reef tank never had this problem using the same water.

I will be doing a 90ish percent water change here in about a week or so and will begin testing it after that.

At this time I am more concerned about acclimating the big boy to the heavier salt mix. He gets bigger and better looking with every raise in sailinity I make which is making me want to continue.

Shawnie

a fish of that type in a 55 gal could cause ammonia/ntirate spikes constantly..then changing the salinity as well as a complete break down of the tank two weeks ago, im still leaning towards a total cycling issue....you probably killed most of the beneficial bacteria by over cleaning....im sure the sand as well can cause the milkyness but should go away after a few hours if its the sand...

ktracy

This is not a new event.

The tank gets milky over time.

Adding the new subtrate and and cleaning was to rid any of the old set up in case something in the tank was causeing it.

When I built the tank this round, I washed the sand prior to putting it in the tank. The water was clear about 10-15 minutes after filling it. This tank has been up for over two weeks since and has been crystal clear but I can see the hazey effect starting again when I look long ways through it.