Cloudy tank??? (1 Viewer)

[robrog]

Yesterday evening my wife came home and found our tank had become cloudy. She didn't see any obvious source and everything in the tank looked normal. I got home from work this morning and the tank was still cloudy. The snails, cleaner shrimp, emerald crabs all looked fine. The corals looked good too, with the exception of the Colt. It was the only one that didn't look all that happy.

Our only guess as to what caused the cloudiness is Grape Caulerpa. I have cheato in my fuge and there are little bits of grape mixed in. I have been running my fuge lighting 12/12 on an opposite cycle from my tank. I knew that caulerpa could go sexual under these conditions, but it appeared to be a very small amount so I didn't bother to dig it out. Today I did, and I had 2 pieces about 6 inches long. Could that have been enough to cloud the tank?

The only other change was with my phosphate which was 0.1 a few days ago when I last checked. Nitrites are 0, Nitrate 5. pH was 8.1 when I checked it this morning, Alk 3.5.

I'm not dosing anything and I haven't added anything new to the tank. The last thing I did was a 10% water change 3 days ago.

So our only guess is the caulerpa. Would that cause the phosphate to rise so quickly? Anyone else seen anything similar?

I have done a 30-40% water change so far and now the Colt looks happier. Nothing else has really been affected at all. I am open for any ideas!

 

[Kyle]

I have had this happen twice but I have a larger amount of caulerpa in my fuge. It did not affect anything as far as I could tell. The last time I did not even do a water change and things were fine. I took out all the caulerpa and I am just sticking with macros to be safe.

 

[fishcraze]

I dont think two 6" pieces or even a sandwich bag full of caulepra can cloud your tank like that!
did you check your powerheads to make sure they didn't fall off or moved and stir the sand bed up? or maybe some of your fishes (esp. clown fishes or some wrasses, engineer gobies..) digged the sand to make some cave and stirred the sand up..

 

[robrog]

There are no power heads and no digging fish. We thought maybe a rock fell thanks to a turbo snail and stirred things up at first, but it was a different kind of cloudiness and it didn't clear up. It was cloudy all night and didn't start clearing up till I started doing water changes this morning. I have tested my ro/di water and my fresh saltwater and they are fine, no phosphates.

Things are looking much better this evening with the water about 90% clear. My skimmer has been producing more skimmate today and it has a much stronger odor than usual. I haven't seen anything dead in the tank, everything but the colt coral looks completely normal.

 

[robrog]

This morning things look practically normal again. The tank is clear, the Colt is open and happy and my test numbers are coming back inline. Nitrate is at 3 and phosphate has dropped down to 0.1. It was very strange, but for now it looks like the roller coaster ride is over! I mentioned it, but apparently forgot to put in my first post, that my phosphate had jumped up to 1.5 during the cloudy period! I found plenty of people posting about cloudy tanks on reefcentral due to caulerpa going sexual, but no one mentioned phosphate levels at the time.
But that still is my only guess as to the cause......

 

[monica]

I am having same problem

I have the same problem with my tank. All of my corals are fine but I have a cloudy tint to my tank. This has been going on two weeks now. Phosphate is 1.0 and my nitrate is 80. I have done numerous water changes and nothing is working to bring these levels down. Everything else is at 0 and calcium is 450. My refuge is full of grape, spagetti, some kind of red, fether, and some kind of green that looks like a blade of grass. My refuge has been up for 2 months.

Can you tell me what you did to drop everything and get rid of the cloud?

 

[robrog]

I pulled out the pieces of grape caulerpa in my fuge and did the 30-40% water change. After that I just waited. It was still a little cloudy after the water change, but by the next day it had cleared up. Other than the possibility of the caulerpa going sexual, I have found no other possible causes.

 

[ShaneV]

Im pretty sure when calupera goes sexual it disintegrates, which is what would give the water the tint.