Relentless Cloud

[Bugotus]

Im at a loss here, I have a 55gal with 2.5 inches of live sand, some bubble algae, and two clown fish. Pretty Sparse, no rock yet. I removed some Algae that looked like little fern plants because they were spreading all over(and I generally thought were stupid looking) and thats when the cloud appeared. This was 2 weeks ago. The tank has been set up for almost 3 months and was looking great. My skimmer doesnt seem to be doing anything(seaClone 100). I have had some temp fluctuations due to the Spring season and a crappy central AC. My lights(48"JBJ Formosa Dx) run about 10 hours a day.
I got a whisper PF60 just to catch any left over food particles, and in case i need to add carbon to the filter(which im not right now). Ive done 3 water changes of half the water in the tank over the past two weeks and I havent even made a dent in this cloud. Ive tested the water and it seems fine in all categories. I bought some Coralife marine tank Clarifier but I dont know if I should use it. How can I solve this Relentless Cloud Problem?

[JasonA]

Sounds to me it's a bloom of some kind.... also for that size of tank, 2.5" is really not enough and you might be getting a bacteria bloom...

In my 40g tank, I'm running around 4" minimum DSB as the active biological filter and if you've read any of my posts in the last month or so, most on here told me to go that deep just to start..

After my water cleared up..another week later it clouded up again, turns out it was the Ammonia and Nitrites spiking... so you might be experiencing that as your sand bed may not be deep enough for 50g+ of water.

I'd say do a check of the water, (Ammonia,PH,Nitrates and Nitrites) to determine the water quality.

Cause it'd be hard to tell without knowing what the water is doing..

Jason

[Bugotus]

Is 4 inches of livesand standard for a 55 long? Any second opinions? Water quality is testing good.

[OrionGirl]

Actually, what seems likely to me is that you removed the best nutrient exporter around--that algae--and the resulting spike in nutrients has caused the bacteria bloom. Not all bacteria in your tank consume ammonia and nitrites. Very seldom is a free-floating bacteria bloom from the nitrifiers, IME. Macro algaes really help out in keeping nutrients in an area where you can control them. If you don't like them in the main tank, you may want to setup a sump, where they can work for you.

I wouldn't use the clarifier--the rule of un-intended consequences means that it might clear the water, but result in algae on the rocks.

How often do you feed? What kind of clean up crew do you have?