Possible Bloom?

[ShawnJones]

Howdy,

Wednesday I returned home from out of town, the water in my tank was slightly cloudy, a look a little closer and there was a bloom of copepods in my tank, some google research led me to believe that this was both good and bad. Put a 10micron filter membrane in the wet/dry and the situation was slowly improving.

Friday I added some base rock to the tank, and the next day I was asked to provide a home to one clown, and an anemone. All of the water levels in the water looked good. Everything has been fine, still some copepods, not as many.

Checked all water levels again and all is still looking good. Yesterday I also did a water change, I ran out of salt in the middle and had my wife pick some up on the way home. She ended up getting instant ocean which is not what I had been using. Honestly, I can't remember what I was using before but it wasn't instant ocean.

Everything was looking good until this evening, when I returned home from work the water was very cloudy with a reddish tint to it. All of the water levels are within spec. SG is good. Livestock is acting normal.

I have been running carbon in the wet/dry with the 10micron filter, I also attached 10micron to the powerhead intakes, both to help clear water and the anemone. The tank specs are as follows:

100 Gallon SW
Wet/Dry w/AquaC Skimmer
80Lbs SouthDown Base
50Lbs CaribSea Live Sand
70Lbs Lace Base Rock
X2 Maxi-Jet 1200 PH
IceCap 660 w/ X2 20,000K and X2 10,000K VHO
8 Snails, 2 Crabs, 1 Clown, 1 Condy
PH 8.7
1.022 Salt
Alk 120-180ppm
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 10

These are pics of this tank http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97447

Also on the glass this evening I found two spots that were about 1/8" big of green specs that would not release from glass with the magnetic cleaner.
Hope this is enought info I not I can provide whatever is needed. Thanks in advance everyone....

Shawn

 

[ShawnJones]

I think I found the problem....

Okay,

So after I posted this, I did a little google time. What I have discovered is that the cause for my cloudy water was my carbon. I ran carbon in my wet/dry when I first set up my tank, I went a few months without, then my water wasn't looking as clear as I thought, so I placed carbon back in the wet/dry, The water looked great (actually it didn't look like any water at all) Well the theory in my mind was that I should run more carbon. That was fine, when my water started clouding over last week, I added more carbon, and finer filter material. It starting getting better so I changed out the carbon for new stuff. In the process I added more carbon. Well the water looked worse tonight when I came home. After my post and the following research, I removed the bag of carbon. Well it's been about two hours and my water is crystal clear after almost a week of clouds.

The moral is, use in moderation, like Guinness, the best things in life can be overdone. The stuff to help clear water (and remove toxins, etc...) will not clear the water if you go overkill.

Hope this helps someone....

Shawn

 

[Germanman]

glad u figured it out lol