Milky water problem...any sollutions?

[DaChrisDude]

My water is slightly milky, or hazy. If you look at the right angle to the lights you can actually see it passing by in clouds...

Any ideas why?

In the last week I added a homemade sump, could the haze possibly be from that? Silicone residue or something? Ideas? Simply dirty water?

[Nick_Kun]

What did you use to make your sump? and how old is your system? It could be just the return pump moving your sand around a long with the detrius.

[DaChrisDude]

I've had the tank set up around 8 months now.

The sump is a glass 10 gallon with siliconed partitions. Water flows into a (tupperware) pre-filter box with filter pads sitting on top of the 10 gal, down into the aquarium and through a bunch of bio balls, into what will be a mini refugium of sorts, then into the return pump area and pack into the main aquarium. There isn't anything in the sump except for the bio balls (ie. no plants, LR, sand, etc) The return into the main tank is not blowing any sand or anything else...

[Dakota]

what are you water parameters? Ca? Alk? Mg? pH? Temp? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate? Salinity? WAter change regimine? Livestock? Size?

[DaChrisDude]

I've had a FO tank so I haven't worried about Ca, Alk, Mg...should I? (I'm still a newb)

pH - 8.1
temp - 78
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0-5ppm
Ammonia - 0.5ppm
Salinity - 1.022
Water changes - ha! I changed 15 gal a week ago, otherwise about ~10 gal every month...

Livestock: ~ 45lbs LR, ~2.5 inches LS Coral banded shrimp, Percula Clown, Bluefin Damsel, added 6 Line Wrasse, Skunk Pscuedo(sp?), Coral Beauty Angel, Green Clown Goby, and a Camel Shrimp Saturday (hence the slight ammonia spike)

55 gall hex

[phishphood]

Not to be picky, but I don't think a camel shrimp should introduce a .5 spike in an established tank like that....

[DaChrisDude]

lol, no, no, no...I added:

6-Line Wrasse,
Skunk Pscuedo
Coral Beauty
Green Clown Goby
and the camel shrimp :)

[Dakota]

Adding tha many fish could have cause a slight re-cycle. Any ammonia above 0 is baaaaad. Ca, alk, and Mg is important in a reef tank; not so much in a FO as long as the pH is stable.

Also, you need to change more than 10 gal a month. If you do monthly water changes, I'd say 15-20 or so.

In them ean time, do a 30% WC to dilute that ammonia down and keep an eye on it.

[DaChrisDude]

Thanks.

btw, I just bought a Ca tester - it's at 450

[Nick_Kun]

Thats good, hows your alk, it should be around 9-11dkh. Hows the xenias doing?

[DaChrisDude]

Don't have an alk tester yet...(only had so much money to spend at Fish Haven...) The xenias....aren't looking too happy. Of the 4, two are maybe half open and very slowly pulsing, the other two are completely closed up and shriveled... due to: ???
-whatever's causing cloudy water?
-poor lighting? (I know for a fact that I have insufficient lighting)
-slight ammonia?
-unknown alk?
-stupid bluefin damsel nibbled a couple heads off?

Any other ideas???

I held the shroom against a rock with some netting like you said, as far as I can tell it looks ok...

[Nick_Kun]

thats just how they are when they are first acclimated, they should be looking better in the new few days or so.

[DaChrisDude]

I sure hope so, they look even worse now, two are still somewhat out and very slowly pulsing, one has shrunken down to maybe 1/4 inch, and the fourth is all but gone except for a 1/32inch nub.

ARG.

Oh the discouragement...

[phishphood]

Thought this was a FO ;) This always happens. Eventually you'll probably want to get the damsel out if you plan on adding more and more corals. Not so much that they tend to pick on other fish and are rather agressive...but because IME they will try to eat anything and everything (corals included), especially if you don't feed them enough.

[DaChrisDude]

Lol, yes this was a FO...but with dreams and aspirations of greater things...

Yes, I decided to get rid of the damsel, I'm actually going to put him up for a trade here, trade for a couple of hermit crabs or something maybe?

[Dakota]

if you have insufficitn lighting for your xenia, I suggest you put those up for sale/trade until you get more lighting. In the mean time, pinpoint what is causing your cloudy water before adding any more livestock. Any amount of ammonia can kill just about anything in your tank; or at least stress the heck out of it.

As another note, you should also do some reading. http://www.wetwebmedia.com has some wonderful articles on saltwater setups.

and btw-- ghetto home made sumps rock. I've had two, and I just purchased a 20gal tall to put glass partitions in.. so much cheaper... and it works!

[Nick_Kun]

can you post some pictures of the tank. I'd like to see what this cloudy tank looks like.

[DaChrisDude]

I put up pics...here's the link

http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=97545#post97545