established tank cloudy water 911

I have a 40 gallon breeder. I have an aqua c remora HOB protein skimmer . I noticed that it was not pulling anything into the collection cup so I took the skimmer out and cleaned it. I put it back in the tank and also cleaned the two power heads.The skimmer was pulling a wet yet green skim so I thought noting of it. I saw that the sand was looking a bit nasty so i stirred it up. Immediately the tank clouded up. Now its been about a week and the water is very cloudy I can not see through to the other side . I did a 10% water change yesterday and I feel that made it worse.

The skimmer is filling up very fast and with mostly water. I have to empty the collection cup once a day sometimes twice. I took the cup out thinking that maybe the skimmer has to break in again. I also turned off the power heads hoping that the fine sand would rest. I did a test and its not Amonia Nitrite or Trates my PH is at about 8.0 .

So confused and I don't want to harm my fish or blow a lot of money to fix it !!!


tank stock:
45 LBS live rock
3 Green Chromis
2 Clowns
Zooanthids
Xenia
Frog spawn
yellow polyp

hmm alto of nutrients could have settled into the sand and when you stirred it up i could have caused an alage bloom

Do you have any photos? Any more info on the set up itself? How long has it been running? Stirring up the sandbed is a bad idea. Let the snails, crabs, and worms do that for you. It could be an algae bloom but that typically results in green water as opposed to it just being cloudy. Make sure that you check your salinity because if your skimmer is skimming wet it can drop the salinity pretty fast. One thing you could do is get a hold of a canister filter and run it on your tank for a while with nothing but carbon in it. Doing that should clear it up pretty fast. I have an Eheim that you could use for it. I also see them for sale a lot on the forums. You could pick one up pretty cheap.

You can raise the collection cup of the skimmer so it will dry skimm

If its white it could be a diatom bloom. Best thing to do is no water change, this will only add new oxygen to the tank and this the bloom will worsen(it will multiply using up extra and new oxygen cells) Run your skimmer. If you're dosing your tank especially with carbons (ie vodka) stop. It should settle in a couple days just don't move anything or stir up the sand anymore.

Thanks to all who replied. I will look into a canister filter and run that. It seems to be getting worse. I used to be able to make out the rocks and now I can't see anything. Its starting to turn a yellow like color. I moved the collection cup . I will let it rest for the night.

I will try and post some pictures of it later .

Note to self never stir the sand !!!

Might be bacterial 'bloom', much like someone gets if they overdose vodka.

Stirring sand bad idea, but sounds like you got the idea.

Canister filter is the quickest way to clean it up, but make sure you run it for a week or two after cleaning up. Also, if you don't have access to canister filter, you can use a HOB filter. Personally, I would use a just use carbon.

My offer to let you use my cannister filter is still on the table. You can use it as long as you need to. I don't have the carbon though.