Cloudy water

[Iron Crab]

Last week my water clouded up. I don't know what happened to cause this. Never had it happen in any of my tanks.
It looks foggy but when I took some out it looked green in the bucket.
I have done three 25 gallon water changes (180 gal tank) put some activated carbon in and shortened my lighting times.
So far I see no improvement.
This happened right after my temp went up and I did a 15 gallon water change. I thought maybe my replacement water was bad-- we had a lot of rain and I thought it messed up my well but I just tested it and it looks OK.
Where do I go from here????
Thanks, Bill

[Reefland]

Do you have any Caulerpa in your system?

Scott Z.

[Iron Crab]

No caulerpa in my system. I have it planned for the future but that is going to be awhile.
One thing is my skimmer doesn't seem to be pulling that much out. It's running good but I had a lot more in the collection cup when the tank was clear. I plan on another large water change for Sunday.

On another note-- Would running a UV sterilizer be a smart move here until things clear up??

[naser]

it sounds like an algae bloom in the water...

[Iron Crab]

Algae bloom in the water?? Okay, sounds like it. I think I can trace it to my water change before it happened.
Today I drain out 20 gallons and before I could replace it we got hit with a nasty storm. Tornado warnings, Mothball hail, power outage, when things got better I notice that my supply water was a little cloudy. Not green but it had some silt in it. Could be we have been using too much water this past week.

Ask again-- I know you guys don't like to use UV sterilizers on a reef tank but I was wondering if it would help in not letting an algae bloom to happen it the water again? Of course, this never happened before and I hope it doesn't happen again- it was a real pain.
Bill

[bongobrian]

I would have to agree with naser... as much as I hate to admit it j/k j/k it does sound like an algea bloom, and I would say that it is indeed related to the rain storms and the water in your well. Sounds like you've got some algea spores floating around in that water, you gave them some light and bam! instant green water. Do some research on the web for green water... you should find some info on it. There was another member on this board who had his entire tank turn dark green... couldn't even see through it. He had also left his empty aquarium outside and it got rained on. I'm not sure if a UV sterilizer would kill algea spores. Those are designed to kill bacteria and perisites. There are a lot of people who use them on reefs... I don't personally. I don't know if that would be your best solution anyway. Why are you using your well water on a reef system? you need to switch over to either distilled water or R/O water. Your well water is probably chalk full of tds and nutrients. You won't have good success using that kind of water in your system. Good luck!

[Iron Crab]

Thanks everyone for the help.

Update: I can now see thru 4 feet of water (looking thru end of tank)
It was about 20 inches. So I'm winning the war at the moment. So far everything looks great except my mushrooms.

I've been using my well water for water changes and RO for replacement. I think the spring thaw caused this to happen. I have been using a new well since October but the new well is only about 15' from my old well which I've been using for 4 years on my tanks. I'll start to store more RO for my changes.

Thanks again, Bill

[naser]

geez everyone hates to agree with me....

[bongobrian]

I'll agree to THAT naser heeheehee