cloudy water

[crete456]

Hello all!...Ihave a problem with cloudy water...recently I installed a cpr2 bak pak....everything seems to be goint well...i havent done anything out of the ordinary to my tank,its been up now since april 2...it seems that as soon as i installed the skimmer my water is like skim milk...im thinking bacterial bloom...would appreciate the help...thanks
ammonia=trace to zero
nitrites=trace to zero
nitrates=20
s.g.=1.021
temp=79F
calcium=360
copper-0.5(had an outbreak of ick)
carbon&cuprisorb
ph=8.3

[leebca]

You apparently treated your display tank with copper? Does the tank have a substrate? If so, what is it? Do you have live rock in the aquarium? If so, how much?

What livestock do you have in the aquarium? and what kinds of decorations do you have in the aquarium?

You did not list the alkalinity. Have you measured it recently? Did you have this and the other test results before you saw/had this cloudiness? How are you measuring the pH and alkalinity?

Have you been adding anything to the water (trace elements, calcium, alkalinity adjustments, magnesium, iron, supplements, iodine, etc.)?

Since you think it might be a bacterial problem, then what organic materials have you been adding to the water (fish foods, livestock, etc.)?

Cloudiness can be a bacterial sign, but the bacteria have to be nourished by something. If it's bacteria, I'm looking for the 'something' that's feeding them.

Cloudiness can be a fine precipitate, also. It's a bit unusual but not impossible to have calcium coming out of solution when the pH, alkalinity, and calcium are in the wrong ratios. This doesn't harm most livestock, but it isn't by any means attractive! Cloudiness can be caused by overdosing iron and a few other trace elements.

If you can provide the additional information, someone may be able to help

[crete456]

thanks for the reply...i have a 37 gal. FOT...started 4/2/06...inhabitants...starter fish 8 damsels about 1 1/2" in size...humu trigger 2"...snowflake eel 6"...and my pide and joy clown trigger 1 1/2"...approx. 2" caribsea pink cruched gravel... 3 plastic corals...emperor 400 bio...150 watt heater..one 24" 50% white/50% blue actinic flor. bulb in strip light...perform 25% h2O changes about every 2 weeks with tap water and conditioner aqua safe by tetra...just added cpr bak pak2(1st skimmer) thats when cloudiness appeared...food:OSI marine flake food,omega one tubiflex worm & brine shrimp (freeze dried),formula two marine pellets by ocean nutrition,marine complete food by nutra fin,marine pellets by omega one,frozen foods:chopped squid cubes for tropical fish,mysis shrimp cubes by hikari,and sally's san. fran. bay brine shrimp...i havent added any other additives to tank besides seacure copper about a month ago(im still trying to get the copper out using carbon by cemipure and cuprisorb)... i feed fish about 3 xs a day...im just getting back into hobby after a 5 year layoff....id eventually like make my own cement rocks for tank to replace plastic corals for a more natural look with coralline algae, also to make my own canopy with lighting (very confused about lighting for tank)... i dont know if i can have live rocks with my triggers ill have to do some research...i do not test for alkalinity just what i had listed...thanks!

[leebca]

Just an observation, but I'd say your aquarium has too high of a bio-load in it. (I.e., too much livestock). (That eel would be a good, only inhabitant of that sized aquarium.) Couple this with how short of existence your tank has been and this could be a major contributing factor to the cloudiness. Normally a tank with the fishes you have would be at least 6 or 8 months old. You'd wait for about 4 months before putting in any fish at all. At this point in time, you would normally be adding invertebrates (if you wanted any) including clean up crew.

You have several carnivores there. I'm glad you're feeding often. But some of those carnivores only eat once a day or less. I'd switch the food to whole sea foods as I suggest here:
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

You write that the aquarium started in April and in May your treated it with copper? That's not giving any bacteria or life much of a chance to establish itself. A tank with that substrate should not be treated with copper. The substrate will absorb and hold some copper. Although Cuprasorb makes the claim to get it all, it doesn't. That substrate should be removed and replaced otherwise the copper won't go away. As long as the copper is present, all tiny invertebrates (that might be in the substrate) and many bacteria can't live. These bacteria are needed to complete and make a balanced aquarium. Also, as long as copper is present, the fish are slowly being poisoned. They can handle a copper treatment for a specific time, but they can't live in saltwater with a copper level you can measure with a copper test kit.

If you have a glass tank, the copper will also cling to the glass. If this is a glass tank, then I would break it down and start over. Clean out the tank, discard the substrate and go again, very slowly. This will give you a chance to start fresh and you can use live rock in a fish only tank. That is what I have. ;)

Out of curiosity, why do you test for calcium but not for alkalinity? Fish don't care much about either, except when it comes to pH control. You can probably stop the calcium test (unless for some reason you're adding calcium?).

That's all I can think of, at this time.

The cloudiness can be from a bacterial bloom as you suspect, but those bacteria are 'not normal' since they are doing well in the copper. Have you looked very closely on the glass/acrylic to see if there is any visible, tiny things in there? Have you looked closely at the water to see if the cloudiness is made up of very tiny but visible lifeforms?

Can you filter some of your water in a funnel? If you can't get any filter paper (and funnel), take a fine handkerchief and slowly put 2 cups through it and see if anything collects up in/on the handkerchief cloth. That would be worth examining.

Good luck!