Cloudy water

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#1
Been reading for months. Trying everything I have read. I can not get my water to become crystal clear. 50 gallon. 1500gph pump 3 feet of head loss. Manifold to carbon and gfo reactor. Two pp4 wave makers 56x18x12 tank size
Three Anthias
Two damsel
One scopus
25 cuc

Been up and running for 7 months now.
Was crystal clear for four month
LEDs running 8 hours white and blues
Antics all night


Tried fresh filter floss in socks clogged the socks would need to replace every half day.
Fresh carbon no affect turned of reactor seems to clear up a bit for a day or two then back to foggy
Kent marine pro clear. Clear for the day siphon out with water change back to foggy in two days.
Skim wet help but no fully affective empty twice a day
50 percent water changes affective for two days and back to foggy


Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
Kh 11.2 quite high not sure why
Mg 1170 low
Ca 375 low
All test by salifert. With double to confirm test are accurate.

Not to worried about mg or ca cause no corals yet
Trying to square everything off before I jam this tank full of corals

Any ideas I've tried I feel everything besides uv. Maybe chemipure elite? Purigen
Also I have a block of marine pure in the bottom of the sump.

Been very patrient and reading a lot before I asked questions. If I can get some help,would appreciate it very much
 

djrice69

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#5
Raise your calcium and mag since you have no corals. Then get some MB7 and vinegar dose to get the population of good bacteria going.
 

djrice69

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#7
You have no corals for it to drop much, maybe coraline algae can. Buffering cal. By adding more cal will help lower your alk.
 

deefish714

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#9
Yeah I always run carbon. I didn't think I would need to worry about the elements till I dumped in my coral but seems They are all out of wack. Ordered some 2 part plus mag. So when I received them I'll dose mg first and then dose ca and see if the alk will drop. I also hooked up uv sterilizer and within 1 day the water went crystal clear. So as of now everything is looking great
 
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#11
My 300 was super cloudy for a month or two in the beginning. I think it just took time for the bacteria to build up.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 

deefish714

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#14
Got my me corals elements today. Gonna dose mg first. Then alk. I will def cut the gfo down right before I add corals. But till I get the funds to dump the corals in I'll just let the gfo exhaust.
 

reefes pieces

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#15
Sounds like you're having bacterial bloom issues. Are you doing any form of carbon dosing? If so I'd stop as it will just continue to feed the bloom. Once you get it under control then you may need to start dosing bacteria to get the good population going. For a bacteria bloom even a cheap under powered UV sterilizer will work. I have a 150g tank and successfully used a 5 watt UV sterilizer and it cleared my tank up in a day. You can find some cheap ones on amazon with a built in pump for under $40.
 

deefish714

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#16
Yeah so I purchased a 9 watt coralife and the bloom went away immediately. Not dosing at all. Unfortunately I didn't go the cheap route which I wish I did. That uv cost me a little over 200 with pump and all necessary tubing and pump to run. But now the blooms under control I'm gonna start doing s little dosing. Get all elements up to par. Think I should throw some fritz in there to kick start bacteria? I mean it's been running for a while and I did use fritz to start it. Not sure why the bloom came but it came hard.
 
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#17
That's an expensive bandaid. You know not only the UV will clear your tank amd kill parasite, itll also kill beneficial bacteria too.
 

reefes pieces

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#18
Give it a little time before you start dosing the beneficial bacteria and continue to run the UV to help eradicate the cloudy bacteria. A decent water change should help get your parameters stable and export the die off. Then start dosing but making sure to shut down the UV when dosing. The reefing community is pretty divided about using UV sterilizers but I've seen first hand some amazing reef tanks that run UV sterilizers and I've never heard any stories where a UV sterilizer was the cause of a tank to crash or kill coral.

Yeah so I purchased a 9 watt coralife and the bloom went away immediately. Not dosing at all. Unfortunately I didn't go the cheap route which I wish I did. That uv cost me a little over 200 with pump and all necessary tubing and pump to run. But now the blooms under control I'm gonna start doing s little dosing. Get all elements up to par. Think I should throw some fritz in there to kick start bacteria? I mean it's been running for a while and I did use fritz to start it. Not sure why the bloom came but it came hard.
 

deefish714

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#19
yeah heard many mixed reviews. But darn that baby cleared that water so quick and I can not even tell there is water in it. I. Hella happy lol. So when people run uv sterilizes the cut the light when dosing?
 
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