NO!!! what is happening!!!

[beelzebob]

last night i did a 30% water change, and a lil aquascaping.

i woke up this morning and my tank was incredibly murky.

the water looks like someone poored a glass of milk in there.

what is it, why is this happening? is this diatoms? what do i do?

[Illuminati]

Not diatoms, diatoms are brown algae on the rock or sandbed when you first start a tank.

How much sand did you stir up last night? It might (and hopefully) is just the sand settling. Other than that I don't know what it could be.

I'd leave it and see if it clears up later today. How long has the tank been running?

[beelzebob]

about 19 weeks, i used an ALK buffer too...

[Rosseau]

what's your filtration/powerhead situation like?

[bkztrini465]

Do you have any snails in the tank that might have tried reproducing overnight??

Do you dose Kalk and something else? Maybe you could have dosed them to close together and caused it to precipitate. I did this once with just Kalk.

[beelzebob]

my filtration is nothing more than flow, a HOB skimmer and a hot magnum that i use for flow.

i dosed an ALK and PH buffer last night with phyto.

im freggin the heck out here, ARE MY LIL HOMIES GOUNG TO DIE?:mad:

[Rosseau]

I was just wondering if the movement in rock means that your flow hs changed in some areas, and is just keeping everything in suspension


some of my flow is dissipated by my rock

[Sugar Magnolia]

Give us some water params. You dosed the tank, but did you test beforehand to see if you needed to dose the tank? Run some tests and let us know what your readings are.

[duec22]

You don't have a clam by chance do you. Mine decieded to spawn over the weekend, and it got so milky in the tank at one point I couldn't even see two inches into the water. If not, the odds are that you are having one of three things happening. First and most likey based on your coments is that you are having calcium carbonate percipiate out of the water. This can happen if you have fast pH or alk changes. It's always best to match both cal. and alk. of water change water to that of the current tank parameter prior to doing any water changes. Another possiblity is that the rearagement of the rock work and such is causing someplace in the sandbed to be continually disturbed..and should be fairly obvious to find. The last one, and I'm not to sure on this one, is some kind of bacterial bloom...and I would think you would need either high ammonia or nitrate/nitrite to fule it.

[beelzebob]

it is starting to clear up.

i went home for lunch and ran my chemistry.

Ammonia : 0
Nitrites : 0
Nitrates: <5

Ph: 8.1
Alk: is now "normal" i need a new test kit.


my ph was 8.3 before this cold snap. i'd attributed that to just a lower amount of O2 in my apartment cause its not getting much fresh air.


is Kent marine essentials ok to add now and forever? just wondering