Water going cloudy - with big update
Update over the past 24 hours...
I have an inline UV Sterilizer on the way from saltwatercritters. It's getting plumbed right into one of my return legs. (i toyed with getting 2, one for each leg, but also like having enough $ to eat) Unfortunately, I couldn't get it till Monday. So I sucked it up and bought, at Petco, this thing, last night, because I was starting to panic as things were getting worse, even with 50% water changes.
http://www.petco.com/product/114522...zer-with-Power-Head.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch
I could only get the 24watt unit, the biggest, most powerful one, allegedly 120 gph, "rated" for a tank 2x the size of mine.
It's basically a self contained UV unit/pump/powerhead in one. It sucks in the water through a foam pad, runs it through the (surprisingly long) UV cylinder, then blows it back out a pipe with fairly low velocity. It's silent, though it does blow some bubbles at first. That seems to have stopped though after 12 hours of use. I dropped it directly in my tank at the side, near the front where I had space. I had no room left in my sump.
The good news is that after that 12 hours... my water is almost completely clear. The bacteria bloom appears to be gone. My water is clear now where as last night it looked like someone had poured a (big) glass of milk in it. I couldn't even see halfway from one side to another, front to back. Now I can see clearly through my tank (end to end) into the next room.
I'm NOT going to run this thing full time...letting it run till I get home from work tonight then probably shutting down for at least a few hours. I don't wan to irradiate my bio filter. Also, when I get the inline UV, I'm going to remove this altogether and keep it in reserve / for the QT tank.
So that's the good news.
The bad news...
My other clownfish perished.
Last night he ate well, as did the Chromis. He was swimming about the tank up until I went to sleep (late again, you'll see why in a second). However I noticed some...stuff on him. It wasn't Ich... I couldn't see the tell tale salt grain looking thing (again, hard to see given the milky water). It could have been Brookynella or Velvet. Again, I'm not sure and I don't think I can say anything definitively given the clarity issues. All I know was I saw some white-ish "stuff" on his frontal sections and under the moon lights, it was quite apparent.
Unlike the other clown death, this guy wasn't turning yellow or looking lethargic or not eating. He chomped down dinner and was out exploring the tank as per the norm right up until I went to sleep.
I figured I should err on the side of caution though and remove him. I prepared a heated, pH adjusted dip with some blue in it as well that would at least buy me some time. Unfortunately I couldn't catch him. The little guy was fast. I even tried a sneaky approach with 2 nets. Tried just going for it, tried creeping up, but he out smarted me every time and hid in places I couldn't to get him. Clearly I'm not a professional. If whatever was eating at him was evil, it wasn't affecting his ability to swim. He was about as fast as anything I've ever seen. And clearly could see fine as he saw me coming from 36 inches away, in the dark too.
When I got up this morning I had the pleasure of seeing the water clear, but the displeasure of him laying on the sand, dead, clearly starting to decay, with 2 hermits picking at him.
<--- sad fish
Though also not surprised really.
Where I go from here remains to be seen. I still have the 2 Chromis in the tank who look healthy and are growing - when they are out and about (knocks on fake wood desk) and a metric ton of snails and a few crabs. I guess we'll see how things pan out in the coming weeks. I'm not adding any more fish to that tank for at least 2, maybe 3 months. If it is something parasitic, in theory it'll attack the chromis next...right? I could remove them...in a dream. I didn't come close to catching the clowns, the chromis are smaller and faster and hide more. Treating the DT directly, chemically, seems and sounds like a bad idea, even with my lack of coral...I don't want to do it. My current plan is to UV with the inline, water change weekly and just wait it out, unless someone has a better idea.
I sorta want to say those clowns had something latent on them when I got them and that started the whole mess. Serves me right for not QT-ing them. I'll never do that again. There's also the theory that there was something in my water that got them. Anyway, as my coworker likes to say often:
"Experience is what you get when you don't have it".