Cloudy Water - Will Carbon Help?

[Cave Dweller]

The tank is a 12g nano and is only a few months old (jump started with established live rock/sand/bacteria in a bottle). As its running on a factory hood i have filled the 1st chamber about 1/2 way with filter floss to help a litlte bit but water is quite cloudy.

I'm assuming its a bacteria bloom as the tank is still quite young but have done water changes every weekend (30-40%). Don't have parameters off hand but didn't appear to have any issues previously. Main question is will a carbon reactor help at all with trying to expedite it clearing up?

 

[92CornerReef]

i use Seachem Purigen in my 10gl and it works awesome.

 

[daddytli]

I use purigen and chemi pure elite for my 12 gal nano.

 

[Cave Dweller]

i dropped a bag of chemipure in the bottom of the 2nd chamber so that whatever comes out of the first would have to pass through it. is it maybe not enough flow going thru the bag? Maybe i should sit it right on top of the filter floss right on the other side of the overflow?

 

[92CornerReef]

i have mine on top, right before the water returns to the tank. No ill effects, all corals are doing well.

 

[Cave Dweller]

i have filter floss in the 1st chamber, a bag of chemipure at the bottom of the 2nd, and then my return pump in the last. should i move the chempure on top of the floss and put some purigen in the 2nd chamber?

 

[92CornerReef]

i would put the purigen closest to the return. i usually have the finest media closest to the return so no debris get pumped back into the tank

 

[daddytli]

I have a couple of carbon sponge on bottom of first chamber and the Purigen on top. Second chamber I have ceramic rings on bottom with chemi pure on top of that follow by an extra bag of carbon on top of that. The last chamber is empty, just the return pump.

When third chamber water is low, I fill it with ro di. when first two are overflowing when third chamber is low, then is beginning to clog. I clean out the sponges in first chamber and make sure chemi pure is not clogging the flow upwards to third chamber.

 

[92CornerReef]

is this a canister filter or sump?

 

[daddytli]

is this a canister filter or sump?

My unit is a nano with 3 chambers.

 

[Cave Dweller]

My setup is an AIO JBJ 12g... dont' want to go overboard with this one b/c I'm planning on moving my 75g to the house. If i need a bit more "power" i'll just buy one of those mini canister filters from ebay and add a few extra items but might have to drill a few holes into the back of the stock canopy to get the 1/2 tubes through.

 

[92CornerReef]

ok, i thought it was just a regular tank with an independent filter. i would put the chemi on top of the carbon. spread the filter bag that the chemi is in so that it fits from end to end

 

[92CornerReef]

you don't need a canister filter. i have a cheap HOB filter i got from amazon "Aqueon QuietFlow" $11 on Amazon. i have a piece of carbon pad wrapped with filter media and the purigen on top. I can post pic later when i get home. also have some macroagae in the tank.

 

[92CornerReef]

https://goo.gl/photos/XHUrbGgg9inUQYXW7

 

[Cave Dweller]

i would have done that already if i could but because it has a stock hood on it that was retrofit with led's and i don't want to remount the light i'm looking for things that i could fit in a whole in the back of the hood or just straight in the back chambers

 

[ReefBum]

What color is the water? A milky white? You can double check to see if it is indeed a bacteria bloom by taking a glass of water from the tank and seeing if any particles settle to the bottom. It might be calcium carbonate precipitation, which can result from too much kalk or 2 part. Calcium will settle out in the glass while bacteria will stay suspended. Did you have any fish loses? Bacteria will consume a lot of oxygen so try to oxygenate the water more by increasing flow and agitation on the top to get more gas exchange. Increased flow will also help suspend the detritus on the bottom. It will also help to vacuum the gravel, clean your filter, have a good cleanup crew and not overfeed the fish. I know this is a small tank but in principle this stuff should help.

 

[daddytli]

i would have done that already if i could but because it has a stock hood on it that was retrofit with led's and i don't want to remount the light i'm looking for things that i could fit in a whole in the back of the hood or just straight in the back chambers

What i did is remove the front part of the lid and i mounted a quietflow and auto feeder. My quietflow is retofitted with coolmax chiller mounted on top of its lid.

Tom

 

[Cave Dweller]

Thanks everyone for the input. The water looked like watered down milk and I took some out and kept it in a clear glass, unfortunately nothing settled down so it wasn't free-floating material. There are snails and hermits in the tank and only 2 clowns so bio load shouldn't be excessive. They are fed every other day and only a few flakes.

Yesterday as I was at the house I did a huge water change and cleaned out the back chambers a bit. There was some algae on the short length of hose from my return pump so instead of cleaning it I replaced it with a clean length of hose and turned the pump's return volume up a bit to try and stir more water at the surface.

Stupidly i didn't pull out the old filter floss and as soon as i turned it back up, the water clouded up a bit. Will replace it tonight as well.