cloudy water i guess

[goodfe11aa]

hi all, i am new to the forum and finding alot of intresting things out. hopefully someone can help me with my problem.

i have a 92 gallon corner tank, set up for about 10 months now.
about 90 lbs. of live rock
crushed coral as a base (read bad reviews about that, thinking about DSB?)
about 8 soft corals all doing well (finger,leather,pollops,ets.)
4 fish ( coral beauty,purple tang and two damsels)
filtration is wet\dry with bio ballsinto a lifeguard chemical-then to mechanical and back in
protien skimer
ohh and lighting is coral life pc 36inch one atanic and one 10000k
one 15w 6700k
one 36w atanic
one 36w 6700k

levels are
salinity:1.23
ph: 8.0 ppm
nitrate: 5.0 ppm
ammonia: 0.0ppm
calcium: 500 ppm
alk: medium/low range

ok now here is my problem
my tank has slowley but surely been geting tons of dust like particles in it more than a normal tank would. also a little cloudy. last week i did a 15% water change seemed to help a very little, syphoned crushed coral got ALOT of junk out of it but alot floated in the water when finished. tried a power head w/ filter , it did nothing. today i shut all my pumps off and watched the water. it seems like now there was alot of small air bubbles that went away in about 10 minutes. still particles but not as much. a little more cloudy than anything. also white specs moving around in water ( i think i read something about pods?? started everything up slowley and let air out of a release for air but the bubbles came back? never had that problem before? clueless on this one PLEASE HELP!

i have done saltwater tanks for about 3 years now, i am no expert by far but i think i know most of the basics. i am really trying to learn more now i would like to become an expert with time and all of your help hopefully. thank you again.

 

[saltjunkie]

cloudy could be algae.. from too much light, direct sunlight......... unchaged carbon........ phosphates from the tap water. etc.......
the tiny bubbles are most likely entering from the skimmer......... try puttin a sponge or sdomething under the drain of the skimmer. this may help.
also can your return pump be pulling or sucking air in anywhere?
also.........
any chemicals at all being sprayed near the tank?
I know the answer is no,,,, nobody anywhwere has any chemicals in their houses. at least at the store i work at they dont.....
no perfumes, colonges, windex, carpet fresh deoderants, nothing........
but any of these can enter the system and possible cause a cloudiness.....
Also, did you rinse the crushed coral WELL before you introduced it into the tank?
if not that is another possibility!

 

[reefNewbie]

the wet dry filter is probably the cause of your high nitrates. Get rid of that!

 

[Mogo]

Does sound like algae. Try temporary carbon filtration. Don't need bioballs. Nitrate factory. Small bubbles could be from bubbles being sucked into the pump from sump. Could also be air leak in a connection.

 

[goodfe11aa]

thanks for the suggestions so far. just one quick question. if i just take out the bio balls will i be ok as far as nitrates go. and also as far as temporary carbon filtration, just put that where the bio balls were? thank you for the help and i will keep you updated.

 

[ZigZagZombie]

Take out the bio balls a little at a time. Like once a week until they are gone. You can run carbon. I run carbon once a month for a few days. I would get rid of the crushed coral too. DSB is the way to go. If you have a canister filter, you can hook that up to clear the water also....

 

[Ralphyhp]

Hi Goodfe11aa, Remember you dont have live sand on your tank and sufficient live rock to support your system without bioballs. I dont trust in crush coral because it accumulate a lot of debris more than bioballs do and that really raise your nitrates levels. My filtration is 200 pounds of live rock and about 400 pounds of live rock, no bioballs, but you need that sand and rock to be very colonized with bacteria before you do the Berlin method. Try to put some activated carbon first and see if your cloudy water problem finish. Here some pics where to place the carbon bags. Hope this help my friend. And remember is just an opinion. Ralphyhp.

 

[esmithiii]

Ralphyhp:

Great looking coral!