need a little help........

[Tonyscoots84]

hey guys I'm a little confused. I've had this problem since I took out the carbon and replaced it with phosar. to make a long story short my water got a little cloudy. its like a white haze looked very similar to my older tank hairspray problem.

I replaced the phosar a week later and replaced it with carbon again just incase maybe jus maybe some hairspray went into my tank cause its in my den and my bathroom where everyone does there hair n myself use a lot of hairspray is in the hallway 1 door down from the den.....

my levels are
nitrates below 5

phosphates last time I checked it was really low

alk 11.4
cal 460
mag 1430

so my question is where the hell is this white haze coming from. I jus don't get it... my thinking is that the alk and cal are to high. and what I will do tom. is a 15 gallon water change. does that seem good... I'm just out of ideas if anyone has any ideas feel free to post. and my aquadelight has melted away.. thanks guys..

 

[KathyC]

Usually white haze in the water is either an algae bloom coming on or a huge amount of bacteria. Change out the carbon again tonight as see if it makes a difference by morning

 

[MikeyZO]

Your alk is 11.5 or your KH is 11.5? I was under the assumption (and I am quite still a noob at this) that alk shouldnt be above 5ish but 11.5 seems good for hardness (KH)... dont know if that would have anything to do with cloudyness or not.

 

[pecan2phat]

Did you say hairspray :lol2: :Blurp:

 

[clownlover]

PH level? o had something like that and it was from a sharp drop in PH. also did u rinse the media ( never used phosar so dont know if u have to).

 

[Tonyscoots84]

ok guyz thanks so far for all the help and ideas...

i rechecked my levels and this is what i got

alk - dkh - 12.8
meq - 4.57

cal - ppm's - 490

mag - ppm's - 1380

ph - 8.2

my thinking is that the alk is to high :scratch: can anyone see this happening... when i look closely it looks like its a white haze in the tank that is moving around i think thats the baking soda... kathy i will use ur recc. tom. when i wake up i lowered my dosing from 7 to 5 which = from 49 ml a day to 35 ml a day i might lower it a bit more.. tom. i will do a 5 gallon water change and change out the carbon again :irked:.......

 

[KathyC]

i lowered my dosing from 7 to 5 which = from 49 ml a day to 35 ml a day i might lower it a bit more..

That seems like an awfully high dose for a system your size... Is your freshly made SW that low in Ca/Alk??? What salt are you using...have you tested it?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

kathy i never tested it but i noticed whenever i did a fairly large sized water change and then tested for alk, cal and mag i always came up lower after the water change... so im going to dose a little less ill drop it to 3 which would be 21 ml a day and slowly raise it up i will test everyday this week :sigh:

kathy im using reef crystals...

so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that this is my easy fix problem...

i hate having to go through every single thing... you can see ive been through my share of problems with tanks :lol2:

 

[tosiek]

im still real confused as to why you use hairspray? gel doesn't work?

 

[tosiek]

but on a non serious note, its either algae bloom from you changing the filtration or super high dosing. Your dosing waaaay to much. Drop it down to normal.

Actually rereading it does sound like your dosing batch went bad. Even with an algae bloom and stuff you shouldn;'t have moving white stuff. Should be cloudy. But thats just a guess T. Sounds like stuff precipitated or something.

Change one thing at a time, not everything at once or u won't fx it.

 

[MikeyZO]

When I first started my tank my dKH was upwards near 18 after it cycled. It slowly lowered over time as the tank stabilized, but I had already added some fish, crabs, and snails to it. I didnt have a problem keeping livestock nor did I have cloudy water. So I find it hard to believe its your 12.8 dKH.

 

[mstrofdisaster]

ok guyz thanks so far for all the help and ideas...

i rechecked my levels and this is what i got

alk - dkh - 12.8
meq - 4.57

cal - ppm's - 490

mag - ppm's - 1380

ph - 8.2

my thinking is that the alk is to high :scratch: can anyone see this happening... when i look closely it looks like its a white haze in the tank that is moving around i think thats the baking soda... kathy i will use ur recc. tom. when i wake up i lowered my dosing from 7 to 5 which = from 49 ml a day to 35 ml a day i might lower it a bit more.. tom. i will do a 5 gallon water change and change out the carbon again :irked:.......

Are you using buffer in your topoff water? That would make the Alk rise like that.

I would layoff dosing any 2 part for 2-3 days until your Alk/Ca comes down.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

gel works T. but i need hairspray to keep it the way i want it :biggrin:... i looked at the tank this morning and everything is clear. guess it was only the over dosing... see guys this is why its important to always test your water

 

[Tonyscoots84]

mikeyzo that doesnt sound right.... theres only so much epsecially a 30 gallon cube that i have can take up in alk and cal... the rest of what it doesnt take up should come out of solution and it gave me the white haze look.. you could actually see it moving with the flow :tired: anywayz so far so good will update later...