Cloudy water/algae bloom?

[CMP168]

Hey there all,

I have a large acrylic aquarium that was having some Diatom issues on the surface of the acrylic, so when I did my weekly water change last week I decided to take some melamine pads to the inside of the tank, which cleaned the algae off quickly and easily without scratching the acrylic. The issue now is my tank is SUPER CLOUDY and has been for a 5 or so days now. I did a 50% water change 2 days ago to try and improve the clarity to no avail. My water parameters are perfect (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all at 0ppm) and the tank is, as always between 81.6 and 82 degrees. Can anyone provide some helpful information on how to resolve this issue? More water changes? Accuclear? Something else?

 

[twentyleagues]

Is there a way that the pads you used killed off all the bacteria? I'm not sure what those are. Are they safe and not treated with anything? 0 nitrate is a concern for sure, if the biological processes are happening you should have nitrate of some form. I'd be testing ammonia nitrite and nitrate every 4 to 6 hours to make sure you stay ahead of any potential spikes.

 

[CMP168]

The pads are only melamine. Nothing added. Think magic eraser with nothing added to them. Typically my levels are flat across the board... in all my tanks including a 125 community, 125 African cichlid and a 45 breeder tank. They're all well established and short of the typical spikes when cycling they all run at 0 and have been for a few years now. I just have no idea why the tank is cloudy and has been for almost a week now. The only thing I can think of is that the Diatom blooms on the sides were pushed into the water when cleaning and have bloomed there. That's the only explanation I can think of. Any other help would be appreciated.

 

[neutrino]

Bloom looks green on my screen, like algae. Don't know what would do that in how you cleaned the glass, released nutrients, maybe? Don't know. Don't know much about melamine. That aside, the most effective water clarifier I've ever found is still Acurel.

Recently had an usual reaction to a water change, a cloudy mist of particles of some sort that the filter wasn't picking up. It's possible I've seen that years ago and don't remember it, but it's never happened in 20 years in my present location (filter and substrate is clean, nothing to do with it, in case anyone's tempted to go there). I happened to have some Acurel around and added some late evening and it was crystal clear by morning.

Don't know what you have for filters, but another option, short of adding UV, is a super fine filter pad, or a temporary combination with water clarifier.

Nice tank, though...

 

[CMP168]

Hey there. Thanks for the information. I have an overflow that runs into a built in back filtration system with 6 chambers of 1200 bio balls total, one chamber with 500ml of Purigen, Activated carbon and a 100 micron "sock" at the top of the overflow chambers and another chamber with a medium density filter floss. Not really sure what else to do but I'll look up Acurel and give that a shot. Thanks again. Any other suggestions would be awesome as I can't even do a proper vacuum on the substrate as I can't see it.