Why is my tank so cloudy!?!?!

[crister13]

I had a 75g saltwater tank and I tranfered them into a 150g. I have a bird wrasse, naso tang, snowflake eel, red hind grouper, and a niger triggerfish. The bird wrasse got ick and the naso got something (either ick or fungus, not sure) I have a big sump (not sure how many gallons) with three filter socks, and refugium. I continue to clean the filter socks, and the tank wont get clear. I am treating with ick attack and pimafix (the ick attack is brown) and cant run the skimmer and also had to take out one filter pad which sucked up the medication. I have about 110 pounds of LR and caulerpa which I just got yesterday, in the refugium. The tank will NOT get clear, and its driving me crazy. I am waitng to do a water change until Im done treating with the medication. Is 110 pounds of LR enough, or should I get more? My snowflake is also not eating, and I cant figure out why. He keeps opening his mouth really wide like hes trying to swallow something, so could there be something stuck in his throat? Will it just rot or will he not be able to eat?

 

[stopsharkfinning]

do you have corals? why not treat whitespot with hyposalinity much safer on the fish and if done correct will kill parasite and free floating eggs, my guess on cloudy water would be the medication, in aus we use copper or hypo. it is normal behaviour for eels to open and close there mouth but if he is not eating then he is sick or unhappy . do you run ozone?

 

[crister13]

I do not run ozone but will look into it. I cannot us hypo because I dont have a hospital tank and I read that it kills live rock and algae, and I grow caulerpa in my sump. Thanks for the reply.

 

[stopsharkfinning]

it would kill your algea and inverts so a hospital tank is required

 

[FLESHY]

Generally speaking +1 is it possible that bad h2o quality/ich medication is killing your BB and therefore causing an ammonia spike and therefore cloudy water?

 

[crister13]

Sorry I just completely blanked out, what does BB stand for?

 

[Kevin8888]

OK, first, is this a NEW tank? As it sounds like a new one from the moved everything from a 75gal to a 150gal, if this is the case alot of it is likely sand dust, it will settle over the next wile.

Second, I recomend you don't use Ozone, its toxic if done wrong and unnessisary.

Third, your Eel is trying to breath, so sounds like you have really low oxygen levels in your tank, and water quaility is probably bad, which could stop him from eating.

Forthy, stop treatomg with the meds, as the medication you used in your tank is killing off your biological filtration (or benificial bacteria aka BB) like Fleshy was saying, therefore could or will cause bad water quality which could (or will with long exposure) harm your fish, so run some carbon in your filtration to get it all out ASAP. Finally, you don't need a quarentine, or hospital tank to Hypo/dip treat your fish, use a bucket, these treatments are SHORT, like 15-20 min max usualy, so you don't need a running system, that said, it wouldn't remove Ich from your system, only agressive meds, or leaving the tank "fallow" would do that.

So hook your skimmer back up, put a carbon bag or 2 into your filter (for a week or 2)and give it some time and it will sort out, our your fish will get even sicker from the terrible water quality that will happen as a result of adding 110lbs of new live rock to your system. The skimmer will add oxygen to the water helping your Eel (open mouth is normal for them BTW is how they breath). Finaly, get some test kits and start checking your water for nitrates/nitrites/ammonia... as I fear they are going to spike (they should all be 0 if you didn't know).

 

[Owain4]

whats the ammonia and nitrite like? if there is ammonia present and nitrite i can almost guarentee a bacteria bloom. i bet because of the medication and the cleaning you've done you caused the BB to die and caused a bacteria bloom. stop cleaning your tank and let it settle, make sure your parameters are good. if they arent do plenty of water changes and make sure the ammonia and nitrites are all detoxified

 

[stopsharkfinning]

OK, first, is this a NEW tank? As it sounds like a new one from the moved everything from a 75gal to a 150gal, if this is the case alot of it is likely sand dust, it will settle over the next wile.

Second, I recomend you don't use Ozone, its toxic if done wrong and unnessisary.

Third, your Eel is trying to breath, so sounds like you have really low oxygen levels in your tank, and water quaility is probably bad, which could stop him from eating.

Forthy, stop treatomg with the meds, as the medication you used in your tank is killing off your biological filtration (or benificial bacteria aka BB) like Fleshy was saying, therefore could or will cause bad water quality which could (or will with long exposure) harm your fish, so run some carbon in your filtration to get it all out ASAP. Finally, you don't need a quarentine, or hospital tank to Hypo/dip treat your fish, use a bucket, these treatments are SHORT, like 15-20 min max usualy, so you don't need a running system, that said, it wouldn't remove Ich from your system, only agressive meds, or leaving the tank "fallow" would do that.

So hook your skimmer back up, put a carbon bag or 2 into your filter (for a week or 2)and give it some time and it will sort out, our your fish will get even sicker from the terrible water quality that will happen as a result of adding 110lbs of new live rock to your system. The skimmer will add oxygen to the water helping your Eel (open mouth is normal for them BTW is how they breath). Finaly, get some test kits and start checking your water for nitrates/nitrites/ammonia... as I fear they are going to spike (they should all be 0 if you didn't know).

ozone would be very beneficial not only raising the orp of the water but it will help in killing the protozoan and reduce any waterborne bacteria,greatly increasing water quality and health of fish.To say it is unhelpfull in this scenario borders on arrogance. as long as ozone is run with carbon and for the correct amount of time it completly safe, when you are dealing with scenarios such as this where you are trying to kill cryptocaryon and raise water quality ozone will do both, research it and do not take one persons opinion, as far as hypo goes a dip in a bucket will achieve nothing other than stressing the fish further. for hypo to work sg needs to be 1.010 and 4 weeks min required to kill parasite but as stated before it will allso kill inverts so a another tank is needed. i would drop the med,use a small micron filter sock to catch eggs, skimmer on and run ozone to pick up on water quality and help with crypto, have you tested water parameters?

 

[Kevin8888]

To say it is unhelpfull in this scenario borders on arrogance.,

I didn't say it was unhelpful I said unnessisary, as it is not NESSISARY, ever. Nessisary meaning MUST have.

It is only ever benificial if it is organic matter specifically pigment molecules that brown the water, which we have no idea if it is, it could be sand particulate, or it could be percipitated calcum, or it could be bacteria/protazoan/etc in which case they will die... then rot... then produce more ammonia and other organic wastes... then cycle gets worse... but thats just my opinion. I would say skimmer is the way to go in this instance not another expencive device when he hasn't even tryed his skimmer yet.

as far as hypo goes a dip in a bucket will achieve nothing other than stressing the fish further. for hypo to work sg needs to be 1.010 and 4 weeks min required to kill parasite but as stated before it will allso kill inverts so a another tank is needed.

Yes, a bucket dip doesnt work for ich, I was being somewhat general, but it was more about Medications then hypodips, I should have explained myself better
It how ever does not take 4 weeks at hypo to kill ich, it takes a little over 1 week for ich to be completely removed from the fish in Hypo and for them to be dead, on the other hand it takes 4-5 weeks of fallow tank for the rest of the ich to die off the display tank never needs to be hypo.

i would drop the med,use a small micron filter sock to catch eggs, skimmer on and run ozone to pick up on water quality and help with crypto, have you tested water parameters?

Eggs are not released into the water column, they are on the sandbed, the Theronts are the water column stage, and are free swimming, therefore nearly impossible to remove via any form of filtration. Though skimmer would help reduce their numbers, no idea if the micron socks would make a difference or not to be honnest.