Frustrating Cloudy Water Issue

I have had my new 220g tank running now for a little over 2 months. I rinsed the sand and rocks pretty well I thought before I put them in the tank. The water was cloudy as usual for a few days but became crystal clear soon after. For about a month and a half it stayed that way as it cycled. I have been running my skimmer and carbon the whole time.


About 2 1/2 weeks ago the water began to get really cloudy. There is NO hair algea or any other type of blooms. Just cloudy water. It all seems to be suspended in the water column. All my paramaters are perfect and two seperate phosphate tests show .07 or less for phosphates. I read a ton of posts on this and the usual answer is diatom bloom but I have no phosphates or nitrates. I have been trying to patiently wait this out but it seems to me the rocks and sand may be to blame here. I am thinking I didnt clean them well enought maybe. My carbon reactor gets clogged within a week or so now and my skimmer is pumping out a fair amount of yellowish water that looks similiar to what I was washing off the rocks. I added GFO a week ago but it isnt helping with the cloudiness which reinforces my thought that algea isnt to blame. The only other thing I can think of is that my new Air Water and Ice RO/DI system came with half color changing and half regular DI resisn. Not knowing this I ran about 40 gallons of 7 ppm DI water through my ATO tank by accident because I thought my DI resin was still good. GIven that my nitrate and phosphate levels are low though I dont think this hurt me too bad.


I did do one 40 gallon watter change a week ago but that didnt help much. It is the ONLY water change I have done since starting the tank because it was new. I am thinking my next steps shoudl be to do weekly water changes maybe to see if that helps. Right now I have only a coral banded shrimp and about 30 assorted snails and crabs. They all seem perfectly happy despite the cloud. I have been feeding them periodically because there is no algea to eat really but not over doing it by any means.


Anyone have any ideas on what else I can do here?

 

It was BRS dry reef saver rock. The sand is regular aragonite about 3 inches or so deep in the main. I also have a refugium with a deeper sand bed and a few pieces of rock. I built a 90g reef for a friend with it and it was great stuff. I had a few times with his tank where the water clouded but it always cleared up in less then a week or so and I never had the yellow tint in the water like mine does now that is coming out of my skimmer. The tank is new so I have had the lights off the whole time except for a day and a half where I was testing some new Hydra 52's that I bought. I realized that was a mistake probably and shut them off. The tank is in a darker basement level with minimum light and no real direct sunlight. Even with lights off for the last week I have seen no improvement. Still hazy. I am thinking water changes may be the only quick way to export whatever is causing it.

I thought about covering the tank with a sheet or cardboard or something to block out all light but not sure if that will matter or not. I have heard it works for some. I also thought about using one of BRS's heavy felt micron filter sock as well to see if that clears it up. I am using a regular BRS filter sock now that is changed regularly.

 

That sounds good. Thanks for all the info everyone. I will try to run the HOB's for awhile. Anyone suggest a good UV sterilizer? I haven't run UV before really. Do you guys run them all the time or just to cure blooms?

Jim, are you planning on being in IC / Coralville this week or weekend by chance? I will take you up on your offer to borrow your filters if you are. Thanks man!

 

Jim, I think Mark has one already that I can use and I might ask Hung too. I might save the gas to your place for grabbing some frags from you once my tank is ready. Thanks for the offer though. I cant text you if your number is different so I will email. Email the same right?

Also, I tried to buy one from Petland over here on the East side IC but they wanted $100 for it!! It costs $60 online and about $70 at every other store. Unreal. Asked the guy if they would price match $70 so I didnt have to drive accross town and no dice at all. You drive a hard bargain Petland!!! Hilarious. I am probably just going to see if one unit helps tonight and add another one tomorrow if not. Might not be a bad idea to own one or two anyway.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Hope to have some crystal clear water by the weekend. Really tired of looking at it !