Cloudy tank

Sandy76 · Feb 11, 2023

My tank is 5 months old . It was running great up until week and half. My tank got very cloudy and murky. I recently added live rock, new filter on top of my two other filters . All my peramiters read properly and still do . I’m ready to tear hair out of my head. How long do this last? I added prime seachum to it , microbe lift special blend and stability . I do not have a sump or protein skimmer. Last saltwater tank I had I never used one and it ran perfectly . My tank is 75 gallon. I am beyond words here.

Sandy76 · Feb 11, 2023

brandon429 said:
tap water is expected in 99% of cases to cause uncontrollable algae growth

that's the #1 thing to fix so far

can you get the change water I use/premade from a pet store in five gallon buckets, you'll need a lot

if not, you must rip clean that tank/search out any rip clean thread there are 300+ on the site and do what they did in it

when your tank is 100% clean and new-looking, all post rip cleaned tanks are, then you install the largest most expensive UV sterilizer you can agree to buy for a reef tank on that tank and continue on. I give you a 50% chance it'll work, even with tap water as the reef water base. 50% might be overly confident, more like 40%. you're reefing in a way nearly certain to cause algae with tap water use.

if you must continue with that water you have to clean the tank, you can't fix the tank using the same water that invaded it.

you can only manually clean it and set up a burning UV filter to burn algae guaranteed to grow on well-lit reef tap water.

I don’t have a drain of algea on rocks or anything it’s all clean only diatoms

brandon429 · Feb 11, 2023

the fix is listed in order for your setup/study + apply for the win

it's all hard work that's for sure/ tap water use requires a big cleanup job 99% of the time, and total cessation of tap water use thereafter to prevent this again by April. I don't believe it's possible to reef with tap water unless someone lives in the Alps, then I'd trust it.