Help! Cloudy Water, Nitrates Dropped, Corals Retracted after adding Skimmer

[Zakary2003]

Something has gone terribly wrong in my waterbox 20 AIO mixed reef. Yesterday I added a brand new Aquaready Bullet 1 HOB protein skimmer I got for free through an Amazon program called Vine, where people can recieve (mostly) free stuff to review. I wanted to stabilize my pH and be able to feed more heavily because I'm slowly starting to add SPS corals and the skimmer was free. After tuning it to a fairly dry skim, I left it overnight and changed the cup this morning because I wanted to see how much it collected.

By 1pm, it had stopped foaming and wasn't capturing any dissolved solids despite the pump and bubbles working fine. Also at 1pm, I noticed my anemone was looking unhappy and had started to move around the tank, and I also noticed some of my zoas and both of my duncan colonies were closed up and looking upset.
By 6 pm, my 3 different species of leathers, my xenia, my clove polyps, and my GSP also closed up and were looking crappy, and my water got a little cloudy. I did some tests and everything was consistent except for nitrates, which were 0 (down from 5) and my phosphates, which were up to .14. I threw in some reef roids and frozen fish food because that's what I normally do when my nutrients get low.
It's almost 9:00 now, and the water is even more cloudy and there is no change in the corals.

Here are the tank stats:
Tank: >1 year old Waterbox 20 gallon cube AIO tank
Equipment: Nano automatic fleece roller, AI hydra 32 light, cobalt neotherm heater, fzone auto top off, AI Nero 3 powerhead, AI Axis 20 return pump, and mangroves/a plant light in the middle chamber. Also, an aquaready bullet-1 HOB protein skimmer added yesterday and a 15 watt UV sterilizer added a month ago due to some signs of dinoflagellates returning (a problem I've dealt with a few times) .
Inhabitants: 2 clownfish, a yasha goby, a candy pistol shrimp, 3 sexy shrimp, a bubble tip anemone, 2 rock flower anemones, and CuC such as hermits, astrea snails, and a tiger conch.
Corals: a good mix of softies like zoas, leathers, GSP, clove polyps, xenia, etc plus LPS such as duncans, candycane, frogspawn, favia, acan, and chalices, and a couple SPS like a tnt anacropora and some monti caps
Feeding schedule: frozen mysis 1x per day in the morning, pellets 1x per day in the evening, frozen coral food 1x per week, and amino acids 2x per week.
Dosing: just carbon (.5 mL tropic marin bacto balance 1x per day) and kalkwasser in the ATO, plus amino acids 2x per week.


Normal Parameter averages:
Unreadable nitrites and ammonia
2-5ppm nitrates
0.05-0.1ppm phosphates
420-460ppm calcium
8.1-8.8 dkh alkalinity
34ppt salinity
7.9 pH at night and 8.3-8.4 pH during peak daytime
79°F (heater is set to 76, but the equipment generates heat and the room is set to 74)

Parameters Today:
Unreadable ammonia and nitrite
Nitrate 0ppm (Unreadable on salifert, even when holding the cuvette up to the paper sideways)
Phosphates .14ppm (highest it's been in a month)
Salinity 34ppt
Temperature 79.2
Calcium 440ppm
Alkalinity 8.5dkh
pH 8.02

I moved recently (8 days ago) but the tank was doing well and there were no major changes in parameters from the move. I test calcium, alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates every other day. I have a wifi thing that constantly tests for pH, salinity, and temperature. I also use activated carbon and I have more coming Monday to replace it in case it's a contamination issue.

Everything was fine before the protein skimmer. I turned off the skimmer, but I wouldn't expect that to cause such a dramatic and quick crash.

Please help me save the tank! What happened!? Was the skimmer too effective? What do I need to do to reverse coarse? Should I do a 25% water change? I just did one on Thursday and I don't have any water made up currently.

 

[Formulator]

Check your alk and ph. Your skimmer likely led to a rapid change in pH due to the added air exchange. With that pH change, you may be precipitating calcium carbonate, lowering your alk and calcium (more dramatic with the alk), and making everything angry due to the alk swing.

 

[Zakary2003]

Check your alk and ph. Your skimmer likely led to a rapid change in pH due to the added air exchange. With that pH change, you may be precipitating calcium carbonate, lowering your alk and calcium (more dramatic with the alk), and making everything angry due to the alk swing.

Alk and pH are in the initial post. Alk is 8.5 and pH hasn't changed dramatically and is currently 7.98 (the lights are off). Maybe I need to recalibrate the probe, but it was just changed less than a month ago and hasn't dried out or anything..

 

[Zakary2003]

I should add that calcium is tested with red sea, salinity with a calibrated refractometer, phosphates and alk with hanna checkers, Nitrate with salifert, pH and temperature with a wifi smart probe, and nitrite/Ammonia with API kits.

 

[Formulator]

Alk and pH are in the initial post. Alk is 8.5 and pH hasn't changed dramatically and is currently 7.98 (the lights are off). Maybe I need to recalibrate the probe, but it was just changed less than a month ago and hasn't dried out or anything..

Oops, sorry I missed that. And that is one of my own pet peeves! I jumped to conclusions based on the situation and observed cloudiness. Could be the increased oxygenation led to a bacterial bloom… In which case you will want to do some water changes and keep running the skimmer. I’m grasping at straws though now. Maybe someone else has experienced something like this.

 

[Zakary2003]

Oops, sorry I missed that. And that is one of my own pet peeves! I jumped to conclusions based on the situation and observed cloudiness. Could be the increased oxygenation led to a bacterial bloom… In which case you will want to do some water changes and keep running the skimmer. I’m grasping at straws though now. Maybe someone else has experienced something like this.

Lol. No worries. It was a long post.

 

[Formulator]

I say grasping at straws, but really there are only a few possible explanations for cloudy water in our tanks. Those are - calcium carbonate precipitation, bacterial bloom, and spawning snails. There may be some obscure causes I haven’t heard of, but those three are by far the most common and likely. 2 of them could be reasonably linked back to the start up of your skimmer.

 

[Zakary2003]

I say grasping at straws, but really there are only a few possible explanations for cloudy water in our tanks. Those are - calcium carbonate precipitation, bacterial bloom, and spawning snails. There may be some obscure causes I haven’t heard of, but those three are by far the most common and likely. 2 of them could be reasonably linked back to the start up of your skimmer.

So I should keep the skimmer on no matter what the cause is?

 

[Formulator]

So I should keep the skimmer on no matter what the cause is?

Yes, I would. If it is a bacterial bloom, turning it off could starve the tank of oxygen and start killing fish.

 

[Zakary2003]

Those are - calcium carbonate precipitation, bacterial bloom, and spawning snails. There may be some obscure causes I haven’t

Is it safe to assume that carbon dosing increases the risk of a bloom? I do carbon dose tropic marin bacto balance.

 

[Jimbo327]

Yes, carbon feeds bacteria.

 

[Formulator]

Is it safe to assume that carbon dosing increases the risk of a bloom? I do carbon dose tropic marin bacto balance.

Yes. Keep an eye on your pH over the course of a full day/night cycle too. I’d be a little surprised if the skimmer had no impact at all.

 

[CHSUB]

Imo, no way a skimmer could cause this. I would guess it has something to do with the move. Test kits give a tiny window of what is happening in a reef tank and are mostly useless. If you have sand did you upset it during the move? I would do several 20 % WC over the next week.

 

[Zakary2003]

Yes. Keep an eye on your pH over the course of a full day/night cycle too. I’d be a little surprised if the skimmer had no impact at all.

I just checked the hour by hour daily pH log and it is a bit weird. It stayed pretty low today, lower than usual. That would fit with a bacteria bloom right? It peaked at 8.1, not my usual 8.3 to 8.4, and started dropping while the light was still at peak photoperiod, specifically about 5 hours before it would normally drop. It also fluctuated a lot more than usual. It usually goes up smoothly and drops down smoothly, but today it went up and down constantly all day between 7.9 and 8.1

 

[Zakary2003]

Imo, no way a skimmer could cause this. I would guess it has something to do with the move. Test kits give a tiny window of what is happening in a reef tank and are mostly useless. If you have sand did you upset it during the move? I would do several 20 % WC over the next week.

I did not upset the sand at all, but my pistol shrimp's burrow changed locations so he's been stirring the sand in new areas.

 

[Zakary2003]

I'd like to add that I move frequently. I'm a college student. The tank is moved at least 4x per year and it was moved 3x in the last 4 months. I've never had issues with moving before and I've gotten the hang of it. That doesn't mean it wasn't the cause, though.

 

[Zakary2003]

Imo, no way a skimmer could cause this. I would guess it has something to do with the move. Test kits give a tiny window of what is happening in a reef tank and are mostly useless. If you have sand did you upset it during the move? I would do several 20 % WC over the next week.

So what's the deal with the skimmer? Leave it on or off?

 

[Formulator]

Imo, no way a skimmer could cause this.

I offered 2 very feasible ways a skimmer could induce this in a tank… just saying.

I just checked the hour by hour daily pH log and it is a bit weird. It stayed pretty low today, lower than usual. That would fit with a bacteria bloom right? It peaked at 8.1, not my usual 8.3 to 8.4, and started dropping while the light was still at peak photoperiod, specifically about 5 hours before it would normally drop. It also fluctuated a lot more than usual. It usually goes up smoothly and drops down smoothly, but today it went up and down constantly all day between 7.9 and 8.1

Could be bacteria, or you could have a lot of CO2 in your home. Any chance the up/down swings correlate with times you were in/out of your house?

 

[CHSUB]

I did not upset the sand at all, but my pistol shrimp's burrow changed locations so he's been stirring the sand in new areas.

You have a uv and are sure it is working? That would clear up a bacterial bloom quickly. I would also double check all you pumps and electrical systems for stray voltage, cracks. If nothing, do several WC, change carbon and keep skimmer going. Hydrogen Sulfide gas could have escaped from your sand while moving or your shrimp is releasing some digging?

 

[Zakary2003]

You have a uv and are sure it is working? That would clear up a bacterial bloom quickly. I would also double check all you pumps and electrical systems for stray voltage, cracks. If nothing, do several WC, change carbon and keep skimmer going. Hydrogen Sulfide gas could have escaped from your sand while moving or your shrimp is releasing some digging?

Yeah the UV is working. I just opened it to check. I don't see any cracks on anything and I don't know how to test for stray voltage but I didn't get electrocuted messing with stuff. Just a ton of pineapple sponges on the return pump that I had to clean off.