cloudy water

[redwinger]

I have a 44 gallon pentagon tank with 50 pounds of fiji live rock and 50 pounds of sand. I am using a bak pak 2r skimmer and run a closed loop system with a scwd and a mag 9.5 pump. Various snail and hermits, 2 chromis, 2 clowns, 1 coral banded, a maze brain, a torch coral, a hammer coral and some zoo's. My water has been cloudy for about 2 weeks. I have been running carbon and poly pads in my fluval filter. Also have been changing out the water to rodi. Have changed about 50% so far. My tank used to be crystal clear but now has a slight cloudiness to it. All water param's are in check, ammonis 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 0ppm, calcium at 440 and ph at 8.3 water temp is at 80.4. Any suggestions? No algae problems.

thanks in advance

[Sea monkey]

this just a guess but could it be that the calcium is too high ?

[redwinger]

Calcium is supposed to be at 440-450ppm and that is where it is at.

[Justin Cabibi]

Do you add Kalkwasser? If you do and add it to your tank too quickly it could cause clouding.

[redwinger]

Nope I just use the 2 part bionic every couple of days. add the first part and then the second part about 10 minutes later.

[the_colonel]

Micro bubbles?

[Lutrah]

Phosphates? Algae has a way of sneeking up on us. So, as a rule, don't feed the algae. Carbon can add phosphates, as well as feeding your tank in general...which feed the algea. Oh... and just because the test kit reads 0 phosphates, doesn't mean they aren't there, just that they are being used at the moment and are therefore not detectable.

I've also read that it's possible that the cause of some folks cloudy water is the active breeding of plankton and will only get worse over time, eventually transforming your tank to a green color as they multiply in the tank.

Not saying either is your case, but something to keep in mind. Your photo period would be helpful to know as well as lighting.

Hope this helps.

[yardboy]

Check your alkalinity. Is your sand the fine stuff, oolitic? How long has the tank been set up?

If the tank is fairly new, the sand is fine and your alkalinity is okay (~105ppm as CaCO3 or greater) then watch your clowns. Two clowns in a tank together likely are courting and they can kick a lot of sand up and cloudy the tank as a result.
I advocate this from the experience of having a darn blenny fooling me into thinking I had some problems with my water. The tank clouded up when the lights were on, cleared when the lights went off. Took me nearly a week to catch him digging in the sand!