[sea206ness]

so my water has been cloudy for several days and i cant seem to figure out why. i clean the filter media regularly and my skimmer is skimming green water out of the aquarium. i siphoned the sand and did a 25% water change and bought better quality filter medias. the combo of siphoning, filter medias and the water change helped a little but the water is still cloudy. i even changed my feeding habits to once a day.

i did a water test today for;
salinity
nitrite
ammonia
nitrate
ph
phosphates
alkalinity

everything turned out good but i did notice my alkalinity is at 9.8 when i usually try to keep it at 12 or 13 and also my ph was at 7.8, a few points down from my usual 8.2.

could the lowered ph and alkalinity cause my cloudy water?

any help will be appreciated

 

[ray-the-pilot]

Well, lower pH and alkalinity suggest excess CO2. This usually increases the solubility of the usual precipitates. On the other hand excess CO2 also suggests high bacterial activity. I'd look for something dead in my tank.
Do a lot of water changes. I would do 4 x 25% if you have careful water preparation.

 

[sea206ness]

im just confused because all the tests turned out good except for the lowered ph and alkalinity. i dosed the ph with seachem ph raiser. i dosed enough to bring it up 3 or 4 points, i forgot, which would bring my ph to 8.2 or 8.3 and alkalinity to 11.1 or 11.6. waters still cloudy. im gonna do a 25% again tomorrow and see what happens. i did one two days ago as well.

i can tell you that my sand has been turning brown and that became dark hair algae and this dark slime algae, as well as some of the brown stuff on my rock. the brown that accumulated on my back glass and some brown on my rocks became green.

could this be the cause of the cloudiness?

also my filter medias turn brown very fast after rinsing and cleaning.

all my livestock seem to be fine. unless animals in my live rock and sand are dieing off but im not sure how to tell if thats the problem.

ive heard its either high nutrients or bacteria bloom thats causing the cloudiness.

i just dont know what to do and its very rare for me to get frustrated. im not saying that i am but if things persist, i forsee a bit of frustration.

 

[sea206ness]

how far in between would you suggest the water changes be? i did one on monday morning and will do one tomorrow(thursday)morning.