# Cloudy water and brown algae Please Help



## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Hello Everyone, I've been taking care of fish tanks for almost 15 years and have for the most part always have had very clear tanks. Now this tank was a saltwater tank for about a year then I completely clean it out and converted back to African cichlids. This tank has been running since August 2009 and has almost always had a whitish cloudiness to it and I have also been battling brown diatoms/algae. The tank is a 150 gallon reef ready tank with an eheim 2028 and also an eheim 2229 wet/dry, I have a sump that I have coral skeletons in and some extra media. I have 12 2.5 to 4" frontosa in the tank and also 6 alto compressiceps. the eheim I purchased used and have checked the media and it does seem to have any thing in it that would cause a cloudiness to the water. Now here is what I've been doing for the past 4 to 5 months to fix this problem. Now the frontosa are growing great so it's not affecting the fish at all....

1)water changes ever week about 40 gallons
2)add prime, stress coat, epsom salt, baking soda and instant ocean to premade water, and I have eliminated each one each time and still have cloudiness. also run heater and pump for 24 hours in premix.
3) bought diatom filter no help
4) added carbon no help, but just today added Chemipure elite and hope it helps a little.
5) had crush coral in sump but took it out, no help
6) checked eheim media and it seems OK. clean it every 3 months and of course never clean both eheim at same time.
7) added filter floss no help just made nitrates go higher.
8 ) water parms. ammonia 0, nitrates 0, Nitrates 10 PPM, phosphates .25, silicates 2 mg/l
9) tanks has black moon sand.
10) have 3 lights 28 watts each t-5's keep on about 4 to 5 hours a day. 
11) Now when ever I do a water change it seems to get worse but the water that I'm putting in is clear ( and like I stated above I took out different additives at different times to find out if it was one of the chemicals I'm putting in) and all I do when I do a water change is shut off the return pump and leave the eheims on.
12) also feeding NLS pellets once a day could it be my food?

any other Ideas please let me know because this problem is driving me crazy I'm hoping the chemipure elite helps a little. Just don't know what could be causing this issue, the first 3 to 4 months I thought it was just because it was a new tank but it's 10 months old now

Thanks


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## solgood (Sep 23, 2009)

Dont ask me y this works, but if u add a UV sterilizer im almost 100% sure it will clear up after a week or less. Its some thing in your tap water. My tank did the same thing after water changes. After running a UV sterilizer it has never happened again.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

solgood said:


> Dont ask me y this works, but if u add a UV sterilizer im almost 100% sure it will clear up after a week or less. Its some thing in your tap water. My tank did the same thing after water changes. After running a UV sterilizer it has never happened again.


Same here.
Had a tank that just would not clear up.
Continual hazy water.
The UV cleared it up. Why, I still have no clue.
Will this work for youÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.
No guarantee of success.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Thanks, I'll give it a try, I've tried so many things and have already thrown a lot of money at this problem, Whats another few dollars  LOL, I was looking at a Coralife 6 x 18 twist would that be a decent one, I do have a UV but not sure how well it works or how old the bulb is. It's funny because I had saltwater tanks for the past 6 years but always used RO/DI water and was thinking about using it see if it help this problem but always felt bad about the 4 to 1 gallon ratio that they had, so it sound logicail that it could be my tap water and that a UV might help. Thanks again hope it helps.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

OK, I just picked up a used turbo twist with a bulb that's almost 4 months old. I'm going to try it this weekend.. Thanks Gus


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Did you keep the same substrate after converting from saltwater to freshwater?

I had a 55 gallon tank converted from salt to fresh, with standard gravel as the substrate. I figured if I just rinsed the gravel sufficiently, I could continue to use it. WRONG.

Apparently, while the gravel soaked in salt water, it soaked up sulfates (which salt water is very high in). When I converted the tank back to freshwater, I had a major problem with brown algae. After fighting it for a good while (including use of a U.V. Sterilizer) to no avail, it finally dawned on me. I remove the gravel, replaced it with pool fitler sand, and have not had a brown algae problem since.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

No i changed the gravel in the tank but I do have some gravel in my refugium that might be from the salt set up I'm not sure because I have some used from the salt set up and also a new bag not sure which I used but I will take it out just in case.. also my coral skeletons are of course from my saltwater set up, should I take those out too? Thanks Gus


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

Brown algae.
I had almost given up on getting my brown algae problem solved.
It was just by luck, doing a few lighting changes, that while using a set of under cabinet lights my brown gunk started turning green..
That was my only change. All other things stayed the same.
I now have a 2 bulb, T8, fluorescent fixture that use 6500K bulbs and have not had a hint of the brown since.
BTW: The under cabinet lights were awesome looking, but created too much heat.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

Yes I have a couple of spare lights I might try but I thought 3 of these would be good.. http://www.bigalsonline.com/edealin...684&siId=1379080&catParentID=57011&scId=57011


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## jimmie (Oct 23, 2002)

No more algae by jungle it works


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

I think I would rather have the algae than use an algaecide. I cannot count the number of instances I am aware of where an algaecide either killed fish, caused a tank cycle, or both. Aside from that, algaecides do not actually solve the problem, they only temporarily treat a symptom. They kill the algae that exists without removing the cause, so it (the algae) usually comes back.


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## gusto (Jan 7, 2003)

OK Now I bought some accu-clear for the cloudy water and with 2 treatments my water is almost 100% better it's a thrill to look at my tank again, Now my only thing is does accu-clear working tell me anything about my problem, or give any incite about my problem. Accu-clear says it gets rid of small particles but shouldn't that have happened when I used the DI filter, the cloudiness did get better when I used the Diatom filter but not like the accu clear did. Now I guess maybe using the Diatom filter on the tank tomorrow might make it even clear but I would really like to find the root of my problem which I think might be dead brown algae


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