clowdy tank?

[smcnally]

I've been runing carbon in my tank since day one. I know some do and some don't. But I pulled it off yesterday to circulate my 20gal in preperation for some rock. I noticed my reef was clouding up last night and this morning it was cloudy, but not bad at all. Everything seemed to be acting normal too. Is it just that the carbon was making it clearer than normal? Or was my tank maybe getting dependant on the carbon?

 

[NateHanson]

I haven't heard of carbon clearing up visible cloudiness. I think of it for adsorbing disolved organics that might give the water a yellowy tint, but I might suspect that cloudiness might be related to something other than removing your carbon.

Have you recently dosed anything in the tank? Is it possible that something is stirring up a new southdown sandbed?

Is the cloudiness in large flakes, like snow, or more like a milky cloudiness where you can't see any individual particles?

 

[nunofs]

You may have stirred up detritus when you removed the carbon (either in the sump or in the carbon bag itself, not sure how you have it setup), which made their way into the main tank... if it goes away within less than a day that's probably the cause.

Nuno

 

[smcnally]

That's the weird thing. I didn't stir anything up. The carbon was in an external canister filter. I closed the valves to the filter, turned it off, and pulled the hoses out. I'll just have to check it when I get home and hope it cleared up. As for its appearance. It was just foggy looking. Kinda like if you put a few drops of milk in a glass of water and stirred it.

 

[Chris A.]

If you had your carbon in there that long without changing it,it begins to act as part of your biologic filter.You removed it so now the bacteria bloomed in the tank to make up for the carbon.It should get clearer.Also check for amonia,trites,ca,alk.

 

[smcnally]

Thanks, man. I think you were 100% correct. Came home today and everything looks great. Gonna start getting th 75 in place. Got my MAG 9.5 today...maybe I'll start the plumbing. I decided not to drill. I've been pushing it with all the stuff I've bought, and if for some weird reason my tank cracked, I think my wife would leave me!