cloudy water

Dear hobby:

I can think of two possible reasons why the saltwater you mixed up may have turned the aquarium cloudy. The first of these reasons is a precipitation problem. When mixing saltwater for your marine aquarium, it’s important to fill your container with all the water you will need BEFORE adding the salt mix. In other words, if you are mixing up 5 gallons of new saltwater, fill the mixing containing with 5 gallons of water and then add the salt. If you do it the other way around — dump the salt mix in the container and then start filling it with water, the water can become saturated with salt to the point that the calcium precipitates out. This calcium precipitation will turn the water milky and can also lower the pH to dangerous levels if the precipitation keeps occurring during subsequent water changes.

The second reason adding the salt water could have turned the aquarium cloudy is that it may have stirred up some fine sediment from a calcareous substrate. If that’s the case, the mechanical filtration in the aquarium will soon remove the suspended particles and the aquarium will begin to clear as the sediment that was stirred up gets filtered out of the water again.

So wait and see if the aquarium water clears up overnight. If not, if it’s still cloudy the next morning, let us know and we can help you figure out how to make your aquarium crystal clear again.

Here are some more suggestions for mixing your own saltwater and making regular partial water changes in your seahorse setup:

Water Changing Tips

If you find that performing a major water change seems to cause your seahorses distress, try adjusting your water changing schedule so that you are performing smaller water changes more frequently rather than larger water changes less often. For instance, if you have been performing 25%-50% water changes monthly, switch to administering a 10% water changes every week or try making 5% water changes biweekly instead. You’ll find the smaller water changes are much less stressful on the aquarium inhabitants.

Be sure to observe all of the usual water changing precautions as well. For example, it’s an excellent idea to use Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Deionized (DI) or RO/DI water for your changes because it’s much more pure than tap water. However, water purified by such methods is very soft and must be buffered before it’s used so it won’t drop the pH in your aquarium when it’s added.

When mixing saltwater for your marine aquarium, it’s important to fill your container with all the water you will need BEFORE adding the salt mix. In other words, if you are mixing up 5 gallons of new saltwater, fill the mixing containing with 5 gallons of water and then add the salt. If you do it the other way around — dump the salt mix in the container and then start filling it with water, the water can become saturated with salt to the point that the calcium precipitates out. This calcium precipitation will turn the water milky and can also lower the pH to dangerous levels.

Water changes can also sometimes be a problem because of the supersaturation of gases in tap water. Tap water distribution systems are maintained under pressure at all times, both to insure adequate flow and to prevent polluted water from outside the pipes from entering in at leaks. Any additional gas introduced into these pipes (from a leaky manifold, for example) will be dissolved at these higher partial pressures, and will often be supersaturated when it emerges from the tap. Also, gases are more soluble in cold water than warm, so when gas-saturated cold water emerges from the tap and warms up in an aquarium, or is warmed up and preadjusted to aquarium temps prior to making a water change, the water can become supersaturated. This must be avoided at all costs because gas supersaturation is one of the contributing factors that can cause Gas Bubble Syndrome in seahorses and other fish. To prevent this, tap water should be allowed to sit for several days beforehand or gentle aeration can be used to remove gas supersaturation before a water change (just make sure your airstones are not be submerged greater than 18 inches while you’re aerating your freshly mixed water).

There are a few accessories you should keep on hand to make water changing easier: one or more large capacity plastic garbage cans or Rubbermaid vats for mixing up new saltwater; a small powerhead for stirring and circulating the water while it mixes; a submersible heater to adjust the temperature of the newly mixed water; a large diameter siphon hose; a couple of new plastic buckets that hold 3-5 gallons.

First use a clean plastic bucket to fill up the garbage can with 10, 20 or 30 gallons of water or however much you want to mix up at one time. Add the proper amount of artificial salt mix for that much water, and toss your small, cheap powerhead into the garbage can to stir it up. While it’s mixing, put the submersible heater in to adjust the water temp, and add dechlorinator or detox if using tap water (if using reverse osmosis deionized water, or another softened source, be sure to add a pH buffer to the new water). Let the new batch of water mix, aerate, and stabilize for 24-48 hours before you perform the water change and check to make sure the temperature and pH of the new water matches your aquarium. Some artificial salt mixes produce residual amounts of ammonia when newly mixed; aerating the freshly mixed saltwater for 24-48 hours will dissipate and remaining traces of chlorine or ammonia.

If you follow the steps outlined above when mixing up new saltwater prior to performing a water change, the water cannot become saturated with salts, the calcium will not precipitate out, the newly mixed saltwater will be crystal clear and the water exchange should go smoothly.

Regarding your previous post which was edited, hobby, you should leave the mechanical and biological filtration media in place while your TruVu Aquasystem cycles. But it’s best to remove chemical filtration media, such as Chemi-Pure, Polyfilter Pads (by PolyBioMarine, Inc.), and activated carbon while the nitrogen cycle is being established in a new aquarium. This is because you want a nice high ammonia spike followed by a nitrate spike to start the nitrogen cycle, and it is counterproductive to use chemical filtration media that will absorb our remove nitrogenous wastes while the aquarium cycles. That’s also why it’s important not to operate a protein skimmer until after a new aquarium has finished cycling and the biological filtration is fully established.

So, while you want to avoid adding chemical filtration media to the aquarium filter until after the aquarium has finished cycling, by all means leave the mechanical filtration and the biological filtration media (e.g., bioballs, ceramic rings or cylinders, bio stars, sponge filters, etc.) in place so that they can serve as a substrate for a large population of the beneficial nitrifying bacteria that carry out the nitrogen cycle.

Best of luck preparing your new aquarium for seahorses!

Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna

Dear hobby:

Okay, since this is a new aquarium that you just filled with saltwater, very likely it simply needs a little longer for the salt mix to dissolve thoroughly and the precipitation to settle out.

First things first — it may well be that the aquarium is not actually as cloudy as it appears. You may have fine sediment or calcium precipitates that have settled on the viewing surfaces of the aquarium, and this filmy coating may be causing the apparent cloudiness. The actual aquarium water itself could be quite clear. To determine if this is the case, try cleaning the aquarium glass or acrylic on the inside of the tank. If it’s an acrylic aquarium, be sure your cleaning magnets or cleaning pad are designed for use with acrylic so they they will not cause any scratches, and be very careful when you’re cleaning near the substrate so that no sand grains or bits of gravel get trapped between me cleaning surface and the front or side of the tank, which could leave scratches.

If the glass/acrylic viewing surfaces are clean on the inside and out, yet the aquarium still appears cloudy, then I would recommend inserting a mechanical filtration pad on top of the drip tray in the wet/dry filter or external filter, as the case may be, in order to filter out fine sediment and suspended particulates from the aquarium water. Just go to your LFS and ask for a micron filter pad to provide mechanical filtration. It will come in a large sheet that you can cut to fit the drip tray or filter box on your external filter. The filter pad should begin clearing the aquarium rapidly if the problem is due to suspended sediments or fine particulates, and the aquarium should be noticeably clearer within a few hours. By this time tomorrow, it should be crystal clear if any kind of suspended particles or sediments were causing the cloudiness. Filter pads that are fine enough to provide micron filtration and "polish" the water become clogged quickly, so remove the filter pad after a few days so that the dirty/clogged pad does not restrict the water flow through your filter or cause an overflow that bypasses the wet/dry trickle compartment.

If cleaning the viewing surfaces of the aquarium, inside and out, and the micron mechanical filtration pad do not clear up your aquarium within 24 hours, report back again at that time, and there are other measures we can pursue. If those measures do clear up the cloudy water problem, then just prepare the saltwater properly for your subsequent water changes and you should have no further problems along those lines.

Best of luck getting the water in your tank crystal clear again and preparing your new aquarium for seahorses!

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna

Dear hobby:

Okay, that’s cool — it’s important to take all the time you need when setting up a new aquarium so that you are comfortable with the process and know that everything is progressing according to plan.

It’s customary to add the substrate and rockwork to a new aquarium before it is entirely filled with water because the sand and rocks, etc., will displace a considerable amount of the water and you don’t want your tank to overflow. But you can simply remove a portion of the saltwater when you’re ready to add the substrate and rockwork, so that’s not really an obstacle at all.

If the new aquarium is filled with freshly mixed saltwater, do you have the pumps and filters operating to circulate the water? If not, I would expect the cloudy water to clear up once you turn on or plug-in the pumps and the filtration equipment begins to circulate and filter the water. That will help to dissolve the salt mix more thoroughly and remove any fine particular matter or suspended particles.

Keep the viewing surfaces of the aquarium clean and keep the newly mixed saltwater circulating throughout the filtration system, and the water should be crystal clear before you know it.

Good luck and keep us updated on the progress of the cloudy tank.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna

Dear hobby:

Okay, it sounds like the cloudiness may already be improving a bit on its own. The reason the aquarium no longer looks cloudy when you view it from the front is that the aquarium is longer than its wide, so when you look at it from the front, you’re looking through a smaller volume of water and there isn’t enough fine suspended matter in that shorter distance from front to back to make a big difference. But when you look at the aquarium from the end, and you are looking through the entire length of the tank, there are enough suspended particles to make the tank appear cloudy. That’s not uncommon with the tank that has just been set up, and I wouldn’t be too concerned about a small degree of cloudiness at this point. That’s a fairly common phenomena with new aquariums that haven’t yet cycled.

I would go ahead and add your live sand and precycled rockwork to the tank at this point. It may make the aquarium even more cloudy momentarily, since some fine sediments are bound to be released in stirred up from the gravel and rock, but it will be very good for your tank in the long run. You want to add the live sand and precycled live rock straightaway because the beneficial bacteria contained contained within the live sand and the precycled rock will greatly accelerate the cycling process and provide the aquarium with some instant biological filtration ability. Just make sure that your aquarium doesn’t overflow when you add the precycled rock and the substrate. You’ll have to turn off the pumps and filters temporarily, remove some of the salt water from the aquarium (a volume of water that’s approximately equal to the amount of water the substrate and rocks will displace), and then add the live sand or substrate, positioning the rockwork to form attractive arrangements that are securely anchored by the way they fit together, rather than feeling rickety or at risk of collapse. You could also add any artificial decorations at this time as well.

Once the sand, rockwork, and decorations are in place, top off the tank with some of the saltwater you removed to adjust the water level to the proper point, and then restart the pumps and filters. Don’t be alarmed if the aquarium turns a bit murky or cloudy when the live sand or substrate is added. It’s normal for some fine sediments and particulate matter to be stirred up and released when you’re adding the rockwork and live sand, but the aquarium should clear gradually over the next several days all on its own as these particles settle out or are removed by the mechanical filtration in the aquarium.

At this point, I should also mention that your Polyfilter Pad is designed for chemical filtration, not mechanical filtration. The Polyfilter Pads by Poly-Bio Marine Inc. are wonderful for a saltwater aquarium that has completed the cycling process, but they are counterproductive in the newly set up aquarium that has not yet completed the nitrogen cycle. So I would also suggest shopping for some micron filter pads to provide outstanding mechanical filtration the next time you stop by the fish store, such as the following, to be used if the aquarium does not clear up on its own a few days after the substrate and rockwork are added:

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Micron Filter Pads

Water sparkles clean and crystal clear with Pure Flow Filter Pads. These sanitized, polyester pads are interwoven with nylon fibers, making them durable, reusable, and highly effective. They trap debris and small particles in both fresh and saltwater to prevent the clogging of biological filter media. Can be cut to fit any mechanical filter.
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You’ll want to cut the micron filter pad so that it’s the right size to fit in the drip tray for your wet/dry filter. It will do a fine job of removing any fine sediments or fine particulate matter that suspended in the water column after you add the sand substrate and rockwork, if the tank doesn’t clear up on its own after a few days.. But a micron filter pad will clog up quickly, so be sure to remove it after a few days when the water has cleared up so that it doesn’t restrict the water flow to the filtration system or cause the drip tray overflow and bypass the trickle filter.

In short, you’ll want to remove the Polyfilter Pad until after the aquarium has cycled, and replace it with one of the micron-size filter pads such as the Pure Flow Filter Pads to clear up the cloudy aquarium water if need be a few days after you add the substrate and rocks.

Then you can return the Polyfilter Pad to provide chemical filtration for your aquarium after it has completed the cycling process and the biological filtration is fully established.

If necessary, you could also use a water clarifier, providing the tank does not clear up on its own after several days. Just pick up a water clarifier that is designed for use with saltwater aquariums at your LFS, such as Kent Marine Pro-Clear Saltwater Aquarium Water Clarifier. Be careful not just to grab any old water clarifier, however — many of them are designed to work in freshwater only and are not safe to use in a marine aquarium.

These products typically work by causing very fine suspended particles to flocculate or clump together so that they either settle out or are more easily filtered out, and are designed for clearing up cloudy water in an aquarium, but make sure you get one that’s designed for saltwater, not freshwater!

But that’s just to have on hand in case it’s needed. Right now the thing to do is to put your live sand and precycled rockwork in place, because those are going to make the aquarium cloudy temporarily anyway, and then see if the tank doesn’t clear up on its own over a period of days.

Best of luck preparing your new aquarium for cycling and making it crystal clear in the process!

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna