Cloudy Water/ Sick Tank

Help. I trust the knowledge here. Overnight my water went from crystal clear to milky white. I did a 10% change and while it is better it is still slighty milky white. My snails (turbo & margarita) are not doing well. They keep retracting 90% of thier foot into the shell and holding on by a thread. I think I might have mag poisoned them. I was dosing mag because it was in the low 1100's. It was able to top out at 1280. My parameter are as follows: Ammo ~ 0.0, Nitrite ~ 0.0, Nitrate ~0,2, phos ~ 0.0, Alk ~ 11, Cal ~ 430, Salinty ~ 1.026, temp 78. I have three koralie powerheads, remora pro, biowheel 350, 1" live sand and 60lbs of live rock. One clown, one yellow tail blue tang, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner, 5 mexican red legs, 4 & 1/2 margarites , 2 & 1/2 turbos , and a couple of small rocks of mushrooms and a nice torch soft coral. I also had a massive algae bloom. I'm assuming I kicked a bloom by overfeeding but my snails are sick and not keeping up> I am lost on which way to go. If it is a bloom why low phos? please help, I have $250 of stock I dont want to loose. My tank is about three months old an I have never added anything to the bio load that I didn't give at least a week to balance. Help, I think time is limited!!

 

I would do a 15% waterchange at least, sounds like something funny is going on, also what did you use to raise the mag level?

 

Salifert liquid Mag. It was close to 15%, I forgot to mention my tank is a 55gal. I changed out 7 &1/2 gallons.

 

Help!!??!!

 

30 views and no other suggestions. Come on people help me out, please!

 

The only thing you can do is to keep doing water changes. What kind of test kit are you using for Alk? You are at 11 and if your test kit is a little off you could be in the higher ranges which is very dangerous for your tank.

If you have an algae bloom you have nitrates and phosphates. The algae is using the nutrients to live which can make your tests show little or no traces of these elements even when you have a lot.

Are you using ro/di water for your changes? I would make sure my new water is proper salinity and temp and do a larger water change 30-50% or do several smaller ones within the next 2 or 3 days.

If you added a lot of mag all at once and your alk is high (which it probably is) you can cause your water to get cloudy.

You may lose your snails.

Are you adding anything else to your tank?

 

Water changes and run carbon if you can. The algae bloom was probably just part of the cycling and treaitng it maybe doing worse then letting it run its course. Watch your temp and salinity when you do it so you don't add to the stress. Make sure it is close to the tanks, 1.026?

BTW I don't think that a week is enough time to let your bioload adjust, that maybe enough time for the first bacteria to adjust but your nitites are going to spike too.

 

I have checked my reading every day since my tanks inception and tracked in a notebook. I have zoro ammo, phos and nitrites for well over a month and a half. The tank looks better but still slighly hazy. I truely think I might have started a calcium precip but I am unsure because I have never seen one before. I think the excess algae is due to my snail being poisoned and not tending house.
I was routinely adding two part B-Ionic and my tank would't raise in calcium. That was when I learned that Mag is important to raise the calcium. My alk has always been on the upper end of 11 to 12. I then supplemented that with Seachem calcium witout the alk suppliment. When the murky water started my alk dropped to 10. Good news is a few of the snail were grazing after the water change and my nitrates are now less than 5. Should I do another change or monitor. I am using distilled water not tap. I havent even had a chance to hook up my reef master typhoon from airwaterice...Grrr

 

It is. I check the salinty from the LFS bag to get a feel for how much acclimation time I need based on the salinty diff to my tank. I drip a min of 1 up to 2 hours.

 

Back to back water changes with smaller amounts is much more effective then large changes...

I would also pump some air into that distilled water mix you are using...

Tank may be oxygen starved for period right after water changes, resulting in dieoff...:-/

Good luck...