Ongoing cloudy water

I woke up one day to cloudy white water. Checked my parameters, all normal. Everything that should be at zero was, Nitrates a little below 10, Alkalinity 9, pH 8.0, calcium 540 (always has been this high). Did a water change, didn't help at all. Ran carbon the whole time this was going on as well. It did not go away until five days later. My fish, crabs, and snails seemed unaffected. My soft corals didn't seem too happy, and never really opened up. My xenia stopped pulsing when it finally opened up a little bit.

My LPS didn't do too well. They didn't really open up and seemed to be discharging this white substance, like they were shedding. I moved them to a QT tank but they didn't pull through. It was like whatever was in my tank dissolved their flesh and left nothing but their stony skeletons behind. The only LPS that survived was my open brain.

Now my water is getting cloudy again and I don't know what it is or what to do. I did a 30% water change with my new salt brand, Reef Crystals, did nothing. My parameters are all normal and my nitrates are actually at 0 now due to my chaeto kicking in.

My previous cloudiness was white. This time around it started out white and now it just looks murky, dirty like. None of my livestock seem affected and the corals that remain in my tank are doing great. All open up completely and my xenia is pulsing again. The cloudiness seems to be slowly getting worse, I don't know what to do.

Attached is a picture of the remains of my torch after the first cloudiness disappeared. The second picture was taken today.

 

What your phosphate levels? thats the only one I dont see up there in the OP that could be part of the problem

 

Phosphates are also at zero and I can't spot any algae growth anywhere that would be sucking them up.

 

sounds like a bacterial bloom to me. you might want to look into some live bacteria, drtims has the stuff called clear up for reefs, thats meant just for white cloudy water.

 

That's what I thought it was before too. I also thought it could be calcium precipitation, but I'm thinking not.

I will order some of that Dr. Tims clarifier and hope it works!

 

Someone asked if I was sure I had chaeto and not caulerpa. I'm positive I have chaeto, but I went in my fuge to inspect it just in case. As I'm digging around I notice some leaves. I eventually pulled my chaeto out and started unwinding to find this stuff weaved inside it. I pulled it all out and put my chaeto back in.

Is this caulerpa that was in with my chaeto?

 

Caulerpa prolifera. If I'm not mistaken that is what you have there. It could have gone sexual which might have caused the cloudy water. With over 80 different species of Caulerpa I could be wrong though. Either way I believe you found your culprit. That would explain you having some Nitrates as well.

 

would the nitrates have elevated if the caulerpa had gone sexual?

 

I edited my post above but yes, it would elevate the nitrates. Not sure what is normal for the tank but he said he had under 10 on nitrates. With the cheato eating nitrates I would have thought maybe it would be closer to 0. Maybe the slight spike in nitrates that was picked up could be from it going sexual.

Added note:
Now that you have taken the culprit out you may notice everything going back to normal slowly. The cheato should eat up the extra stuff that were released in to your water by the caulerpa.

 

Perhaps it is the macro but it was not in my case. I had the same issue- one day my water was extremely cloudy, the next day it was worse. I am very familiar with what a bacterial bloom looks like and this is exactly what it appeared to be. My water was perfectly fine- Ammonia 0, Nitrite- 0, Nitrate ~5, Phosphate- 0, Cal 480 Alk 10... It made no sense to me but looked like a brand new tank going through a bad, bad cycle. I have no fuge on that system so it could not have been related to that. After a while of banging my head against the walll I added a UV sterilizer to the tank and within 24 hours had crystal clear water. Continued checking the parameters and never saw an ammonia spike so I have no idea what the bacteria was feeding on to become so explosive but I am glad it is gone. Bacterial blooms have a very distinctive appearance, basically like smoky water, particles always too small to see with the naked eye. If it does not clear maybe try adding one to the system and see what happens.