Jump to content

Cloudy water, crazy skimmer


Recommended Posts

For the past 4 days my 29g all in one has been so cloudy I can barely see the fish and the skimmer has been going nuts. This tank has been running for 5 years and I haven't made any changes recently either. The inhabitants are 2 snowflake ocellaris, a pistol shrimp, and some zoas. It's fed by an auto feeder so nothing has changed there either. I thought it would back off after a day or 2 but it came back with a vengeance today. The skimmate is productive, too. Like it's dark if it collects in the cup rather than blowing out. Any ideas? I'm going to do some water changes to see if it helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update: The tank got even cloudier, I got a bucket of water ready to go for the change and found 2 things I've never seen. There are these tiny white worms all over the place, the largest one isn't even a half inch long and they are everywhere. Also, I originally thought the cloudiness was from the skimmer bubbles going nuts and putting microbubbles in the tank, but when I went to change out the filter floss in the back (it's an all in 1 tank) I found that everything is covered in a thick clear slime, almost like mucus. It's all over everything and I can't even see if my clowns made it. I'll try to post a pic of one of the worms later. I've been in this hobby for almost 12 years and have never seen this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I may have figured it out. I found people posting that alcohol causes bacterial white slime to grow. My brother and I have been building a couple things in the garage and finishing them with an alcohol based product that puts a lot of the vapor into the air. The timing works out, unfortunately it may have killed the tank.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly it appears that the worms were just normal scavengers that were trying to get out of the slime coated rock/sand. Now even they are gone. Can confirm at least one dead clown, still can't see in tank to check the other one, the pistol shrimp or any zoas due to how thick it is. This is after performing a water change. It's to the point where any surface that may agitate a little is acting like a skimmer and foaming up. It appears that I have a total tank crash and there will be no survivors. I'll break it down for a while and remodel the room where I plan on housing the in-wall 300 gallon tank I plan on building. I may clean it out and run some frags to sell to help fund the big tank.

Edited by dmits41
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sucks. It’s cool you found what the possible culprit is and shared it. Could help out someone on the future. 

I’m not as careful as I probably should be with my tank, but stories like this should make us all take a step back and think. One little thing, not even related to the hobby, can take down all our hard work. 

Let me know when you back up and running. If I have anything you want I’ll donate some frags. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to help anyone avoid this in their tank, the product I used was shellac. I am building a sliding barn style door for my living room out of cedar and found out that I am allergic to it. Shellac is commonly used as a sealer for cedar so I used a few coats of it. It's alcohol based and the garage smelled like cheap vodka for days. This must have fed the bacteria that took off. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...