Tank went cloudy in minutes and was clear again within hours?

[kchristensen8064]

Good morning! Has anyone else experienced something like this? Last night, I was sitting by my aquarium, and the water was crystal clear. Then, within minutes, it turned a milky white.

I checked all the equipment and ran water tests, but everything was normal—right where it usually is. All the fish were accounted for, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Rather than panicking, I decided to wait it out, as overreacting often creates more issues than it solves.

This started around 9 PM, and by midnight, the water was crystal clear again. My first thought was a bacterial bloom, but I couldn’t figure out what might have caused it. I run a bare-bottom tank, so there’s no sand bed to stir up. My feeding routine hasn’t changed in months, and all the livestock were fine.

My second thought was maybe something spawned, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that either. Everything is back to normal now, and the fish and corals are happy and healthy.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I always thought bacterial blooms took longer to clear up, so I’m not sure if that’s what it was.

 

[Subsea]

Good morning! Has anyone else experienced something like this? Last night, I was sitting by my aquarium, and the water was crystal clear. Then, within minutes, it turned a milky white.

I checked all the equipment and ran water tests, but everything was normal—right where it usually is. All the fish were accounted for, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Rather than panicking, I decided to wait it out, as overreacting often creates more issues than it solves.

This started around 9 PM, and by midnight, the water was crystal clear again. My first thought was a bacterial bloom, but I couldn’t figure out what might have caused it. I run a bare-bottom tank, so there’s no sand bed to stir up. My feeding routine hasn’t changed in months, and all the livestock were fine.

My second thought was maybe something spawned, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that either. Everything is back to normal now, and the fish and corals are happy and healthy.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I always thought bacterial blooms took longer to clear up, so I’m not sure if that’s what it was.

Any urchins in your system?

 

[lombeard]

Could very well be snails spawning if nothing appears out of whack.

 

[kchristensen8064]

Good morning! Has anyone else experienced something like this? Last night, I was sitting by my aquarium, and the water was crystal clear. Then, within minutes, it turned a milky white.

I checked all the equipment and ran water tests, but everything was normal—right where it usually is. All the fish were accounted for, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Rather than panicking, I decided to wait it out, as overreacting often creates more issues than it solves.

This started around 9 PM, and by midnight, the water was crystal clear again. My first thought was a bacterial bloom, but I couldn’t figure out what might have caused it. I run a bare-bottom tank, so there’s no sand bed to stir up. My feeding routine hasn’t changed in months, and all the livestock were fine.

My second thought was maybe something spawned, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that either. Everything is back to normal now, and the fish and corals are happy and healthy.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I always thought bacterial blooms took longer to clear up, so I’m not sure if that’s what it was.

Any urchins in your system?

I do have one urchin, it was accounted for during the event. Is your thought that maybe it had spawned?

 

[kchristensen8064]

Could very well be snails spawning if nothing appears out of whack.

Nothing is out of wack, snails was one of my many thoughts as well. I have 1 huge Turbo snail, that took me a while to find so I thought that maybe it had croaked and caused a bacterial bloom. But eventually located it and it was fine.

 

[Subsea]

I do have one urchin, it was accounted for during the event. Is your thought that maybe it had spawned?

Russ Kronwetter, diver owner of liveplants, sells urchins to academia R&D and he told me that one spawning urchin will cloud up a 55G tank in a heartbeat.

I have seen peppermint shrimp spawn, but one shrimp does not cloud up a tank. Corals can spawn sexually. Is your system mature enough to do that?

 

[kchristensen8064]

I do have one urchin, it was accounted for during the event. Is your thought that maybe it had spawned?

Russ Kronwetter, diver owner of liveplants, sells urchins to academia R&D and he told me that one spawning urchin will cloud up a 55G tank in a heartbeat.

My tank is 120 gallons, but for it to come and go so quickly, I'm struggling with it being a bacterial bloom. So that very well could have been it.

 

[Subsea]

My tank is 120 gallons, but for it to come and go so quickly, I'm struggling with it being a bacterial bloom. So that very well could have been it.

If your system biofiltration was mature enough to clear the cloudy water in a few hours with no mediation on your part: kudos to your biofilter. I don’t think it was a bacteria bloom either.

 

[kchristensen8064]

My tank is 120 gallons, but for it to come and go so quickly, I'm struggling with it being a bacterial bloom. So that very well could have been it.

If your system biofiltration was mature enough to clear the cloudy water in a few hours with no mediation on your part: kudos to your biofilter. I don’t think it was a bacteria bloom either.

Tank is 4 years old, so hopefully my bio filtration is matured. Other than a couple of water tests and just accounting for everything, I did not intervene. I'm just glad whatever it was, cleared itself up quickly, and no harm done other than a slightly elevated heart rate for a little bit.