Cloudy Water-Help

My water has been cloudy for almost 2 weeks now. Especially frustrating since I now have a carbon/GFO reactor going and nothing has changed. The system is almost 3 months old. Current livestock includes assorted snails & hermits, emerald crab, coral banded shrimp (1 week) and a tiger spot goby (1 week).

I've come up with 3 possibilities, but seeking more experienced advice.

1) some sort of algae bloom, tank is just going through a stage

2) the goby's sand sifting is getting fine particles suspended in the water column (using fiji pink sand)

3) the carbon is being ground up due to the flow in the reactor; I'm currently running it mixed w/the GFO per BRS; I can see a few of the carbon particles moving around, but not enough where I thought it would be a problem


My parameters...

PPT: 1.022 (dropped a bit trying to dial in my ATO, slowly bringing it up)

API
NO2: 0-5
PO4: 0

Red Sea
CAL: 425
MAG: 1340
ALK: 10.6

Thanks for any help!

 

Can you post an image please?

Do you run any mechanical filtration like floss, sponge or sock?

Does it appear as a green tinge, white tinge?

Does the water smell?

 

Not sure how much these pics will help, still trying to figure out how to shoot under the LEDs.

Been using a filter sock, but took it out 2 days ago.

It's definitely a white cloudiness.

No smell at all, at least that I can detect.

 

Probably should also note that I dosed some phytoplankton (3mL) a few days ago since my system is still so nutrient low.

 

Thank you for the image, it actually always helps and those are not bad images at all.

My tank typically had cloudy silt look to it when I had a sand sifting Goby. The fish may just be stirring up the fine particles. Was it cloudy prior to the addition of the Goby?

The tank is only 3 months old and I imagine there is still a significant amount of fine particles unless you aggressively rinsed the sand prior to adding it to the tank.

I would continue to use the sock.

I am going to assume you have wiped down the interior walls of the tank with a mag float?

 

I was leaning towards the goby at first too, but he's micro...maybe 2" at best. I had a tiger goby in my previous tank that was 3x the size and never had any issues with cloudiness. However, I wasn't running a vortech....those things really do pull and move the entire water volume.

The water has been cloudy in the past, but has cleared up. Likely algae blooms for those situations. Yes, it was a bit cloudy before the goby, then it got worse after adding him, now there aren't visible particles flying around, but still cloudy.

No, I didn't rinse the sand...it said not too:/ I understand that the fines need to settle and/or be removed, however like I said the water has been clear.

Yup, mag float in steady use

 

I had same issue with a goby. Tank was clear, added sand sifting goby it took about week to clear up. With that came nice bright clean sand. I would give it a couple days.

 

That's promising news, thanks!

 

So one of my mushrooms got ripped a couple weeks ago and began to wither away. I took it out but just noticed a peice down in my sump in b/w the rock. Could this be contributing? It looks like just a melty goo at this point....