cloudy from calcium?

[tebstan]

Can too much calcium cause cloudy water? (All other parameters are fine.)
If so, what can I do about it? The original water source tests less than 20ppm, but I don't know if that's accurate for non-salt water. Once the salt is mixed, (oceanic) it's reading at around 500ppm. Logically, it doesn't seem changing the water would do a whole lot of good.
It's been cloudy since I last cleaned, Sunday. Calcium is off the charts, somewhere beyond 520. (API test kit) It seems like fog... heavier on the bottom.

[Squiers007]

Have you verified your calcium readings with another test kit? Sounds like your test kit is off. Most salt water mixes will not have a calcium reading of 500 right out of the bag, most are closer to 420 if that. To answer your question though, yes too much calcium can cause your water to be cloudy. The reason it appears cloudy is that the water can no longer hold any more calcium and so some precipitates out of solution. The only way to fix this is to lower your calcium. A lot of times you will see this happen if you have a calcium reactor either pumping too much CO2, or with too high of a drip rate. I would double check your measurements and go from there.

[DSAfanatic]

I had the same thing happen to me a month or so ago. Water changes didn't seem to help much either. From what I gathered on my research, the ionic balance between alk, calcuim, and magnesium is off. Mine cleared up after a few days.

[tebstan]

I changed about 25% today, it looked better right after. But I when I got home from work tonight, it was back to cloudy. I add no supplements, only use the oceanic salt. I was adding purple tech, but that was a few weeks ago. Not sure why now it's suddenly an issue, unless the water source itself fluctuated. The occupants seem totally undisturbed, but it still concerns me.

[stoneroller]

Use a different salt, like ReefCrystals. What are you using for source water? Tap water? You should be using RO/DI for mixing and topping off. How long are you allowing the salt to mix before putting into tank? What's your salinity reading? Also, what are you using for flow? Size of tank, etc.

[rabadanmarco]

i did a water change today with oceanic and i got cloudy water as well...and was using some of that purple tech stuff a few weeks ago....hmmm

i used RO

[tebstan]

I'm still using tap water. RO/DI water is devoid of many trace elements... I don't know enough about what to add to make that jump yet. It's a new tank, only a few months old--no corals, only a few little fish and snails, one shrimp. I'll switch to RO when/if my reading leads me to that conclusion... but for this problem, it shouldn't be a factor. I've been using tap all this time, with religious 15% weekly water changes. No cloudiness until now, and this is not normal 'cycling tank cloudiness.'
I mix the salt water for a few hours before changing. The salinity is pretty steady at 1.022. I have an Aqueon 3 return pump, two Koralia 3s and one Koralia 1. Also, a CoralLife skimmer giving coffee color skimate. I feed from a flatpack, so little I wonder if I'm starving them.

[stoneroller]

Seriously, try a different salt (I banned Oceanic salt because of algal outbreaks) and use RO-DI for any water added to the tank especially since you are doing your water changes so frequently. Are you doing those so frequently in order to remove nitrates? Do you feel your tank has fully cycled? Personally, I can't think of any tests or readings anyone can take that would tell you to switch from tap to RO.

I keep my salinity at a more natural 1.025.

[DSAfanatic]

Water changes won't help the cloudiness. When it happened to me, I did a 50% water change and it helped for a few hours and then it was cloudy again. As hard as it is, just leave it alone and it will clear up in a few days.

And I concur about banning Oceanic and using RO/DI. Don't worry about how much nutrients are in your water right now. If anything, you don't want any because you don't have any corals in your tank to consume the nutrients. Tap water is loaded with phosphates, chlorine, flouride, and other things that dechlorinator won't take out. Trust me. I had a 29g, 40g hex, and a 58g all using tap water and they all had hair algae. Strangely enough, I also used Oceanic back then. I only use Reef Crystals now.

[tebstan]

I'm doing weekly 10-15% because I think the rock was still curing when I got it. I don't feel it's cycled yet, though it's had its algae phases and water tests perfect. (aside from calcium...) It went through the brown algae phase, and then the cyano phase for a few weeks. Now I have very little hair algae, just one tiny tuft on a rock that's almost cute.
I added some purple tech a few times to get some coraline growing. I'll admit, I didn't measure exactly, but I followed the directions otherwise. And that was a few weeks ago. I got the calcium levels up and stopped adding. I didn't take into account that Oceanic salt was adding calcium as well. Why the ban on Oceanic? This is my blunder, not the salt's falt. Any other specifics?

No way I'm switching to RO. Mostly, because I'm five foot tall with a 90 gal and no one to help me. Someday, when the tank is more developed, I might look at getting one of my own, but for now it's not worth the trouble. My tap reads no phosphates, I use dechlorinator, and I don't believe there's much flouride added to be of danger to what I'm keeping right now. I kept discus and such in tap, and did fine. RO is just as finicky as tap - the quality is not the same every time, every place. The only sure benefit I've seen to RO tanks is reduced algae, and I don't have an algae problem.