Water looks like smoke swirling around

[bcrensel]

I set up a new 175 G tank a couple of weeks ago. My brown bloom started up, got ugly for while. Then it started to looke like smoke swirling around in the water. The water quality is normal. I have some critters in to do clean up and they are not having any problems. Skimmer is working fine. No problems with pumps etc. Only dead rock at this point. Any one have any guesses?
Thanks

 

[c-town]

i had that problem when i set up my 125g, it end up being a ammonia build up, that didn't show up on a test at first. i had a black spot of decay under my sand and had to redo my sand to fix it. so you might want to look under your sand, just to be safe

 

[Anonymous]

bcrensel,
:welcome:

What is your water testing at? Sounds like a normal bacterial bloom to me from the discription.

 

[bcrensel]

Whaich part? Everything is within tolerance except calcium which is a bit low, but not a lot. I talked with a couple of LFS's and they thought it might be bloom related too, but wern't sure.
Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

With a tank as new as yours, when we ask for values we usually mean ammonia, nitrite and nitrate but all test results (SG, pH etc) are helpful.

 

[Len]

Another possibility is a bacterial bloom. This often produces a cloudy white appearance. New tanks go through a lot of these interesting blooms. They should settle down on their own if you're doing everything you're suppose to be.

FWIW, don't add any more critters in the tank right now, including clean-up animals. These should be all added after the tank is fully cycled. A lot of people add clean-up inverts early without realizing that these often are the most sensitive organisms that have to survive the cycle establishment.

 

[bcrensel]

Once the brown bloom went away, the other went about a day later.
Thanks for the help
Bruce