[IbnOzn]

Hello,

What would case my water to become more milky/hazy during my photoperiod? The water starts out very clear in the morning but as the day progresses the tank gets hazy before the plants begin pearling. It's a 20G with 25-30 ppm of pressurized CO2 running on a timer so it turns on 1hr before the light which is a 70W HQI. NO3 is around 15-20ppm, PO4 around 1.0 ppm. I use a slightly modified PPS Pro mix with more phosphate to keep it in the right range. Substrate is flourite in the planted portion that covers around 80% of the bottom and a mix of aragonite and onyx sand in the other 20% of the tank. It gets 30% weekly water changes.
It's home to Lamprologus Meleagris if anyone is curious.
Any ideas? At first I thought it was the CO2 dissolving the aragonite but then I read somewhere it had to do with iron levels?

Thanks!

 

[chagovatoloco]

From my experience it is usually green water algae that causes it to appear foggy during the photo period. It is light reflecting off of the algae that makes it appear. How long is you photo period? If every thing is in line this algae will go in time.

 

[IbnOzn]

Thanks for the reply. I guess that's possible but I forgot to mention that I have a UV sterilizer on the tank and this has been going on for several months. When the lights come on every day the water is crystal clear. The photoperiod is 8 or 9 hours and it takes an hour or two for the haziness to develop. I've also been dosing Excel lately to k.o. some BBA and it gets just as hazy as before I started treating the tank. Would you still think it's algae then?

 

[HeyPK]

It is probably a precipitate that forms as the plants remove CO2 from the water and the pH goes up. If you have a lot of phosphate in the water, the precipitate could be calcium phosphate. Check your pH at the beginning of the day when the water is clear, and then again when the water gets cloudy.

 

[chagovatoloco]

That is a lot of light for the long photo period. I have read what other say talking about 8-10 hours but for me this did not prove to be true. When I had my main tank at 4wpg I could not keep that algae at bay. I cut down to a four hour photo period and there was a night and day difference. Plants will grow and thrive with a 6 hour photo period, I have done this my self.