# Smoke and foggy tank



## leolucido (May 23, 2008)

Help! I'm still waiting for my pressurized system to come in. For now I have a DIY connected to a CO2 reactor with bioballs inside. I mixed a new batch of CO2 last night and when I checked the tank past midnight, the water was cloudy white. I have a check valve connected to the set-up and I checked the PH last night and this morning and it was still the same 7.6 (LA has hard-water galore). I left the lights on all night to provide photosynthesis and avoid any PH rises. I checked the tank this morning and the water seemed a little clearer.

Last week, when the mixture was running out I shaked the container and after a series of bubbles came out, white smoke came out of the reactor too. The smoke didn't seem to affect the PH and went away afterwards. 

I'm at work right now and worried if the CO2 cloud might kill my livestock when I get home tonight. The lights are still on. 

Are these signs of C02 dumping? 
Is this something that can happen with pressurized CO2 also?


----------



## bgzbgz (Jul 6, 2007)

When you use diy co2 the yeast releases some cloudiness. However this doesnt necessarily mean that your cloudiness came from the yeast. Its more likely a bloom of green water or bacteria.


----------



## leolucido (May 23, 2008)

bgzbgz said:


> When you use diy co2 the yeast releases some cloudiness. However this doesnt necessarily mean that your cloudiness came from the yeast. Its more likely a bloom of green water or bacteria.


thanks, is the bloom or GW harmful to the fish and plants? I am dosing PMDD daily along with the CO2 and the light? I looked at the other forums. And it seems that the willow method and UV methods work but there aren't an abundance of willows here in LA and quite honestly my budget is shot right now due to the still arrriving CO2 system.


----------



## aquaphish (Jan 22, 2005)

Green Water can diminish the oxigen a bit but will not be to the extent to do harm to your fish and plants. 

I would suggest if you don't want to spend $$ is to do a black out in your tank. What you need to do first is to turn out the lights because that only adds to the increase of green water. Then do a 50% water change. After that if you are adding ferts add them at your set amount you usually do. Then comes the black out period which should be about 3 days. Place a towel or two to completely cover your tank so NO light gets to the water. Remember to keep the lights off during this time. You may want to feed your fish before you cover up everything. After the 3 days you should be cleared up when you remove the towel.

To help prevent green water returning you should start if you are not doing already a regular fert. schedule and 25-50% water changes weekly. Also make sure you are cleaning out your filter often.


----------



## bgzbgz (Jul 6, 2007)

I think my fish actually liked my gw way back when I had it, but obviously it will block out light from your plants when it gets worse. Not to mention it will get pretty annoying when it gets to the point where you cant see inside your tank anymore. The blackout method never worked for me and even if it will for you the algae will probalbly come back eventually. *IF* this really is green water I believe you will want to get a UV sterilzer at some point.

Also my tank gets cloudy when I feed cucumbers to Plecos and Ottos. Also my golfish tank gets cloudy when the carbon in my filter gets clogged up or too old (this causes a bacteria bloom).


----------



## jmontee (Feb 7, 2008)

DIY yeast CO2 is cloudy inside the yeast bottle. What you have is some of the liquid from inside the yeast reaction chamber getting into your tank. That is the cloudiness that you saw coming out when you shook the chamber (yeast, water, sugar and alcohol.) It isn't smoke or gas coming out as this would have come out in gas, formed a bubble and gone straight to the top of the tank. You need to be careful of how high you are filling the yeast bottle and do a couple of big water changes to remove the cloudiness and yeast. 

I would imagine that you do not have GW as this is really green and you would be able to tell. Hoiw long has this tank been going, some of the cloudiness can also come from the natural bacterial cycling process. There are several types of bacteria that need to get going in the tank and one of them starts out in the water column giving a whitish cloudy look to the tank. You can sometimes have a bacterial die off and the tank does a fresh cycling which will allow for your ammonia and nitrites to go up again. Keep an eye on your fish and watch for any signs of toxicity. Make sure you are changing water regularly.


----------

