Brown Cloudy/dust Water

[Amunet]

Posted this in the plant section but might as well here as well.

I did a water change yesterday in my tank. Nothing unusual. The water has been slightly cloudy/milky b/c of some recent med dosing and frequent water changes, but everything was fine.
Did about a 40% water change yesterday, dosed w/ my usual dissolved dry plant ferts and that was it (along w/ dechlorinator of course).
Wake up today to find the tank brown and this brown dust ALL over the plants that I could actually see.

I at first thought it was just some freak brown algae outbreak, but I shook around the floating plants and all of the brown stuff came off of it and in to the water, coloring it even darker.

I thought maybe this was caused by me dosing iron chelate, but it was only about a teaspoon worth (in a 125g tank) which from what I've read, shouldn't have been too much. I've dosed iron before, and this has never happened.


So yeah, what the heck is going on?

Here are 2 photos of the tank.
This is AFTER a 50% water change today. It actually looks worse now. Keep in mind the flash actually makes it look better than it does. You can barely see the fish when you look at the tank.

And a view of the floating plants. They don't have as much of the brown dust stuff on them now, but still have a little. You can also see on the left side just how cloudy and murky the water really is.

I'm obviously keeping an eye on water perims and have for a while now and they've stayed nice and steady.
So... *shrugs*

This doesn't seem to be bothering the fish as far as I can tell, but we all know how that can change quickly.

Oh and the water also has a weird almost ocean salty smell to it.

Any ideas on what this could be would be nice. I know it's not that the filter needs to be cleaned b/c I just cleaned it last month.
I'll continue to do daily water changes if I have to if this doesn't clear on its own.

 

[Athena]

The only time I have had a tank go like that was when I was cleaning out a Juwel tank that had one of those built-in filter units which I used to do cleanr (the filter) roughly every 3-4 weeks - I pulled up the rack of sponges but they slipped from my hand and all fell into the water...releasing all the filter gunk and debris. The result was just how your tank looks. Could barely see the fish and everything was covered in brown stuff. I had to do large water changes and gravel vacs for several days to clear it. The fish survived, thankfully.

As you obviously haven't had a similar accident with your filter (is yours external?) I really don't know what to say as to the cause of yours. Unless there was some kind of filter malfunction when you'd finished doing your maintenance after the filter being switched off for a while?

Sorry, wish I could help!

Athena

 

[fidjet2]

Your siggie-

125 gallon:1 julii 3 skunk 1 panda cory, 6 hybrid rainbowfish, 1 BGK, 3 tiger barb, 3 albino tiger barb, 1 green tiger barb, 2 platinum tiger barb, 1 sailfin pleco, 7 clown loaches, 2 odessa barb, 4 giant danio

I know this is off topic, but cory's of all type are shoaling fish. they should be kept in groups of 6+
sorry if you have more than it says in your siggie
not sure about whats wrong witht he water sorry

 

[colleen0309]

What substrate are you using? The only time my tank looked like that was when I used dirt topped with gravel or sand. I had some fish uproot my plants and release the dirt into the water column.

 

[fishyfeet]

have you stirred up the substrate, id do a series of water changes, say 30% a day it should clear in a few days, i think it may be diatoms, di