The danger of false security - please advise

[dnjan]

That should be sufficient flow!

Not sure I necessarily agree. With an almost 50% addition in live rock, there was undoubtedly an increase in "dead spots" with respect to flow. These dead spots are probably accumulating detritus from those large detritus-producers mentioned earlier. I don't mean to discount the effects of dyoff from the new rock, but the decomposing detritus is probably contributing organics that are feeding the HA.
(was the tank always low pH, or just recently? the reason I ask is that organic acids, which would lower pH, are intermediate steps in the oxidation of organic waste)

Also a couple of questions about the sandbed removal. First - how deep was the sandbed initially?
And Second - did you remove half from one end of the tank (no change in depth of sandbed in the other half of the tank), or did you take out the top half all over?

 

[jesshimom]

Hey Shauna!!!

In my little fishless opinion it's the sand. You said you removed half; and everything went south after that. You should have left the sand intact wihtout bothering it or removed it all. That's my vote.

 

[Chad W]

I've just skimmed through some of the advice so I don't know how much of my advice is just being restated but IMO... I would add as much flow as you can to try and get the detritus suspended so it can be skimmed out. suck out any accumulated pools of detritus when you do WC's. You can also do this w/ a piece of tubeing and a filter sock or filter bag. Start a siphon and suck out anything you see and run it through a filter sock/bag before it returns back into the sump. Probably a good 2 person job if you have no way of attaching the tube to the sump/sock. As you do this suck out the hair algae....Set the skimmer to run wet...watch the salinity of the tank....run some Rowaphos or comparable phosphate media. I would start at half recommended dosage at first.

I read someone above recommending to get water chemistry right. I would agree. As they said easyest way to do that is w/ WC's as they said. Everything must be in balance...Kh,Ca,Mg. Alot of salts genereally are around 8dkh,420ish Ca, and 1200-1250Mg.

Do you have good flow across the top of the tank to help in gas exchange? May help w/Ph.

JMO,

Chad

 

[SaltyTemple]

Hey Shauna!!!

In my little fishless opinion it's the sand. You said you removed half; and everything went south after that. You should have left the sand intact wihtout bothering it or removed it all. That's my vote.

Hey Colleen,

Thanks for the note - we were having issues prior to the sand removal - in fact, I recieved the advice that my sand was saturated (sigh, seems not so much now eh?) but 20/20 hindsight is valid

You make a good point though - how can one be sure that the steps one takes to recify a problem won't make it horribly worse?

 

[SaltyTemple]

I've just skimmed through some of the advice so I don't know how much of my advice is just being restated but IMO... I would add as much flow as you can to try and get the detritus suspended so it can be skimmed out. suck out any accumulated pools of detritus when you do WC's. You can also do this w/ a piece of tubeing and a filter sock or filter bag. Start a siphon and suck out anything you see and run it through a filter sock/bag before it returns back into the sump. Probably a good 2 person job if you have no way of attaching the tube to the sump/sock. As you do this suck out the hair algae....Set the skimmer to run wet...watch the salinity of the tank....run some Rowaphos or comparable phosphate media. I would start at half recommended dosage at first.

GREAT idea - I will enlist hubby to do this as we remove the 40 gallons during our water change this weekend.

I read someone above recommending to get water chemistry right. I would agree. As they said easyest way to do that is w/ WC's as they said. Everything must be in balance...Kh,Ca,Mg. Alot of salts genereally are around 8dkh,420ish Ca, and 1200-1250Mg..

Yes, the water chemistry is a big impact I imagine - I intend to do a 40 gallon change this weekend and every weekend until I get this under control with the NEW RO/DI media... I use great salt so that should assist with the levels - I also have a CA reactor to assist with my low levels which I hadn't been using (No time to dial it in, but that's going to happen as well)

Do you have good flow across the top of the tank to help in gas exchange? May help w/Ph.

we have fans running over the top of the water to cool the halides and also have the sea swirl breaching the surface tension somewhat. good thought!

 

[SaltyTemple]

*Update*

I changed out all of the RO/DI media and YIKES! I think I found my problem! It was pretty horrible in there! I have since done consecutive 20 gallon water changes each weekend (3 times) and will be doing another one today. It seems that the hair is slowing down. I've got a bit of cyano on the substrate, but nothing overwhelming today. I'm seeing some improvement, but am not holding my breath as yet

My levels are improving slightly - I think that the CaReactor and water changes are a large part of that...

 

[dnjan]

Glad you found the problem.

You might want to get a TDS meter. They don't coat that much, and it is a good way to check whether your RO/DI unit is still functioning properly.

 

[SaltyTemple]

That's the oddest thing, I have one! It was showing .03 and I thought that it was fine - I think that it was spewing something I didn't have a kit for as I ran all that I had at it and it seemed fine!

 

[dnjan]

What are the units? Mine reads integers, not decimals, and the units are ppm.