Ugly!!!!!!

[luvnsalt]

I have been fighting some brown film on my sand the past week and now my water is soooo cloudy and slightly greenish that I can hardly see the powerheads in the back of my tank. I have a 75 gallon with only 40# of live rock and 60# live sand. I tested tonight. ph is 8.4 nitrates 10 ammonia.50 and nitrites are 0. I am running only carbon and now a phosphate filter in my filter. Should I put new filter floss in again? I know I need more rock and I am getting more next week. I am at about 12 1/2 weeks. I was nice and clear....but now all the sudden. yuck.

 

[Forestal]

any fish or larger life in there? with ammonia spike, my guess is did something die? or is the tank not fully cycled yet...should be at 12 weeks, but can you tell us a little bit more of the tank, whats' in it...was the live rock cured? live sand as in store bought?
often letting the cycle and the diatom/alga bloom take its course is the best way...they have bloomed in response to excess nutrients and will soon die off...bacteria and others will break them down as long as the source of nutrients is gone.

 

[luvnsalt]

I did have a snail die. I have 1 clown fish, 1 red starfish, 1 sand sifting star, 1 anenome (bubble tip), and a Xenia. The Xenia and bubble tip are both fairly new. 3 weeks. I can't see all my hermit crabs to know if they are all there. It is too cloudy. In the 12 weeks I have lost a total of 2 snails....that I know of. The rock was cured and the sand was aragalife live sand. Yes, LFS store bought. FYI, after I got the Xenia and bubble tip I was told that I should not have gotten either for like 6 months. I am not buying anything else until my water is pretty again.

 

[Forestal]

if it is an option, the anemone and xenia should go in a fully cycled tank...i would do 10% weekly water changes, add a skimmer if not already there (or not) and wait until the water clears adn levels are nominal...hopefully the fish will makeit.

make sure your specific gravity is 1.025-1.026, your pH 8-8.2, temp 77-82 and all levels are fairly stable....your can siphon out the diatoms or not...the tank should level out but can take a while..

when you do add livestock, i would make it live rock first to get ~1-2 pounds per gallon, then add inverts: snails/hermits as youi please...if and when water conditions are still stable over 2-4 weeks, adding 1 fish per week if small is good general rule, especially if you don't have a quarantine tank.

general rule of thumb for corals and anemones(which are tough to care for) is 6 months in, although is not a hard and fast rule.

good luck

 

[plack]

Hello I am new 5 months reefing but i think a seventy five gallon should have a lot of snails(1 per gallon for a deeper sand bed than you probably have?) with a sand bed the snails usually fall from the top of the tank lie upside down can't turn over and then the hermit crabs eat them. Try getting some I would guess at least 50 Nassarius snail's from e-bay or your choice also the only thing needing any food is your clown and only what he can eat in 5 minutes try flake food the rest will eat from the rock's and yes get som live rock some people here are getting rid of some i would get it from them it get's you to talk to another reefer help them out it's fully cured and probably from a safer tank than the LFS and cheaper too also if you can't see the inhabitant's get sompthing to clean of the glass/or acyrlic and try cleaning the sand with a siphon tube and put cheese cloth in beteen the Ø.75 tube and the bigger vacuming end to stop draining the sand out and any life sucked out will regrow fast enoughp better to get the sand white soon some people buy dragon gobies to do this but get a small one as they move the sand and dust everything above the bottom with sand wich some people hate.

some question's what is your lighting wattage and what is your water movement rate gallons moved per hour by the filter or powerheads?
good luck

 

[reefsreef]

Did you use any tap water, when you started your tank. If so you have green water from to many trace minerals and phosphates. Try running 2 or 3 bags of sea chem phos
ban for 2 or 3 days and see what happens.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Last night a friend here lent her a over the back Protein skimmer, The skimmer is a US Aquariums 200 skimmer. She has PC lighting, 40 lbs of rock. I hear most of it is lace rock. I have not taken the time to look at her tank. She has a sump. She just does not have a prefilter and hoses and pump to run it. I will ask around here in Tri-cities and see if I can locate her a prefilter and pump. I think a filter sock would pull a lot of goodies out of the water. I am contiplating letting her use my UV to kill a lot of the algae. This would show me in fact how well a UV works against single cell algae or what effect if any against a tank in a full bloom with algae. I will touch base with person that helped her last night today.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Two days ago, I set the US Aquariums 200 skimmer for Luvnsalt and pretested it in a bucket. I also allowed her to use my 25 watt UV with a my Rio 1400 power head. I heard from her today. She says her tank is clear. I still wonder how much the UV affected the single cell algae in her tank. I believe the extra flow probably helped her tank cycle faster. I am hoping she will use this until she gets more live rock and more water movement in her tank.

 

[Angelscrx]

Ed as always you are the man.

 

[wrightme43]

Second that Angel. Ed good on you. You always seem to be helping someone. Thanks for being here, you make an already great place, better. Steve

 

[Ed Hahn]

Thanks you for compliment. I think you guys would have helped her out too. In fact I would bet the farm on it or you would not be helping people in here like you do.