water question

[brady816]

Hello all my question is my water in the tank is not as clear as it was last week. i have the cpr back pack skimmer and im running 2 cartridges of black diamond carbon and then the emperor 400 bio wheel i did the water change last week of 5 gal. anything i can do??

 

[twilliard]

How old is the tank?

Also how big is the tank and what is in it?

 

[brady816]

its a 55 gal and about a month old with 30 or so pounds of live rock with cc and 2 damsels

 

[twilliard]

I month is still pretty new.
clean up that CC and water changes.
Im my 55 I did 5 gal changes every week. Took about 6 months for it to be the way I liked it.

 

[brady816]

cool thanks man

 

[Krish]

How often do you change the carbon? Carbon should be changed every 2-3 weeks otherwise once it becomes exhausted, it will leach back into the water everything it absorbed. Also, you just added some more rock to your tank not too long ago and it may be shedding a bit which can affect the clarity of the water.

One another note, you said you run and emperor 400 with bio-wheels. Are you actually using the bio-wheels or have you removed them? If you are still using them, I'd remove them. The reason why is they are like wet/dry's which are said to be nitrate factories. Their end product is nitrates because they have no way of performing denitrification. Your live rock will perform all of the biological filtration your tank will need including denitrification. If you kept in the bio-wheels, eventually your nitrates will rise and you'll have to do tons of water changes to try and dilute them. If not, the excess nitrates will eventually fuel nuicance algaes to grow

 

[brady816]

i asked the guy at the lfs and he told me that i didnt have to take the bio wheels out. he said if i do the water changes once a month i would be good to go. and i have changed the carbon since the start up there on both sides of the bio wheels

 

[Krish]

LOL...Most LFS don't know Jack! Once a month is a long time IMO to do a water change. Just think of un-eaten food or fish poop sitting in there for a month! Most people do once a week. Once every 2 weeks at the most usually. I change 5 gals every week on my little cube and when I had my 75gal, I changed 10-15 gals everyweek. I think it was Don that changes 100% every week! Bio-wheels, bio-balls etc are all good for freshwater tanks, but in saltwater where corals and inverts etc are concerned, they shouldn't be used. The way they work is once waste breaks down into toxic ammonia, it quickly converts it into less toxic nitrites and then into even less toxic nitrates due to the highly oxygenated water running over the bio-wheel, bio-balls etc. But it stops there. Seeing there are no anerobic conditions there for denitrification to take place, nitrates accumilate and accumilate until something uses it up (un wanted algae etc) or you try and dilute it with water changes. 5 gals once a month won't dilute much if really anything on a 55gal. Fish can tolerate nitrate levels safely they say at about 60ppm, but corals would never survive. They don't even recommend 5 ppm of nitrates in some cases! So if your plan is a fish only setup, then the bio-wheel is fine as it will help with the bio-load in there pretty quickly, but you will have un wanted algae in there as the excess nutrients accumilate. If you are planning on adding corals, I don't think you'd find one person here that would say keep the bio-wheels.

 

[wrightme43]

i asked the guy at the lfs and he told me that i didnt have to take the bio wheels out. he said if i do the water changes once a month i would be good to go. and i have changed the carbon since the start up there on both sides of the bio wheels

I hear you man. I best one I have heard is that mandarin gobies are deadly poison. At a LFS. Ummmm lets see Yes this huge bubble coral will be fine in your 55 under normal flour bulbs. Sure that clam should be fine. Just lots and lots of stuff that is utter b.s.
Biowheels turn ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. If you want a fish only tank with no corals they are fine, but then again you also dont need to waste money on live rock. If you would like a reef system, consider getting rid of the biowheels. And changing your filter cartridges much more frequently. You dont want a seperate biologic filter in a reef system. The idea is the live rock performs that function, which feeds the system as well. I cant tell you what to do. I do feel like it is important to mention another point of view in case someone else has heard the same thing at the LFS.
Steve

 

[brady816]

nope just the lion fish in there i am going to do 10 gal water changes 2 a month is that good

 

[Krish]

Here's a good thread to check out. Members talked about their cleaning routines/water change schedule here. Kinda old thread, but nonethless some ideas

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12904

 

[ronj]

it might help to vacuum the dieoff of the liverock out every few days....also, have you been adding any supplements to the water????

 

[btuck]

Hey Brady where are you in Indiana....and what LFS told you these things?

 

[brady816]

in terre haute inland aquatics

 

[brady816]

i havent added anything to the water should i and what is it called

 

[ronj]

no, i wouldn't suggest adding anything....if you are not familiar w/ these supplements and not testing for them, you shouldn't use them....although, you could add Aragmilk or Purple UP for cacium supplements...if you do enough water changes in your 55g, you shouldn't have to add any really, unless you have a bunch of corals and coralline growing

 

[spongebob lover]

i agree with everyone some LFS are horrible at giving advice... they're just pretty much there to sell and that's about it.... money money money, but after all that's why they're there for .
water changes are the best thing for any tank, as long as you do them every week you'll see improvement.
I'm not an expert but i think a filter sock would also help you to get rid of stuff in the water .
Another thing, you live in Indiana dood ..... come on...... you got Premium Aquatics there..... lucky !!!, just go nag Nikki and Rob everytime you need something , they really know a lot about fish tanks and it's a good store, otherwise ask Krish, he's the gold customer :lol: .

 

[btuck]

i agree with everyone some LFS are horrible at giving advice... they're just pretty much there to sell and that's about it.... money money money, but after all that's why they're there for

going to have to disagree with ya there. I have people mad at me all the time because I won't sell them the beautiful angel for their 30 gallon. But I know lots of LFS will just sell sell sell.

 

[spongebob lover]

going to have to disagree with ya there. I have people mad at me all the time because I won't sell them the beautiful angel for their 30 gallon. But I know lots of LFS will just sell sell sell.

LOL!!! hey i said some.... not all .

 

[burning2nd]

ya 816, sorry i know this hurts but almost all lfs suck.

i happen to be i think one of the only guys who has a good lfs, but im just lucky

you should weigh your lfs idea's carefully. they will often tell you something crazy to get you to come back like "your over skimming" or "you dont need to change that if you by this"

or "im the only person who has this"

and my favoit "i dont know"


these guys here are all great source of info (brownie points guys)

I do water changes maybe at the longest every 2 weeks,

Your need RODI water to add 2 your tank to convinsate for the evaperation. adding more salt water all the time will bring your salt, up


also, you might want to consiter geting your self a nice skimmer. it contains no media to replace. (witch is a life saver i think)

30gal tank, 10 gal custom made sump w/ mag jet 500 pump
cs90 over flow.
36" Nova Extreme 4x39W T5 HO w/3 Luna
2 Maxi-Jet 900 PH Powerhead
1 swivel head (back and forth)
32 Lb's Live Rock
20 lb's of Ls
Aqua C REmora with maxi 1200
WOn pro lcd 150watt heater

5 blue hermits
4 torch snails
2 marqaita snails
1 astrea snails
4 gree cromis

2 peppermint shrimp
3 or 4 nannasus snails

star pylops
button pylops
one nice size sps (unknown)

1 freebee red and brown brittle starfish,