About 2 or 3 weeks ago the water went cloudy in my 50 gallon reef. It is now so bad I cant see more then an inch or two into it. I cant imagine waht I did wrong, but the water is a light green color and like i said I can barely see through it. Its a sumpless, hang on style skimmer. After a week of waiting as it got progressively worse I did a 50% water change and added in a charcoal filter. Neither seemed to do any good. The fish dont seem distressed. I cant tell if they are all alive, but the few that come close to the glass look fine. Worried about my coral though, cant see them. Anyway what could possibly gone wrong and how can I fix it? I did a test of my nitrate before the water change and it was less then close to but less then 100. What should i do next?
Serious Problem
- Thread starter Rv5
- Start date
If you look at a sample of your water under a microscope you will see one or more species of planktonic algae. They were either already present in your tank in small concentrations until conditions became right for them to bloom, or algae spores (are light enough to be carried by the wind) blew in on a windy day (ever wonder how a sterile bare tank with deionized water will grow algae in a few weeks without anything being introduced by someone?). There are a few ways of reducing the population to where you no longer can see it. I doubt you will ever totally eradicate it.
1) pinpoint the initial cause of the bloom (phosphates, nitrates, possibly combined with the spectral shift of older lights). Then eliminate those problems.
2) Use a UV sterilizer.
3) add some clams, oysters, some form of filter feeding bivalves to consume the algae.
1) pinpoint the initial cause of the bloom (phosphates, nitrates, possibly combined with the spectral shift of older lights). Then eliminate those problems.
2) Use a UV sterilizer.
3) add some clams, oysters, some form of filter feeding bivalves to consume the algae.
water changes are your best bet to get the nitrate down pronto.. that is really high nitrate BTW.
i would save the UV sterilizer money and buy some live rock to help battle that nitrate.
i am curious as to what kind of carbon you bought? try some good stuff like hydrocarbon
i would save the UV sterilizer money and buy some live rock to help battle that nitrate.
i am curious as to what kind of carbon you bought? try some good stuff like hydrocarbon
you are going to fast.. you know?
your rock probably didn't have enough time to become 'established' and although people talk of one large ammonia cycle, in order to have a tank become stable it goes through a series of cycles which is impossible to achieve in a few months time.
what you are experiencing right now is a major setback in achieving 'establishment'.
now, i am not here to ride your butt about what you should and shouldn't do, i am only saying this because i hope you will have a better understanding of what you are dealing with here and possibly you can make some decisions on your own as to what the best approach is.
if i were you, i would remove the corals and put them in either a temporary tank/rubbermaid tub with your lights rigged above, or i would house them at another location entirely. at present they are either dead or they are about to die. if the tank is as murky as you say then they are not recieving much light and that nitrate level is pretty crazy if you are describing ppm (maybe we should retest to be sure that is the true level?).
i would do the same with the fish although i wouldn't house them with the corals. they should be easy enough to set up somewhere but you will have to make provisions for biofiltration if you are planning on doing things right.
i would then change a lot of water in your tank and skim the heck out of it... i would leave all lights off until things started to clear up. i would add no fish for a month's time. the corals could go in earlier if needed (i still wouldn't put them in and if i did i wouldn't feed them anything) but the fish are a load that you aren't ready for.
your situation is what i would describe as a crash... not just an algae problem.
your rock probably didn't have enough time to become 'established' and although people talk of one large ammonia cycle, in order to have a tank become stable it goes through a series of cycles which is impossible to achieve in a few months time.
what you are experiencing right now is a major setback in achieving 'establishment'.
now, i am not here to ride your butt about what you should and shouldn't do, i am only saying this because i hope you will have a better understanding of what you are dealing with here and possibly you can make some decisions on your own as to what the best approach is.
if i were you, i would remove the corals and put them in either a temporary tank/rubbermaid tub with your lights rigged above, or i would house them at another location entirely. at present they are either dead or they are about to die. if the tank is as murky as you say then they are not recieving much light and that nitrate level is pretty crazy if you are describing ppm (maybe we should retest to be sure that is the true level?).
i would do the same with the fish although i wouldn't house them with the corals. they should be easy enough to set up somewhere but you will have to make provisions for biofiltration if you are planning on doing things right.
i would then change a lot of water in your tank and skim the heck out of it... i would leave all lights off until things started to clear up. i would add no fish for a month's time. the corals could go in earlier if needed (i still wouldn't put them in and if i did i wouldn't feed them anything) but the fish are a load that you aren't ready for.
your situation is what i would describe as a crash... not just an algae problem.
I love my euro, but they ain't the answer to everything. RV5 would still have these problems, even with a euroreef skimmer. Stocked the tank too quickly, sounds like the live rock is still going through it's curing cycle.
RV5, don't get discouraged, it's a common mistake. I'm sure that a number of the folks here can say they've done the same thing, but now that you know where you've messed up, learn from it. reefs.org is a great resource for that. The guys here are interested in seeing you stay in this hobby, and so am I. I hope to hear good things from you in the future
J.
RV5, don't get discouraged, it's a common mistake. I'm sure that a number of the folks here can say they've done the same thing, but now that you know where you've messed up, learn from it. reefs.org is a great resource for that. The guys here are interested in seeing you stay in this hobby, and so am I. I hope to hear good things from you in the future
J.
Podman is right. The most effective way to reduce nitrates is to do water changes. Not just one, but a series of them (about 25% at a time). With everything you have in there, so soon, nitrates are being produced at an alarming rate. One 50% water change (probably stressful to the animals in your tank) doesn't actually dilute the nitrate by half, because as you are removing nitrates more nitrates are being produced. It takes a series of them to knock down the nitrates.
One thing you wrote raises a red flag though, when you do a water change it gets worse. This is an indicator. Check your water source for phosphates and iron content. I invested in a reverse osmosis/deionizing unit because my city water has high phosphate content in it (among other things). Best investment I ever made for my aquariums, both fresh and salt.
As for your liverock situation, the population of fish in the tank is proportional to the amount and quality of liverock in the tank. If you have very dense (heavy) liverock then you will not get very good denitrification. If you have very light liverock you will not get good denitrification either. Use a medium density rock for your base then whatever you want on top. Fiji rock is a good medium density, so is Tonga ridge. If you over populate an aquarium you need a filter system to match that population (refugiums are great for that).
Also, are you running a trickle filter with bio-bale or bio-balls? If so nitrates are probably being produced faster than the denitrifying bacteria in the liverock can consume them (meaning more frequent water changes).
good luck
One thing you wrote raises a red flag though, when you do a water change it gets worse. This is an indicator. Check your water source for phosphates and iron content. I invested in a reverse osmosis/deionizing unit because my city water has high phosphate content in it (among other things). Best investment I ever made for my aquariums, both fresh and salt.
As for your liverock situation, the population of fish in the tank is proportional to the amount and quality of liverock in the tank. If you have very dense (heavy) liverock then you will not get very good denitrification. If you have very light liverock you will not get good denitrification either. Use a medium density rock for your base then whatever you want on top. Fiji rock is a good medium density, so is Tonga ridge. If you over populate an aquarium you need a filter system to match that population (refugiums are great for that).
Also, are you running a trickle filter with bio-bale or bio-balls? If so nitrates are probably being produced faster than the denitrifying bacteria in the liverock can consume them (meaning more frequent water changes).
good luck
RV5 These guys are just tryin to set you and your system on a good stable path,I have only 1 year in on my first reef attempt and the pricless info I have gotten fron these fellow reefer's is truly a blessing. I to have made some critical mistakes early on becuse of lack of correct info. & patience,which I know now I could have averted if I would have slowed down.In my opionion there are 3 kinds of reefer's the ones who learn form their own mistake's,the ones that learn from other peoples mistakes,and the ones that just dont learn!! I would like to say im a combination of the first 2 kinds!!I HOPE THIS HELPS. KEEP CHUUGIN MAN IT GETS BETTER!!
I have the same thing, 3 month old tank. Only 3 rics and an open brain in there, 2 fish. It's a 29g. I was overfeeding and I only got my skimmer a bit more then a week ago. I have a porcelain crab, 3 small featherdusters and an oyster, hopefully they'll help clear it up. It only got really bad 4 or 5 days ago and it's noticably clearing now. Slowly, though. I'm only feeding once every two days for the time being and I cut back the lighting 2 hours.
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