So I did a water change Monday and added some calcium to the tank. (maybe the problem). Anyways I also kicked on the filter and kicked around the sand to allow the detritus to enter the filter. Then I changed the filter. I measured and the Nitrates and Nitrites were too high so I added this stuff I got at the store that eliminates ammonia, chlorine, nitrates and nitrites. I added a lot cause the freakin nitrates and nitrites would NOT go away. Anyways with all the stuff I added the tank is now clowdy, the mushrooms, anemone and zoanthids are now all closed up and unhappy looking, but the fish are perky as can be. WHat happened?? Also the protein skimmer started collecting white milky looking stuff that didnt smell like the usual "crap" that it takes up. When I get home tonight I will probably do a 90 percent water change and start over. I have a nano tank to put the animals in for now.
System crashed. Help!
- Thread starter blackcloudmedia
- Start date
The skimmer is probalby pulling out the chemical you added to stop the trite trate and amonia. That would explain the smell as well.
My take, from personal expierence is this:
One time I decided to do some "major" cleaning in the tank. I moved my rocks around and vacuumed under them and everything. Crab was everywhere. I also did a 10 gallon water change on my 55. After I was finished i checked my levels, like always.. Man my trite and trate were high. Like you I freaked out. I did not add anything to the tank, but I did do several water changes to help lower it. I prepared about 15 - 20 gallons for day 2. The day after the initial cleaning I did the 15 - 20 gallon change, and later that day checked levels, and it was lower, but not a lot. I ended up doing changes for about 3 days, and still had small amounts. I left it alone from there and then it cleared up on its own.
I am a big fan of nature taking its course to a certain degree. By that I mean, I dont like to add chemicals to fix a water quality problem. It is like going to the DR. and getting a prescription for a health probelm, you take it and it helps, but then you have side affects to deal with..
Good luck
Doni
My take, from personal expierence is this:
One time I decided to do some "major" cleaning in the tank. I moved my rocks around and vacuumed under them and everything. Crab was everywhere. I also did a 10 gallon water change on my 55. After I was finished i checked my levels, like always.. Man my trite and trate were high. Like you I freaked out. I did not add anything to the tank, but I did do several water changes to help lower it. I prepared about 15 - 20 gallons for day 2. The day after the initial cleaning I did the 15 - 20 gallon change, and later that day checked levels, and it was lower, but not a lot. I ended up doing changes for about 3 days, and still had small amounts. I left it alone from there and then it cleared up on its own.
I am a big fan of nature taking its course to a certain degree. By that I mean, I dont like to add chemicals to fix a water quality problem. It is like going to the DR. and getting a prescription for a health probelm, you take it and it helps, but then you have side affects to deal with..
Good luck
Doni
I agree with DN
I would fix it with water changes and TIME. You may need to find a safe house for your animals while the tank cycles. I would do %50 water change 1x week and keep your skimmer on 24/7.
The problem should subside in a few weeks at most.
b
I would fix it with water changes and TIME. You may need to find a safe house for your animals while the tank cycles. I would do %50 water change 1x week and keep your skimmer on 24/7.
The problem should subside in a few weeks at most.
b
hmm thats true, my concern though is now that Ive added all those chemicals I may want to get them out since they are probably the cause. Or perhaps it was the stirring things up. One thing I was worried about though is after adding the dosage of calcium the bottle reccommended I read that oyster shells gave off calcium as well. And my tank has lots of live oysters I put in their initially when I set up the tank. Could there be too much calcium? what are the side effects of that?
blackcloudmedia":3gexu1jt said:
No, B is just stating to be sure and run it even though it is not pulling out your normal stinky dark stuff. It should pull a lot of that chemical out to. I also agree with B on the water change technique. Some will say to do a 100 %, but to me that is just to much imo. I feel when your skimmer gets back to normal that is a good sign that most of that chemical is gone, IMO.
You dont sound stupid, nobody here or anywhere on earth know;s everything. :wink:
hey if anybody here uses slime coat when adding new fish , I do and I have to turn off my skimmer before i do, the second it hits the water the skimmer starts freaking out and pulling it all out immediately. I put it in and turn off the skimmer for a day or two and turn it on, and it still does it, for about an hour or so, I would defenitley keep it running 24/7 like a previous post and add some fresh water to break it down a little. my skimmer is built into my wet dry and I have a large container that it drains into to so I can actually add close to 2 or 3 gallons of fresh salt water into and run the skimmer and it will actually pull close to that out over a span of 2 hours. I don't know if slime coat is the best thing for a reef tank but when i add fish i like to help them out a little for a day to give them a better shot, then pull it out.
run the skimmer all the time if you can
buuuooonngggg!
run the skimmer all the time if you can
buuuooonngggg!
dnorton1978
I was just curious to see what you have going on down there? send me a pic of your tank, I will send a reply with mine, also give the specs if you have time, size and equipment, also I trust your thoughts on things here and I wanted to run a few things by you on a more specific look at my tank. just wanna throw a few thoughts by you.
also i got your message about the UV running, I am only running it for 6 hours a day. i think i might turn it into 24, i got home from work and things aren't worse but not improved. The UV works I just am not impressed with the flow rate. maybe it is supposed to be slower so it can penetrate the water, not sure. also if you get a UV sterilizer, they actually need to be cleaned almost weekly the intense light on the tube creates algea and then lessens the power of the UV, incase you didn't know. also i know my post created some crap on here but seriously i save close to 200 from the lfs on ebay. just look them up and decide, you said you have kids and a wife, why spend the extra money? I bought jebo twist 18 watt for 50 dollars. everything included and it has worked perfectly, it also came with a replacement bulb.
hey sorry if you posted pics of your tank , I missed them, also my pics are too big I wanted to post but it doesn't accept them. can i resize them somehow? if not I'll send you some of the progression of what has happenned, I did have 1 big die off in my learning curve
talk to you later
I was just curious to see what you have going on down there? send me a pic of your tank, I will send a reply with mine, also give the specs if you have time, size and equipment, also I trust your thoughts on things here and I wanted to run a few things by you on a more specific look at my tank. just wanna throw a few thoughts by you.
also i got your message about the UV running, I am only running it for 6 hours a day. i think i might turn it into 24, i got home from work and things aren't worse but not improved. The UV works I just am not impressed with the flow rate. maybe it is supposed to be slower so it can penetrate the water, not sure. also if you get a UV sterilizer, they actually need to be cleaned almost weekly the intense light on the tube creates algea and then lessens the power of the UV, incase you didn't know. also i know my post created some crap on here but seriously i save close to 200 from the lfs on ebay. just look them up and decide, you said you have kids and a wife, why spend the extra money? I bought jebo twist 18 watt for 50 dollars. everything included and it has worked perfectly, it also came with a replacement bulb.
hey sorry if you posted pics of your tank , I missed them, also my pics are too big I wanted to post but it doesn't accept them. can i resize them somehow? if not I'll send you some of the progression of what has happenned, I did have 1 big die off in my learning curve
talk to you later
Are you refering to a two part dosing for cal/alk? The side effects of to much calcium is snow in your tank. With the list of corals you posted, you shouldnt need to dose anything at all. Your water changes will take care of everything you need for now. Are you testing for calcium and alk before you dose.blackcloudmedia":nqyh8e66 said:
Also, I have read that oysters are almost impossible to keep alive long term in an aquarium due to the phytoplankton demands they require. Are you sure they are not dieing and are the real cause of your nitrate problems. Even tank raized clams arent recommended until you have pristine water quality in a very stable system.
Just do water changes for now. Maybe take a good hard look at those oysters. I would actually recommend removing them. Where did you get them by the way?
And Also.. SHAVO
Please PM Dnorton if you want to talk about tanks and swap personal info. Start a new thread when you want to post about slime coat. It is confusing when you come in and make two posts which have nothing to do with the topic of the problem posted. Thank you.
So I took out the oysters and a few of them were dead and rotting, I took out some of the rocks I gathered at the beach and discovered they were heavy and had iron in them. Now that Ive done that.....well see for yourselfs............waters almost perfect, fish are happy, and sand is white. By the way I added some "play sand" from Home Depot to the tank and the bristle worms immediately took to it.
Attachments
Yeah, definitely calm yourself and take things slower. Don't pour anything in expecting it just to make things right! And definitely don't pour more in if that doesn't work!!!
Sit down and go read a book. That should calm you down a bit. Here's some good books to read:
http://www.amazon.com/Conscientious-Mar ... F8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/New-Marine-Aquari ... F8&s=books
Relax and good luck!
Sit down and go read a book. That should calm you down a bit. Here's some good books to read:
http://www.amazon.com/Conscientious-Mar ... F8&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/New-Marine-Aquari ... F8&s=books
Relax and good luck!
Actually everythings running fine now. My nitrates and nitrites are at zero, my ammonia never went above zero. My calcium is 400 and my conchs are taking care of the brown algae. Now that the oysters and rocks containing heavy metals are out of the tank everything is back to normal. My mushroom corals have color back and are even attaching to other rocks, my anemones are happy, and the fish are playful. My suggestion, dont add rock out of the ocean unless you know whats in it.
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