help white stuff floating in my tank

[fishing1114]

We are having a lot of trouble getting our tank set up. Things were going well for a while (been filled and running about 1 and a half weeks). Now there's white stuff floating in the tank, a lot of it. Also our heater is not heating the water- we have 2 at the bottom of our filter container. It is very frustrating. The water should be getting clearer, but it looks more crappy every day. We're tempted to give up and we don't even have fish yet.
Jay and Peg

 

[livingstone]

I don't think you have given enough information for anyone to be able to help.
What size is your tank, what rating are your heaters, how cold does it get at night where the tank/sump is? What are you using for a skimmer? What is the salinity or specific gravity of your water? Have you added live rock? Do you have any photos of your system? Oh, do you have children? :lol:

 

[fishing1114]

Hi Dan

We added live rock/live sand about a week ago. (35-40 lb rock, 50 lb live sand and 20 lb sand See below for what we have going on in our tank so far. We are cycling still though my hubby wants to add fish last week. the local aquarium store salt-water guy talked him off the ledge for now anyhow. Believe it or not putting an OR sterile sponge (a cotton rag pretty much) across overflow the white stuff has minimized. I looked at the filter pad Jay bought and it's not nearly as thick as what he took out and threw away. We are as I said new to this stuff though he did raise fish for pet stores and had his own tanks a long time ago (fresh water). We are on a learning curve thus far. We're also going to pick up a replacement filter pad which I think will probably do the trick.
We're still cycling the tank and have not had an ammonia spike. Supposedly the live sand we bought will enable us to add fish rather quickly but I am skeptical.

salinity is 1.24, water is 80.6. I don't see it changing a lot at night so far.
Patience is a virtue
thanks for your post
peg and jay


65 Gal. Allglass, ESHOPPS wet/dry drip filter, 2 Visitherm Stealth heater (250 watt), Aquatic Life T5 HO and Lunar system, VorTech MP20 pump w/wave control

we have not added the VorTech yet. need more info please reply. thanks again

 

[livingstone]

Sounds like you're doing fine--filtering out the bad stuff, heaters heating the water to 80.6. I presume you know to wait for your nitrite reading to go to zero after your ammonia reading has gone to zero.

 

[Sea Turtle]

+1 Sounds like everything is fine. You should add a filter bag to the system. They will help filter out a lot of the junk in the water column. Aslo, when I set my tank up, I had the same problem. The tank was very milky looking for at least a month or two. I was very discouraged.

When you cycle with live rock there are a lot a organisms that die during the move that raise ammonia levels, killing off many of the remaining living organisms on and within the rock. When the coraline algae that was on there dies, it turns into a white powdery/chalky substance that can also add to the cloudy water. Just keep skimming heavily, use the filter bag and wait. Again, it will take some time ( a few months) to get nice and clear.


Good Luck.

 

[fishing1114]

thanks for all the posts. We had everything re-tested at the LFS in PA where we got our system. Everything else is good PH 8.4, saline 1.24, nitrate/nitrite/ammonia zero, etc. we are the proud parents of hermit crabs and snails, all doing well right now. Still waiting to add fish, rocks are growing some interesting greens and reds.
Peg and Jay

 

[Sea Turtle]

Good to hear it. Get used to a whole bunch a differrent algae blloms for the next year. They are fun.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't rush getting lots of fish or corals. These things take time. Keep an eye on your snails as they can possibly block filter inflows and drains.

 

[Anonymous]

One of the reefkeeper's mantras is "nothing good happens fast" :lol: and as others have posted this too shall pass