Need some help PLEASE

[zackp00]

Hi guys I am new here and new to the saltwater fish tanks as well. My tank is a 120 gallon with a emperor 400 and a 350 filter on it (350 I added about a month ago. I have had my tank now for about 5 months. It has I think around 120 lbs of live sand and 80 lbs of crushed coral. I have only bought about 30 lbs of live rock so far and I put 4 damsels in there after it ran for about 4 weeks without anything besides sand and cc and rock. Then my tank started going nuts about 3 weeks or so after I put the fish in it looked like there was smoke in there and i got to lookin on here and discovered bacteria bloom...OK no big deal i am thinking next day all my fish die except one. A couple days later my water clears i think my tank cycled. Go get a tang and a sea hare or something like that to go along with the 24 snails to keep my sand clean put the tang and the sea hare in and a few days later my water is all dirty looking again. So i think the 400 emperor filter aint enough like i thought from the begining so had my mom pick me up a 350 and it ran for about a week with the 400 and my tank cleared back up. Everything in the tank is doing good and all my levels look good next morning i get up and the tank looks like crap again needless to say it looks like crap again and i can't even see my fish...........I am getting very upset bc I don't know what is going on ....
Tank: 120gal
Filters: Emperor 400 and 350 bio wheel filters
Fish: 1 Blue Damsel, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Black and White Stripped Damsel
Rock: 30#
Sand: 120#
CC: 80#
Levels:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate:0
PH: 8.2
Nitrite:0
So guys please any advice would be great and I change 25 gal of water every other week....Not even sure if that is right but let me know something please.....I would like to go this weekend and get some more rock but don't want to if you can't even see it also do i need a protein skimmer?? My brother says yes but the guy that sold me the tank said probably not for around a year....

 

[veni vidi vici]

Adding any buffers,additives.....?
Yes to the protein skimmer,and as far as the live rock you may want to hold off on adding anymore livestock to the tank.Depending on how much die off you may or may not have may raise your ammonia.I would put the new LR in first and check you params for a few days first.
Welcome to SWF.com

 

[zackp00]

NO no buffers nothing like that the only thing i use is the stuff to pull the chlorine and amonia etc out of the tap water to prepare it. i forget what it is called but i know it is by instant ocean

 

[veni vidi vici]

Originally Posted by zackp00
http:///forum/post/2961838
NO no buffers nothing like that the only thing i use is the stuff to pull the chlorine and amonia etc out of the tap water to prepare it. i forget what it is called but i know it is by instant ocean
Im going to take a stab at this and say it may be your tap water.You really ,really should not use tap water.RO/DI or Distilled Water is optimal,its very possible it is something in your tap water.What is the name of this water treatment product you are using?

 

[zackp00]

api stress coat+ and the closest saltwater store to me is over an hour so if you can let me know what to use and how to go about it and i wish I would have known the water issue bc i just got through changing it again to try and get it to clear up

 

[veni vidi vici]

In your post you said you bought 30# of live rock,did these occurrences start happening after that?

 

[coastie5685]

first of IMO.... hang on back filters such as the emperors are not suitable for that big of a tank..
the money you spent on the two of those filters you could have gotten a 20gallon fuge/sump running under the tank for the cost of not even half of an emperor.
dont add any more expensive fish.. every time you add more live rock ... you rish starting your cycle all over again. - depending if the rock is cured already or not -
when you go with the fuge/sump i would put a skimmer on it.
let the tank cycle fully.
the tank is probably cloudy and doing bad because of the filtration. i would return the two emperors and setup a fuge/sump

 

[zackp00]

can you all point me in the right direction for getting a good filter or whatever you say i need....

 

[coastie5685]

http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...rrent=sump.jpg
here is just a few ideas..
use a known search engine type in DIY sump/fuge and you can find one.. it will be a little project of your own to do... but well worth your while so to speak..
but the sump/fuge is not just it.. there are also much other ways that you can feed the sump/fuge from your tank ---example HOB hang on back overflow.... corner overflow tanks... drilling the tank... siphon overflow.. its all based on waht u would go with... then your return pump that will be in the sump/fuge needs to be less gph that what your overflow is putting into the sump/fuge. read up on it. it will take a little more research but guarantee it will be the best filtration method out there.... for now while you look it up... you have two sides to your emperors.... make one side mini fuge then other sump type..... one side for refuguim-fuge- stickk live rock rubble with chaeto algae and a little clip on light for growth of chaeto then other side stick back of chemi pure elite... your good t go...

 

[naclh2o nut]

9
Originally Posted by zackp00
http:///forum/post/2961965
api stress coat+ and the closest saltwater store to me is over an hour so if you can let me know what to use and how to go about it and i wish I would have known the water issue bc i just got through changing it again to try and get it to clear up
Water could be alot of this. Look at a RO/DI for the house in the mean time hit up the local grocery store and buy distilled water, not ideal but better then tap water.
That and the filter is probably the problem.
What lighting are you using? That could effect look(algea) also.

 

[zackp00]

i am ordering the unit for my water and going to the lfs tomorrow to get some water. I looked at my lighting and it is a current not sure on how to find what model or any of the watts??? And thanks for the info on the diy stuff i am going that route....How big of a tank should i use for it bc i have a 55 gal acrylic that i have setting in the other room that i think coud be made into that pretty easy

 

[naclh2o nut]

11
That would make a nice one. I don't know if I would use an acrylic tank, if you live close enough I would buy a reg 55 and swap you.

. It is probably not everyones pick but that should have room for bio balls, skimmer area, fuge with a DSB and a return area. Search for threads on DIY sump/fuge lots of designs. Pick one you like and go for it.
Goodluck and remember post pics.

 

[pete159]

HOB filters may not be the best for the 'main' filtration of a large tank, but they are still useful so do not just take them off.
Cloudy water is mainly because of a bacteria bloom due to not enough bio filtration.
a 120g tank should have at least 120 lbs of live rock. A good protein skimmer should be there from the start, not after a year.
Since you have fish in there already it makes things much harder to do.
get a large bin for curing live rock, buy 50lbs more rock at least, put it in bin with powerhead and heater. After it's cured at 10lbs per week.
Also be prepared to spend some nice amounts of $$$$