Problem with my tank, pictures

saltyjewell

saltyjewell

Member
A couple weeks ago I had to do a complete water change. I pulled all the live rock out of the tank and left it in pails with the tanks old water. It was less then 24hrs before it was back in the tank. I expected some die off of the algea that was on it because I couldn't put it all back the same and some of the rocks sideways/upside down. However a couple weeks later my sandbed is still covered in brown crud. Here's some pics this morning after cleaning the sand up last night



And here's a pic of the white nest stuff I posted about before

My nitate is reading 20
Nitrite 0 (was0.5) before water change a couple days ago)
Alkalinity 180ish(a little higher)
pH 8.4
What do I do?
 
saltyjewell

saltyjewell

Member
170g Tank it came with the house I bought and just moved in a month ago. It's about two years old, you can see what I have for filtration if you find my photo post(I'll try to bump it up). Its got a sump and a skimmer, it had a side filter but it doesn't work.
 
saltyjewell

saltyjewell

Member
Oh I feed algea pellts 3x a day(only what I can see them eat in less then a min). A little red seaweed once a day. And one small froozen reef mix square twice a week.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Well I would stop the pellets.....Feed more frozen 1x a day....mysis, marine cuisine, emerald entree...stuff like that.....
Also....FLOW???? Do you have any powerheads? What do you have for a clean up crew (snails, crabs)?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
OK...I saw2 powerheads....for a 170G...you need more flow than that....maybe get a couple of Koralias too....also you mention 5 mex turbos....do you have any sand cleaners? You should get some nassarius and cerith snails, and possible a couple fighting conch, and maybe a sand sifter goby......
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Did you really shake out the LR when you did this change?
IMO - a 100% water change is rarely required :) It can cause huge stress on the fish. This could be a really big problem for inverts in particular.
LR traps a lot of crud in the spaces. If you are having a problem with nitrates, for example, the LR may need to be taken out and really shaken out in water or even with a power head to get stuff out of the holes.
Definitely need a lot of flow overall. Luckily that sailfin looks quite healthy so I don't think there is a major issue...just a regular maintenance one where slow and steady wins the race (and feeding higher quality food).
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
All I see is diatoms %% An appropriate amount of astrea or trochus snails will easily keep the liverock free of diatoms ( I see zero snails cruzing the rocks which probably means if you have any you dont have enough if any). the rock just appears to be young and without clean up crew. I wouldn' sweat that at all. the sand is not so easily ressolved. there are creatures that can help keep the sand clean but generally without some sort of efficient sand sifter diatoms will keep coming back on the sand until they run their course. that could be anywhere from a few months to a year. naturally keeping up with regular water changes with good RO water and maintaining good parameters help it move along faster. you may just have to keep the top layer clean yourself with (sometimes daily) top layer agitation or get creatures that will (fighting conch or sand sifting goby). manual stirring the top layer is what I've done to EVERY tank with sand I've had until the diatoms have run there course (a few months to a year on a well maintained tank. possibly never on a poorly maintained tank). additional flow may (or may not) help but its not the resolution to diatoms. it did just fine with 60x turnover I had and has always ressolved itself eventually even with much more sane flow in the past. I dont see any real evidence of over feeding. Just looks like a newer (or slow to develop) set up to me. Do you have any rock dwelling snails (astrea, trochus, mex turbo's, cerith when they feel like it)?
 
saltyjewell

saltyjewell

Member
I have 5 mexican turbo snails but am going to get some more snails today. I wrote down some recommened here to see if the aquatic(sp?) store has any of them.
Thanks I didn't know if I could mix the sand myself.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by SaltyJewell
http:///forum/post/3090168
I have 5 mexican turbo snails but am going to get some more snails today. I wrote down some recommened here to see if the aquatic(sp?) store has any of them.
Thanks I didn't know if I could mix the sand myself.
In that size tank you need allot more than 5....Look at the reef packages on the left of the site to get an idea of how much you need for a good CUC. Then go from there.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Don't be too tight with the food. That sailfin is skinny.
Meowzer mentions some good stuff there in the food department.
 
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