snowing in my tank...

ssg_mm

ssg_mm

Member
Not sure if this is the right place to post this but:
It looks like it's snowing in my 29g tank. Has anyone experienced this? The tank has been running for about a month. I have some hitchhikers that came with the LR; 2 Peppermints (that never ate the aiptasia); and 10 cerith snails. I dosed with purple up last week but not recently as CAlc has been steady. I also added one dose of Kent Microvert and Phytophlex for the filter feeders on the rocks.
I did a WC today and it seemed to make it worse. I have a plenum and a Penguin 350 with biowheels (chemipure pouch in one tray and the two carbon cartridges in the other). I kicked on the filter after the WC and it was like a blizzard. My wife noticed some of the snow attaching to the glass and moving around. I do not have a skimmer hooked up yet.
ammo= 0
trite= 0
trate= 0
Calc @ 500
pH @ 8.1
phosph = 0
dkh = 130-140
Temp is steady at 81 deg
Any suggestions???
 
cherylann

cherylann

Member
Sounds like the calcium is participating out of your water secondary to alterations in alkalinity or magnesium. Sounds like a problem for
Spanko.
 
ssg_mm

ssg_mm

Member
Originally Posted by cherylann
http:///forum/post/3161380
Sounds like the calcium is participating out of your water secondary to alterations in alkalinity or magnesium. Sounds like a problem for
Spanko.
Thanks, Cherylann. I honestly don't know what that means!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

it is not a problem, but actually a very healthy thing...it is part of the natural cycle of life on the rock...the dead particles get into the water current, in the ocean it is actually called marine snow, and coral loves it.
My tank did that about once a month for a couple of days at a time when my tank was new...filtering gets allot of it out, and the better the filtering the less you see of the snow. Thats why we have to dose our tanks with coral food. There just isn't enough of the natural stuff in the tank to keep them going.
 
johnr2604

johnr2604

Member
"houston, we are venting something into space" LOL
You are probably precipitating calcium. Basically you can only hold so much in solution and there is a balance between magnesium and ALK. Basically alk and calcium are inversly propotionate. The Magnesium creates a ballance. From what it looks like you have a DKH of 13-14 with a calcium of 500 it cant hold anymore calcium cabonate in solution and its falling out. So in short yes it is snowing. A good balance is to keep your DKH around 9 with a calcium reading of 420 and mag around 1350
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Definition of marine snow; (As is common my esteemed colleague Florida Joe is correct on this)
"In the deep ocean, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. ..."
"The remains of plants and animals that drift down from the sunlit surface waters of the ocean to the depths. ..."
"Particles, including dead organic matter, sinking in the ocean"
"The tiny leftovers of animals, plants, and non-living matter in the ocean's sun-suffused upper zones. ..."
So I would agree with a precipitation of calcium and or magnesium carbonate. Since this happened after a water change I would like to know what the Ph and Sg of the change water was before you added it to the tank. Higher than normal levels of these to can lead to precipitation. Do you mix your own saltwater? Dow you ever clan out the mixing vessel? If some of the material is falling out of solution in the mixing barrel and being left behind the next time you use it you could be raising the Sg and the Ph unknowingly because there are additional materials on the bottom of the vessel.
Not much you can do at this point other that run your filter cleaning out the pads or floss or sponges that will capture the particles floating through it.
Take a look at the things I have mentioned and let's see if we can nail it down to one of them and then put the corrective action in.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3161694
Definition of marine snow; (As is common my esteemed colleague Florida Joe is correct on this)
"In the deep ocean, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. ..."
"The remains of plants and animals that drift down from the sunlit surface waters of the ocean to the depths. ..."
"Particles, including dead organic matter, sinking in the ocean"
"The tiny leftovers of animals, plants, and non-living matter in the ocean's sun-suffused upper zones. ..."
So I would agree with a precipitation of calcium and or magnesium carbonate. Since this happened after a water change I would like to know what the Ph and Sg of the change water was before you added it to the tank. Higher than normal levels of these to can lead to precipitation. Do you mix your own saltwater? Dow you ever clan out the mixing vessel? If some of the material is falling out of solution in the mixing barrel and being left behind the next time you use it you could be raising the Sg and the Ph unknowingly because there are additional materials on the bottom of the vessel.
Not much you can do at this point other that run your filter cleaning out the pads or floss or sponges that will capture the particles floating through it.
Take a look at the things I have mentioned and let's see if we can nail it down to one of them and then put the corrective action in.

Okay beat me with a wet noodle...LOL..I swear that is what my fish guru told me 4 years ago, his SW reef tank was up and going 26 years so I trusted everything he ever told me, and nobody ever corrected me about it until now.
I stand defeated. I love this site...I learn so much. Oh and sorry for the bad advice...
 
marchingbandjs

marchingbandjs

Member
Magnesium and calcium carbonate... one of the 2... if it started after waterchanges then it might be a problem with the salt. If its fine before it goes in the tank, i would say you have an excess of something in you tank that is a catalyst to the chemical reaction... I wouldnt know how to fix this problem.. maby try different salts...
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Check tank chemistry just prior to water change then check the change water also. Balance is the important thing here.
Calcium (Ca)
Natural Seawater Value: 400 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 350 to 450 mg/L
Calcium is critical to healthy coral skeletal growth, and many other biological processes. Maintenance of calcium levels that are at or near seawater values is an important factor in having a healthy reef aquarium.
Magnesium (Mg)
Natural Seawater Value: 1280 mg/L
Acceptable Range: 1100 to 1400 mg/L
Magnesium is a very important part of the water buffering system, and is incorporated into coral skeletons. It is also critical to any photosynthetic processes.
Alkalinity (meq/L)
Natural Seawater Value: 2.5 meq/L
Acceptable Range: 2.5 to 5.0 meq/L
Maintaining an appropriate alkalinity is crucial to maintaining a healthy aquarium. A fluctuating alkalinity will lead to serious problems in maintaining an appropriate pH, as well as problems keeping calcium and magnesium levels within required ranges.
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
Originally Posted by SSG_MM
http:///forum/post/3161374
Not sure if this is the right place to post this but:
It looks like it's snowing in my 29g tank. Has anyone experienced this? The tank has been running for about a month. I have some hitchhikers that came with the LR; 2 Peppermints (that never ate the aiptasia); and 10 cerith snails. I dosed with purple up last week but not recently as CAlc has been steady. I also added one dose of Kent Microvert and Phytophlex for the filter feeders on the rocks.
I did a WC today and it seemed to make it worse. I have a plenum and a Penguin 350 with biowheels (chemipure pouch in one tray and the two carbon cartridges in the other). I kicked on the filter after the WC and it was like a blizzard. My wife noticed some of the snow attaching to the glass and moving around. I do not have a skimmer hooked up yet.
ammo= 0
trite= 0
trate= 0
Calc @ 500
pH @ 8.1
phosph = 0
dkh = 130-140
Temp is steady at 81 deg
Any suggestions???

with your levels, I would also tend to guess calcium precipitate. That said however, I am also curious as to how much of the above you dosed? The reason I asked is that I used a dry zoo/phyto plankton mix, added per the directions and had the crap floating around in my tank for about three days. Never added that much again.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Yeah Randy, I am surprised he didn't jump on this either........."Okay beat me with a wet noodle....."
 
scopus tang

scopus tang

Active Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3161857
Yeah Randy, I am surprised he didn't jump on this either........."Okay beat me with a wet noodle....."

Oh my the images that brings to mind with Joe involved
. Fortunately for her, he is restraining himself.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Was your tank super cloudy when you set it up with the sand? Is this the first time you have turned the filter off and on? It is very likely that a lot of junk settled in the bottom of the filter, and plugging it back in (along with new media) caused stuff to flush out of the system.
It is not unusual...could be organic, or could be fine particles of sand.
It is not uncommon, either, for this to stick to the surface of the glass (because the glass on a micoscopic level has bacterial film, etc, that in essence make it a bit "sticky"). It may look like it is moving but it is more likely just being blown a bit.
IMO, there is no need whatsoever for microvert and phytoplex at this time - neither of which are really the best particulate food, IMO for the tank. But in a very young tank with no real filter feeders...there is no point to it and all it does is foul the water on some level, IMO.
 
ssg_mm

ssg_mm

Member
This started to be noticeable Saturday and I did the water change on Sunday. I did not check the levels before adding... I got pre-mixed RO SW from LFS since they also use Reef Crystals.
I tested everything after work today and got nearly identical readings as posted above except my pH is at 8.3 and SG 1.025. A lot of the mess has settled to the bottom or rocks with some particles still floating around.
I use 5 gal buckets from Home Depot that I rinse after every use. Also, I clean up the little bit of creap from the filter and glasstop.
This is what the residue looks like...
 
ssg_mm

ssg_mm

Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/3161875
Was your tank super cloudy when you set it up with the sand? Is this the first time you have turned the filter off and on? It is very likely that a lot of junk settled in the bottom of the filter, and plugging it back in (along with new media) caused stuff to flush out of the system.
It is not unusual...could be organic, or could be fine particles of sand.
It is not uncommon, either, for this to stick to the surface of the glass (because the glass on a micoscopic level has bacterial film, etc, that in essence make it a bit "sticky"). It may look like it is moving but it is more likely just being blown a bit.
IMO, there is no need whatsoever for microvert and phytoplex at this time - neither of which are really the best particulate food, IMO for the tank. But in a very young tank with no real filter feeders...there is no point to it and all it does is foul the water on some level, IMO.
it was super-cloudy for like 3 days and I started running the filter. I have stopped and started on my last water change without issue. Plus I changed the filter media after everything settled
as far as the feeding.... I took a shot. I guess a long shot!
 
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