Something is not right..

lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
I've had my tank setup for almost 3 months now and the cycle just finished. Not sure why it took so long but I have about 40lbs of base rock and 40lbs of live sand and my skimmer was not operating right for most of that time, which left my two maxi jet 900 powerheads and millenium 3000 HOB filter to circulate and filter water.
I've been running carbon and ammonia remover in my filter which has kept my tank crystal clear right up until the point my ammonia dropped and my nitrite levels starting rising and then dropping off. Now my tank is as cloudy as can be and there is a considerable amount of the brown detritus which I've come to understand as 'normal' for the end of the cycling event.
I've been checking my nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, pH, salinity, and s.g. daily since March 12 and everything has progressed as it should so I put an order in for a cleanup crew (30-90 gal SWF reef pack) to start cleaning up the detritus as well as a feather duster, red microalgae, orange tree sponge and just last night got them acclimated.
Woke up this morning and the brittle star fish is missing all his legs..he's slowly dying. Feather duster lost the 'feather' and it was floating around. I assume the feather duster is dying. Also seen some blueleg hermit crab fatalities as well.
I thought maybe there was something wrong with the water so I went and bought a few more test kits to test for calcium, phosphate, copper, and kH. Here are the results along with previously tested elements:
Specific Gravity: 1.025
Salinity: 33
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.4
Temp: 79
kH: 10 or 179ppm
Copper: 0
Calcium: 25 or 500ppm
Phosphate: 0
I'm running the following equipment:
Coralife T-5 HO w/ 10,000K daylight lamp and Actinic Bluelight
AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer w/Rio 800 (just installed Friday evening)
Two (2) Maxijet 900 powerheads
Millenium 3000 HOB filter with media
RIO pump (from broken coralife skimmer 65)
Total water turnover is approximately 1260gph.
Current inverts:
1-Fireshrimp
3-peppermint shrimp
1-coralbanded shrimp
20-dwarf white leg hermit crabs
20-dwarf blue leg hermit crabs
1-brittle starfish (dying)
20-turbo/astrea snails
10-Nassarius Snail
2-cleaner clams
Any advice on what (if anything) I am doing wrong and why the water is still so cloudy???
Thanks in advance

 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Macro algae can go asexual and cloud up the tank.
How long was the brittle star in the tank? How long did you acclimate it?
Coralbanded shrimps are mean.
Feather dusters loose the crown sometimes, they grow back so don't go thinking it is dead yet. If there is not enough food in the water the crown comes back smaller and smaller until they starve. Adding food like Kents microvert will bring the feather crown back big and beautiful.
Hope this helps.
 
don1234

don1234

Member
Wow! I've only been in the hobby for a very short time, but a couple of things that I could suggest is that maybe your power heads may be stirring up the sand band. You also mentioned that the brittle star has lost his legs. How big is or was it and how big is your coral banded shrimp. You may have a different hitcher that has been hiding in your rock that could be causing problems. Also what type of water are you using and was the tank new or used?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
How often do you change your carbon? What ammonia remover are you using?
What are those blue things on the bottom of your tank?
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3249006

Macro algae can go asexual and cloud up the tank.
How long was the brittle star in the tank? How long did you acclimate it?
Coralbanded shrimps are mean.
Feather dusters loose the crown sometimes, they grow back so don't go thinking it is dead yet. If there is not enough food in the water the crown comes back smaller and smaller until they starve. Adding food like Kents microvert will bring the feather crown back big and beautiful.
Hope this helps.
Flower,
The tank was cloudy before I put the micro algae in. It's been in for almost two full days now and the cloudiness hasn't changed for better or for worse.
The brittle star had legs about 3" long and I acclimated it using the float method. I know that the drip method is suggested but with so many inverts I thought it best to drip acclimate some and float some.
I suspect the coralbanded shrimp is to blame but I purposely put the CB shrimp in last in hopes that it wouldn't be as territorial or aggressive.
That's good to know about the feather duster. I almost took it out thinking surely it was dead. I will go get some microvert and start using it.
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by IBEW41
http:///forum/post/3249040
what kind of sand bed do you have and are the sponges dieing?
I used 40lbs of live sand mixed with some common white aquarium gravel. The sponges seem to be doing ok but from what I've read they die a slow death so it could take some time before I start to see any progress on them.
 
don1234

don1234

Member
Possibly you could have had a bubble anemone or any type of anemone for that matter that was a hitcher and that has died or gotten sucked up in your power head or filter. When bubble anemones get sucked up in a power head they usually make the tank look exactly like yours. Then the stingers are still in the water killing everything and clouding the water.
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3249065
How often do you change your carbon? What ammonia remover are you using?
What are those blue things on the bottom of your tank?
I just changed my carbon and ammonia remover last night so they've been in the filter for about 3 months. I use ProCarbZ which has carbon and ammonia remover combined. The blue things are glass marbles. I put them in to add a little color since my tank is pretty boring right now. As I add some more life to the tank I'll probably take them out.
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by don1234
http:///forum/post/3249068
Possibly you could have had a bubble anemone or any type of anemone for that matter that was a hitcher and that has died or gotten sucked up in your power head or filter. When bubble anemones get sucked up in a power head they usually make the tank look exactly like yours. Then the stingers are still in the water killing everything and clouding the water.
Is it possible for a bubble anemone to come with live sand? The rock I have in there is all base rock..it's not live rock so there is no chance the bubble anemone came with it.
 
don1234

don1234

Member
Hmmm then that may rule that theory out. Was the rock dry when you got it? It looks like live rock that needs or needed to be cured. I purchased some uncurred live rock at one point in time I placed it in another tank until it curred for about thirty days and the tank clouded and unclouded a few times durring the curing process.
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by don1234
http:///forum/post/3249101
Hmmm then that may rule that theory out. Was the rock dry when you got it? It looks like live rock that needs or needed to be cured. I purchased some uncurred live rock at one point in time I placed it in another tank until it curred for about thirty days and the tank clouded and unclouded a few times durring the curing process.
This used to be live rock when I started the tank a year ago. I cleaned it out after all our fish and shrimp died and the rock has been sitting in a box for almost a year until a few months ago. During that time all the stuff that was living died off.
 
don1234

don1234

Member
Okay I went back and read one of your post and saw where you have mixed sand and aquarium gravel for the bedding. Here is another thought why the cloudiness may not be going away, the salt could be eating away at the gravel and releasing some type of chemicals. I've seen the white aquarium gravel before and isn't it kind of chalky? IMO it is not the typical stone slash marble slash glass type of aquarium bedding.
Also what did you clean your rock with?
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Originally Posted by don1234
http:///forum/post/3249165
Okay I went back and read one of your post and saw where you have mixed sand and aquarium gravel for the bedding. Here is another thought why the cloudiness may not be going away, the salt could be eating away at the gravel and releasing some type of chemicals. I've seen the white aquarium gravel before and isn't it kind of chalky? IMO it is not the typical stone slash marble slash glass type of aquarium bedding.
Also what did you clean your rock with?
Warm tap water. I may be getting worked up over nothing. The cloudiness has never been an issue until the cycle was almost complete and the detritus started showing up. When there was no detritus the water was crystal clear and has been for a couple months. It's only been in the past couple weeks that detritus started accumulating and from that point the water started getting cloudy.
It doesn't help that I haven't had a skimmer until a few days ago. Now that my new remora is getting broken in it's skimming dark brown waste like crazy.
Just to be sure I went and bought a fluval 305 at ***** to increase my filtration. I'm not 100% sure I need another filter but I'd rather have too much then not enough.
If liverock dot com would ever send me my 40lbs of premium LR i ordered that would help as well.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Have you done any more water tests, what readings are you getting? Ammonia is the only other thing that I know of besides macro algae that causes cloudy water. Lil Guppy had a cloudy tank from stirring up her sand...but that isn't what happened to you.
So I am out of ideas...sorry I can't be of more help...
 
lovetofly31

lovetofly31

Member
Water all clear now.. I guess it had nothing to do with the water parameters and everything to do with my protein skimmer. I was without a good skimmer until almost a week ago when I bought a new one. Now that it's almost fully broken in it is skimming like crazy and the water is nearly crystal clear again.
Thanks for the advice here.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
Ammonia does not cause cloudy water, if it did our tanks would be cloudy all throughout the cycle. Bacteria blooms, phytoplankton blooms and macro algae "release" are the main causes of cloudy water. If you disrupted anything the day prior, I'm going to guess a bacterial bloom.... even if you didn't, I would still look to bacterial bloom as they can occur for several reasons.
There are some uncommon reasons for a cloudy tank such as corals/critters releasing gametes, calcium precipitate etc. but they don't look like your pics and I would look to the more frequent first.
I wouldn't worry about it. Keep up the water changes and let it simmer down. Don't add anything until it's corrected, IMO.
 
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