water

[kennedy]

just got into saltwater aquariums i set up a 75 gal. about 5 months ago i have some mushroom corals a yellow tang ,coral beauty ,clown, live rock and some inverts.
all the test at the lfs check good for water quality but their is a brown film ontop
of the water can anyone give me some advice.
thanks

 

[pbienkiewi]

Welcome to the board..
How many power heads do you have pinting up to break the surface water up ?
You don't have a wet dry sump.. That could make a diffrence too.
You said the lfs said your water paramerters are good. What are they ? you will need to check ;
Specific gravity
Ph
Alk
Calcium
Nitrate
nitrite
amonia
What kind of water are you using also ?

 

[oreo12]

Do you have a skimmer? if so what Type?

 

[kennedy]

my specific gravity is 1.021
their is no ammonia
ph is 8.2
i dont know the numbers for nitrite or nitrate but he said they were well in range
the others i dont know
i have 1 power head an 802
im using tap water with prime
what is a wet dry sump.
yes i do have a skimmer a prizm? i think thats the brand name

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Kennedy
my specific gravity is 1.021
their is no ammonia
ph is 8.2
i dont know the numbers for nitrite or nitrate but he said they were well in range
the others i dont know
i have 1 power head an 802
im using tap water with prime
what is a wet dry sump.
yes i do have a skimmer a prizm? i think thats the brand name
If you can, try to raise your salinity a bit higher, like around 1.023-1.025 being 1.025 would be better. Another thing is your using tap water. Try using RO water instead. You can buy them from Walmart's water machine, 33 cents a gallon here. Try to buy a refractometer and some test kits for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, Calcium, etc. What is a 802 power head?? You need more then one power head, maybe 3 maxi jet 1200 would do for your tank, but depends on what other system you have to turn your water. Good Luck!!! :happyfish

 

[oreo12]

I have been changing over to the ro water from wall mart and also using oceanoic salt insteed of the instant ocean. When I did the first 10 gal change my water turned brown two days latter after changing out another 10 gal my amiona jump up I did another 10 gal water change and now it has cleared back ujp the alge and red slime began dieing off right after the first water change i think that is what caused my spike. Anyway I have a much cleaner looking tank with the ro I did this in my 29 gal first and after really seeing the difreance in the cleaness of the tank I started switching the 75 gal still have many more water changes to go to get the tap water watered down with the ro water. But the changes have already began.