water probs

[ledzep]

my reef tank water was good but started to turn misty so i made a pannicked water change and only left the salt to dissolve for four hours,
then disaster,the water went green and slimy and killed some livestock.
I think the salt harmed the organic material creating high levels of phosphate ,is this correct ? any theories welcome. :?

 

[Anonymous]

What?


Water turning misty?

Water went green?


I have not a clue what happened a first, but water turning green could be a greenwater bloom. Unicellular alga growing, blooming and consuming nutrients. IMO, a good thing. Microfauna will eat it, the tank gains some biodiversity, and all is better in the end.

Patience, my child. Wait until the green goes away. Then look for a explosion of wonderful crawly worms and tiny shrimps!

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Yea... test the water before you put it in. Is this a new tank cycling? I wouldn't say any of this is normal unless you are cycling and it has nothing to do with your water change... unless made worse by the poor water quality. Test it for phosphates, etc. BEFORE you add any salt... and then test it again after to make sure your salt doesn't have stuff in it that it shouldn't have. Mixing your salt for 4 hours is fine. 30 min. is fine... but in a perfect world 24 hours with a pump is best.

 

[ledzep]

cheers sci fi, the tank is about six months old so not new but i will test
the water before adding it ,also will make more regular water changes thanks

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Well you know.. people say 10% once a month is good. At least for a well established tank... at least 1 year old or so.

No sense in changing water all the time if you have problems there. THere's a lot of possibilities at this point. First thing is to test the ro/di water.. easiest thing to just see if there is a problem with your unit. Test for Phosphates, Ammonia, TDS. Then add your salt and test the pH, Salinity, Phosphates again. I have heard of a story where one time top brand name salt had a problem and was shipping stuff with impurities. Pretty improbable but worth checking.

 

[ledzep]

thats interesting i have been told varied tips about water changing from
every two weeks to weekly with twenty five to fifty percent water change.
Also i asumed the salt and water that i buy to be fine ,il test now though.

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Yea... people say a lot of stuff. I try to just stick with the "official" RK articles, and what the TOTM guys do. There's differences but a helluva lot less than you hear everywhere else. And one of those guys was saying he could do water changes once every 3 or 4 months if he wanted. Then I read about those skimmerless tanks. I guess you have to get a good natural environment in your tank and sump going then you can start to experiment.

Some of those guys, he's a damn marine biologist but... Paul Whitby (RK TOTM Oct.?) say they feed once a day and little else. They have it all setup to take care of itself. It takes awhile to get to that point... plus he has Ca+ reactors and whatnot (beware that some of these may have more maintenance to them than just doing it the old fashion way)... but this stuff some people talk about like massive frequent water changes, additives... they'll do a lot of daily/weekly stuff. That's not where I want to be. I got a lot of other things to take care of. I want to have a nice decent tank and make it as easy to take care of as possible. That should be everybody's goal but I understand maybe some people are really addicted to it and want something to do with it everyday they come home. I'm still fascinated by the whole thing but I have to admit.. the people I live with don't pay it much attention any more. I just think it's wise for me to not make this too difficult but I'll just tire of taking care of it after awhile. I think the main thing driving my interest now is just trying to get it "right". For years it's been one wrong thing after another.

Now I got people talking to me about Phosban reactors... and I know they're only $30-$40 .. just for the unit tho. I don't know. Sounds like it's getting to complicated again.

Now I'm finding out that dumping 5 gal of RO/DI water into my 90 gal tank isn't good. I didn't know. I'm not gonna put 1 gallon a day in just a little at a time every 1-2 hours. But the people helping me here didn't tell me not to put it all in. I waited for the sump to get low about 5-7 days and then put 5 gal in. Well apparantly even though it doesn't matter what the pH is on RO/DI water you can't put that much in all at once. I've been doing that for months.

 

[ledzep]

I agree , thats pretty much what i am aiming for,but i am just learning.
When i got the tank the shop made out that it would look after itself, i have found quiet the opposite .
I have a problem with a gold polyp coral it looked nice when i got it flowing in the light current and open,but it is looking less healthy .
The salinity is fine the water is clear but it looks in decline i dont have a current apart from the wave filter ,any ideas ?

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Forget what I said about skimmerless tanks. I looked over all the tanks I saw using that method and it's not something I would want. Depends on your style I guess. I think it's all interesting but asthetically... it's not attractive. I was a TOTM tank and to do that all of those guys doing it well use skimmers. All those links I looked at with skimmerless tanks were pretty green... and not full of beautiful sps's.

I can't really blame the people where I live too much... I'm the only one in a 50-90 mile radius around here that even has SPS's. Even knows what they are or how to take care of them. They aren't sold here either. I'm about 1 hour south of Orlando. So the **** they sold me is probably plenty adequate for growing mushrooms and having most fish. But that's not the look I want.

Gold polyp... most likely you are talking about those relatively inexpensive "yellow colony polyps". I got those growing like weeds. I think Xenia are most sensitive to changes but grow just as well. My tank is pretty old... years and years.. so it's probably easier for me right now to take care of some easier softies like that. I can pretty much put my anywhere in my tank and they'll start spreading.

You can move it to bottom front till you get it happy. That'll make sure it's not in direct current, and direct light till you get a handle on things. Good to check salinity but what about everything else. This is a pretty hardy polyp. You might have some major water quality issues. Anything else in your tank.. any showing signs? I don't know what you mean by wave filter? Whatever that is you mean.. no powerheads? You don't have to have that for yellow polyps I don't think... but it's good to have for a lot of other corals.. and to just keep things stirred up in your tank.

 

[ledzep]

the "WAVE" is the filter with polyfilter sponge ,and other than the heater
and selinity guage that is all the equipment i have for my ten gallon tank.
Maybe i should invest in some powerheads then ?
Also what is your take on digital ph monitors are they worth using?

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Still don't get that. You just mean some hang-on the back of your tank filter that returns water and makes a current? 10 gal... that may be ok for such a small tank. I think it all depends on what look you want. You can't do much with 10 gal so you probably just want some lps, soft corals, couple small fish. You probably don't have to have powerheads for that. Just one powerhead for a nano would be good enough anyway IF you started messing with SPS maybe.

I'm still experimenting with pH meters. I got a $40 one and I'm not real happy with it. I have to keep calibrating it all the time... it gives me totally diff. #'s than I get with a test kit. I'd like to try a PINPOINT pH meter before I give up but honestly... a test kit is so easy for doing pH and takes seconds. If I have to do a lot of QC and maintenance then it's not worth it to me. Plus you have to get a new probe every 12 months or so. I'd like a Ca+ meter but these are high-tech devices that need care... and run about $250-$350. A Pinpoint pH meter is like $70-$100.

 

[ledzep]

yea thats right,i think il get some test kits then thanks for the advice