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Cloudy Water


Mitchell

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How big of tank: 55 gallons

 

what lighting you have: 216 watts HO t5

 

how much live rock: 50 lbs of dry rock

 

what kind of filter you have: I currently don't have a filter, I was supposed to get a protein skimmer a couple months ago, but there were delays, luckily it should be here Monday

 

if you use purifyed water: I use Westside Aquarium's premade saltwater

 

do you have corals: Yes, a bird nest coral, candy cane coral, torch coral and hairy shroom. I also have a derasa clam

 

what are your water peramiters: PH 8.1, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phosphate .25, dkh 9, calcium 580

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You can probably tell if it is ca precipitation by testing your ca right now. Solution: wait and with a few water changes it will clear up (unless the water you add has a high ca concentration)

As for the second, part of your problem will be solved after you setup your new skimmer, plus some good frequent water change. But you should find the source of the problem as well.

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what do you top off the water with? do you buy unsalted RO water from Tim aswell?

do you have any powerheads?

 

I normally use Tim's fresh, but if I can't get over there I pick up a couple gallons of distilled/ro/di water from Bi-Mart. I have a 1050 gph hydor koralia evo and a 295 gph maxi jet.

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So your the guy that put a clam in your new tank, right? I think a few of us told you that your tank is nowhere near stable enough for any livestock, let alone a clam. I hate to say I told you so but.....You need to get that clam out of there ASAP or it is a goner for sure. Your tank has not finished cycling yet so you probably have some parameters way out of whack (like your phosphates from another thread). Based upon the pics from your clam thread, you apparently have a bunch of dead rock, at least one clownfish, one cleaner shrimp and a clam, and you have no filter whatsoever. Again, I don't mean to be harsh dude, but you seriously need to slow down, get all of the livestock out of your tank and get your tank in shape now or all those things will be dead pretty quick. With no filter, my guess is all your parameters are out of whack.

 

Re-test all of your parameters first thing in the morning and report them back here. That means Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, ph, and phosphates. Looking at your tank, unless you are dosing with stuff you shouldn't be, I seriously doubt the calcium reading you reported - Ca of 580? Where would all that come from in a new tank?

 

Why are you waiting until Monday to get a skimmer? Go down to one of the LFS's and buy one immediately.

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Eddie, his tank has been up for less than 2 months if I remember right, and it might even be newer than that, I know the question was answered in his clam thread, when we all really let him have it for getting a clam when his tank was barely done with the initial cycle, but hey, you can't beat sense into people, ya know? LOL He did at least admit he made a mistake, but still insisted on putting the clam in his tank, he needs to get it out of there, tomorrow morning, ASAP, however you want to put it, an get it in a tank that will at least allow it to live, otherewise, there's a very good chance when he wakes up in the morning his clam, along with all of his other corals that have no business being in a new tank are dead.

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OK guys my tank has been set up for six weeks. I added a bunch of fish food to start the cycle along with a bottle of bacteria from westside. I fed the tank as if I had fish in it every day and after two weeks my tests stopped showing ammonia and nitrite and started showing nitrate.

 

I then added two clownfish and there was no spike after adding them. I added my yellow tang and gramma two weeks after that, I tested my water daily after I added them and there was no spike. I had westside and upscales test my water a few days after the tang and gramma, just to make sure my test kits were accurate and they said all was good. I have added a torch coral, candy cane coral and bird nest coral in the weeks after the tang and gramma. This Tuesday I added the infamous clam. All of the animals I added are doing great. The tang got over his ich two days after I noticed it, the clam is doing really good and my bird nest coral has actually grown since I got it.

 

After you guys told me how bad it was that I was adding stuff to my tank I stopped and haven't added anything else, so I guess you can "beat sense into people". I tried canceling my clam order, but it was already too late, so I didn't insist on keeping the clam I was forced to.

 

I ordered my protein skimmer before I set my tank up in early September from westside, but Tim had issues getting it in and last week he finally told me just to order it online, which I did. The skimmer came here Thursday, but had a crack in it, so I was forced to send it back. My replacement skimmer should be here Monday. I can't just trade my clam for a skimmer because I have already payed for one. And besides I did a lot of research on what skimmer to get and I don't want to settle for something else.

 

I just tested my water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and they are all 0 I'll do the calcium test tomorrow. I do weekly 12% water changes, and I am due for one tomorrow. I am sure I only put fresh in my tank for top offs. I have green algae growing on my rocks and plenty of coraline growing on snail/crab shells.

 

I feel really bad that I have put these beautiful animals lives at risk, but I am doing the best I can.

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Don't panic :)

We all did similar mistakes. Lesson learned, right :)

Check the calcium tomorrow. It it is lower, then you just had some precipitation.

If not it could be something else, like the bacteria bloom that could put your clam at risk.

I can take care of your clam for a while, as I said. Even if it is called "clam hotel" it is completely free lol

Everybody knows me on the forum, so you are sure to have your clam back when you are ready ;)

 

At this point your best friend is water change. Not too much, not too little. You want to get rid of the bad stuff, but at the same time keep what you need. Important thing is to not add more stress,

so be sure that the new salt water is really close to the one that is in your tank: temperature first, then salinity, ph and so on.

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Find someone on the site who's got a well established tank, such as grassi or ReefIt and see if they will hold your corals and the clam until your tank is more established, that should be step 1. Step 2 would be to invest in a RO/DI unit, if you are using tap water to top off, stop immediately and go purchase a RO/DI unit and until it comes in and gets hooked up, pick up RO/DI water, not just saltwater, from Tim at Westside. Adding bacteria in a bottle seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality, it does nothing. The green algae isn't a good sign, it's feeding on something, an that's not a good thing. You won't get coraline growth that fast, what you are seeing is the coraline that they already had on them when you got them. I've never heard of feeding a tank on a daily basis during a cycle, seems to me you tried to rush the cycle, and again, that's a very bad thing to do. The birdsnest may look great right now, I had one that grew very nicely that I got from Gumby here on the boards, it ended up dieing about a month after I got it, because my tank wasn't ready for it, and my tank at the time was almost 8 months old, my calcium was 480 or so, all of my other params were spot on, but my tank just wasn't mature enough. Trust me dude, putting the corals an clam into another persons tank for a month or more is the kindest thing you can do for them. I've got a duncan that's sitting in a fellow members tank because it wasn't looking good in mine, it's been there for a couple of months now, I need to get with him to find out how it's doing LOL. Adding the tang was a bad idea, same with the gramma, seriously man, we're not trying to be mean, but you rushed things way to much and are putting too much faith in the fact that your test kits' readings, your tank is still way to new for everything in the tank but maybe the clowns. The YT is hardy, for a tang, but there's still a good chance that it's going to kick the bucket simply because the tank is so new, and you could all of a sudden have an ammonia spike and boom, there goes your tang an gramma, the clowns could possibly survive a spike, just because they're clowns n are hard to kill lol.

 

An dude, I realize you think you are doing the best you can, but if you aren't trying to find a new home for them, ASAP, you are not doing the best you can, you are actualy being pretty selfish putting them through this risk, the best you can would mean a, finding them a temporary home til your tank is ready, and b, reading everything you can about the various cycles that our tanks can and do go through until your tank is ready. I would personally get everything out of the tank, fish included, til after the first of the year. I've rushed a tank set-up, and trust me, it's not fun watching your fish die, and watching all of your corals melt, because your tank isn't mature enough. I'm willing to bet Tim would be willing to hold your corals and clam for you until your tank is ready. And Mitchell, your tank wont be ready until you see purple coraline growing on your rocks and glass, and that's the bottom line.

 

 

HAHA Alex posted twice :P

 

Alex is an awesome guy man, I vouche for him personally...we love going over to his house an hanging out an talking reefing, too bad we live over an hour away, simply cause it's a pain in the *** to get to his place LOL if we lived closer, we'd probably be over there at least once a week LOL.

 

An besides, everyone needs to see Luigi in person at least once...

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Hell, I had to rush our latest build, simply because of the way things went down lol, crap happens, it's why I've still got corals scattered around in various peoples tanks LOL. Hell, our sump is still sitting on the floor in our living room, we just haven't had the time to take the system apart an put the sump in place, right now, I'm using a rubbermaid tub for a temp sump...Life sucks at times LOL. I'm lucky in the fact that all we've got in our system is 2 pairs of clowns an a solarensis wrasse and a bunch of zoos an shrooms, an all our new system is is a new stand for our 40b lol, but our original sump wouldn't fit under the new stand, so we had to make do with what we had. You can ask Saltfinsax if I've ever hesitated to call him up an ask him to hold corals for me, he kept all of our corals for us at one point for several months because the calerpa in our tank went asexual an nuked the entire tank, I was at his house the next day with all of the corals in a bucket, luckily we didn't lose any of the corals, but we did lose all of our fish, an boy was my gf steamed over that one, she loved those fish LOL. Point I'm trying to make with all of my rambling is this, if your tank won't sustain the life that you put in it in the way of corals and fish, get them out an put them in someone else's tank, even if it's just temporarily, until your tank will. It can take 6 months for a tank to fully cycle, it's why it's recommended to wait at least that long before adding anything other than softies and fish, and then not too much of that.

 

I know I come across as brash an abrasive an all those other adjectives that can't be mentioned here, but I mean well, I just don't have a filter, kinda like Brad, except my tempers worse LOL.

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I normally use Tim's fresh' date=' but if I can't get over there I pick up a couple gallons of distilled/ro/di water from Bi-Mart. I have a 1050 gph hydor koralia evo and a 295 gph maxi jet.[/quote']

 

You're runnin a 55g right? That's really not enough flow man, you need to ditch the MJ an invest in at least one more 1050 koralia, I'm currently runnin a 600+/- GPH return pump an a Vortech MP10 on my 40b, and once I get everything settled in, I'm planning on adding one more MP10, I'm wanting to run roughly 40x turnover in my DT, and I know people who's turnover rate approaches 90x...Hell, I've got a buddy who runs 4 MP40's and 2 modded K4's on his 120g, it's kinda disgusting, but the way he's got them all set-up, well, his stand stays completely spotless LOL and his corals absolutely love it.

 

Point is, it's not enough flow, you need a LOT more flow.

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