Cirenus

Thank you guys for all of your advice =)

It was originally being ran a lot because I had a condy nem, that i was transferring from the old tank to this one, but when I saw that he was starting to stress out due to the water quality not being as good and aged as the old tank, I went ahead and gave him to a friend whom had a good tank going. And to top everything off, it looks like something spawned in the tank. Did not notice this earlier when I did a water change, but I have little spots on top of the water now, thousands of little whitish/clearish specks that almost look like they could be offspring...

I am also considering changing my light cycle to get less light in the tank, right now it is on a timer from 8 am till 7 pm, considering changing it from 9-6. Also, looking at the plants I do have in the tank, 2 calupra. One of them looks like it shed some of its plant stems, which could be causing some of the nutrients for the algae, noticed them caught on the underside of one of my LR while i was cleaning a little bit ago.

Yeah, we came to that conclusion at the fish store, that the nitrates were not showing up because they were being eaten quickly, completely spaced po4 testing because I do not have one in this basic test kit. I will need to go pick one up at my LFS tomorrow. Another thing that supports the algae bloom theory is that my scallop, and snails go crazy as the water gets darker, the scallop starts to feed like mad on things in the water, and the snails all come out and start munching.

It will be cloudy for about 10 days, looking like weak tea at day 1, and roughly at day 5 it looks like dark yellowish green water, and then over the course of another 5 days, it will become crystal clear. Which lasts for about 3 days, and then it starts all over again. Up until day 3 I can still see my fish, day 4 and 5 only if they swim to the front of the glass. At day 7 I can see through one end to the other again. this started happening shortly after this tank finished cycling, I'd say within about 1 week of it being at 0 ammonia and nitrates it started. The water is from city, I tested it, and had my LFS test it when I first started this tank to see what the nitrates and ammonia levels were at. The ammonia came back with trace levels, and the nitrates came back being slightly above 0. I do not know if I can pin point the water as the single cause though, because prior to this tank, we had another 55g setup that had been going for 3 months, with perfectly clear water using the same tap water. Only reason we had to get this new one going was because the old one had gotten a crack and was bowing...

Currently I have 4 t5 HO lights, 50/50. I run a HoB Protein skimmer with refugium built in with live rock in it for added filtration. I have 2 Cardinals, 2 false clown fish, 2 pistol shrimps, 1 blackfin shrimp goby, and 2 YWG, 1 emerald crab, 4 blue legged hermits, 2 Jumbo snails, 4 Astrea snails, not sure how many Nassarius snails I have left as some of them got eaten by my hermits, and 1 electric scallop. Currently doing 1 10-15% water change every other Saturday. Daily, scrubbing of the glass with magfloat scrubber. Currently feeding twice a day with flake, small amounts that are eaten in less than 15 seconds. Every Saturday, i give 1 small piece of silverside to the emerald crab as a treat which he devours. My gobies do not get to the flake before it is eaten so I supplement their diet, with 1/3rd of an algae wafer, crushed once a day. On the 3rd saturday of the month, I replace morning flake with frozen mysis shrimp, 1/4th of a frozen cube, thawed and administered with a baster for the fish. One thing that does supply nutrients to algae is that I have to use tapwater for my water changes, it is treated with API to take away the chlorine and ammonia that is present, and it sits in a plastic tub and mixed with salt, measured, and allowed to sit over night with a powerhead in it.

Took some water down to the LFS the guy down their thinks that it might be an algae bloom, and the reason it went away was because it had devoured all the food. This could explain why my filter feeding scallop is going nuts and hanging out up front now.....eating all that gunk out of the water. That being said, he could not tell me the best way to get rid of it, he said their is an algae destroyer that you can purchase and put a small amount in to your tank. He did not have any in, any other options?

All Real reef rock =)

It could definitely be something other than filtration, just am having a hard time placing the root cause and am trying different options to figure it out.

All my Parameters were on the dot that i could test for yesterday when I tested. Ammonia - 0 Nitrites - 0 Nitrates - 0 Ph - 8.1 Salinity was at 1.21, kind of low so when I did a water change I added some more salt to the water that was going to go in so that I could raise it. The tank was setup early june and finished its cycling early july. Ill post some pictures tomorrow morning. Going to take a sample of my water down to the LFS to see if their tests show something different. Its weird, my tank will clear, then get cloudy three days later, and then 10 days after that get super clear again. Its done this repeat 3 times now. It literally looks like someone made weak tea out of the water. Its kind of frustrating for me because before this tank, we had another 55g FOWLR that was perfect from day 1, we have done the exact same things with this one, and its just been a struggle this time around.

I was running a HoB carbon filter and a protein skimmer. Since the HoB filter was not making a dent in this water issue, and was just catching other detritus stuff I decided to take it off a couple days ago.

I am looking at getting a canister filter for my 55g FOWLR tank and was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions? I have been having issues with keeping the water clear and am hoping this will help with the extra filtration.

What city are you located in? And what is your asking price on the jawfish? Also, what size are the canisters? And price?

It has finally cleared up! I promised some pictures when it finally did, here is a link to a bunch of pictures. Was unable to get any good ones of my YWG and the gray female watchman goby, they were having alone time apparently in their cave system they built with their pistol shrimp today. http://s1054.photobucket.com/albums/s490/Ravenofthought/Tank%20Cleared%20up/

Its really funny to watch them right now, the YWG and the gray watchman, just bounce back and forth between pistol shrimps now.

Meant to put Pistol shrimp for subject title >.

So when I placed an order for a pistol shrimp and a goby 1 month ago, I ended up with a mixed up shipment, I got 2 pistol shrimps...and a DoA Goby =(. The pistol shrimps made homes on the opposite sides of my 55g tank, and live under some massive LR that I have at those sides. I went ahead and ordered a black fin shrimp goby. When he arrives he is super healthy so after QT I put him in, he paired up one of my shrimps immediately. I had my LFS order in some watchman gobies for me and when they came in I went to go pick one up, QT'd him and afterwards put him in. They both paired up with one shrimp which was quite comical. However I did not want my other shrimp to get lonely so I went and got this beautiful gray watchman at my LFS. QT'd her and dropped her in a few days later. She paired up with the other shrimp yay, but then she left that shrimp and moved in with the other shrimp... So i have 3 gobies to 1 shrimp =( After bullying my YWG for a few days she finally started to cozy up with him... And now, my YWG and the gray have moved out together to live with the other shrimp! Interesting way that it all worked out but the pistol shrimp is excited. He is now digging up a storm over in his spot now that he has some buddies! It is also really funny to watch the two watchman's rub on each other. Once my sandstorm clears up from the initial crazy digging the shrimp did Ill take some good pictures. ( its almost cleared up enough )

Keep us updated on how the little bugger is doing!

You should not be to concerned yet, it can take a couple days for them to feel comfortable enough to eat after the stress of going to a new tank. Make sure you have lots of live rock for him. This will help you maintain a pod population for him to eat and provide hunting grounds for him. You can also supplement his diet by feeding him mysis shrimp. If he seems to be avoiding eating mysis or frozen food, then buy some pods, and target feed him from a turkey baster. If you want to train him to eat other foods, then mix those foods with the pods when you go to target feed, it will help him associate that the other things you put in are food as well. Most important thing you can do is add LR though, this type of blenny can eat up to 100 pods in a day.

Could be a conch..but from the picture I can only see a little bit of the detail on the shell and it has a snout...Conchs have two antenna's generally from the ones I have seen.

Very cool was just curious, they are definitely cool looking. I haven't been out to any of the coasts whirlpool spots in way to long, going to go have to head out and take a look.

Curious, what temp water are you keeping them in since Oregon's coastal waters tend to be a lot colder. Are you running a cold water tank setup?

That would be nassarius snail or commonly known as the zombie snail, it has a snout that they use to look for food with, they generally will bury themselves in the sand, and sometimes will scale the glass looking for food. Great sand bed cleaners, and harmless.

What are you asking for the Coral Banded Shrimp?

It was kind of interesting pulling them out.... Found where all my pods were hiding....and found about 10 little black snail type creatures...small flat black shells on them