A Few questions about Possible Problems.

[278923]

My 14g Biocube has just gotten to the end of the cycle i beleive nitrates nitrites and ammonia are almost non-existant and i had a few questions on whether these things should happen or if i should be doing something to fix it. First thing is my tank became a foggy white-ish color. I've heard this happens near the end of the cycle as a "bacterial outburst"? not sure the correct word but it was something along those lines and that it would just go away with time. Following this a few days later the water became a wierd green tint. I've done water changes and it's definately the water that is green. I read this is an algae that grows due to excessive nutrients/light. Is there any better way to eliminate it other than leaving the light off a few days?(I have 2 condylactis - Photosynthetic.) And finally after all of these fun situations occurred i've notice some white spots appearing on my live rock. They are not soft like a sponge and are more like the rock is turning white? They're more "areas" than spots. and it almost looks like i dragged the corners of the rock against concrete. Any ideas what this is and what i need to do? or more just waiting it out?

Thanks everyone.

[soymilk]

Your tank should never become cloudy. A bacterial outbreak is not a normal process in a cycle. The best thing for you to do is to give the anemones to someone else to take care of for the time being. Take out as much livestock as possible. You need to then do a massive water change, and then put a blanket over the tank and don't turn on the lights for a few days. As of right now, your parameters and water quality is all over the place. The anemones might not make it.

The white spots is probably areas where the coralline algae is dying.

Then you gotta figure out where all the excess nutrients is coming from. Theres 2 ways nutrients can enter your tank, either thru the food you feed anemones/fishes or your water has phosphate in it. Tell us more about your tank, whats inside? what do you feed? how often? Where are you getting your top off water? Whens the last time you changed your water? etc etc

[Darbex]

Also you said you believe your organics are zero. Are you testing the water? If not you should be testing to make sure they are. Like Soy said a cloudy white is a bacterial bloom which is caused by organics for them to eat is really high. Which will be followed by a algae bloom (green water) if the organics are high and there is significant light source.

[278923]

My nitrites nitrates and ammonia are 0 but i have no idea about the CA, Alk, or anything else really in depth. I just began so i just bought the API saltwater master kit...... guess i need another 50 dollar kit haha... i beleive i know where the algae may be coming from.... i work odd hours so my light is on A LONG TIME each day. Guess it's time to cut down the light time.. is there any way to prevent this in the future? some kind of mechanical removal or organism? I enjoy being able to see my fish so I'm wondering if there's a way to allow the light to stay on longer without having this problem pop up again.

[278923]

Inside my tank i have.... like 10 lbs of live sand? probably 15-20 lbs live rock, 2 damsels, 2 condylactis, 1 feather duster worm, 1 cleaner shrimp. I feed the fish "nutrafin max marine flakes" once a day. about 4-6 of the crisps. I feed the anemones "flukers freeze dried river shrimp" usually once every other day.(only one anemone eats these) I'll add a peice of marine algae once a week about an 1 inch by 1 inch peice. About once every two weeks i'll feed frozen brine shrimp.

[Darbex]

Once the parameters are under control and the light time is adjusted then it should go away. Put your lights on a timer and only run them if they are needed. If you dont have any corals or anything you really dont need the light on. I am cycling a tank and I dont run any lights on it at all, except in my sump because I am building up my macro colony. I will only start lighting up the display tank when I begin adding fish. Make sure when you start adding fish or corals to go slowly add only a few at a time depending on size of tank.

[Darbex]

By the way Calc, Alk, Mg is not important really until you are about to start adding corals. Just saw your post. I think you are rushing it you shouldnt have that much in there if you are just now finishing your cycle. Also it looks like you are feeding to much.

[278923]

feeding to much what? what is it you see that i need to cut back on?

[myjohnson]

Do you use RO/DI water?

[278923]

ehhhhh idk, i buy my water premixed from my LFS.

[soymilk]

sigh...

things aren't adding up. You say there are no nitrates yet you had both a bacteria bloom as well as an algae bloom. Either you're not testing right, the test kit is messed up, or you're not telling the truth. It is very very very hard to get 0 nitrates in a saltwater aquarium.

The reason why they recommend a year before keeping an anemone is because of stability. Anemones need a stable tank. In the past month or 2 since you've started the tank, you have a bacteria bloom, algae bloom, and a sick anemone. Having the light on too long might contribute a little to the algae, but the main reason why theres algae is because of nutrients. Its basically fertilizer. Nutrients is the reason for the cloudy water, nutrients is the reason for the green water, nutrients is the reason for the algae.

Nutrients = Nitrate , Phosphate.

So how exactly is your nitrates 0 when you obviously have nitrates.

You feed, flakes every day, Freshwater shrimp every other day, and brine shrimp once every 2 weeks. In a tank thats about a month old, that just finished cycling. Man, I don't even know what to say. You don't even suppose to have anything in there til it finishes cycling. Yet you've pretty much fully stocked your tank and fed heavily. Condys are photosynthetic, so they get part of their food from light. You only need to suppliment them like once a week.

Are you taking out old food? or are you letting it rot? What kinda water are you using to top the tank off? How often are you changing out the water? How much water?

p.s. go buy a cheap timer..... that fixes how long you leave the longs on everyday.

[snookfish]

I would be willing to bet you have 3 things going on that are causing all of this.

1) the LFS water is skimping on filters and are selling you poor quality water. I use to do that and could never get rid of certain algaes, now I just use watermill Ro water and mix in my own salt, and within a month, no algae!

2) too much too soon, you shouldn't have ANYTHING in that tank. I mean nothing except Live rock and/live sand and a filter/skimmer. nothing living should be in there. Once the cycle is complete then get a small cleaning crew, then a week later get 1 fish, then don't add another organism for at least a month. Yes I know rock living in water is boring, But look at the consequences!

3) way too much food!. feed a very, very small amount of the flake once a day and don't be afraid to not feed at all once or even twice a week. don't feed any of the frozen foods in a new tank for the first 3-4 months because they have trace amounts of phosphates. and even though it's "trace" it adds to a tank that doesn't need anymore nutrient issue.

Good news, your going to get past all of this and be much wiser for it. But to resolve the issue you have to make a friend and let them keep all your fish/anenomes/corals you may have. then do a 100% water change and basically let your tank recover. it will probably take a month and you doing weekly water changes, but you might save everything if you can get it moved ASAP, like tomorrow! I live in Katy and I have a 20gallon tank sitting in my garage. i can loan it to you for the time being, maybe we can work something out. I have been needing to change out my filter floss as well but I can get it to you to reseed your tank and cut a week off of recovery time.PM me if you want the help.

[278923]

I rarely need to top off. it's a biocube so the water rarely goes anywhere but when i do i use freshwater. Yeah... i'll stick to cycling the tank with damsels. Since you're one of THOSE people that think the tank cycles just as well with nothing in it why not just piss in your tank? The ammonia is then there do it daily for 2 months and your tank is cycled? If i wanted to know what i shouldn't have the title of the thread would be "What shouldn't be in my 2 month old tank" Everything is doing fine even in the mirkiness. EVEN THE ANEMONES! OMGWTFBBQ WHO KNEW!? I get my water from Aquarium World. If anyone other than myself has been there they probably know that it is one of the largest and best fish stores around. I doubt they're being cheap on the filtering

[soymilk]

Dude, No need to get all uppity. You asked questions, you got answers. It apparently is not the answer your looking for. So kudos to you and your tank bud. What's the point of asking questions if you're not going to take any advice. Apparently you know better than the collective, progressive, knowledge of hundreds of thousands other reefers.

One tip, Mirkiness is not a good thing. It's not something that just happens. It's a grave indicator that something is seriously wrong with the water quality in your tank. Your tank inhabitants are suffering. Don't believe me? Try asking nano-reef.com, reefcentral.com, reef2reef, marshreef.com.

Post up a fts and prove me wrong.

[278923]

Answers? To questions i diddn't ask maybe. If you re-read my post the questions you asked that were relevant WERE ANSWERED. The statements of junk i diddn't need to know were not.