Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board  

Go Back   Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board > General > Reef

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old 02-16-2007, 05:06 PM
Slick Fork's Avatar
Slick Fork Slick Fork is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Red Deer, Alberta
Posts: 631
Slick Fork is on a distinguished road
Default Need help with murky/greenish water

Hi there,

I'm having a bit of a water clarity issue with my tank and would like some suggestions. First I'll give you the tank spec's.

100 gallon tank with no sump as of yet
~70lbs Live Rock
Average 1" sand bed some places deeper, some places shallower
1 Seio 820, 1 Seio 620 Powerheads
Fluval 405 running carbon, filter floss, and rowaphos
Tunze 9010 skimmer
HO T-5 Lighting
Using RO water and IO Reef Crystal salt

Tank occupants:
2 False Perc clownfish, 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 skunk cleaner shrimp, 4 hermit crabs, Green star polyps, several zoanthid colonies, toadstool, hairy/frilly mushrooms, and some feather dusters.

The tank has been up running since the end of November so only about 2.5 months. I started it out by moving about 20lbs LR and 1 clownfish from my Nano tank (which had been running for about 6-7 months). Since then, I've been adding LR 15lbs here and there when I can afford it, also trying to keep the amounts small as most of it is uncured and I want to avoid ammonia spikes!

Throughout January I had been battling a hair algae/bryopsis outbreak, I had added a new clown to pair up with my existing female (so far so good) and in order to make sure there was enough food left to get him eating, I had to feed much more than usual (She would go into a frenzy and devour everything coming in!) I know that this overfeeding contributed to the hair algae outbreak but I didn't want the poor little guy to starve to death!

Anyways, I decided that I needed to starve the Hair Algae out, so I threw some Rowaphos into the cannister filter about a week and a half ago, the same day I did this, I added another 17lbs of Live Rock. The next day the water was cloudy with a greenish tinge. It has progressively gotten worse, this morning I couldn't see much of anything inside the tank.
My levels as of last night:
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.0235
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0-10 (lowest reading)
Alk read on the "normal-high" side of the scale (Red Sea testing kit)

Whatever is causing the murkiness, I'm not terribly concerned about my critters, they all look happy... In fact, the Zoa's, Toadstool, and polyps all seem to be enjoying this immensely as there is phenomenal polyp extension on everything. That being said, I'm sure they're losing out on light as the water is obstructing it.

Now, since adding the rowaphos I have noticed the Hair algae deteriorating, so that worked and this brings me to my theory... I think that the hair algae was sucking up all the nutrients that the skimmer didn't get as I was overfeeding the clowns. Adding the rowaphos stopped the growth/nutrient absorbtion by the hair algae leaving the door open for a water borne algae to step in and take up the slack. Does that make any sense?

Beneficial or not, the tank looks terrible so if anybody has any suggestions as to how I can get rid of this soup I would sure appreciate it. I know patience is a virtue, but I feel like I'm caring for a giant bowl of pea soup and not a reef tank!
Reply With Quote
 


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 01:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.