brown spotted sand

[manny]

I'm new to saltwater aquariums and not really sure what to do. The other day I added kalkwasser calcium to my water and i think i added too much too quick. After all the cloudy water went away, my sand started getting brown spots all over it and air bubbles formed underneath it. Is this bad? Why'd it do this? Also, my sand seems kinda dirty (detritus and what not at the bottom) What can I do to clean all this crap up? I've got a 30 gallon aquarium with a striped damsel, emerald crab, and two snails, and 14 pounds live rock (Not finished adding live rock). Ammonia & Nitrite at 0.

[Isis]

You added kalkwasser STRAIGHT into the aquarium?? I wouldnt' do that next time... The brown spots could be from a number of things...

How old is your tank? Secondly, you might want to get rid of that damsel before adding any new fish, he will take the tank over and become very dominant.... Damsels are worthless. Wait at least a few weeks between each addition due to your small tank size. You can really throw your bacteria balance off with even a small addition, let alone large amounts of live rock. The detritus is causeing the brown spots more than likely, and the reason you have so much accumulating is because you either over-feed, don't have enough water flow, or both. What are you feeding and how often? You would want to aim for a flow that is between 10- and 20-times the tank volume per hour, which for you would mean 300-600 gallons per hour. And depending on the inhabitants, the more the better. You need power heads breaking up the dead spots, let alone something to eat the detritus if you can do that too. I recommend a cucumber or some type of hermit, but don't add these until you figure out your ultimate goal is for the tank. What is your goal by the way? Lighting? Equipment??

[manny]

I added the kalkwasser to a gallon of RO water and then poured that into my tank. I read that you should drip it though, about a drop a second. Unfortunately this was after I had already poured the whole gallon of mix in my water in a few seconds. I didn't pour the left over minerals that were at the bottom of the mixture in though. So I know I did that right. ummmm... To answer your questions, my tank is about a month old. I think a bad thing I did was that I only let the rock cure for about a week :? The guy at the fish store told me that would be long enough....I don't go to him for info anymore :x As for my tank info.

I got an Emperor 280 Filter which I've heard is both good and bad to have
150 watt heater
Powercompact lights 1-96 Watt Actinic 1-96 Watt 10000 K (Stay on for 13 hours)
14 lbs. Live Rock
44 lbs. Live sand
1.024 Specific Gravity
Ammonia at 0 finally
Nitrite at 0 finally
Calcium level is at about 400 I think. Not quite sure, I'll measure again today. I can never tell with those dumb test kits.
Ph was at 8.5 before adding buffer. Haven't been able to test today.
1 Mexican Turbo Snail
1 emerald crab
1 striped damsel who has died about three times and come back to life
1- 50 gallon Powersweep Powerhead
1- 30 gallon Powersweep Powerhead (I'm getting another 50 gallon
powerhead tomorrow to replace 30 gallon one)

One powerhead is positioned at the rear right at the top of my tank, the other is at the front left at top.
Unfortunately I don't have a protein skimmer yet. Looking at getting a reef ready CPR backpack.
Also, how much does a good kalkreactor cost? I read that it would make adding the kalkwasser easier

I've been changing water every week and feed once a day some flake food. Sometimes twice a day.

About three days ago, my rock was turning completely white and today I checked my tank(which is at my girlfriends apt.) and it had alot of brown algea growing on the rock. Or at least thats what I think it is. It's the same color as the nasty stuff on my sand. Anyways, its really ugly. So far thats all the info I can think of.

Oh yeah, my goal is to eventually have a reef tank.

Any help of what I've done wrong or right would be REALLY REALLY appreciated.

[robertpower3]

The brown algae on the rock and sand is probably new tank syndrome. It happens to alot of people. If you keep doing water changes and cleaning up the detrritus it should go away. I hear JimD is the man for Kalk reactors but i don't know how much he charges. You could also turn your lights off sooner that might help. Most people only keep them on 10-12 hours.

[manny]

Cool!!
Thanks for the help and the welcome guys. I got a couple more questions though. They may be dumb but oh well.
What's the best way to clean the detritus? I try vacuuming it up when I do water changes, but all I end up doing is sucking up sand with my gravel cleaner.

Also, Kim recommends getting a hermit or a cucumber. I've seen detritus packs and algae packs online with all sorts of cleaning animals. Wouldn't adding all those things at one time be too much of a bio-load for a 30 gallon tank? Would just one cucumber along with my emerald crab and two snails be enough?

Oh yeah, another dumb question probably. I've read that when you mix up your saltwater you're supposed to aerate it. What does that mean? I've just been using a powerhead in a spare ten gallon tank to mix up my salt and about 6 gallons of RO water. That good enough?

Help me out guys...These may be dumb questions, but I promise you I've tried to read up a whole lot on this reef tank stuff. That's why I'm up right now at 3:00!!! :P

[manny]

Anybody got any answers?

[Henry]

Hey Manny, welcome.

I would recommend the cucumber or snails over hermits since some hermits can become aggressive and start picking at corals and stuff. You should be fine mixing in the ten gallon and powerhead. Keep the questions coming, they help us all. I also have to agree w/Josh regarding the additives as opposed to kalk just due to the effort and size of tank. I would also recommend a good skimmer to help with the algea blooms and for a safety net. Good luck and keep us posted.

Henry

[alexwolf]

I would completely skip the red leg hermit, it has been WAY too much of a pain, it chases my xenia's around the tank :evil:

[GeoB]

I had a lot of detritus build up when I started, then I learned about the cleanup crews and haven't had a problem with it since. I never vacuum the sand.

As far as the bioload, I've heard that inverts don't add to it like fish do. I stocked the entire clean-up package that was recommended for my tank size at one time and did not have a problem, but my tank had be set up for a few months. I have a yellow cucumber that does great. The snails that I've had the best luck with are astrea and cerith for algae, and nassarius are great for detritus. The nerite snails I got seemed to be out the tank more than in it, I wouldn't get these again. I also wouldn't get blue-leg hermits again, but the scarlet hermits seem a lot more mellow and spend most of their time picking at the sand.

I've never aerated the salt mix, I just use a powerheard.

Those have been my experiences for what it's worth. Hope it helps.

[manny]

The other day I went to check on my aquarium and my gfs roomate had turned off the air conditioner in the apartment. Temp in my tank was 90 degrees!!! One of my snails died and the other one was about to die it looked like. I also freaked out when I found my emerald crab lifeless, just laying on the bottom of the tank. I was really ticked off then. I cranked up the AC and turned off my lights. With bad algea growth already before, now it was REALLY bad. Anyways, I did a water change and was checkin to see how my damsel was doin and there on one of my rocks was my emerald crab, back from the dead. I was like, wow, maybe I imagined the dead crab. But nope, I could see a few legs and pinchers in the area where I had tried to remove the "dead body". Come to find out, crabs molt :?

[manny]

Thanks for the info,
I 'm gonna try to get a couple of stars, a tigertail cucumber, and some snails. I'll also try using B-Ionic like Joshua recommended. But for now I already have some Kalkwasser mix, Seachem ph buffer, and Kent ProBufffer dKH. I found a good way to drip the Kalkwasser and I was just wondering when and how often I should use it. When should I use the ph buffer and the Probuffer? Should I mix them in the tank at the same time or over a course of several days? What order do I add them?