help need with cloudy water.

[electropleb]

hello, new guy here needing some help.

I've had my tank up now for around 4 months. the 1st 3 months the water was clear, but for around 3 weeks now the water has been cloudy. I've had the water tested and everything is good, my fish are all doing very well. It was started out with 1 molly and the 3 damsels I had from my previous tank (30gal). They all did fine with the change over :bigsmile:

The tank I have now is a 125g tank, it has the biggest wet/dry (sump) filter I could find, I was told by the shop owner its for a 130g tank, but on the paper work that came with the filter it said its for a 300g tank.
The part that takes the water away from the tank and goes into the filter is at one end of the tank, and is not in the middle.

I have 3 power jets in the tank, so that the water dose a circular motion. I have the water heading towards the filter.

The rocks I have in the tank are I believe sandstone, I found them at medina lake.

I believe that I am doing everything right, but the water is now cloudy :( I did a water change around 1 week ago. I have started to feed strictly brine shrimp instead of the dry food that I had been. I was told by the guy at the shop that brine shrimp was best. I usually put between 1-2 cubes in at night for the 15 fish and 5 crabs in my tank at the moment.
Now a couple of days ago my 2yr old son did dump the small bag of dry food I had stopped feeding in the tank. I scooped out most of it. (and now have my 2 year old locked up in a cage lol) :wink_smile:

so, what is making my water so cloudy? I cant see from one end to the other end, I can see from side to side. (tanks 6 feet long)

Thanks for you help.......

[tony]

moved this where it would get more views for you

is the cloudiness caused by sand/silt or does it look more like a chemical?

i dont believe that brine have the same nutritional value as mysis, i always feed a little of both

[electropleb]

yes, it dose look like sand in the water. it kinda looks like its coming from the rocks. I was thinking do I have the right rocks in my tank? or are they dissolving, because thats what it looks like!

[electropleb]

yes I looked closer at my tank and it dose look like sand in the water. how do i clear this up? and how did I do this?

Thanks

[jrsatx20]

pics of your equipment would help a lot

[electropleb]

taking some pictures now, I will have them up in 5mins

[jrsatx20]

cool. filter floss will help filter water

[hobogato]

yes, the rocks are dissolving in the water. sandstone is not a good choice for live rock for any aquarium, fresh or salt for that very reason. pull those rocks, get some live rock to replace it, and run some filter floss somewhere in your system to remove the particulate in the water and you should be fine.

[electropleb]

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/?action=view&current=P1080307.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090036.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090037.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090038.jpg



http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090039.jpg

[Agent Jones]

here ya go...hope this helps and you dont mind!



gotta use the




http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090039.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090038.jpg


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090036.jpg


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1090037.jpg

[electropleb]

whats filter floss? and where do I buy it? dose it cost alot?

[electropleb]

cool thanks

[jrsatx20]

lfs sell the pad. its blue on one side and white on the other side. usually goes for about 6$ a sheet. cut a piece stick where the water is draing from the overflow. and as hobogato mentioned ditch those rocks and get live rock. u can find good deals here on maast. can we get a pic of ur sump.

[electropleb]

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/?action=view&current=P1080307.jpg

[Daniel]

Raise your power heads take off the front plastic part on them so you can get a wider flow. Put some filter floss in the HoB. I would turn off the lights for a couple of days and cover the tank with blankets to make sure its not an algae bloom. Is that cyano I see on your sand bed? What are your phosphates reading at?

[jrsatx20]

lay the floss in that top tray. should clear things up within a nite or two

[electropleb]

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/electropleb/P1080308.jpg

[Texreefer]

If those rocks are what you say they are. they are likely dissolving in your tank.. I would SLOWLY replace with some good quality live rock

[jrsatx20]

if there is a openin at the bottom where the heater is u can roll it up and stuff the floss there easier to take out and change

[electropleb]

thanks everyone, i will get some floss tomorrow and try that. if that don't work I'll take the rocks out and get some live rock. I do like my rocks and don't really want to get rid of them, but I will if I have to.
dose everything else look ok? filter? power jets? anything I am missing.

[electropleb]

why slowly?

[jrsatx20]

well. looks like u have air bubble in ur j tubes in the overflow. over time those bubbles will get bigger and stop the suction in turn burn up pump or overflow tank. cynao bacteria present. maybe the fact that u got the rocks from the river and they dont filter like live rock (lr). lr is expensive but worth it. i would take the adapters off the koralias and raise them higher in the tank.

[jrsatx20]

adding to much at one time will have a tank crash happen. the die off on the rock will send your parameters out of wack and kill everything.

[electropleb]

should i have my power heads all pointing the same direction?

[jrsatx20]

i would put 2 on the right side and 1 on the left just to get everything over to the over flow to get filtered out

[electropleb]

thanks everyone so much. I will move the power heads around now, and get some floss tomorrow. and slowly change my rocks to live rock.

thanks everyone, so much.

[Texreefer]

..... if that don't work I'll take the rocks out and get some live rock. I do like my rocks and don't really want to get rid of them, but I will if I have to.

You have too!:)

[medi]

I agree you HAVE to get rid of those rocks. It will only continue to get worse, even with the floss

[electropleb]

update,

I bought some floss and added 2 layers to the top of my wet/dry filter. I moved the power heads to the way you told me to, and I removed the largest rock, and replaced it with a 7lb live rock.

ok so far?

[JimD]

Nope, you really need to replace all the limestone rock with live rock and the sooner te better...

[electropleb]

I was told to change over the rocks slowly, because if I did it all in one go I would kill my tank. so today I changed over one rock, how long should I wait before and change over anther rock? a month?

[electropleb]

one guy said

"If those rocks are what you say they are. they are likely dissolving in your tank.. I would SLOWLY replace with some good quality live rock"

[electropleb]

I said sand stone, but I believe they are limestone

[JimD]

You need to be testing your water while replacing the rock. Chances are you'll notice an Ammonia spike during the process, when all your test results zero'd out, you can add more live rock.

[Kristy]

I was told to change over the rocks slowly, because if I did it all in one go I would kill my tank. so today I changed over one rock, how long should I wait before and change over anther rock? a month?

Pulling the sandstone / limestone rocks out does not need to happen slowly. You will continue to have these problems until you do get that rock out. And the floss only helps to clean up the debris that is clouding up your water AFTER you pull the rocks out. It can't prevent all that new debris that is going to keep happening until those rocks are gone.

Putting in new rock is the part that you have to be slow and cautious about to make sure you don't cause an ammonia spike to your tank and cause the whole tank to crash. If it were my tank, I'd pull those rocks out yesterday and go in search of new live rock ASAP. If you can buy some cured live rock from another MAAST members tank (and it has always been in an aquarium or in aerated salt water) then it can go immediately in your tank. If I bought live rock from a store, I would set up a holding tank (buckets of salt water from a water change are fine) and put power heads on them to keep them aerated, then add them to the tank in a month.

Good luck. HTH

[MKCindy]

Yep, I agree with Kristy, sandstone/limestone has to go asap and don't worry about the cyano, your tank is only a few months old, so it is still cycling anyway. Don't rush it. The purpose of LR is more than just for looks. Deep in the rock, live very small animals that will help cycle your tank and create a unique natural filter system of their own. Shot, finding out what is hiding in there is half the fun.

[Gseclipse02]

Put some filter floss in the HoB.


i don't recommend this part... after a while they will clog up and over flow ... trust me

[electropleb]

I'm back, sorry my family were hungry so I had to take them out and feed them.

so update, I've taken all the limestone/sandstone out of the tank. all thats left are 3 live rock. one new one and 2 old live rocks.

as for the floss, I've put it into my filter, in the top shelf above the balls.

my tanks looking a little bare now :( but I'll test the water tomorrow and get some more live rock soon,

how long do you think I should wait before I get some more live rock?

[Daniel]

i don't recommend this part... after a while they will clog up and over flow ... trust me

I've never had a problem, and have done it every time I've had a bloom on the 3 tanks I'm running. But then again I clean out my lines and sump on a quarterly basis so that might be why.

Daniel

[brewercm]

If you can get some rock that is already cured you can put quite a bit in at a time. I'd probably go around 20 to 25lbs at a time, otherwise you need to find some way to cure it before putting in then you can put as much as you want. You can possibly even put more than the 20 to 25 but you will have a little die off regardless and with all those fish already there that would be my comfort zone.