massive amount of waste in bio bail

[Mighty E]

i've got a 30gal FOWLR w/ 4 occupants. lately i've noticed a large amount of waste in the bio-bail and the last few days have resulted in cloudy water. last water change was 1 week ago (25%) & the protein skimmer has been dumped regularly. only about 50% of the blue bio-bail is visible, the remainder is brown. i've also got an outbreak of algae (hair & slime) which is probably a result of over feeding & lack of clean up crew...my horseshoe crab trapped himself between a rock & glass overnight & perished. am I correct in what i believe to be the cause of my problems? any help is appreciated.

[bigmoe21]

a dead crab would cause bad water quality if left in there too long and yes the bad hair and slime could be caused from overfeeding, well the slime anyway its a buildup of bacteria, and a good clean up crew would help control the hair algae...are you using tap water?...and ur gonna probably get some responses to take out the biobale..is it a bak pak?..and whats the flow like in the tank?..hth

[Mighty E]

yes, using a bak pak skimmer. the crab was pulled out of the tank as soon as i saw him so it wasn't in for more than a few hours. i put about 1 gal of tap water in for a top off a while back but that's it. i usually get my water for changes from aquariumD. i had about 2-3 days with poor flow in the tank (power head took a dump) but that's been replaced since. i think i've got sufficient flow.

[akm]

I don't think one dead crab would cause any problems like that. Doing a water change with tap water would have more of an effect than that. Did you treat the water with any dechlorinator? The brown on the bio-bail sounds likes it's just algae. I don't really know what a bio-bail is but it sounds like it's the perfect place for algae to breed. And as you said there has been an obreak of algae in the tank, so of course there is going to be algae on the bio-bail.

[ErikH]

It sounds like you have some nasty detritus build-up on your biobale. How much live rock do you have in your tank? What is your stock list? Replace the bio bail with as much live rock as you can. If you have some that is already cured, rip out the bail. What kind of powerhead do you have? I have upwards of 3600 gph in a 75, so you tell me what you consider sufficient. How long has this tank been established, and do you have a CUCrew at all?

More than likely, the feedings coupled with a small clean up crew is the culprit as you suspect, but the more you tell us about your tank, from top to bottom, the better picture we can paint.

[Bill S]

You need to either 1) regularly clean the bio bale, or 2) remove it. I'm not sure I'd put live rock in it - that might give you flow problems. My bakpak on my 55 doesn't have any biobale or anything in it. Might also want to go to the mfg. website and look at the recommended mod for a mj1200 pump.

And yes, the crab and overfeeding ARE a problem.