Help Please! I'm in trouble......

Z

Zoregon

New member
So my waters been steadily getting cloudier over the last few days and I thought it was because I added some calcium. Through googling I found "new tank syndrome".
I thought maybe my fish were breathing heavy so tested my ammonia. It's almost at 2 and nitrites are at .2, nitrates spiked to 25. All fish are accounted for except for one goby that I only see periodically. He lives under various rocks so no way to know if he's died.
I just dosed with Stability. What else can I do to fix this, how did it happen and am I doomed to lose my livestock? Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.
 
How old is the tank? Did you cycle it properly? The fact that you have nitrites is the issue. Sounds like the cycle isn't complete. When was your last water change? That would be a start to get your ammonia down.
 
If the water is cloudy from a bacterial bloom then aerate the water.Bacteria consumes the oxigen thats in the water fast ,causing the fish to breath harder.Put the wawemaker to agitate more the surface water .
 
I would agree the cloudiness could be the result of an algae bloom. I would also suggest a large WC to try and get the ammonia down, at 2ppm the fish will not fare to well. I would also suggest getting some seachem prime to lock up any ammonia.

I agree that more info is needed:

How was the tank cycled?
How old is the tank?
size of tank?
how many fish, were they all added together?
Are you dosing anything like vodka, vinegar, sugar?
Dosing anything else?
 
The tank has been cycled since the end of August. It's a 180g. Inhabitants are 4 clowns, 4 shrimp, 1 goby, medium yellow and medium purple tangs. Medium Foxface. All were added slowly and there has been no ammonia or nitrites until today.
I've been dealing with a diatom bloom and have been skimming wet. The last few days the skimmers been pulling a half a cup a day of thick skimmate. I thought it was due to the diatom die off.
Also, I was just thinking I washed my filter socks with some bleach. They were rinsed well but maybe not well enough?
Water changes with rodi water only every Saturday of 20 - 40g.
 
Zoregon said:
The tank has been cycled since the end of August. It's a 180g. Inhabitants are 4 clowns, 4 shrimp, 1 goby, medium yellow and medium purple tangs. Medium Foxface. All were added slowly and there has been no ammonia or nitrites until today.
I've been dealing with a diatom bloom and have been skimming wet. The last few days the skimmers been pulling a half a cup a day of thick skimmate. I thought it was due to the diatom die off.
Also, I was just thinking I washed my filter socks with some bleach. They were rinsed well but maybe not well enough?
Water changes with rodi water only every Saturday of 20 - 40g.
Click to expand...
If using bleach, you must rinse well and dry well.

Or you think the bleach makes your water cloudy? If so, your fishes will die
 
Not an expert, but I'm guessing the bleach killed a bunch of your bacteria and you're having a cycle. Anybody else think big water change and then a bottle of biospira would be a good plan?
 
Zoregon said:
The tank has been cycled since the end of August. It's a 180g. Inhabitants are 4 clowns, 4 shrimp, 1 goby, medium yellow and medium purple tangs. Medium Foxface. All were added slowly and there has been no ammonia or nitrites until today.
I've been dealing with a diatom bloom and have been skimming wet. The last few days the skimmers been pulling a half a cup a day of thick skimmate. I thought it was due to the diatom die off.
Also, I was just thinking I washed my filter socks with some bleach. They were rinsed well but maybe not well enough?
Water changes with rodi water only every Saturday of 20 - 40g.
Click to expand...

Do a larger water change if it looks like they are struggling. If it is bleach then you need chlorine remover. Bleach is bad and you do not want that to be the problem. Hopefully it is just the bacteria bloom and it is dying off causing ammonia to rise.

Make sure your pumps are clean and running at full power, oxygen can drop quick if your circulation is low and bacteria blooms. You may want to open the doors to your sump for air exchange. Ammonia and chlorine removing products can help your tank survive this issue, but they do not take care of the problem. It is possible that your fish just added too much ammonia to the system so your bio filtration could not keep up. Just do what you can to lower the toxic chemicals and stabilize your system. Water changes are your friend. Ride it out and hopefully everything makes it.
 
If it was the bleach it would kill off bacteria leading to a cycle.

I would do a good size water change, add some new carbon, Prime, get alot of water movement to oxygenate, and I would think dosing some bacteria would help.
 
So I've done a good sized water change. I received a uv sterilizer when I bought the tank so hooked that up. Dosed with Stability twice and now have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates.
The brown diatom algae is out of control. Everything is coated and the tank smells. The whole house smells almost like skimmate but not as strong. The tanks a mess. It looks terrible, brown film everywhere and when I turn the powerheads off to feed I can see the brown slime floating in the water column and when I look through the long end of the tank I can't see the other side for the white cloudiness.
I don't know what's going on as all parameters are in check and fish/coral all seem fine?
Ideas? Please??
 
:fish1: Hi, Keep doing large water change, and remove as much of the brown material as possible, add or change your carbon and use filter socks to help remove and floating or suspended material. Keep doing this until the water clears. Good luck, and it is a good thing the fish and corals are still alive and eating, also run your skimmer a little wetter, and keep an eye on your salinity, when doing this. :fish1:
 
Don't lose hope. In a tank your size, it's not going to clear up overnight. You need to pick a plan of attack and stick to it.

Keep doing daily water changes. The plan at this point is to export whatever it is as quickly as possible.

The algae is eating something. What I would do is during the water changes, get in there and pick off as much of the algae as you can and then suck it out with the water you're removing.

I'd also add an airstone into the tank to help inject more oxygen.

I'm not a fan of chemical warfare so I tend to battle things naturally before adding stuff to the tank. I do like to use carbon to pull stuff out.

Maybe I missed it, but are you using RO/DI water for the saltwater your adding during water changes? If so, test the output. Make sure the filters are still working.
 
Yes. Always rodi and change out the resin when it hits 5 tds. I do use
filter socks and have been changing them daily as there is so much 'debris'. I am guilty of over feeding so have scaled the little piggies back to one meal a day instead of two plus nori. I can't make more than 20g per day of water as we're on a well and pressures not great so a slow process.
Would 40g every other day be better? Also have ordered chemi-clean blue to add to sump.
 
The idea is to try and do the water changes faster than the stuff can build back up. I'm not sure if 20g/day or even 40g every other day is good or not.

Start with what you can do and see if it helps, but I'd be prepared to start looking at a booster pump so you can produce water faster. It will also be less wasteful as you'll have less bypassing the membrane.
 
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