Is there something spawning??? help plz

[stingers81]

Hey guys
my tank has gone cloudy 2 days ago...and today it got even worse...there was this slimy white film on the water in my sump...it looked pretty grosse...I picked it up and did a 25% water change...the tank is still cloudy but the film is gone...what do you think is going on??? I dont have a refug set up but I do have some red macroalgae growing on my rocks...Its still pretty small though...not more then 0.5 inch tall...I also got a diatom bloom about a week ago....this is a bb tank so its definetly not a sand storm...I have around 22x flow rate..parameters are looking normal...pH is fine...Calcium is a little high..at 480...could it be a calcium precipitate at that level?? I put in 1 cupfull of Seachem Reef additive few days ago...what do you think is going on? should I do anything else or just wait??

any help would be great

cheers!

 

[bertoni]

You might have a bacterial bloom going on, or you might be seeing precipitation. Some or all of the SeaChem calcium additives have polygluconates in them, and that might be feeding the bloom. I avoid them for that reason.

What are the magesium and alkalinity levels?

If any of the animals are showing signs of stress, I'd start a series of 25% water changes, maybe 1-2 a day.

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

Bertoni,

What is a polygluconate and why is it bad?

 

[bertoni]

Polygluconate is basically a group of glucose (sugar) molecules that have been modified and bound together. IME, they can feed bacteria (such as cyanobacteria), which isn't something I want from a calcium supplement.

 

[Witchdoctor_h]

Excellent point. I'll watch for that.

 

[stingers81]

thanks for the reply
my calcium after the 25% water change is at 465 and my alk is at 10.66....so it sounds that this bacteria bloom is a good thing right? Do I have anything to worry about? How much longer would you say until I add my first fish to the tank?

 

[bertoni]

I assume alkalinity is in dKH? The calcium is still a bit high, but not enough to cause any problems. The bacterial bloom isn't necessarily good or bad, although they can deplete oxygen in the water and kill fish, etc.

I would wait for 3 weeks after the last non-zero ammonia reading, and start adding animals slowly at that point. If any live rock has been added to the tank, a series of 25% water changes might remove any curing byproducts.