Reefwithareefer
New member
Hey everyone. I am new to reefkeeping and my tank is around 10 months old. I know this is long, but wanted to make sure I give all the info.
I am pretty happy with how it is running except for large amount of tiny particles floating in the tank. It makes the tank look cloudy.
I have read some threads on what it could be or how to fix it ect, but not sure if it fits my issues.
The tank also seems to have mini cycles every two or so months. What I mean by that, is that the live rock gets tiny bubbles all over it. It starts out slow and gets worse.
I had another issue with my LPS closing up or dying a month ago and was told of many different issues that could cause them to do this. I took the opinion that maybe there were too many nutrients in the water as my glass was needing to be cleaned constantly. The glass would be covered in 2 days. I thought it was algae, but the more i researched, it seemed to be diatoms, rather than algae. It was a reddish brown color and when I cleaned the glass it would come off looking like dust in the air. I was told this was because of nutrients as well.
I feed the fish a homemade mixture of frozen brine, mysis, bloodworm and garlic. I feed enough, that it is gone within a minute and very little if any touches the sand bed.
The sand bed was anywhere from 1.5 inches deep to 3. It seemed the only place that nutients etc could be, so I took almost all the sand out. It is now about a 1/2 inch to an inch deep. This really seemed to help with reducing the algae/diatom growth on the glass. After the tank settled down in a few days (after taking out sand) the LPS that had sucked themselves inwards, started to come out.
I had no bubbles on the live rock to spreak of, before removing sandbed. It has been about 2 weeks since removing sand and now there is tiny bubbles all over the rocks again. Everything is growing and looks healthy.
I did a 25% water change after removing sand as well.
This is my setup...
I bought three smaller, well established and healthy tanks and made them in to one. All rock etc was at least 3 years old.
180 DT with approx 150lbs live rock, two overflows that are located in the corners of tank, one drain per overflow, 4 water outlets from return pump (2 in each overflow) (12 fish (approx 30" of fish) including sand sifting goby, Mostly have LPS and softies, 3 SPS, 1 lg anenome and 1 small, 4 various shrimp, lots of hermits and snails, 3 starfish, 4 crabs.
90 gal refuge that is 3/4 full of live rock with a 1/2" or so sand bed.
75 gal sump that holds a bubbleking 180 skimmer, carbon reactor. rowaphos reactor, a 2 lil fishies 150 reactor that holds filter cloth (just added this).
The DT is upstairs and drains into refuge, that is downstairs, the fuge drains into the sump and is pumped back up to DT.
I have two tunze powerheads (variable speed) that run 24/7 and two powerheads (constant) that turn on for 2 minutes every hour to make sure detritus does not settle anywhere. They stir up a minimal amount of sand.
I have a tunze ATO that runs off the 2 stage ro/di. The incoming water shows it being at 22 on the tds meter and the out is at 0.
I dose (schlobster dosers)Randy Holmes 2 part recipe with mag. All dosed at seperate times during the day.
I have 1 bag of Nitra guard bio cubes in the refuge.
All water combined in tanks = about 230 gals. The Apex does a daily water change. I exchange roughly 2 gals a day. It is actully approx 1.75 gals. so in 21 day I exchange approx 37 gals. That is 16 percent in three weeks. I mix up new saltwater in a 55 gal barrel with ro/di water only. It takes approx 30 days to empty. 1.025 gravity with Instant ocean regular salt
My calcium is at 420
Alk is 10
Mag is 1200
Almost zero ammonia and Phospates, (as close to zero without being 0)
Ph is 8.2
Orp runs between 320 and 350. I turn on refuge lights when DT lights go off.
In the end, my questions are..
Why tiny bubbles on rock (not micro)
Even though I removed sand and it helped the algae/diatom on the glass, the algae is coming back again. Why?
The tiny particles in the water make water cloudy, how do I make water crystal clear. I have turned off powerheads and it is not really settling, so I assume it is not sand being tossed around. It does not appear to be microbubble either. I can see particles coming out of the return nozzles.
Where are the particles from?
Would a ozone generator help clear the water?
Once again, sorry for being long winded.
I am pretty happy with how it is running except for large amount of tiny particles floating in the tank. It makes the tank look cloudy.
I have read some threads on what it could be or how to fix it ect, but not sure if it fits my issues.
The tank also seems to have mini cycles every two or so months. What I mean by that, is that the live rock gets tiny bubbles all over it. It starts out slow and gets worse.
I had another issue with my LPS closing up or dying a month ago and was told of many different issues that could cause them to do this. I took the opinion that maybe there were too many nutrients in the water as my glass was needing to be cleaned constantly. The glass would be covered in 2 days. I thought it was algae, but the more i researched, it seemed to be diatoms, rather than algae. It was a reddish brown color and when I cleaned the glass it would come off looking like dust in the air. I was told this was because of nutrients as well.
I feed the fish a homemade mixture of frozen brine, mysis, bloodworm and garlic. I feed enough, that it is gone within a minute and very little if any touches the sand bed.
The sand bed was anywhere from 1.5 inches deep to 3. It seemed the only place that nutients etc could be, so I took almost all the sand out. It is now about a 1/2 inch to an inch deep. This really seemed to help with reducing the algae/diatom growth on the glass. After the tank settled down in a few days (after taking out sand) the LPS that had sucked themselves inwards, started to come out.
I had no bubbles on the live rock to spreak of, before removing sandbed. It has been about 2 weeks since removing sand and now there is tiny bubbles all over the rocks again. Everything is growing and looks healthy.
I did a 25% water change after removing sand as well.
This is my setup...
I bought three smaller, well established and healthy tanks and made them in to one. All rock etc was at least 3 years old.
180 DT with approx 150lbs live rock, two overflows that are located in the corners of tank, one drain per overflow, 4 water outlets from return pump (2 in each overflow) (12 fish (approx 30" of fish) including sand sifting goby, Mostly have LPS and softies, 3 SPS, 1 lg anenome and 1 small, 4 various shrimp, lots of hermits and snails, 3 starfish, 4 crabs.
90 gal refuge that is 3/4 full of live rock with a 1/2" or so sand bed.
75 gal sump that holds a bubbleking 180 skimmer, carbon reactor. rowaphos reactor, a 2 lil fishies 150 reactor that holds filter cloth (just added this).
The DT is upstairs and drains into refuge, that is downstairs, the fuge drains into the sump and is pumped back up to DT.
I have two tunze powerheads (variable speed) that run 24/7 and two powerheads (constant) that turn on for 2 minutes every hour to make sure detritus does not settle anywhere. They stir up a minimal amount of sand.
I have a tunze ATO that runs off the 2 stage ro/di. The incoming water shows it being at 22 on the tds meter and the out is at 0.
I dose (schlobster dosers)Randy Holmes 2 part recipe with mag. All dosed at seperate times during the day.
I have 1 bag of Nitra guard bio cubes in the refuge.
All water combined in tanks = about 230 gals. The Apex does a daily water change. I exchange roughly 2 gals a day. It is actully approx 1.75 gals. so in 21 day I exchange approx 37 gals. That is 16 percent in three weeks. I mix up new saltwater in a 55 gal barrel with ro/di water only. It takes approx 30 days to empty. 1.025 gravity with Instant ocean regular salt
My calcium is at 420
Alk is 10
Mag is 1200
Almost zero ammonia and Phospates, (as close to zero without being 0)
Ph is 8.2
Orp runs between 320 and 350. I turn on refuge lights when DT lights go off.
In the end, my questions are..
Why tiny bubbles on rock (not micro)
Even though I removed sand and it helped the algae/diatom on the glass, the algae is coming back again. Why?
The tiny particles in the water make water cloudy, how do I make water crystal clear. I have turned off powerheads and it is not really settling, so I assume it is not sand being tossed around. It does not appear to be microbubble either. I can see particles coming out of the return nozzles.
Where are the particles from?
Would a ozone generator help clear the water?
Once again, sorry for being long winded.
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