Urgent help / advice needed

[VJNJIT]

Hello Guys,

I need your urgent advice on my tanks condition for past 2 days. I am not sure what it is. Please see the attached photos and identify what are these brown dust on my live sand, live rock, glass, power head, etc.. I am seeing it only for past two days. I have added the "simplicity GFo: High capacity GFo : absorbs phosphate" in my canister filter as per recommended by my LFS. They gave me 2 nylon bags one inside another (since holes are little bigger). Now let me know if the dust is that powder ? Is it very harmful ? Or some other brown algae or bacteria ? Just seeing it for 2 days after I added them.

Thanks,
Vijay

 

[fredfish13]

Not sure the brand of GFO you are using. I use BRS GFO and put it in a reactor. It is supposed to be tumbled very gently. That might be GFO on the rocks. Can't tell on my iPhone.

 

[VJNJIT]

Is it very harmful to the reef system and fishes ? I just turned off the canister filter. Here is another photo which shows on top of the pump outlet. What should I do now ? How should I get rid of it ? The high capacity GFo is given by my LFS - which is their brand names T and T marine aquarium.

 

[Giants13]

Is it very harmful to the reef system and fishes ? I just turned off the canister filter. Here is another photo which shows on top of the pump outlet. What should I do now ? How should I get rid of it ? The high capacity GFo is given by my LFS - which is their brand names T and T marine aquarium.

thats a copperband butterfly right? does he eat pretty well? are u gonna put coral in the tank with him?

 

[VJNJIT]

What should be the filter media bag size for simplicity high capacity GFO ? 300 micron or 800 micron?

 

[VJNJIT]

He has not started eating yet , he is still cleaning my tank of any worms or anemones. Hopefully he will eat.. I am planning to put frozen blood worms for him. Yes he is not picking any corals. Will the GFO leak harmful to him ? Or my corals ?

 

[CStrickland]

Do I understand correctly that you had no brown dust before you added the gfo?
I ask because sometimes gfo is recommended for diatoms, which are a brown dusty algae-ish thing.
If they are only after the gfo, and you failed to rinse the gfo, it is likely they are dust. If so I would take out the bag and gently rinse the media before returning it to the tank. For the bits that are in the tank now, it's not the worst mistake you can make. I would try to use a siphon to suck out what you can by hovering over the places it has settled and maybe run some kind of floss in the canister to catch it. You can use old pillows for this, or buy pillow stuffing, but I have never used a canister to do it so I am not sure how you would insert it. I have had good results from loosely packing old pillow stuffing into my overflow to catch dust to allow the skimmer to work on dissolved nutrients.

I would not worry about the iron harming your fish. If there is a danger it is from clogging the breathing, and it has already occurred. I would try to clean the water as fast as you can though, just to be safe.

 

[Sapelo]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but I'm wondering if the brown you see is actually cyano and that is the reason your LFS gave you GFO in the first place.

I do think we're missing some critical info here, mainly knowing how long your tank as been established. If it's a reasonably new setup (less than 6 months) I'm betting on the cyano.

You can run GFO without tumbling it, a number of people here do. I personally think it's less effective and does not last as long because it will tend to clump, but I would think it would do something towards lowering phosphates.

What other kinds of filtration are you running?

 

[wrott]

It's not harmful for now. Did you rinse the bag until the water was clear?
In a media reactor it takes 1-2 gallons of water to rinse it well enough so that no red GFO goes into the tank. It may take a lot more if it's in a bag. It can mess w/ corals if it settles on them and they can't expel the GFO, but I've never seen any ill effects from accidentally dumping it into my tank, just use a baster to swish it off the rocks and corals then do WCs.

 

[VJNJIT]

This tank is just a month old. I have not had this brown dust any where in my tank couple of days ago, but it's now on majority of places. I have a 60 gallon tall tank, 24 x 48 x 14. If it is cyano bacteria, will it grow super fast ? In just 2 days, from zero level to a lot? Also will cyano bacteria grow on glass like finger prints ? I have like 20 to 25 finger prints of this brown dust in 2 days on my front glass. My LFS tested the water few days ago, and found phosphates to be 2.0 ppm, and gave this high capacity GFO. How ever they said the mesh bag they have separately is having bigger holes, so they gave the second one for free and asked me to put one inside another, so that it will be effective. I brought home, added the GFo as per recommendation in to the bag, washed for a while, then put in it my canister filter. I removed the bio balls and ceramic rings in my canister to get more space as per my LFS recommendation. They said my 60 pound live rock will do most of the biological filtration and I donot need bio balls and ceramic rings. They also advised to load purigen in some time in another layer.

What is WCs by the way ?

 

[billdogg]

WC's are water changes.

At only a month old, I would bet that what you are seeing is a diatom bloom. It is a normal part of your tank settling in and becoming cycled. I wold also guess that your phosphates are high because your rocks are leeching it out. That is also very common with new tanks/new rocks.

Although it was nice of your LFS to suggest that you use two bags to help keep the GFO from spreading throughout your tank, and they were correct about not needing the ceramic rings or bio balls, if they are also the place that sold you a Copperband Butterfly for you month old tank, I would consider looking for a better store. CBB's are a notoriously difficult fish, especially in a new tank.

 

[wrott]

I agree w/ billdogg. If you rinsed it, it's not GFO, but diatoms. Especially on the glass like you described, GFO dust would not "grow" in a fingerprint pattern like other algae and diatoms will.
Try to go ahead and get the CBB eating prep'd foods asap, your lfs really screwed-up by telling you it was ok as a first fish in a new tank.
The diatoms are nothing to worry about, let them cycle out on their own--just part of reefing--nothing good happens fast!

 

[VJNJIT]

I bought the CBB from a different LFS. They don't know about the condition of my tank, but I loved the fish very much, and as per the research I did, they are pretty safe with corals. Also the CBB was not the first fish, in fact it is the last fish I added after a month almost after two weeks of nitrates showing up ( ammonia and nitrates over). The rocks which i bought is super live, so my cycling was complete pretty fast.

Now on the brown matter, will diatoms grow pretty fast? In 2 days all over the aquarium? How can I test if it is diatom or actually ferric oxide ? I used the magnet to touch the brown matter but it did not move.

Also the live rock is so many years old as per my LFS told, why will it leak phosphates now?

CBB is not eating stuff for the third day, I read in forums to go for frozen blood worms? But my LFS told no to any kind of worms for salt water tank.

Please advice.

 

[VJNJIT]

Also I added calcium solid cube which my LFS gave, since they also found calcium and magnesium to be low. For magnesium they gave reef advantage magnesium.

While this cause a diatom bloom ?

 

[slief]

Sadly, your tank is too new for fish like copperbands.. Way too new and I doubt he will last very long in your system. I would strongly suggest returning it back to the store where it came from. Otherwise, I doubt it stands a chance of surviving.

The bloom is likely in part due to the new tank. New tanks go through a wide range of cycles over the first several or more months as the tank matures. Not just the first cycle that everybody talks about. During that time various bacterial populations establish themselves. It's very common to see different algae blooms during that time that will come and go. None the less, a copper band typically requires a very mature tank to thrive and is very difficult to keep. I would suggest slowing way down and give your tank time to run it's course and mature. Keep the sand clean by vacuuming it regularly and when you replace that water with new salt water, that will count as your water change. Use RODI water and not tap to insure you aren't putting additional nutrients in your tank that can contribute to your problems. As for GFO, if you are using quality water as mentioned above and are taking it slow with your fish stock, phosphates shouldn't be an issue at this stage but it appears you are rushing things and with that comes issues like you are seeing.

As for what you are seeing on the bottom being harmful, it typically isn't but avoid stirring it up into the water column. Instead vacuum it out as mentioned above and vacuum the rest of your sand to remove detritus that may be settling in there.

 

[VJNJIT]

Thank you so much for the clarification about diatoms. I checked few photos for diatoms in Google, and found it very similar to what I have in my tank.

On CBB, He is kind of young, so I want to take a chance , I saw it eating in LFS so I bought it, but it's not now. Also please let me know if it is ok to try frozen blood worms for my CBB ?

 

[JenniB]

part of the problem maybe that your tank is not quite "mature" yet. this seems to be a kind of stage that tanks have to go through as they stabilize

 

[JenniB]

+1 to slief

 

[slief]

Thank you so much for the clarification about diatoms. I checked few photos for diatoms in Google, and found it very similar to what I have in my tank.

On CBB, He is kind of young, so I want to take a chance , I saw it eating in LFS so I bought it, but it's not now. Also please let me know if it is ok to try frozen blood worms for my CBB ?

Young or not, you tank is going to go through major chemistry changes and that fish really doesn't stand a change of long term survival. They are very sensitive fish and don't last long more often than not and in a newly cycled tank, your chances of it surviving are slim to none. They are considered expert level/difficult to keep fish and the fact that it's young makes it even less hardy. Sorry to say but if you want that fish to live and care about your stock, returning it would be the right thing to do for the sake of the fish.

 

[VJNJIT]

Thanks Slief! I am trying to catch the fish, but he is hiding and is too fast..