New to site and located in Winona, MN.

[Afish4u]

Originally Posted by [WDT]TardFarmer

Heya Matt Welcome aboard glad you found it!! I may have to hold onto that skimmer past Sunday as I need the pump for mixing salt for my tank move on Sunday. After the move I would have a Turboflotor 1000 skimmer Ocean runner 2500, http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...85&pcatid=8185 Eheim 1262 http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...04&pcatid=4604 and a megaflow 2 sump/filter http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...8&pcatid=13648 up for sale so if you would prefer that let me know. The price would be more but it is a better solution.

What are you going to use for a sump now that the model 2 will be gone?

[Jrmass]

He has either a 55 gallon or a 75 gallon tank (can't remember which it was) that he already had that Matt and I talked him into using in place of the acrylic thing he was going to use due to the chance of a power outage overflowing the unit.

Speaking of sumps though... Josh did you ever put any baffles into the sump or are you going to try to run it the same way I run mine w/out anything in there. I had baffles origonally but, removed them when I found them to be more of a hastle than a benefit.

Jason

[Kyuss]

Yeah 75 gallon tank will be moved downstairs as the sump. No baffles yet Jason, I figured I would try without first to see how it goes.

Matt, I sent ya a PM about the other stuff but I thought $175 for everything?

[Aquaman777]

Josh....so what are you going to have for sale in the next week? I will be in lacrosse picking up my stand next weekend. If I have enough money I will prolly contact you to see what you have on hand and what you are willing to part with. Let me know when it will be available though. $100 for the smaller sump and $175 for the larger setup??

[Aquaman777]

My tank is cloudy!! I checked my levels and my nitrate was high, so I did a water change. I exchanged 15 gallons and used RO water to do so. I've been reading and came across 'algone'. Should I look into that? Wait it out? What should I do? Tank has been up and running for a few months now.

[hansmatt]

I'd assume you used RO with salt added...just had to make sure. How big is your system? What sort of livestock? Any recent deaths, or unaccounted for critters? I'd try to stick to the water changes rather than adding things to the tank. There are some product that certainly can help the problem, but you need to find the root of the issue or it will occur again. Do you have any sort of filter sponge, filter sock, bubble trap with floss etc in your tank? Those tend to catch the nasties and give clear-er water, but over time they can get pretty built-up with nitrate.

[Aquaman777]

Yes, with salt. 72 gallon bowfront. eheim canister on the side wtih a skimmer on back. HOB whisper filter currently running carbon for the last 2 days. Sailfin tang, lawnmower blenny, fuzzy dwarf lionfish, 2 damsels, 1 clown. Emerald crab, arrow crab, anemone crab with a bubble tip anemome, 2 large turbo snails, 2 medium turbo snails, and a few other random snails. 40 lb. live rock. 3 feather dusters, hammerhead branch coral, 4 leather trees, and a large toadstool that is split.

[hansmatt]

Early on with this tank, I had canisters, mag 350's. The previous owner used them and so I stuck with them. I don't know about the eheim ones, but I'd consider weaning yourself off of them. The live rock is certainly a better filter, and doesn't build up detritus like the canisters can. They can be better than nothing, but the rock is (on a reef system) better in my opinion. You might eventually try to get some more live rock (or base rock)...people often get 1-2 lbs per gallon for better biological filtration. There may be some locals who chime in with extra for sale.
I'd assume your anemone is fine? I know they like powerheads, and can cause some damage in a hurry.
Again, this might help fix the big picture, but for now...I'd keep running carbon, another waterchange tomorrow would be good. I regularly change 25g on my system...over 130g. Granted I do this every few months, but as long as the temp & salinity are matched it shouldn't be an issue (oh, and if you don't have a sump, do it a bit more slowly than simply dumping in 25g of water...critters don't like that much

[Aquaman777]

Do you think I am too overstocked on fish? I am going to move my tank in the next few days onto a stand that I am purchasing from Olde towne pets. I don't have much sand on the bottom of my tank, maybe an inch and a half at most. Should or could I add more live sand to my tank or would that be a bad idea to add sand to a tank that has been running for a few months?

[Jrmass]

Typically adding sand into an established tank is very difficult as you end up with a mess due to so much fines being in the sand... I agree with what Matt said in riding it out with water changes... If you are really worried about it you can do more than one water change/day. I've heard of people doing *depending on how serious the situation is* up to 5-6 water changes in a day just to drop their levels. But, the biggest issue is what is actually causing the high levels... My first and biggest questions are "how much do you feed, how many times/day do you feed, and WHAT do you feed"? I think that your fish level is kind of high... but, not out of range for a tank of your size... But, the easiest way to get your nitrates out of whack is to feed too much. And it's the most common way to do so. I personally feed 2x/day and a lot of days I will only feed one IF AT ALL. Fish can go a long time just nibbling on the contents of the tank w/out even needing to be fed. When I leave for weekends (Friday Night-Sunday Night) I wont feed them at all. Just a little food for thought.

Jason

[Aquaman777]

I feed them once a day. I drop in a little cube of frozen brine shrimp. I spot feed the fuzzy dwarf krill. I haven't fed them much in the last 2 weeks. Every other day maybe. It just seems like there is a lot of junk at the bottom of my tank. I try to gravel vac it as much as I can without stirring up junk all over the place. I did have a HUGE algae bloom 3 weeks ago and I scurbbed it all away and removed it from the tank because it was overtaking everythingggg. Would a UV sterilizer help me out at all? I want to get the skimmer/sump from josh (tardfarmer) asap. Would that help me out do you think? I know that tanks will get cloudy and then clear up when cycling. How long do tanks stay cloudy when they are cycling?

[Afish4u]

When you were talking about the tank getting cloudy I was wondering if the tank ever cycled. Did you cycle the tank before you stocked it? How long was the tank setup before hand. Also The live rock was if cured when you got it? Was it out of the water for a long time?


Also about the model 2 sump. If its setup with the mega overflow tanks, they are not suppose to overflow, that is part of the reason why I run and ato on mine. Doesn't tardfarmer have his on battery backup? eitherway a bigger sump is always nice to have.

[Jrmass]

It depends as far as cloudiness of a tank. If the tank has inhabitants in it it can take a while (meaning until you get enough denitrAfying bacteria to eat up the ammonia, and then enough denitrIfying bacteria to begin to eat up the excess nitrates). If you keep up with your water changes for a few days that will definately help. Also, what did you mean by "It just seems like there is a lot of junk at the bottom of my tank. I try to gravel vac it as much as I can without stirring up junk all over the place." Really if you have any "junk" on the bottom you should really try your best to remove it as this is the detrius that everyone is always talking about. It is the extra food, fish wastes, and decaying matter that will start/add to an algae bloom, cause a cycle in an established tank, or even cause an entire system to crash if not taken care of. If you can vac. it up I would do my best to do so even if it means stirring up a bit of your sand bed a little each time you do a water change (****NOTE**** NEVER CLEAN THE WHOLE SAND BED IN ONE CLEANING!!!!!) I think something that could definately help you as far as a clean-up crew goes would be crabs and a sand sifting snail (nassarius snails will surface sift)... http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/Nassarius-Snail-Group-of-10_345_63_4_4.html The emerald crab unless it can continue to find bubble algae will eventually die in the home aquaria (thus they say that a lot of CLUBS will share them as they can at least continue to get enough to eat). The arrow crab I'm sure is taking care of some of the stuff in the tank but, based on their body shape they are not able to get into the nooks and crannies that the detrius typically collects. A really good question for you is How much water flow to you have as far as powerheads go? It's very possible (if you are not using any) that you are getting stagnant water spots thus collecting and collecting stuff.

I think this is enough questions for this post I'll post more if anything else comes up.

Jason

[Aquaman777]

I do have a hydor Koralia #2 going in my tank. I have posted some pics of my tank. You can see that my water is cloudy. I guess I'll just ride it out and see what happens?

[Jrmass]

I do see now that you have a pump going (the K2) but, do you have any current going UNDER your rock piles? This is where the bulk of the detrius will accumulate and w/out a good clean-up crew (like I suggested to you in my previous post) you need to find other means of moving that crud and a powerhead would at least clean the bulk of that out.

Jason