Please Can Someone Help Me

[francesanna]

Hi
I have a 96 Ltr Tank. I have had it established for nearly 4 months now and until a few weeks ago everything was fine.
It is filled with Red Sea Live Sand, Live Rock and a little Base & Lava Rock to fill it out a bit.
The Salinity is and has always been between 1.021 & 1.024
Parameters are:
PH - 8.2,Ammonia - 0,Nitrite - 0,Nitrate - 40

As far as I am aware they are within the normal limits.
I have no cleaning crew and no fish yet, but the tank has loads of little critters climbing around the rock, also what I think is a bristleworm, and also a lovely little crab with red eyes, it is always a hive of activity.

Over the last few weeks the rock has a lot of brown fluffy furry stuff on it, and the glass goes very dirty and brown inside, to the point you can't see inside it, but when I clean it off within 24 hours it's all back again,also the sand also very brown and causes a dark brown scum line at the top of it.
I am using an external Filter with a bar across the top with holes in which pumps the water back in,there is hardly an movement of water on the top but even when I did have a lot of movement this problem still occured.
Does anyone know what this could be is it maybe because there is nothing in there to clean it except these tiny little bug like things.
Can someone advise me on what it may be, and hopefully how to cure it.

Thanks in advance
Francesanna:fish1: :fish1:

[nlknight]

IMO i would get the lava rock out ASAP, it contains to many medals and such. secondly i would get more flow in there. for example maxi jets or somethng. im a somewhat beginner too, so im sure someone with more experience will help out more.. hope that helps

[Nykademus]

You def want more flow, so the water is agitated at the surface.. this is important for gas exchange and to prevent the "film" that can form, further hindering gas exchange.

as far as the algae (brown diatoms), this is a normal part of cycling a new tank. you can help control it by using RO/DI water.. if you arent already...a clean up crew will help (and it sounds like its about time).. and also by shortening your light cycle if you are using high quality lighting (MH,VHO,PC).

I cant really say much about the lava rock, I dont know how it will affect your tank, except that if its volcanic glass.. it will do you no good other than take up space, but wont hurt anything either.

good luck!

[jgoodrich71]

The lava rock may or may not be fine, IMO, more than likely it is fine from a chemical standpoint. You nitrates are rather high at 40, and I suspect your phosphates are high as well. The canister filter may also be a problem, but I wouldn't worry about that just yet. You said that you had more flow previously, the more flow the better.

Check you phosphates. If high get them down with phosphate remover. Get your nitrates downas well. Look into getting a skimmer. This could help with both, and increase the flow.

[TekCat]

first of all, Welcome to RC :)

I agree, lava rock is an "iffy" thing. Most will contain traces of metals that would eventualy leak into tank. To be on the safe side, remove lava rock and put calcium based rocks instead (any type of calcite would work, but the more porous rock - the better).


Ditto on flow and surface agitation. Add a powerhead or two. There is a rough minimalistic formula of how much flow needed: 20x tank's volume so, for 96 ltr tank you'd need at least 1920 liters per hour water turnover.

As previously said, brown film is most likely diatoms (algae). This is totally normal for new tank. Usually new tanks go though algal cycle diatoms->green hair algea->cyanobacteria. So, don't be alarmed just keep water parameters in check, and it'll go away.

Again, Nitrates are a bit high. This is most likely the endproduct of cycle (ammonia->nitrite->nitrate). What you can do is huge: 50-75% water change to export those nitrates out. And use RO/DI water (or distilled), do NOT use tap water.

Then, if all water params stay in check for a 2-3 weeks, then you can safely add cleanup crew (e.g. snails). Inverterbrates like higher salinity than what you have, so sloowly increase SG to 1.025 or 1.026 pick one. It is very important to have salinity stable, you mentioned that it varies between 1.021 & 1.024. This kind of salinity swing is going to be very stressful to your critters. My guess, is when water evaporates salt stays in, so salinity increases. If this is the case, you need to top off evaporated water with fresh one. Remeber salt stays in, but H2O gets out. So, fresh water needs to added to counteract evaporation.

Good luck and REEF ON!!!

[Nykademus]

just to make it clear. do not add salt to your top off water!!!

A mistake easily made..