Fireisfun Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Cycle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Hey everyone I started cycling my new 120g reef tank with the foam rock wall inside. The cycle started out normal but strange things have been happening. I put 100lbs of live sand and 40lbs of cured live rock in, half of which was in an unlight sump. I put 10 gallons of water from my existing tank water in and stuffed my old sea clone skimmer full of old bio balls from my canister filter. I've added a bunch of pods, angel hair algea clumps, and I've been dosing stabilize The cycle started out normal, but lately the water had a yellow tinge to it. This morning it's gottenreally green an murky that I can't see the back wall. I added a turbo snail as a canary and it died in a few days. I'm still waiting for my test kit to come in so I have no parameters other than the nitrates went to 10mg/l the 3rd day and have since dropped back down to 0. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, that would be awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbarr Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 did the live rock come from your old tank, or did you source it from a trusted source? Yellow/green indicates an algae bloom, which by extension would indicate high nutrients, not too unusual in my limited experience. Depending on what school of thought you choose to follow, you may hear a couple different opinions. Some people would ride it out, waiting for the biological side of things to catch up , the algae to use up excess nutrients and die off, or for the baddies to wind up in your skimmer. Salt isnt cheap, but W/C is likely the course of action to use in this instance. Another thing to consider is that algae requires light to function. You could change your light period to a minimum or even off entirely for a while. This may be all that your bacteria needs to catch up and for the algae to starve and die off. Along with the light subject, if your tank is getting sunlight via a window that may effect your light spectrum in your tank, while that is science that Im not too familiar with, I have heard that the 'colour' of you light can promote algae growth. Again, Im not sure. Other people would tell you to buy various products to 'fix' your problem. This is something that FW and SW Aquaria share. The problem with using a product to cure the problem is that the person using it never truly understands why the problem happened in the first place. This is fine if that person doesn't mind running to the store as a first resort action for problems, but isnt fine if the store happens to be closed. I would try to go at this from a biological approach, because while you can overdose on products, you cant overdose nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 The majority of the live rock came from 2 different lfs here in Edmonton and a few smaller pieces came from my existing tank to introduce the coralline algea. I should defiantly cut the light back though. I was hoping to spark some algea growth but I assume it's already getting enough sunlight. I would rather ride it out and get a nice natural source of bacteria going. I haven't been using my skimmer to skim, it's more of just a bio ball housing to introduce water/air emulsion for the bacteria on the balls to grow but would it be a good idea to start skimming? I don't want to accidentally starve off the bacteria as the are just starting to grow. I also have a canister filter on my existing tank that I could swing over and run for a few hours in the 120, but again will this end up inhibiting the bacteria growth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Here's a photo of what it looks like inside http://instagr.am/p/Qh4jgkPw_t/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbarr Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 I wouldn't run your canister on there in case you have something in your tank causing this problem that you wouldnt want to introduce into your older system (cross contamination) however, if you have a sump, or a seperate canister that you can introduce old media into in order to seed the new tank, I would do that for sure. Another option that I have seen in Freshwater tanks, tho Im sure the principle would be the same, is just wringing out the old media directly into the system. That being said, judging from the picture that you posted, I would say that my assumption of an algae bloom to be accurate (not saying that its for sure, but seeing it makes me more inclined to say that). If I am right in that regard, I would say that the likelihood is that you have enough nutrients in your water column now to sustain your cycle, since its sustaining your algae now. That will be especially certain if you reduce your photo period. Algae needs light to complete photosynthesis. If there is a shorter time for that to occur, you will naturally reduce the amount of growth done by the algae itself, leaving more unused nutrients in the column for the beneficial bacteria to use up. Also, as you reduce your photo period, the shorter period of photosynthesis will cause algae to begin to lose its title on your tank. Subsequently, algae will die, introducing more nutrients into your tank for bacteria to use as well, through the breakdown of the algae. All this may lead to a nitrate spike in your water values, which is why I recomend that you use your skimmer during this process, eliminating substances that, if broken down slowly by the natural cycling of the tank, will prolong the process. Another thing that I didn't ask about in my previous post, how much in the way of current are you using? Algea is increasingly successful in tanks with low flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Thank you for all the help so far. My old skimmer is pretty crappy and pulls a lot of water out with the skim( hence it being my old one) but I guess it can't hurt. I don't have a sump yet. Im converting my 40 into a sump once this tank has cycled and I've moved my livestock over. I am using my sump pump as a power head right now so the flow is probably a little excessive (1200gph at 0" head) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbarr Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Im glad to help. Im not sure what to do with the HOB skimmers, Everyone that I have come across has had similar issues that you describe. IMO, I think that some skimming is going to be better than none. So, as you said, it cant hurt. The only thing that I am finding that people are saying for trouble shooting is that you may be able to adjust the water lever within the skimmer itself. Otherwise, Im not too sure what to do. Sounds to me that you have enough flow to me. Sites that I have found referring to the math for GPH tend to say anywhere from 10 to 20 times your tank volume for a SW set up That seems excessive to me. but I think its really going to become evident in the future whether you have enough or too much. For the purpose of this discussion, I would call your sump pump a safe GPH. In the future, I would move to distribute that GPH from a variety of sources, maybe dialling back your sump pump when you convert over to a sump system and purchasing a couple of power heads This can prevent a cyclone from developing in your tank. All in all I think that this is going to end up well, just be patient and things should work out. It just may take a little longer than anticipated for it to be ok to proceed. On the bright side of this, all youve lost so far is a turbo snail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbarr Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 p.s. keep me posted on how things progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 What lights do you have over the tank and how old are the bulbs? Where did you get the live sand from? Did you use R/O water, or conditioned tap water? Almost looks like a massive die out of something...I would remove the canister filter, black out the tank for a few days... and do some water changes. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 The light I am using is an industrial 4 'bulb' led set up that I dismantled and set up on a flat board. Its more of a temporary thing until the tank cycles. The sand was from petsmart, they sell live Caribbean sand in a moist vacume sealed bag. And yeah I've been using conditioned tap water for now as well as 10 gal from my exsisting tank, that also uses tap water... How effective are the ro devices that you can buy for your home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 So with the lights off and constant skimming ( a few hours to fill the cup) for just a day the water has cleared up significantly so you can see through to the back wall, although it still has a realy green/yellow tinge to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbarr Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 (edited) id keep doing what you are doing until things look right. Blacking out is a better suggestion than mine to just reduce the photo period. Also, I think that its a waste of time to use RO. There are tons of tanks out there that use normal treated tap water. Good to hear that things are already looking up. Keep it up and remember that patience is the key. Edited October 10, 2012 by jamesbarr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 The light I am using is an industrial 4 'bulb' led set up that I dismantled and set up on a flat board. Its more of a temporary thing until the tank cycles. The sand was from petsmart, they sell live Caribbean sand in a moist vacume sealed bag. And yeah I've been using conditioned tap water for now as well as 10 gal from my exsisting tank, that also uses tap water... How effective are the ro devices that you can buy for your home? Do you know the color temperature of the LED's? Normally for a salt water tank you was atleast 14k or above... Also what was your lighting schedule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireisfun Posted October 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 I have no idea what the k temperature is for them. They are just to stimulate some algea growth for now and once it's good and cycled I'll move my t5 lighting over and use these as a light for the fugue in the sump that I will be building. I would plug them in for a while to give the live rock some light but some days I would forget about it and it would get a full day of light do I assume that's were this algea bloom came from Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.