Help my tank is going downhill fast

[jwucinski007]

I’m new here! I have a Red Sea 425 that was cycled and a few fish in. Tank has been up since January and my water was a little cloudy one day so I did a 10% water change and the next day it was worse one week later it’s brown since I only had a couple fish I ran my return pump full speed and made a dam in my sump with filter material to trap a lot of stuff in the water. Over a week or 2 it got better so I got a few more fish and some coral (too early… big mistake) my water quality is getting worse and I’m back to having a brown cloudy saltwater pond in my living room. HELP

Red Sea 425
Reef breeder meridian 35 light
Bubble magus curve 5 protien skimmer
4 cups of filter floss (poly fil fibers replaced morning and evenings)
1 bag of carbon (1c replaced with weekly water change)
2x 4x4x1 bio blocks

1.025 salinity
Salifert tests
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Alkalinity 8
Ammonia 0

 

[55NEVER]

How often do you do water changes and do you always run the skimmer?
Where are you getting your water source from?
Does the cloudiness get worse when the lights are on?
Do you have a cleanup crew?

 

[jwucinski007]

How often do you do water changes and do you always run the skimmer?
Where are you getting your water source from?
Does the cloudiness get worse when the lights are on?
Do you have a cleanup crew?

10% weekly I have a RO buddy RODI system and it’s at the point where it’s bad with and without lights. I have a hand full of hermit crabs and turbo snails in the display and a turbo in the sump

Skimmer is always on! Have it about 10” in the water set at #2 setting and it’s not pulling much out these days.

 

[55NEVER]

What's your lighting schedule and what do you feed?

 

[Reef_Aquatics]

I think you might want to do a big water change

 

[jwucinski007]

What's your lighting schedule and what do you feed?

Blue ocean nutrition fish food flakes and about 12hrs mix of all colors intensity max at 70 during peak light. One of the preset schedule on reef breeders app

 

[jwucinski007]

I think you might want to do a big water change

How big? I did approx 30% and it didn’t really help

 

[royaleFork]

How did you do the water change? I wouldn't expect a cloud of gunk unless you stirred up your sump or his the sandbed really hard?



Your nitrates and phosphates are also 0, which is difficult to do. How often do you feed and what is your filtration process?

 

[jwucinski007]

How did you do the water change? I wouldn't expect a cloud of gunk unless you stirred up your sump or his the sandbed really hard?



Your nitrates and phosphates are also 0, which is difficult to do. How often do you feed and what is your filtration process?

I removed water from display and added it back with my extra submersible pump and hose

I feed fish daily and change filter floss out 2x a day morning and evening since it’s turning tan/brown quick

 

[Tangdora]

Questions
1) What is your return pump turn over.
2) is that a power head in the right wall? May need to increase flow.
3) how much are you feeding ?

Would revisit your skimmer setting.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It seems like you have no powerheads and relying on the return pump to provide water movement throughout the whole tank. IMO a big tank like that should have at least a pair of good powerheads if not more.(my 40 breeder has the return pump plus 2 gyres plus a powerhead behind the rocks). My sump also has a powerhead, IMO you got to get the flow moving.

What do you mean you built a dam in your sump to trap filter material, do you not use any mechanical filtration?

Why are you using bio blocks? IMO remove the dam and the blocks and anything else that is not needed and let the water run freely through the system.

This looks like a bacterial bloom, IME water changes make the bacteria bloom last longer, just let ride itself out. But you might want to add an airstone for the fish, bacteria bloom depletes the oxygen in the water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think the cloudiness is likely to be suspended organisms (bacteria, phytoplankton, etc.) in the water. Some folks use UV to treat such situations. Make sure the skimmer i functioning as expected.

 

[Seregus]

What are your phosphates? If they sky high with zero nitrate - could be what you describing.

Do you test them?

 

[jwucinski007]

It seems like you have no powerheads and relying on the return pump to provide water movement throughout the whole tank. IMO a big tank like that should have at least a pair of good powerheads if not more.(my 40 breeder has the return pump plus 2 gyres plus a powerhead behind the rocks). My sump also has a powerhead, IMO you got to get the flow moving.

What do you mean you built a dam in your sump to trap filter material, do you not use any mechanical filtration?

Why are you using bio blocks? IMO remove the dam and the blocks and anything else that is not needed and let the water run freely through the system.

This looks like a bacterial bloom, IME water changes make the bacteria bloom last longer, just let ride itself out. But you might want to add an airstone for the fish, bacteria bloom depletes the oxygen in the water.

I have a sine wave cp55 wave maker in the display. It’s at about 50% power right now. And when I say I build a dam I mean in between the chamber that feeds my sump and the chamber that has my filter floss I put a pad of filter floss against the baffle wall as a “pre filter” to my filter socks. I talk with a local reef shop employee and he recommended I dose bright well products such as “neonitro, neophos, and bacter7. As well as a blackout to help a bloom.

 

[jwucinski007]

What are your phosphates? If they sky high with zero nitrate - could be what you describing.

Do you test them?

Phosphates are 0 as well (Salifert test kit)

 

[Seregus]

Have you tried other test kits just to make sure its not kit error?

 

[docscorals]

What are your phosphates? If they sky high with zero nitrate - could be what you describing.

Do you test them?

Phosphates are 0 as well (Salifert test kit)

I would try different test kits. Salifert can be difficult to read, especially for phosphates. I would recommend getting Hanna Checkers if you can, or look at Nyos or Red Sea for at least phosphate, if not both.

Agree that this look like a bacterial bloom, I would also invest in a UV unit.

 

[chillout-reefer-dave]

Bacterial bloom
Stop water changes, stop skimmer, remove all mechanical and chemical filtration. Max out oxygenation, surface agitation is better than air stones by a lot. Skip feeding for 3 days. Then resume feeding half what you do now. Make sure flow is high. Stop testing water. Let it ride.

 

[chillout-reefer-dave]

UV units are great. Won't solve the underlying overfeeding and lack of bio diversity.

 

[jwucinski007]

Bacterial bloom
Stop water changes, stop skimmer, remove all mechanical and chemical filtration. Max out oxygenation, surface agitation is better than air stones by a lot. Skip feeding for 3 days. Then resume feeding half what you do now. Make sure flow is high. Stop testing water. Let it ride.

UPDATE: Local reefer told me the exact same thing and it worked I also dosed Brightwell NeoNitro NeoPhos and MicroBacter7. I’m a few days in and water quality has improved dramatically I’ll will continue to let it ride!