Ideas for mechanical filtration in coral QT

[Idoc]

My coral QT seems to have dirty water all the time. It's only nice sparkling clear after a water change, but quickly the gunk starts to build up on the walls and the sand gets cloudy residue quickly. I have some gha growth in the tank but minimal... mostly get a brownish dusting or algae growth on the walls constantly. When i clean this off the walls and use a turkey baster on the sand, the debri had no where to go except style and wait for the next water change!

I have a 20g long tank currently, but switching to a 29g tank this week...and doing away with the sand! I use an Aquaclear HOB filter with only some ceramic balls for biological filtration. I removed the sponge since it seemed to just harbor the brown algae and really couldn't be cleaned well. I cut pieces of filter floss amid lay in the HOB filter when sitting things up, but have to watch that closely...loose filter floss in this type of filter rises quickly and overflows the filter... already had 2 overflow messes to clean up!

So, i was thinking of possibly using a canister filter. I have no experience with these. I don't want togo crazy on price for this small tank, but found this small internal marineland filter at petco. Anyone ever use one of these? You think this would work to clean up the debri in the water column after cleaning? Any other suggestions onwhat offers do in coral/invert QTs?

 

[Idoc]

Pic of the current setup...

 

[mcarroll]

Are you putting too much light in the tank? Just maybe? (Spec's please...ideally in lux or PAR.)

Does the water have some nutrients or no nutrients?

Do you have a microscope you can use to look at some of the brown algae? Take pics and post em! (Even a toy scope will work....$10+....nice to have around.)

I think you'll like having the Marineland Polishing filter around even if you don't end up needing it for this. It can replace your Aquaclear if you wanted it to. It can also run just the micron cartridge. Or it can run micron+diatom powder for microfiltration.

 

[mcarroll]

Are you putting too much light in the tank? Just maybe? (Spec's please...ideally in lux or PAR.)

Does the water have some nutrients or no nutrients?

Do you have a microscope you can use to look at some of the brown algae? Take pics and post em! (Even a toy scope will work....$10+....nice to have around.)

I think you'll like having the Marineland Polishing filter around even if you don't end up needing it for this. It can replace your Aquaclear if you wanted it to. It can also run just the micron cartridge. Or it can run micron+diatom powder for microfiltration.

 

[Idoc]

Thanks @mcarroll for responding. I only have the blue lights at about 10% for about 8-9 hours abs the whites at about 1-2% for 1.5 hours. I used to have them turned up higher, but the corals were not happy and have responded more favorably. Since its a 20g long, the depth and distance from the lights isn't that far! This is the primary reason I'm changing this week to a 29g which is taller. I don't know the PAR values... I'm on the waiting list to use our local club's PAR meter, so hopefully soon. This is also the reason why I haven't moved any corals to my DT yet...no idea what the PAR values in there are right now and only guessing how to set those lights.

The tank is low nutrients in readings. The tank wasn't doing well several months ago... lost a frogspawn, large mushrooms, and duncan. I assumed it was a combo of lighting and no nutrients. There were almost clear "fuzz" growing on the rocks and coral plugs at that time... similar pictures found made me wonder if they were chrysophytes. So, I started dosing Sodium Nitrate solution to bring up nitrates to 2ppm in the tank... after doing a big scrubbing abs siphoning to get rid of the "fuzz" stuff. Great response from this...the Palys owned up nicely and started to grow additional polyps... the hammer and purple cristata that were receding to show their skeletons perked back up! The fuzz hasn't really returned, but I did start getting some small patches of GHA on the eggcrate stand and the brown algae started on the glass... finally something for the snails, who do a good job keeping the plugs, eggcrate, and rocks clean. I didn't check the nitrate levels for awhile assuming they were at least present due to the algae growth... bad move probably.

Todays readings:
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrates (now dosed to 2-2.5ppm)
0 Phosphates
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.025

When I feed my DT frozen mysis, i usually dump a teaspoon of the water i used to thaw the frozen into the QT every couple of days... there are a bunch of amphipods in the rocks and sand that go crazy (aling with a few nassarius snails) for the little bits of mysis in it. I'm doing this in the hopes to at least get a few phosphates into the tank.

I'm thinking the in-tank canister still help tremendously...and I wouldn't mind getting away from the Aquaclear HOB filter. Right now, any time i stir up the sand or blow off the rocks, it just blows around until it settles again... only to be removed by a water change!

I don't have a microscope, but really need to get one. I'm kind of thinking I'm still having a type diatoms with the dusting that occurs and probably a brown film algae of some sort on the glass. I'm also going to remove the sand in the new 29g tank. I like the look, but it harbors junk. Think best to go bare bottom or keep the sand?

 

[mcarroll]

Stop dosing nitrates until you can get some phosphates into the system first/as well. Dose both. (N without P can be dangerous to corals though.)

 

[Idoc]

Stop dosing nitrates until you can get some phosphates into the system first/as well. Dose both. (N without P can be dangerous to corals though.)

Well that isn't good news, lol. Thanks for the heads up! I'll look into how to dose phosphates...any good ideas?

What happens when you have nitrates and no phosphates?

Dinos come in the absence of both, right? That's what I've been trying to head off from occurring.

 

[mcarroll]

Seachem and Brightwell make PO4 supplements.

Dosing N without P available tweaks the dino's in your coral.

Nitrates have a tendency to get the dinos into overdrive, but they require phosphates for protection during photosynthesis.

So you wind up with supercharged unprotected dinos and coral which can wind up bleaching them.

 

[mcarroll]

Seachem and Brightwell make PO4 supplements.

Dosing N without P available tweaks the dino's in your coral.

Nitrates have a tendency to get the dinos into overdrive, but they require phosphates for protection during photosynthesis.

So you wind up with supercharged unprotected dinos and coral which can wind up bleaching them.

 

[Idoc]

Seachem and Brightwell make PO4 supplements.

Dosing N without P available tweaks the dino's in your coral.

Nitrates have a tendency to get the dinos into overdrive, but they require phosphates for protection during photosynthesis.

So you wind up with supercharged unprotected dinos and coral which can wind up bleaching them.

Thanks, I'll definitely look into dosing some phosphates as well. I feel I need to dose the 2 cuz previously with zero nutrients, things were looking a bit bad and I lost some supposedly easy corals!

I've read everything on R2R and other websites about how to set up a coral QT, but no one ever mentions these systems basically have no nutrients unless they are dosed into the system. This part of every discussion is never present... but, it's also rare to find anyone with a dedicated coral/invert QT!

Thanks again for the info!!! Very helpful. I'm going to look into a microscope as well... best to know what I'm dealing with rather than guessing.

 

[mcarroll]

I'm doing this in the hopes to at least get a few phosphates into the tank.

All "food" that goes in will supply some....I bet phyto is probably more quickly available than other food types, so there's that.

Right now, any time i stir up the sand or blow off the rocks, it just blows around until it settles again... only to be removed by a water change!

This sounds like a tank flow issue. Can you remind me of the tank size and what you have for flow? (I full tank pic that shows the pumps would help.)

I don't have a microscope, but really need to get one. I'm kind of thinking I'm still having a type diatoms with the dusting that occurs and probably a brown film algae of some sort on the glass.

Check out Selecting a microscope if you haven't already. They can cost as little as $10 or even less for 1200x magnification, but there are scopes ranging from $20 to $100 that are also excellent "discount" options. Of course if you're willing to spend more, the sky is the limit....

 

[mcarroll]

I've read everything on R2R and other websites about how to set up a coral QT, but no one ever mentions these systems basically have no nutrients unless they are dosed into the system. This part of every discussion is never present... but, it's also rare to find anyone with a dedicated coral/invert QT!

Very true! Seems like it could be smart to place the coral QT on the main system and isolate everything with strong UV on the return channel.