Tank is not cycling?

[Anthrilliel]

Nothing was added or moved in the tank :/ the heater did die over night but since there were no fish in I didn't think it d be a big deal. Temp was at 75 this morning but a new heater went on and now it's steady at 79

 

[ScubaFish802]

Brown spots are normal, most likely Diatoms. Cloudy water could be either bacterial bloom or sand storm from water change. Either should subside in less than a day I would guess

 

[ScootScoot]

What do u think caused the water to go cloudy overnight? And what those brown spots are?

If you have a HOB filter too maybe try to use some filter floss in your filter compartment too , it really clears things up . I run Chemipure Elite bag, Filter floss ( polyester fibers from inside pillow with no chemicals added ) , and a poly filter and works like a charm for crystal clear waters !

 

[ScootScoot]

Nothing was added or moved in the tank :/ the heater did die over night but since there were no fish in I didn't think it d be a big deal. Temp was at 75 this morning but a new heater went on and now it's steady at 79

Tank is looking great though btw !! I love the rock work and simplicity of the arrangement using a nice focal point in the center , great job keep it up !

 

[DIAZ REEF]

3 weeks in and my ammonia went to 0 (yay). I did an 80 % water change.

My current parameters after the water change are:
Temp: 78.9
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites:0.5
Nitrates: 0
Salinity: 1.024

My tank went cloudy overnight. And I noticed brown algae on one of the rocks.

Suggestions? Explanations?

Is it safe to add a clown?

I’m new at this too, I think those are diatoms and is completely normal, it’ll go away and come back at times. At this stage of my tank I added a snail and couple crabs. Beautiful set up tho! Keep it up and like everyone says have patience cuz I sure as hell didn’t. Drove me nuts lol.

 

[Gravity]

I would recommend another 2 mg/L of ammonia to see if your tank can process it in 24 hrs. I’m not sure on the cloudy water.

 

[Anthrilliel]

My ammonia came down to 0 again in 16 hrs the water is still cloudy. Is it possible the salt separated ? It has tiny white particles and when I dip anything in it comes out with white dust all over it. Should I just do a whole water change?

Ps. Thank you so much for the help everyone! I really appreciate it!

 

[excell007]

Do you mix your own water? What salt did you use? If it is salt precipitate it should have settled by now. I set up a new 20g tank a few weeks ago to relocate some fishes and the cloudiness from the new sand is gone im 8Hrs. This could be bacterial bloom. Since there are no fishes yet, you can change most of the water. Ensure that the salt is fully disolve, depending on what salt you're using this could take a few hours when using a powerhead, maybe more if ixing it manually.

 

[Anthrilliel]

I am using reef crystals and distilled water. I add the water then the salt then run a water pump for 30 minutes or so till the water is clear.

It was perfectly clear until 2 days ago then got super cloudy overnight. ( full disclosure the heater broke so the temp went down to 73. I added a new heater in the am)

 

[excell007]

I am using reef crystals and distilled water. I add the water then the salt then run a water pump for 30 minutes or so till the water is clear.

It was perfectly clear until 2 days ago then got super cloudy overnight. ( full disclosure the heater broke so the temp went down to 73. I added a new heater in the am)

Most likely bacterial bloom, change the water. TBH I never used any of the bottled bacteria in cycling any of my tanks, so I am not really sure how they are. But I always change most of the water and let it run for at least a day when adding first fish to a newly cycled tank.

 

[Garf]

What do u think caused the water to go cloudy overnight? And what those brown spots are?

What is the method of water circulation? Dusty particles sound like your sucking up and blowing out sand.

 

[Softhammer]

You need to slow your roll. There is nothing to troubleshoot or worry about. Unless you are adding bleach everything is going to plan. These things take time. Given the questions being asked I think you need to read a few books before investing in any livestock.

 

[Anthrilliel]

I have read a few books and watched many videos as well as kept freshwater aquariums for 6 years. Saltwater is new to me but not everything is textbook. I know what a bacterial bloom is but it doesn't appear to be that. That is why I asked.

I am trying to take things slowly and asking for advice and knowledge from people more experienced than I

 

[pseudorand]

+2 on patience being both the most important and hardest part of the hobby.

For the cycle, I highly recommend a Seachem Ammonia Alert. It's some proprietary way to measure ammonia, but it think it's actually measuring toxic ammonia only and not non toxic ammonium based on the values. It reports 0.05 as the lowest detectable level. Other test kits report the combo of the two. API, for example, reports 0.25 as the lowest detectable level.

I have a QT that I'm pretty sure had ammonia problems. It had been wet for over 2 months, and I had gone through a 45 day invert QT where I did feed the corals. I measured 0 ammonia and nitrite and some nitrate, so I figured it was cycled. I lost 3 of the 4 fish put in after the invert QT was over. Ich was involved, but I think small but harmful levels of ammonia from the extra bioload weakened them and made them suspectable to the ich. Once I got a seachem ammonia alert, I was able to know when to do water changes to save the last fish. I swear by them now.

Here's the formerly problematic QT, which is now fish-only since I used copper for the ich:

Here's my new invert QT:

That was going to be an example of the button showing ammonia (it was green yesterday), but it looks like the fritz turbostart was busy over night. I first added it on Wednesday, so that's a 4-day cycle -- amazing. I'll be testing for nitrite and nitrate, and adding more ammonia to make sure it shows up and the goes away before I add living things, but that's still amazingly fast.

 

[Anthrilliel]

I m going to get one of them today thank you!

 

[pseudorand]

+2 on patience being both the most important and hardest part of the hobby.

For the cycle, I highly recommend a Seachem Ammonia Alert. It's some proprietary way to measure ammonia, but it think it's actually measuring toxic ammonia only and not non toxic ammonium based on the values. It reports 0.05 as the lowest detectable level. Other test kits report the combo of the two. API, for example, reports 0.25 as the lowest detectable level.

I have a QT that I'm pretty sure had ammonia problems. It had been wet for over 2 months, and I had gone through a 45 day invert QT where I did feed the corals. I measured 0 ammonia and nitrite and some nitrate, so I figured it was cycled. I lost 3 of the 4 fish put in after the invert QT was over. Ich was involved, but I think small but harmful levels of ammonia from the extra bioload weakened them and made them suspectable to the ich. Once I got a seachem ammonia alert, I was able to know when to do water changes to save the last fish. I swear by them now.

Here's the formerly problematic QT, which is now fish-only since I used copper for the ich:

Here's my new invert QT:

That was going to be an example of the button showing ammonia (it was green yesterday), but it looks like the fritz turbostart was busy over night. I first added it on Wednesday, so that's a 4-day cycle -- amazing. I'll be testing for nitrite and nitrate, and adding more ammonia to make sure it shows up and the goes away before I add living things, but that's still amazingly fast.

Here's what the Ammonia Alert looks like green. I dosed my cycling invert QT again to make sure it's really cycled. It turned this color after a few hours. It's not as clear of a match as the yellow, but I think that's a reading of 0.05 or perhaps a bit more. I dosed a 20 gal long tank with 25ml of AlgaeBarn nitrocycle.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I know some salt mixes instruct to mix for at least a few hours if not overnight. (Something about osmosis maybe? I forget). But I agree that would have cleared by now either way. I’m still going to go with some sort of bacterial bloom for the cloudiness

 

[Hendo1133]

I tend to agree with a lot of the other people here where things are going generally to plan, maybe some patience. I Avoided any major water changes for some time after cycling, nothing should be up taking trace elements and there wasn’t really anything I was needing to remove. Now with fish/corals I am a big advocate of 10% a week. However, early cycling I think you may be working against yourself with 80% and huge water changes, which can cause their own large swings in a tanks parameters.

 

[Llyod276]

I'd guess diatoms. Especially if there are bubbles. If you have algea the tank is cycling, diatoms is when I added my first clown, but I had a half and half tank: the tank was cleaned but the live rock was kept in the old tank's water ~30g out of 65ish that's in the display of my 75g. This helped speed up my cycling (although I still waited a hard 30 days before adding anything) and I dosed Kent's marine additives from Petco. Still do, an no I dont measure just a dip of that a capful of this and whala, dosing done... I added frags and a fish, he's still alive, 1 frag the anthelia died a month later and all the rest are still alive, even doing well... even the aptaisa is doing well, the dastards...

 

[Llyod276]

I'd guess diatoms. Especially if there are bubbles. If you have algea the tank is cycling, diatoms is when I added my first clown, but I had a half and half tank: the tank was cleaned but the live rock was kept in the old tank's water ~30g out of 65ish that's in the display of my 75g. This helped speed up my cycling (although I still waited a hard 30 days before adding anything) and I dosed Kent's marine additives from Petco. Still do, an no I dont measure just a dip of that a capful of this and whala, dosing done... I added frags and a fish, he's still alive, 1 frag the anthelia died a month later and all the rest are still alive, even doing well... even the aptaisa is doing well, the dastards...

Here is a side by side of fresh noncycled and a cycled tank, (with a bit of live stock). Actually it's more like noncycled and 4-5 months later...