About to give up on saltwater...

[Mike1995]

What you are describing is called "seeding". Seeding is when you move rock or sand or filter media from an old tank to a new one. When you move these items from an established tank, you are also transplanting the nitrifying bacteria that these items play home to. This will help to shorten cycling.

When it comes to cycling a tank, there are many effective ways to get this done. As a traditionalist, I just drop a raw cocktail shrimp into the tank and let it rot. Watch your ammonia; it will rise. In response to the rise in ammonia, your nitrifying bacterial colony will grow to accommodate the load. As this happens, you will see that your ammonia level will begin to drop. When your ammonia is ZERO, you know that your nitrifying bacteria colony is in balance with the bio load.

Remember; every time you add livestock to your tank, you are increasing the bio load. So when you test after adding livestock, you will see a rise in ammonia until your nitrifying bacteria grows to accommodate the additional load.

And because of this, it is VERY important not to add too much at the same time. Fish in the tank will tolerate small ammonia spikes when you add a new fish. But if you add 4 fish over the course of a month, the elevated ammonia levels are damaging to fish gills and can kill them.

I have a hard and fast rule of 4 months quarantine before going in to any of my display tanks. That amounts to three fish per year. Sometimes, people add 3 or more fish per month, which is too many too fast.

Would 2 fish be okay to add at once after quarintine? Like when i initially add livestock

 

[Mike1995]

what kind of flow do you have? your return pump should be pumping at least 7X your tank size a hour. If its not moving fast enough and setting to long it will cause it to be cloudy. If you have a DC pump and can turn it up try doing that for a day and see if that helps. If you have a flow meter that will help as well.

It's a Rio pump of sorts. I looked on the pump and it says I think 1200 gph. I also have two wavemakers/power heads each at 800gph. Is that too much or too little flow?

 

[Mike1995]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Sorry I haven't responded a lot . Just trying to read thru everyone's posts and follow everything

 

[BedrockIOMC]

It's a Rio pump of sorts. I looked on the pump and it says I think 1200 gph. I also have two wavemakers/power heads each at 800gph. Is that too much or too little flow?

What size is your tank?

 

[Mike1995]

What size is your tank?

75g

 

[MnFish1]

chance of being a bac bloom /01%

chance of being a silty sandbed/needing pre rinse before setup or a nice quick redo/post rinse given its two mos= let me see full tank shot

pouring back in water over a sandbed that was never rinsed at all is why I have a 12 page sand rinse thread, post your full tank shots. Given no ammonia spike here, your tank is easily savable. nothing is wrong. everything is decided on what your full tank shot picture looks like, not any of the params. Certain details in the pics give the critical params, the ones from test kits can vary wildly.

at two mos, you know you are past the cycling portions, time to sail the ship and we can keep it on course easily without a big deal. pics

+10

 

[BedrockIOMC]

75g

As long as it isnt a DC pump and you have it turned down it's more then enough.[emoji106][emoji106]

 

[Rattzreef]

A tank that size should be fine with adding 2 fish.. as long as they aren't plate sized hippo tangs of course.. lol the bacterial bloom will work it's course and clear up in no time..

 

[MnFish1]

To me this sounds like silt/partially rinsed sand - as compared to a bacteria bloom. In any case here is a youtube video describing how to quickly make a water polisher using a powerhead and polyfill - its a great temporary solution. When ever I've tried to do this in my sump - I always end up 'stirring up' the dirt again when I try to take the floss out of the sump. This method works great, is simple, cheap and easy to clean (IMHO).

 

[Rattzreef]

I can see if the sand was just recently added to the tank then silt or excess dirt being the issue but being that it's over two months any fine silt and dust would have been stirred and settled by now.. I could be way wrong tho. If the pumps are whipping it around that is something else entirely

 

[MnFish1]

I can see if the sand was just recently added to the tank then silt or excess dirt being the issue but being that it's over two months any fine silt and dust would have been stirred and settled by now.. I could be way wrong tho. If the pumps are whipping it around that is something else entirely

Yeah - It was unclear if the tank was always cloudy - or it just got cloudy after a water change (which could have stirred things up)?

 

[Dom]

Would 2 fish be okay to add at once after quarintine? Like when i initially add livestock

I go one fish at a time. The only time I've added more than one is when they are a pair. The last time I added more than one was when I purchased a pair of Maroon Clowns. But they were obviously paired in the tank at the LFS, and it would break my heart to split them up.

 

[Frop]

I usually clean algea off glass daily if needed. From what iIcan see it's in the water column. I have one of those finnex marine lights.. i know it's not adequate for anything but fowlr but i couldnt afford anything more at the time .could the light be causing issues?

They say red light spectrum causes algae. Wasn’t sure if it was an algae thing. Not sure what color light that is

 

[scott11106]

i add 2-4 fish at a time as the qt process seems to be fine with that load, i do however think tank perameter, size water volume, water changes and everything else need to be taken in account. for instance i do an automatic 3 gallons per day water change and run carbon...

 

[Mike1995]

So I was curious, has any one used the aquatic life edge reef light? Is it at all usable for any kind of corals? I would one day like one of those ecotech or some other expensive lights but money doesn't allow that right now lol.
I got a bubble Magnus curve 5 skimmer . Has anyone had any experience with those?

 

[Saintnovakai]

I did a water change yesterday because the water was really cloudy. I filled it back up with rodi water and salt. Mixed before hand. Now the tank is even cloudier and looks terrible. I plan on new equipment this week because mine sucks. What am I doing wrong? Why is the water cloudy? I'm about to give up... Freshwater tanks are so much easier.

I just read your initial post and im like man, i didnt even know how good it was to have a reefing family to run to with my problems until i started having similar issues. Just take your time. Youll be fine.