okay...obviously I need to re-do all my pictures again since the site warp...i'll get to that, but at the moment,
I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!
I will try to re-capture the posts that I had left over the past week, which are now floating through cyberspace....
Exactly one month ago, we completely re-did the aquascaping and placed the plastic crates with
PVC feet underneath to support the rocks and keep them from sitting directly on the sand. A few days later the tank began to go cloudy.
One month prior to this, all of the tank parameters had leveled of at the following values:
pH 8.1-8.2
KH 6
Ca2+ 400ppm
Mg2+ 1275
NO3 0
PO4 0
NH4 0
however, the
skimmer had stopped producing any foam. It had been on and off since the start, but then completely stopped producing.
Here's a recap:
November 2nd - rearranged rocks and used plastic crates as stands
November 4th -
skimmer finally producing
November 9th - added 47 turbo snails, 1 abalone, 1 pom-pom crab, 1 sally lightfoot, 5 hermits, 1 sea urchin, and 1 horseshoe crab
November 11th - tank begins to get cloudy
November 12th - even more cloudy,
nitrates and
phosphates at zero
November 19th - still very cloudy. We took
skimmer completely apart to see if there was some debris trapped somewhere. Raised
sump levels to 24 cm. No change in
skimmer production. Still at zero.
November 21st -
okay, at this point, I was finally able to measure some phosphates (0.1 ppm)
and, much to our surprise, the silicates (SiO2) were very high (1 mg/ml). This completely baffled us, so we tested the RODI water, which has a TDS meter on it and shows zero, and sure enough, the RODI water was also at zero. ??? No idea where the silicates are coming from.
Keep in mind, all sand is aragonite-based, as well as the rocks.
November 22nd - traded
skimmer with
LFS's
skimmer (same model). Mine worked in his tank. His didn't work in mine. ??? Decided to buy an Organics kit and measure the levels. The Salifert kit is a bit subjective, but the values appeared to be high at any rate. 1 cup of BioPhos was added, as well as active carbon. Measured K+ as well (250 - okay, not great, but certainly not the cause of the cloudiness).
November 23rd -
PO4 - 0.05
Mg2+ 1300
Ca2+ 410
November 24th -
K+ - 275
SiO2 - 0.5
Ca2+ - 435
Mg2+ - 1440
KH - 6
NH4 - zero
NO3 - zero
PO4 - 0.03 - 0.05
Organics - high??
pH - 8.0
We decided to remove the plastic crates, as it was our fear that maybe there was something still on them, or there were some kind of softeners being released into the water. We can't figure out what else would be causing the high levels of organics, except of course for the fact that the
skimmer is still not producing any foam!!!!
December 1 - the
skimmer had a glorious hour of skimming beautiful foam, and then suddenly stopped again. A very large (450 liter) water change was done and the lights have been off for almost 2 weeks now, with very little change in the cloudiness.
December 3rd
KH - 5-6
Ca2+ - 440
Mg2+ - 1410
K+ - 275
pH - 8.1
PO4 - 0.01-0.03
SiO2 - 1mg/L
NO3 - zero
NH4 - zero
NO2 - zero
Organics - high again???
We are leaving for the US in two weeks and I HAVE TO have this tank running smoothly by then, because I need to shut down the other tank and move over the inhabitants and corals before we leave.
I am desperate at this point and ready to completely give up on this tank. I have tons of live in the sand, lots of bristle worms and other little black worms. I have lost a few snails, but the rest are doing fine. The abalone, sea urchin and crabs are all still alive and looking good. I don't think that there's any kind of toxic substance in the tank, otherwise these creatures wouldn't have survived.
But, for the life of me, I can't figure out why the tank is cloudy and what to do about it. I no longer believe that it's a bacterial bloom...it would have subsided over 4-5 days. There is a tinge of green to the cloudiness, which leads me to believe that there is probably some plankton grown; however, leaving the lights off for 2 weeks had NO impact.
So...please help...I need a wonder cure here!
