WC, added Chaeto… now what????

eagle9252 · Dec 5, 2011

Well I’m really confused now!! Saturday night I did a 10gal WC. On Thursday night I filled up a tote and ran a PH for 48hrs with salt added to SG of 1.025 I’m using Reef Crystals. I added the buffer which water was at 8.3ish. Took one heater out of sump and placed in tote 3 hrs before starting of WC, everything tested well in both DT and WC water
. 
This is my first weekly WC. I changed about 27gal last week in a 75DT which was technically the first on a 6 week old tank. Parameters were good but Nitrates. 0 AM, 0 NI, 8.2 PH, about 40 NA. It looked like the spring pollen was everywhere. And I had to get a weed eater out for some of the sand and a LR or 3. I removed the LS that had the green hair on it (had too much in the tank anyway). You could clean the glass and 30min later it was turning yellow again. And the sand was starting to turn also. I was leaving the lights on waaay too LONG. 10 to 12hrs once even I think 16 hrs, fell asleep. I hope after I get things stable I can leave lights on longer than about 8hrs on 2 and 6hrs on 4. The wife is starting to take a liking to the tank and would like to see more when she is home during the day. The LFS leaves there on longer but probably the light mix is diff. I’ve added some carbon bags I have 2 where the water goes down the first bubble trap and one beside the return pump. I’m also running a 7x14” 25micron filter soc. This seemed to crisp up the water some and with the first WC it seemed to slow down. 
 
This weeks test was good. Parameters were good but Nitrates. 0 AM, 0 NI, 8.2 PH, about 20 NA. 
Started the WC about 6pm and finished about 9pm. Cleaned all the glass but right at the sand line, gonna have to get a scraper for this the mag wont get it. Also after the WC from last week after about 2 days all the tiny green hairs here and there on the LR turned grey. I had 2 LR’s that the grey tiny hairs turned deep dark red thru the week. Well with this weeks WC I decided to clean these 2 LR’s off took them out and in another bucket with some tank water and brushed off the stuff. It looked and felt like the green hair like moss that’s on trees. I then blowed the sand off of the rocks and let all this sorta settle with the PH off then started taking the water out. Sucked a couple of places to remove some sand but mostly just barely hovered over the sand to get the left over gunk up and cleaned the soc filter and filled the tank back up with the new water. 
 
I add a good softball size of Chaeto about 2pm on Sat. in the sump. I only had a 4700k light bulb and leaned it beside the glass and left it on about 10hrs. from about 11pm to 9am with the tank lights off. On the glass just under the light was slightly green Sunday am. I went to wally world and bought a 60w 6500K bulb and it wont fit the light , urgh. So now gotta go back and get a clamp fixture. The glass was greener this am. 
 
Well after all this long info here are the questions. 
Should the Cheato be rolling in the sump? The water does move in a circler formation, the sump flows right to left and return is on the left end. The sump flows about 331gph. I have been thinking of redoing some of the plumbing and this would increase it to about 361gph. When I get the clamp light, I would put it over the fuge area shinning thru the water not the side glass? There will be about 8 inches of water between the Chaeto and the surface. Is this good or do I need to use some eggcrate and raise it up some. I have some LR in the fuge area and some rubbles and shells in the intake side under the soc. 
 
Also I checked the parameters yesterday and they were off!! .25 AM, 0 NI, 7.8 PH, about 10 NA. Why would ammonia go up and PH go down? I added the PH buffer and stability to the water and I will recheck this afternoon. As for other testing I don’t have any other kits yet and will get some this weekend. What would you suggest? I know I need to test for calcium, alkalinity, something else just drawing a blank at the moment. 

Edit:

rdnelson · Dec 5, 2011

I am not expert but.....I think when you scrubbed the rock you had some die off of BB. That is what caused your am spike I believe. From what I have read (and had limited experience with) you will see several types of algae come and go with a new tank. After my Diatom, I had a small outbreak of hair algae and then bubble algae. Neither were too bad and my CUC (Snails, Hermits and Emerald Crabs) seem to have it under control.

As for tests, I track 10 things. Temp, Salinity, PH, AM, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, Calcium, Hardness and Magnesium.

demifelix · Dec 5, 2011

what kind of water you used for WC?

dakota9 · Dec 5, 2011

I question the need to buffer newly mixed salt water..... If I read correctly.... The salt mix should already contain adequate buffers.

seth the wine guy · Dec 5, 2011

bratliff;710049 wrote: get your hands out of there and let it cycle. Stop scrubbing rocks. Stop fussing with things in the display. Just do your water changes, stop adding chemicals and stop chasing parameters. Let your tank settle down. It will all on its own.

+1

Edit:

Amici;710053 wrote: I never saw the letters RODI so I suspect that may be the cause.

+1

Now, with both of those things you should be set!

eagle9252 · Dec 5, 2011

I did use RODI water and the water's PH test at about 7.8 before adding the buffer. I had no AM several weeks ago. I started the tank with curred LR and used LS (dont even get started o the dust storm) it never really cycled but had NA. but I did not test it the first 2 weeks either.

winkkle · Dec 5, 2011

Get a timer and set the lights to come on around 3 and turn them off around 10. that way you can enjoy the tank when your home from work. Thats what i do anyway. Like they said, usually salt mixes contain the adequate amount of buffers in the water for at least fish only. U may need to does more depending on amount and types of corals. I do not dose at all, do bi weekly 15 gal water changes on my 120, and my tank is thriving, mainly softies, zoas, lps and 1 sps. Youll find what works for your setup soon.

rdnelson · Dec 5, 2011

Yup, the salt should have everything you need until you get a lot of coral going. For now though, you shouldn't need to dose anything. Until it has finished cycling, readings will go all over the place (or so I have read). Let it be for a week or two and see how things look then. You put a lot of work into this getting it to this point. Don't mess it up now by getting in a hurry.

eagle9252 · Dec 5, 2011

Well numbers were better last night. LQQKs like 0ish AM, 0 NI, 8.2ish PH, 10ish NA. Cleaned the algae of the glass in the sump and installed the 100w 6500k CFL over the fuge and ran that last night. Lest just say no need for a night light in the kitchen!! What would be the length of run time? I ran it for 10hrs it came on about 10:30pm more or less when I turned the DT lights off. 
 
The DT has started LQQKing better, nice to see crisp clean water. Now I just need to get the PS out of the DT. The glass was not near as yellow as it has been, heck almost not even worth cleaning it with the mag but I did anyway. Now all I have to do is get some more test kits to test the rest of the parameters.

WC, added Chaeto… now what????

eagle9252

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rdnelson

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demifelix

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dakota9

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seth the wine guy

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eagle9252

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winkkle

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rdnelson

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eagle9252

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