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cloudy water high phosphates

2K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  daydreamer 
#1 ·
Ok everyone bare with me this has been a wild ride and i have hit the next pot hole. Ok i got the 90 set up around 2 months ago. cycled for a month with just rock and sand (didn't test for a month and nitrates were high) then did the transfer. I drained half of the water in the 90 and added the water from the 46 and all its inhabitants. first week the ballast went out second week everything went brown ( diatoms I think) water prems still looked good nitrates were around 20 so i added puragen. next week installed the fixed icecap and new bulbs added a few new corals and snails and 1 sea cucumber. Sea cucumber died 2 days later (kinda squirt its guts out then spent another day and a half rotting in the tank because I was told it would heal its self) then my nem dies (fished it out immediately). Had a small trace of ammonia, started running charcoal. A week later and now the phosphates are spiking it was somewhere between 1 and 2 last night. I don't know if it is the diatoms dieing off or the carbon braking down or the 2 deaths but i am doing a water change and will post the levels tonight. Oh I am useing well water the phosphates are 0 to .5 on it. :rant:
 
#2 ·
What a mess :) You deserve a medal for sticking it out....

Would carbon break down? And if it did.... Would it cause high phosphates? I'm not a chemist, but I have trouble seeing that....

Are you doing anything to filter your well water? My well water has very high iron.. maybe one of the brilliant water chemistry minds (or anyone more versed in it than I am) could chime in and let us know if that could be a problem.

I'm sorry to hear of the deaths of your critters :( I hope you are able to work it out soon for your sanity and theirs!
 
#4 ·
I havnt herd of iron as being a big problem in a tank... Did you add ammonia to the tank when you let it recycle and didnt test it? It may just be that your pretty much starting fresh and going through the "new tank syndrome" that comes with every new tank.
 
#5 ·
that is the case i think the new rock was not cycled and the sand had gone dry when i thought i was cycling the tank it was really just sitting and the cycle didn't really start untill the transfer and then i did another water change and it was on. Is the phosphates part of the cycling process? does it also increase phosphates?
 
#8 ·
nitrite, nitrate, ammonia all 0.Phosphates are down to .5 after the water change but it is still not 0. Also the ph is down to 7.4 ( that is the lowest reading for api test so it could be even lower) i didn't test it before so idk what made it drop like that.
 
#10 ·
No tto be an ass but its VERY VERY unlikley that you have 0 nitrate. The most advanced SPS keeps have trouble with that. MOst people on here im sure has between 5-20 ppm. i myself have 10 ppm
 
#12 ·
I have read that some rock can leach phosphates more then others. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in and give ideas.

The low Ph reading could have been due to the water change and then bumped back up after cycleing through your tank.
 
#13 ·
yeh my nitrates stay between 10-20. I dont think I have ever been below 5 except after a long tank cycle and only 1 fish (no bioload)..... I wouldn't ever get a sea apple or cucumber due to the toxins they release when they die. It's likely that those toxins even killed some of your bio-filtration. Some rocks can leak phosphates into the tank but it mostly comes from bad water supply. At this point I would probably plan on not adding anything live for a good two weeks (sad as it may seem). Then I would get accurate test results (maybe take water sample to store?)..... One you have accurate test results more suggestions can be given. In one of my other tanks I had an issue with low ph when lights were off (of course an unstable ph will come back up when lights are on). I added sodium bicarbonate (baking soda- but it has some things you don't want in your tank so the pure form is better) and it raised my ph up. I slowly added a lilttle at a time over a few days until my ph was at minimum 8.2/3 when lights off. I only had this problem on my 1st tank. I think its all with time and learning curves. I think you are headed in the right direction. Getting a stable ph is VERY important. Get us some accurate test result numbers and we will see what might help.
 
#14 ·
I am pleased to announce it seems i found the culprit. Apparently it was the charcoal, after removing it and doing a 15% water change it went from 2 to .5 and didn't clime again. I will do another water change this weekend and also get a second opinion on my tests from the LFS. I am pretty sure of the 0 on nitrates i have had it checked when my tests say like 10 ish and Brad said i had just a little. Now it doesn't read at all, either way it is low enough that it isn't the problem. BTW i was running around 30ish before the puragen and it really worked (thanks Brad). He has been a great help this past month of aquatic roller coaster. Plug for Brad at Dubey's pets in Burlington. I can do that is it my post lol and thanks to everyone.
 
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