45g Tank Problems

Hi,

I am somewhat new to the hobby (1 year) so posted (a book) in here, but am having tank Cloudiness and insane population of Copepods. "Really" insane.

Some info about the tank:
tank: 45gal. Monterey Cube saltwater
sand: 20lbs Caribsea Live Aragonite, 16lbs Natures Ocean Substrate
lighting: 150w 14k HID Halide
heads: 2-750's Koralia Powerheads
filter: 70gal. Aquaclear Filter. Been running 3 weeks.

After 8 days my mate was anxious to get a few of my coral out of his tank so 5 coral was added. Yep, I know this was bad. Within a few days the corals were completely open and doing better than we have seen them in months, but I knew an algae bloom would soon follow (maybe, using instant cycle sand would hopefully help even if just a tad).

Another week passes, everything is crystal clear, diatoms came and went, doing great, so I added a few 2 tiny snails and 2 tiny hermits and 1 cycle fish a Fire Clown.

All good, so almost at the 3 week point (parameters steady) my plans for the tank was to have some macroalgaes growing about. I knew my tank was not ready for them but decided to try 1 shaving brush. Enters chaos.

When it arrived it smelled pretty bad. But I did per thier instructions of just temp. acclimate then place in and discard the water. I did, it was alittle dusty so I waved it about in the water then planted it. Following day I notice a white sac thing laying on the coral behind it. (sun coral) I'm still pretty new so I disreguard it. I had never seen my sun coral look this healthy in the 6 months so I thought it was natural.

Next morning, Shaving Brush in approx. 16 hours noticed it was turning white at the top and a few needles floating about, took it out. Knew my experiment failed and it would eventually die completely so removed it.
In roughly 6 hours tank cloudiness started. I thought ug, I've went too fast. But yesterday I noticed insane amounts of copepods, not just alot but literally billions, covering every surface in the tank.

At this point I realize my mistakes. I know I went abit quickly. But now I am not sure what to do to remedy it. New carbon? This one is 3 weeks old.
I have only 2 snails, 2 crabs, and 1 clown..they cannot eat that many pods. I noticed all my algae is gone, like they've stripped it all down? I am not adding anything to the tank to eat copepods, what I have in there is enough for another month.

What did this plant do to my tank? I know copepods are healthy so I'd like to keep them without filtering them out even though they are driving my clown crazy. The cloudiness is bad, is it an algae bloom brought on by that plant?

Sorry the images don't capture how horrendous the copepod population is, personally have never seen anything like it or what it will do to my reef in the long term. Any and all help appreciated

 

Bacterial bloom secondary to the sun coral bitting the dust. Carbon and water changes are going to be you best friend.

Tanks need to cycle before introduction of any corals or fish, the only short cut IMO is all cured LR and seeded sand, and or a soft cycle.

Very nice tanks BTW!

 

Thanks for the insight. The sun coral is actually doing better than I have ever seen. The gloopy white thing that was on it I think came from the shaving brush which was positioned in front of it. I think it was a sac of copepod eggs? I don't honestly know.

My clown hasn't came out of the Live Rock in a week though he eats everyday. Silly question but will water changes help with a algae bloom?
I figure too, that this is what is happening but the reverse is holding true in the tank. Looks like zero algae. Trillions of copepods though, was worried about the long term effect on the coral with so many pods.

P.s I have seen many copepod outbreaks but nothing like this, and thanks for the compliment. Tore down a 90gal. for 2 of these 45gal. babies. Love them so far, so roomy being a cube sized. Additionally, 60% of the LR was fully cured + had seeded sand.