Sean's 8.5G Rimless Reef - 3/07/2013

I think your over doing it let it settle for a while.

 

I can already tell the water change for today has helped. Cloudy, but looking much better.

Dskyers, I don't plan to do any overly large water changes for now. We'll see how long it takes for this to clear up completely.


The tank has obviously gone through another cycle though because most of my copepods and bristleworms seem to be dead. I've removed them with a net and will eventually reestablish the sandbed with another cup of sand from the 29.

 

Have you tried clarifier? I agree with your sis, it might just be a bacterial bloom.

 

If it's a bacterial bloom you might be able to clear it up with something like Microbacter7. I put a little bit in each time I add something to the tank to jumpstart the bacteria for a new load.

 

I haven't added any suuplements to the tank and don't currently have any on hand. Thanks though. I will look into that.

 

Looks like my tank when I suspected a bacteria bloom. It eventually went away on its own but then came back a week later worse than the first time. Had to get a UV to clear it up.

 

When you mixed the sand, a lot of the bacteria must have died, which lead to a lack of assistance in cycling through ammonia. It would have also spiked the ammo a little, but not to the point where you have this, it could be the bristle worms because you said they were dying.. For the water being cloudy, it might just be the silt off the sand that never completely filtered out. Mine had about a quarter of an inch of it for a month or two. I might be completely off though..

 

Any pics or diagrams of this gravity ATO?

 

Cowbell, I think it is a combination of sand/silt in the water. I've already doe two water changes so by now I think ammonia should be gone.

I wouldn't have thought mixing the sand would be much of a problem because the tank was so new. But maybe so because I did add 1 cup of sand that was from my established tank. Bristle worms are all gone, along with many copepods.

Sorry, fsukum, I haven't started the ato build yet. But it should work similarly to this.

 

Cool, thanks. I'm going to read about this a little more.