Water clarity was doing great......then (!#%#)

My tank has been working for a little over 2 weeks. The only thing in the tank is crushed coral. Crushed coral was rinsed extensively (10 times) before adding to the tank. After adding to the tank the water clouded over but not to worry, the water became crystal clear after a 48 hour filtration period.

Things were going great, right??

Yesterday morning the water clouded over. I haven't done anything to the tank except for not running my lights. The lights were closed for the last two days. Could this be the problem, or, do I need to change/rinse some of the filter media (bearing in mind that the filter took care of all the cloudy mess the crushed coral made).

My LFS said this is normal and things should clear up.

My LR should be ready and going into my tank probably tomorrow.

My readings this morning:

Temp: 79
SG: 1.0225
Salinity: 30.5
PH: 8.00
Ammonia: 0.25(could this be??)**
Nitrite: 0.00

** I have nothing in the tank. Could the CC have caused a bit of ammonia?

Am I panicking for nothing?

Thanks in advance.

 

Yes

Your tank will go through a lot of changes in the next month or so so don't sweat the small stuff.

Did you add anything to the tank to start the cycle?

 

I haven't added anything to the tank to start the cycle. I was given to understand that once I add the cured LR that should be my cycle-starter.

Is this correct?

 

Yup, The LR will start your cycle.
sound like you've done everything right. I wouldn't worry about the cloudiness now. Add your LR and then start reading your water parameters
Then just keep reading until ammonia and nitrite are zero.
That is when you can start adding livestock.
Even then though you will go through some algae blooms


J

 

I added a cocktail shrimp when cycling as this speeded things up a bit. Better that than putting in some damsels!

Ohh and I had a diatom bloom and it covered pretty much everything! Luckily I got some advice on this forum as I would of been panicking, it cleared up within a few weeks.

 

I used over 100 pounds of LR, My bloom didn't come until I added my clowns.
Unless the timing just happened to be right, 2 days after I added them the first Bloom came. I'm in red stage now.

 

Thanks for the info everyone.

Do I add all 120 lbs of LR at the same time?

 

Dammit i hate the red stage. pesky slime. i have had my tank running for aver a year now and i still get weird blooms occasionally. this rescent one could be from the rescent addition of a refugium. GRRR...

 

Yes

 

Thanks amcarrig.

Today's the big day.......I'm picking up the LR and aquascaping.

This is better than sex