tkurys

I have a 20 gallon tank which only has live rock. I watched the ammonia spike and drop, nitrates were high then in two days disappeared to almost nothing. Now my water is cloudy again? Using a Fluval 205 with 25 pounds live rock. Any ideas?

aquarist48

Hello Tkurys and Welcome to Fish Lore. I'm sure some of our salt tank members will help you out shortly.
I hope you enjoy the site. Lots of good information and friendly people here.
Best of luck!
Ken

ATP

hi and welcome.

How long has your tank been set up?
(your tank might be cycling)

I do recommend you clean your fluval very often as in saltwater tanks, they usually become a nitrate factory (doesn't explain ammonia though si it might not be it for you)

I all so recommend you get a protein skimmer for your 20 gal. (do you have a 50 gal. tank? for that size of a tank and it's a reef, you'll need a skimmer) Skimmer will clean your water by sucking water through it's pump and while doing so, it sucks air as well from a small pipe (depends on type of skimmer). So there will be bubbles in the camber. The bubbles will carry all the dirty water into the cup. (nitrates, phosphates etc)

If your tank is not cycling, do a water change

ATP<

pepetj

Cloudy water is a common occurrence in newly set tanks. It usually clears by itself with no need of intervention from us.

Please read about SW filtration. Canister filters are not a good option since they require a n insanely frequent (some report daily or every other day) maintenance for nitrates not to build up.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

tkurys

Thanks to all the replies. I should have clarified (no pun intended) that the water did clear and then once the nitrate level dropped, it got cloudy again. Is this some sort of second cycle?
I don't have anything in the tank except some rock. I was just getting familiar with the process and have a 55 gal ready to start as soon as I can get more rock. I currently have about 30 pounds.

Now I was thinking of a Red Sea Max set up? All in one sounds pretty simple yet a bit pricey. I know I could sell my other tank but want to do this right with the help of people like you who have been doing this a long time. Your help is truly appreciated. Any comments +/- are welcome!

pepetj

In new SW tanks a few algae/bacterial/(tiny)crustaceans blooms are expected to happen. I got a snow-like event after it was cycled (likely a bloom of copepods/ampiphods). My tank is a Nano reef 20gal tall with 80+lbs of live rock (I have poor quality Caribbean rocks so I went 4lbs per gall instead of 2lbs), 6xF20T8 (two actinic, two at 10,000K, two at 18,000K) plus 4xF24T5HO (actinic) since I want to keep some coral frags in it.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo