LovingIT

My water has been cloudy and has a green tint to it. Any Ideas? Salinity 1.024 PH 8.2 Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 0 . Everything in the tank looks great (rock, fish, anenome). My tank is turning over about alittle over a 100 times an hour, good flow. I am not over feeding, everything is gone in and around 5-10 minutes. What is going on ? I have a Magfloat but there is nothing on the glass.

agsansoo

How often do you do water changes ? And how many gallons ? Have you tested for phosphates ?

LovingIT

Monthly water changes, but maybe you can explain why I HAVE TO DO A WATER CHANGE IF all PARAMETERS AND PERFECT. I average about 20 % . AND a bell went off OH MY GOD phosphate no I only have the API master kit (obviously not a master) and there in no phophate kit in that one. Is that in a reef kit. Man that sucks, but I did also notice I MAY have been over-feeding slightly. I watched them eat the entire time and I felt that to much was left over, live and learn. Is there another good kit to work in conjuction with the one I have. Also started recently using seaweed for the hippo tang, and I think that may have contibuted to my bloom of green smoke. I cut down the feeding and used ALOT less seaweed in the clip I hang on the side. I also did a massive water change , and things are shaping up quite nicely. Anymore advice would be greatly appreciated. Funny how reading one comment can cause me to think of all these things. I knew I come on here for a reason. Thanks

Oil_Fan

Try to get into the habit of weekly water changes. Not only it help replenish certain elements and such but it will remove some of the bad stuff along with it. I think most here do 10% a week. I do a bit more but has to do with the size of my tank. I have a 65 gallon tank and do 10 gallons a week. I figure if need 2 jugs of water for a change (2x5 gallon jugs), I may as well use the whole thing.

I then use the stuff I pull out of my main tank for my quarantine tank.

And you can buy the phosphate test kit by itself. It includes another tube along with the chemicals. It's an easy test to do.

Oh and the username you have....does that mean you're in IT or just liked the name?

LovingIT

Weekly ...ok I will mark somewhere on tank to indicate about 10% I do own another tank that I am using for a hospital tank picking supplies up here and there to get it established (seperate net, heater,etc...) Tank is looking pretty good everything is testing great (except phosphates no kit yet) just a little cloudy (slighty) giving it a day or two for things to settle down, but fish look good, and started paying very close detail on exactly how much frozen brine shrimp I am feeding and watching them eat until they are finished and tryingto figure out whats a good amount. I have a long tentacle anenome that I feed with a turkey baster. But I am not really sure how much of that cube (frozen brine) it should be getting sometimes the LFS is NOT that informative. Any ideas? (dont know if you own one) I dont acutally see it eat, I just notice I feed it and all the shrimp get caught up in the tentacles and then later on its all gone. Usually just shave (razor) a slice off the cuebe let it loosen up in the cup and then use the baster right above it. As far as my name I am hooked from the second I hooked it up, I am Loving it.............the fish, the corals, the rock, the filter....the everything.

Peterpiper

Hi LovingIT,
Sounds like your enjoying you tank!
In your first post you list the Nitrates as reading 0, I feel that something is not right with this reading as Nitrates are the end product of the nitrogen cycle. was this a typo?
Are you mixing you water or using natural seawater?
IMO brine shrimp are low in proteins and nutrients and should not form the base for the fishes diet. Try feeding some Mysis shrimp 3-4 times a week.
Rinse all frozen food before feeding out, this is important.

LovingIT

No not a typo, I am learning that even though testing the water and getting good parimeters does not mean everything is kosher. It ranges from 0 through 20. I will look into the mysis shrimp LFS told me brine was fine, BUT I will mix it up. Ya know I introduced some seaweed a week or two back and right after that is when I started having this green tint problem, does seaweed cause these problems. It looks like its back. BUT I also noticed that I removed the carbon in the first tray but my bottom tray (third) has a carbon pillow that I did NOT remove when adding kents marine clear equation. So removed it all and started dosing again to try and clear up my water. It is ok to rinse (brine shrimp) under regular tap water ?

LovingIT

Well went to the LFS and they gave me some Ruby Reef ....the guy I was speaking to seemed like he gave a crap about my tank and knew alot. So I have to treat it for 5 days with my light off (LTA might not make it) but rather that than sacrifice my whole tank. Then do a 30% water change and then put the carbon back in . Man what a job, but I cannot wait until I get back to my clear perfect water. Oh and then I have to put in a dose of Bio-sphere (i think) or bio-something to getting everything back the way it was. So I will let you know what happens in a couple of days. Oh and I decided to use some vitamins to add to my brine shrimp which they get alot more vitamins rather than keep changing a whole slew of food.

Oil_Fan

As far as feeding them, I like to give my fish a variety of food. I use brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and flake food. I just rotate through them. The shrimp is kept in my freezer except for the small portions that I break off and well flake food is about as easy as it gets.

Sure brine isn't the most nutritional but they like it. I compare it to hamburgers. They sure do taste good but not the best food you can have.

LovingIT

Well I accidently doubled the dose (gave fresh water dose) of the Ruby Reef but rally said its fine. BUT after the five days did a 30% water change bought a reef test kit (mainly for phophates right now) all parameters were good. Added a dose of Bio-Spira put all the carbon back in. It was better CLEAR light green, then getting clearer. THEN BAM came back full storm, NOW I have to do another (correct dose) of Rally ruby reef but going to do a TEN day treatment. It does not get any sunlight BUT I am at work so I asked my wife to watch the tank but tells me it does not get sun ,so I am covering it just incase. Took out activated carbon and carbon pillow, BUT I cannot remember if I shut off my protein skimmer , do anyone know ? I know I shut it off with the BIO-Spira. Can't find any info. I am going to leave it on until I get an answer. Here a picture of this beautiful tank

Attached Images

	Green Tank.JPG (58.7 KB, 2 views)
	Green Tank 2.JPG (64.1 KB, 4 views)

agsansoo

Wow ... Just saw this ! Leave the protein skimmer on ! Did you get a phosphate test kit yet, it has to be off the chart. Is the water green or just the front glass ?