30 Gallon Saltwater Tank

[gotteeguy]

i have had my 30 gallon saltwater tank for about 4 months. it has two filters, a topfin and a fluval. and something i made that slightly churns up the water on the surface. i am about to get a skimmer soon though. about 1/4 of the water in it has already cycled and the rest is still cycling. the location of the tank is right next to my window but i still leave on the light for about 10-12 hours each day. some tank inhabitants are 2 thin-stripe hermit crabs and some weird burrowing invertibrate species that sort of resembles a sand flea (crab). two days ago the white triggerfish i had in there died, i'm guessing because the ammonia levels were at its peak.

but i have two problems. my tank was crystal clear up until a couple days ago when i was noticing it was getting cloudy. but it was nothing like i saw this morning. it somehow overnight got cloudy, but enough to see the corals and live rock. and i have no idea what's causing it. could anyone help me out?
my other problem (which may have led to the first problem) is that the natural sunlight from the window makes a lot of brownish-red algae grow on the live rock and live sand, but only on the places facing the sun. and i have literally no idea how to get it off the live rock and sand. my only safe idea would to set the live rock and sand in a bucket of filtered saltwater for a few weeks in a dark place so the algae will die? but the live rock might die from no sunlight, right?
i am going to change the filters today and empty the water into a bucket and clean out the sides of the tank.

any help is appreciated...

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Can you give us more information?

How much liverock do you have?
What are the water stats? Ammonia and nitrite mainly
What livestock do you have in the tank (corals, fish and inverts).

 

[gotteeguy]

i have 3 pounds of live rock. but i have about 6 extra pounds of regular rocks, i'm not sure if they could harbor any bacteria that would make them "live" though. but they're in the tank anyway for places to hide under.

i have finger-sized bits of coral, about 10 pieces of them. the largest coral is about the size of a computer mouse.
there is also a large chunk of coral in the tank about 3 pounds. i found it washed up on some jetties in key west about 5-6 years ago. since then i have used it in my turtles' freshwater tank for a couple years and now it is in the saltwater tank, so i'm not sure if its live or not even though its been around live sand, rock, and coral for a month or so.

i just emptied 3/4 of the water into a rubbermaid. it's the water that's cloudy but i still don't know what's causing it..

i haven't been able to get a hydrometer to measure salinity, anything to measure Ph, specific gravity, etc but i know i'm getting those things in less than a couple days. possibly even today. and how/what do you use to measure ammonia and nitrates?

all the livestock i have in the tank are two thinstripe hermit crabs, the weird crustacean thing, and a couple brackishwater snails.
i HAVE had a portly spider crab, a pufferfish, large shrimp, and some ghost shrimp in the tank in its early stages.

 

[Trod]

i have 3 pounds of live rock. but i have about 6 extra pounds of regular rocks, i'm not sure if they could harbor any bacteria that would make them "live" though. but they're in the tank anyway for places to hide under.
What do you mean by regular rock? is it ocean rock? I don't think you have enough LR in there For a 30g (US) you need about 15kg, I would advise you get some more

i have finger-sized bits of coral, about 10 pieces of them. the largest coral is about the size of a computer mouse.
there is also a large chunk of coral in the tank about 3 pounds. i found it washed up on some jetties in key west about 5-6 years ago. since then i have used it in my turtles' freshwater tank for a couple years and now it is in the saltwater tank, so i'm not sure if its live or not even though its been around live sand, rock, and coral for a month or so.
This could be causing a problem, if it has been kept in freshwater for 5 years then put straight into a SW set up its probably not very happy, Can you post a photo, which might help identifacation

i just emptied 3/4 of the water into a rubbermaid. it's the water that's cloudy but i still don't know what's causing it..
Doing a minimum 50% water change will help

i haven't been able to get a hydrometer to measure salinity, anything to measure Ph, specific gravity, etc but i know i'm getting those things in less than a couple days. possibly even today. and how/what do you use to measure ammonia and nitrates?
You need to measure you Salinity ASAP buy a refractometer they are easy to use and fairly accurate, try US ebay you can find some good bargains on there. You also need to test for P.H., Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, I'm not sure what tests are available in the US but if you can get salifert ones these are good, again try ebay

all the livestock i have in the tank are two thinstripe hermit crabs, the weird crustacean thing, and a couple brackishwater snails.
i HAVE had a portly spider crab, a pufferfish, large shrimp, and some ghost shrimp in the tank in its early stages.

Hope this is some help

 

[gotteeguy]

by the regular rock i mean just a couple rocks that i found in some jetties in the bay near me.


i didn't just transfer the large coral to the saltwater tank. i washed it with soap and water, used a bit of bleach on it, washed it again, let it dry for a few days, wash it again with just water, and then i put it in the saltwater tank.


i could post a photo from my iphone, but i would have to email the pictures to someone (both of my cameras are broken). it's fairly good quality pictures for a phone.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Are you buying your Saltwater from your local fish shop or directly from the sea?

You will need an ammonia and nitrate test kit, PH is also useful and you will need something to check the SG of the water (though if you are buying from your LFS and you top up with RO/regular water to the same level it should be ok).

By corals I'm thinking you mean coral skeletons as anything that has been in FW for 5 years will be well and truely dead by now

There could be a whole number of things that are causing the cloudy water and algae. The most likely is that your tank hasnt been cycled properly and doesnt have any biological filtration so you have ammonia in there (which will also kill any livestock off).

The best advice I could give you at the moment would be to have a good read up on the sticky threads in the marine section of this forum to get a better idea of how to setup a marine tank. Then once you are ready maybe strip down the tank and restart it again from fresh.

 

[Trod]

You are not able to receive PM's at the mo, I'm assuming its because your account is still validating, as soon as you can, send me a PM and I'll give you my email address so you can send some pictures unless you can get them on here in the mean time

 

[TigerIssey]

Trod, I think new members still have to make so many posts before the PM system becomes available.

 

[gotteeguy]

what's LFS?


yeah i meant polyp/coral skeletons. they definetly aren't live.


for biological filtration i have live sand and live rock.

i am most likely getting the skimmer and ph, ammonia, nitrites, nitrate kits tomorrow. can they be reused?

 

[TigerIssey]

LFS = Local fish store

Each test kit will perform around 70-100 tests depending on which test.

The Ammonia , pH, Nitrite and Nitrate should last you a fair few months of regular testing.

 

[gotteeguy]

i forgot to say, i got 2/3 of the water by making it from a bag of sea salt from the pet store. the rest came from the ocean and some of it came from already-cycled water that the pet store woman put into the bags my triggerfish and live rock were in.


i have looked online and, from what i've read, the cloudy water seems to be from the bacteria being stirred up.

also, should live sand be treated the same way to get algae off it that you would for live rock?

LFS = Local fish store

Each test kit will perform around 70-100 tests depending on which test.

The Ammonia , pH, Nitrite and Nitrate should last you a fair few months of regular testing.

thanks for the info. i'm sort of new to this, so what does RO and SG mean?

 

[gotteeguy]

yeah, i'll do what barney said and just start from the beginning again. i'll just clean the water the best i can and dump it into the adult horseshoe crabs' rubbermaid.


so now i have live rock in my closet being treated from algae. so where should i put the live sand and coral now, until i get the new tank set up right?

 

[TigerIssey]

You really need to read the pinned threads so that you understand the process of setting up a marine tank. You are not cycling the water the bacteria are not free swimming. The live rock is what you are cycling.

When you say Live sand do you mean Caribsea Live sand, if you do I would say that is where your algae problems arise from I have the same problem. It is not Live (I knew this but wanted to see if there were any other benefits, I now regret using it) nothing stored on a warehouse shelf can possibly be "Live". This I believe is the problem, I believe it is full of nutrients that cause algae.

RO = Reverse Osmosis
SG = Specific Gravity, which is a measure of salinity it is not the salinity but is a measure of.

The other thing is that (not sure where you live) I would not use ocean water, there are likely to be parasites and perhaps chemicals in there depending on where you are located.

The first rule of keeping any type of fish is to NEVER add the water from the bags you get fish in from the LFS. This water has had the fish in it therefore it will be full of ammonia. You also can never trust that the water in these bags that came from the LFS tanks is clear of white spot parasites or other bacterial disease.

Have you read about acclimatising fish at all, you need to do this also.

Please please read the section at the top of Marine Chit chat section, there is a realm of knowledge pinned article that will open a wealth of information to you.

 

[gotteeguy]

yes. i was using Caribsea live sand.

i got some of the ocean water from a beach in Destin, Fl. i don't think its polluted there.

which articles should i read that will tell me details in setting up a saltwater tank, cycling, acclimation, etc. that you're talking about?

i researched for a few weeks on how to set up a saltwater aquarium, but the care sheets weren't in great detail.

 

[TigerIssey]

click here and read all

The frag exchange is not relevant the rest is, particularly the setting up.

In addition read some of the journals in the journal section.

In Nano section is Seffie and Trods Journal - Our adventure on the Salty side, it is entertaining and informative.

You are probably ok with the ocean water you used but don't use fish bag water.

Did you add fish straight away?? If so this is the reason it died.

I would do as Barney says start again.

Make sure wherever you have put the Live Rock that you add a power head or you will lose what bacteria are colonised already.

Most of all, as Seffie and Trod say, the only stupid question is the one not asked.

Make use of the people on here, there are years and years of experience between everybody. I am on holiday from tommorrow but there will be people about that are only too happy to help. You have had a bad start, time to start over and do everything properly with the advice you have sought on here.

People will be happy to guide you through your set up.

Could you run through you equipment, powerheads etc so that people know what you are working with.