ADVICE - New Setup at Office

[alphapuck5280]

So I have a 33 long set up at work that I set up and filled 10 days ago. I know that its usually a No No to fill it with RO water and then add salt to the tank, but with the situation at the time, I had no other choice. Its been 10 days and its still cloudy. I have a power head in there as well as the 2 return nozzles. I have a skimmer, but not running, and I have a carbon reactor going.

Why is it still cloudy? My other thought is that maybe the glass cleaner solution wasnt completely washed off before I added water or that the buckets that I transported the water had some residue that I didnt know about. One picture is from the day of the setup and the other is today and the last picture is looking through the tank. My tank at home is clear as glass and this tank is pissing me the F*** out. Any advice or experience with this?

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Seems kinda long to me as well but it's been a while since I've set a new system up. I'd try a filter sock or another means of mechanical filtration to help polish the water up the rest of the way.

Also, not necessarily related. Did you use any bacteria in a bottle product? Maybe a bacteria bloom... I'd also get the skimmer going.

As always, unfortunately, patience.


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[TheRealChrisBrown]

My thought was to add more carbon in a high flow area of the sump. Maybe grab a bag of chemi-pure from any pet store. Could you do a partial water change too, like 15% or 20%, using buckets you don't have questions about? Any micro-bubbles getting to the display?

 

[alphapuck5280]

I do have a 7" rectangular filter sock, no micro bubbles at all... bubble trap in the sump takes care of that, and my carbon reactor is going at about 20 GPH.... much faster than normal since there is no GFO at the moment. I used a bit of Seachem Stability but not much since 5 gallons of mature water was taken from my home tank to get the process going along with live rock I already had matured.

I will throw on the skimmer tonight as I leave (this skimmer is not the most quiet so I dont have it on during business hours). Should I slow my reactor down to increase contact time with the carbon? I even have the super nice Premium ROX from BRS.

 

[timnem70]

No real reason to have the skimmer going. Nothing for it to skim right now. Just make sure your SG is accurate, so a small fresh water, RODI water change and as Chris said, maybe add more filter floss. Did you rinse the carbon really well before use? 10 isn't that long and it appears clearer than your 1st photo so there's that. Where did the rocks you have in there come from? You cook them 1st to leech out some of the carbonate? That's what it looks like to me anyway.

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[alphapuck5280]

Rocks came from my refugium in my large system at home. They have been in there 2 years. And yes I did rinse the carbon.

What does SG stand for?

 

[SkyShark]

Specific gravity (salinity)

 

[timnem70]

Rocks from a Fuge, especially if they have been in there w years buffering, are bound to have a ton of phosphates in them. They are probably just leeching. Do a small change, maybe 10 gallons, and wait another week or so. Good luck and please keep us posted.

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[Miah2bzy]

I like using bactiv 8. I setup my 30L with rocks from my refugium (washed them off in salt water first to get all the dead stuff out). I added filter floss, charcoal, chemipure to the filter rower and doses of the bactiv 8. Had corals/fish within hours of running no problem.


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[ReefCheif]

I cant enlarge the pictures on my phone so I cant really tell, but is it bare bottom or is their substrate? If theres substrate what type and is it new or used? Ive had some experience in the past with fine sugar sand taking a long time to fully settle and causing the tank to be cloudy for alot longer than normal. Ibe also seen "live sand" do wierd things such has percipitating when I initially started dosing buffer after tank set up, but doesnt happen very often at all so I doubt this is the cause.

What kind of salt mix do you use and have you checked TDS in your RO supply?

Just given my experiences Im also leaning towards precip build up leaching out from the rocks you used from your other tanks fuge. Theres alot more flow in the tank itself as apposed to the fuge, a fuge is generally fairly calm as far as water turbulance, this allows any precip to settle much easier than it would in your display and rocks that have been down there for 2 years, its pretty safe to say they had quite a bit.

 

[spinycheek]

My bet is that it's colloidal calcium carbonate (tiny sand particles). if you dump 1-3 bottles of carbonated water in there, it should dissolve the tiny particles and clear up within an hour. I've had this problem and I swear, the carbonated water was a miracle.

 

[alphapuck5280]

So here is the tank last Thursday, Last Friday, and Today. Things are looking good and my blackbox LEDs should be arriving tomorrow to complete setup.

 

[alphapuck5280]

Well the new lights are here and this is the view from my desk. Will be transferring 2 of my clowns here in the coming weeks.

 

[Sctip]

Looks good. That will be a good conversation piece as well.

Ask and you may find out, don't ask and you will never know.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

So what did you do to clear things up? Or was it just a bit o good old patience? Looks great now.


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