GSP and Frogspawn closed up tight

[joelespinoza]

Sorry, lots of responses, let me try to answer them all:

Well, that could explain some of your cloudiness. If you add to much Alk at once it will cause a precipitation event, which ends up leading to LOWER Alk and CA levels than you started because the Alk you added combines with the calcium in the tank to form solids (aka snow).

My cloudiness was a phytoplankton bloom, not precipitation. I put up pictures of it with the lights off in my light build thread, it is clearly green as hell, not "snow".

IMO it sounds like you're in "panic mode" and trying to do too many things at once (I have been there myself in the past, and I am sure just about every reefer has at one point).

I always put kalk in my topoff water, this was nothing unusual, its just the first time I topped off the tank since I added the new critters. I slightly overfilled it when I added the other tanks stuff, but my salinity was a tad low so I just let it evaporate down to 1.026 (it was about 1.024)

I would suggest backing off dosing anything and putting your LEDs really low for at least a week, talking blues @ no more than 50% and whites at no more than 25%. The corals will be fine at that lighting, even if it ends up being on the low side. There are cloudy/stormy days/weeks in the ocean as well and corals do just fine. I don't think you really have enough corals to require dosing much at this point. My 60G I only dose about 2x a month, when I clean my screen. I put in 20ml of Alk and 10ml of CA 2x a month and everything is fine.

I posted my new plan for my light timing in my build thread a couple days ago, the short story is my new plan is to run 6 blues and 6 violets, at about 600mA for 15 hours a day, and I run the rest of the lighting (turned down some) for 4 hours a day, I plan to increase that by 30 minutes (the shortest time increment on my outlet timer) about every other or every 3rd day once my corals are looking adjusted to it.

What are your Alk/CA readings today?

As I said the new test kits are on the way, the old ones were no longer dependable and thrown away. It has been a while since I felt they were dependable.

What are your N/P readings? What is your salinity and temp at? If all your parameters are reading within acceptable levels then I would look at the 2 other things you mentioned, chemical warfare (doubtful, but using carbon will fix that) or lighting (really what I believe the issue is, seen so many people have similar issues after switching to LEDs because they keep trying to make it look, to their eyes, similar to their old lighting, which is the worst thing a person can do).

No detectable N or P

I added Charcoal in a media bag near my return pump, not optimal but the best place for media I have.

76 degrees

1.026 salinity

The sand from your friends tank that you put in your sump - it wasn't a deep sand bed was it?

No it was only about an inch deep in a 25 gallon tank.

I do have a concern that all of this is due to bacterial die off within the sand. All of the bacteria in the sand has evolved populations regarding there exact requirements within the sand layers. When mixing up the sand from a different system, none of the bacteria ends up in the correct areas of the new bed, then they die, all at the same time, lots of trouble. I would ditch the sand to be safe, or at least isolate it from the display pending further investigation.

I would guess it was only about 20lbs or less and it went into my 40 gallon sump that has a bare bottom, while there may have been some bacteria dieoff, I doubt it was very much. Right now I think the sand in my sump averages a half inch or less in depth. I think my phytoplankton bloom was the result of some dieoff and whatever nutrients were in the sand. Now my phytoplankton bloom is nearly gone and my N and P is non existant.

Does your tank smells ? If you have massive bacteria death enough to cloud your tank - you will be able to smell it for sure. Healthy tank has almost no odour ( At least unpleasant one).

No, there is no odor other than the normal smell, which just smells a bit like the ocean. Not unpleasant at all.

[Garf]

Joelespinoza - just trying to help, as is every other responder. Good luck.

[joelespinoza]

Joelespinoza - just trying to help, as is every other responder. Good luck.

I really appreciate the input from everyone, I am very inexperienced doing this, but im trying my best.

[kerry]

You are at the right place. There is plenty of knowledge here to get you through anything. Many different ways of getting to same result so you can choose the way that works for you. Take this all in and digest it, research it, and then apply it to your situation but stay in the box until you get it dial in!!! Going out of the box usually does not work. Go out of the box when you get/feel comfy with your set-up and know it inside and out. You will do just fine Sir!

[joelespinoza]

Well it looks like they are slowly emerging, I am still not sure if it was the increased alkalinity, I topped off about 1.5 gallons of kalk yesterday, so about 3 tsp, or if they just took a while to get used to the light.

I am LEANING towards something in the water because ALL of them disappeared at the same time, and they all started comming back at the same time (including the frogspawn) and they are all located in different areas and at vastly different light levels. It doesnt make since to me that one under shade near the bottom and one in the peak light zone exposed at the top have the exact same reaction to the light, but really, who knows? Its certainly possible.

Anyway, thanks everyone, as always I REALLY appreciate feedback!

[shrimpman749]

MAYBE SLOW DOWN CURRENT ALITTLE IS ALL YOU NEED AND ALSO TRY A SMALL WATER CHANGE JUST MY 2CENTS.

[shrimpman749]

THE FROGSPAWN CANT TAKE TO HIGH OF A CURENT JUST A LITTLE AND MINE OPENS LIKE A SOFTBALL.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Dude, you need to click off the caps lock key man!

[kotlec]

And try to condense your thoughts to single post.