What is going wrong?

I

inssanity21

Member
Yesterday I did a large water change and installed a new sump, total system volume about 110 gallons, water change 30 gallons. I switched salts to aquaforest. When I checked salinity with my hydrometer it was 1.027.
Came home today to cloudy water and all corals unhappy, fish seem to be fine. I have yet to start my protein skimmer back up. Checked all parameters and all seems well, temp is 79.2 degrees. Measure system salinity with my refractometer and it came to 1.030, a bit on the high side. Took about a gallon of water out and replaced it with rodi, current salinity is now 1.027.

Water parameters as measure by api:
Ph right about 8.0
Ammonia is at 0
Nitrite is at 0
nitrate is at 0
Phosphates is below .25
I also checked calcium and it came in at 480

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C

cment

Member
with your water cloudy it makes me think some type of bacterial bloom. I would get that skimmer on line sooner than later and point the powerbeads toward the surface to increase O2 along with slowly lowering your salinity to 1.025-1.026
 
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inssanity21

Member
Sump is a diy, it replaced a diy as well. filled rinsed and cleaned with rodi water before use. Skimmer is now on, I didn't want to turn it on last night since I wasn't able to watch and adjust. I re calibrate my refractometer before every use, I have a feeling that the hydrometer is way off that I use for mixing, I should probably start using the refracto for it to. I also forgot to mention I have carbon and gfo reactors and a uv sterilizer running too. Just for curiosity sake I checked my RODI system and it is reading 0 tds as well.

Sump goes chamber 1 water drain and skimmer. Goes through baffles and filter pad into a deep sand bed refugium (transfered from old sump) in the baffles are my pumps to the reactors and sterilizer, exits into fuge. Goes over another baffle into a return pump.
 
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inssanity21

Member
I used GE silicone 2 cured for 24 hours in my store room with a heater on high and I heat gunned the silicone for about a half hour at the start. It was about 90 degrees in the room. I have used this on multiple sumps now no issue, as long as the silicone is completely cured it is safe.
 
J

JustinRHadley

Member
I just used ge silicone 2 and had to drain everything completely because it was killing everything. You should post a link to the product you used if possible
 
tinman

tinman

Well-known member
Ok troubleshooting steps

1. Is this a new bucket of salt ?
2. Is your refractometer atc ? Meaning does it take into account the temp when u check the salinity ?
3. Is thos the probiotic salt from aquaforest ? If it is then its bacterial bloom and is stripping the nutrients out of water too soon than your corals like
4. Did you mix the salt in the bucket ? What happens is when they sit in storage wiating to be shipped the heavier elements in the salt like magnesium settles down to the bottom. I normally pull the bag out and pour it in a different bucket and back again ( yes i do this to every single new salt bucket)



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I

inssanity21

Member
yes brand new bucket of salt, the probiotic from aquaforest. I have a feeling that its the bacteria bloom like you said then since I only opened the bag and used. The refractometer is labeled ATC and branded with a live aquaria sticker on it.

As for the ge2 it is kitchen safe as well, used it many times before never been an issue. there is no white slime like all those others state. May it be the best choice, probably not but its non issue imo
 
tinman

tinman

Well-known member
Its the bacterial bloom .. that probiotic salt is like carbon dosing
run your skimmer wet and feed heavy and keep checking your phos and nitrates

Ohhh dont let alk raise above 8.5 if its an sps based system


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I

inssanity21

Member
Well I came home, no change. Maybe I'm impatient but I pulled the new sump and put it's contents minus the sand in a brute container incase it is indeed that silicone. Maybe I got lucky on all the other times I used it. I grabbed my 29 gallon sump from my last tank and put it under the tank and put about 15 gallons of new water in with salinity salts (what I typically use). All fish seem ok except on of my anthias has some fine issue it looks like. No white slime or anything. Most of the sps is out of the skeleton but not much at all. Fingers crossed I don't lose anything.
 
T

trigger happy

Member
When i set up my new tank last year I had the same issue, cloudy water for the few days until I decided to take all out, made at 1.025, it turned out to be the salt was old :/, is your salt grainy when you mixed it?
 
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