another newbie question...SORRY!!!

[somethingcorp904]

Alright ive been trying to get to the bottom of this cloudy tank deal under control....and today i tried taking of my ph head..to see if that would cause this losse sand to settle..and its starting shooting crazy amounts of sand out...what is up?...now my tank is a big mess..any ideas....or input...

 

[dragon79]

maybe bad powerhead? Looks by opening it, you did more bad than good. Perhaps try cleaning it again as a last resort if not get another, maybe one not as powerful and maybe it'll even out the distribution of flow without heavy sand storms

 

[somethingcorp904]

when you say buy a new one...which piec are you exactly talking about

 

[incysor]

Alright ive been trying to get to the bottom of this cloudy tank deal under control....and today i tried taking of my ph head..to see if that would cause this losse sand to settle..and its starting shooting crazy amounts of sand out...what is up?...now my tank is a big mess..any ideas....or input...

First...Don't start a new thread for the same problem. Having to search back through threads to find info on your tank specs wastes time. :smile:

This is very strange. What type of sand are you using? I haven't ever heard of someone's tank taking this long to settle out. Unless they're just pointing a PH at the sandbed. And I use the smallest sugar-sized arragonite sand in my tanks. Are you running extra PH in the tank? Or just the single return pump that comes with the tank?

B

 

[somethingcorp904]

sorry again....im using the small sand i guess....yea and ive tried pointing the head in evrey way possible....and no im not running any extra ph in the tank at all....what would you try or do in this situation....because evreything else in my tank looks so good...besides the mass amounts of sand not setteling in the tank

 

[somethingcorp904]

and would that be normal for mass amouts to shoot out...once the head was taken off the pump....

 

[incysor]

and would that be normal for mass amouts to shoot out...once the head was taken off the pump....

I don't understand what you're asking here.

mass amounts of what?

B

 

[somethingcorp904]

mass amounts of sand.....

 

[incysor]

Do you have a picture of your tank?

How much LR do you have in it. Even if you have a PH in a tank you can usually just point it at the LR, and it breaks the flow pattern up enough that it won't disturb the sand much. Can you arrange it to try this?

B

 

[somethingcorp904]

yea ill try it out....and ill take a pic as soon as possible....and liverock..i probably have about 15-20 pounds so far.and i have a 25 g cube ..im going to be buying more in weeks top come...its kinda hard to point it straight at the live rock...with the stock jbj nano cube i have....thanks so much for your help

 

[incysor]

yea ill try it out....and ill take a pic as soon as possible....and liverock..i probably have about 15-20 pounds so far.and i have a 25 g cube ..im going to be buying more in weeks top come...its kinda hard to point it straight at the live rock...with the stock jbj nano cube i have....thanks so much for your help

I believe you can add loc-line parts to the output which would give you a bit more manueverability when it comes to flow. I don't have a nanocube though so I'm not 100% sure.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... &ast=&key=

Mike, Steven? What do you guys think?

B

 

[somethingcorp904]

cool..thanks alot...does anybody else with fimiliar with nano cubes..know what i can do to get this under control

 

[somethingcorp904]

i dissconnected the hose for the pump in the back...took the pump out...and checked it out..then put evreything back in place...and once again i turn it on...and the tank is stirred up.........

 

[somethingcorp904]

could it be from some marine buffer i used on it about a week and a half ago....that never dissolved?

 

[djconn]

This all sounds too weird. I'd do a massive water change and see what the tank looks like then. Maybe even turn off the PH for a day or so and see if this 'cloudiness' goes away. :huh:

 

[incysor]

could it be from some marine buffer i used on it about a week and a half ago....that never dissolved?

Well you shouldn't be adding marine buffer directly anyway. You should disolve anything additive in a cup of tank water then pour that in. Or you can disolve it into your top off water. However it should have disolved by now.

B

 

[somethingcorp904]

i unplugged the ph for like 5 hours today..and the sand bebree...whatever it is..just stayed in place....did not settle at all...so it has to be something in the water....what is a suuficent water change for a 25 g nano cube...

 

[dragon79]

if you have the cube, then you have the 24 jbj cube? or this some other kind of cube? Powerhead seems to be the problem here, what kind is it? You have a hang on PH or is it a fully submersible pump like in the JBJ's?


Well for now I'm thinking what dj is thinking, you have to see if it's that PH causing this...if things settle down with it off, then there's an indication that the PH you are using is just not right rating for your tank.


Please post pics first chance you get so we can understand the situation better.

 

[somethingcorp904]

i will post pics as soon as possible...i use mac..and its hard to post pics through....but yea i have the jbj nano cube...and i turned the powerhead off...and it didnts eem to settle....and yes its the sumersiable ph..thanks for evreyones help with trying to solve this problem with me

 

[incysor]

i unplugged the ph for like 5 hours today..and the sand bebree...whatever it is..just stayed in place....did not settle at all...so it has to be something in the water....what is a suuficent water change for a 25 g nano cube...

Normal water change is 10-15%. So 2.5g-4g

I usually try to do about 20% which would be 5g.

You have one of two problems.

1. The particulate matter is smaller than your filtration can stop.

or

2. The PH/return pump is too powerful for your system the way it's
currently set up.

If it's the first one, then you need to add some sponge, filter floss, micron bag, something to flter the particulate out of suspension.

If it's the second one then you need to find a way to difuse the flow so it's spread out better, or break it up with aquascaping, or get a new less powerful pump.

From your original description in the other thread it sounds like this wasn't happening until you moved your rockwork around. Which would lead me to think that it's the second scenario. In the process of changing the aquascaping you disturbed the detritus on/under/around the rock, and more importantly you changed the way the water flowed in the tank.

If the particulate matter is fine enough it won't settle until bacteria grows on it enough to weigh it down. Which is why some brand new tanks remain very cloudy for quite awhile. I've never had this problem, but I've always run my full filtration system on the tanks, so there were PH moving the water in the tank, and in my sump it went through sponges and a 100 micron bag/sock.

I think that simply getting a small 100 micron sock and rubber banding it to the front of your return would probably clear some of it up in a few hours. It'll be ugly, but it's temporary. If the water gets nice and clear and then you take the sock off and it gets cloudy again, it's the pump kicking the substrate up. You'll then need to re-scape things, or DIY some type of difuser on the end of the return line to get it to stop.

B