Nano Fanatic!

[Nada]

ok ill give it ago, should i add anything else e.g. phosgaurd or some zeolite?

ill remove some of the water film now and aim my power head up.

ill take photos tomorow, gosh who ever knew salt water nano's would be this difficult FW is just so easy and straight foward once u know the basics.

sigh im hanging in there, dw im not gonna give up so easily.

 

[Nada]

i re-added the carbon, and i took out about 1cm of the water and in the process as much of the dirty film as i could, seems like it hasnt done much, the haze keeps building up even if i disrupt the water just looks abit better from the top view, and yeh some more dead critters are showing up, my ph is also still dropping sitting on about 7.0 since i shouldnt re-cyle the water should i up the ph?

 

[KidNano]

yeah from here on out you should just wait and ignore it if you can. Top off with fresh water when it needs it and just let nature take it's course. Everything will come back in due time. Jesse won't steer you wrong. ;-)

 

[TimSchmidt]

What is your water source and what are you putting in the water besides your salt mix? What do you have for substrate and what is in the tank right now. Honestly if you have nothing living, I say leave it alone for a bit. It will eventually balance itself out in the end. Well except for Nitrates...

 

[Nada]

hrmm good questions, i recently moved housed because my old place is getting demolished and wer gonna build a new house but since then we are staying at a new place till our other house gets built. To the point the house wer staying at now does not have a rain water tank, and usually id just use rainwater and harden the water abit because down here the water hardeness is abit too soft. So at the moment im using tap water with a mix of chlorine, chloramine, amonia & heavy metals neutralizer + slime coat. I leave that to settle for a day, then i do the pre mixing with the salt and water, i used something called 'instant ocean' after i got the gravity right i just pour it in. the subtrate its crushed coral, and in the tank there is curently 1 kg of live rock and about 0.5kg of base rock.

Im unsure if everything is completly dead, but yeh the film is pretty much gone due to the disruption of my return line, wow it really helped, i think ill go out and get a power head when im free, however the cloudy haze is still there its just kinda slowed down and is pretty faint, the smell isnt as bad aswell, i think it has to do with the oxygen exchange, so ill try leaving my lid open.

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

I see a couple problems. First is using tap water. It is generally not recommended as tap water often contains many impurities that while they are not bad for us, can be harmful or even devastating to your tank. I would strongly recommend using RO/DI water or distilled water.

Second, adding anything to your water except your salt mix can be bad. I know to use tap you need to dechlorinate but still, not good. Also this Instant Ocean stuff, what exactly is it? Unless it is salt, you really should not add stuff to your water/tank unless you test for whatever you are wanting to add and find that your tank is deficient.

Third, crushed coral. Bad news. Crushed coral is notorious for trapping detritus and other junk causing bad water conditions. It is hard to clean and does not allow for inverts and fish to get down in to the substrate to clean and find food. Since your tank is new and still cycling, in my honest opinion, I would remove it and replace with sand.

 

[Nada]

YAY! the tank is finally clear, the haze and foogyness cleared up and ph is fine and i belive the cycle has started, do you think i should really start over, after all the effort? ARGH what to do?

I think ill just leave it, in time everything will fall into place, im not that fussed with the crushed coral, cleaning it reguarly wont be a hassle. seriously after the huge fuss and hassle ive been through i dont ever want to re-start again =s

ill start a new post in the 20 under once my tank has finised cycling, and give the details, if anything goes wrong ill be sure to post.

Thanks everyone who replyed and gave me advice, much help indeed.. once again wish me luck!

 

[reefman23]

I hope Cris doesn't take this the wrong way but ask him (kidnano) about sticking it out with the crushed coral substrate... It catches up with you. Cleaning it regularly doesn't really solve the problem as that will stir up detritus and gases which you don't want to do. I would personally switch it out.

Jesse

 

[SaltWaterNewb]

You won't really have to start over. Get your sand and take the rock out of your tank, stick it in a bucket full of tank water that you siphoned out of the tank, remove all the crushed coral and replace with sand. Put you rock back in and put your water back in.

Trust me, it WILL be a huge hassle to clean the crushed coral and you'll never be able to keep it clean enough.

 

[KidNano]

CRUSHED CORAL SUCKS!!!!!! I started my tank with crushed coral and people told me not to use it. it took about a year to figure out why. I'm swapping it out and I highly recommend you do it now before you have any life in your tank. seriously it's not like starting over. get the finest grain that you can find. I just read a really good link about it. Forgot where it was though so maybe Jesse has quick access to an article he can post for you to read.

You will regret not doing it however you won't regret doing it.

no offense takin Jesse. (P.S. O/T I just set up the RK2. It's pretty nice. bummed that I can't hook it up to my computer though. It looks like you just hook it up for upgrading the firmware. I need to calibrate the PH probe still. Might go to Marine Depot this weekend to get the calibration solution. I've never been there. Wanna go?)

 

[TimSchmidt]

I use the aragonite pink fiji sand and I like it. Pretty standard stuff. Tap water is a big source of potential problems and you may want to look at alternative water sources. My preference is my own RO/DI unit. They cost about 150 for a decent one and in the long run will save tons of money. But for small projects you can try buying premixed or even just RO water from some grocery stores. But I honestly thing ANYTHING is better than tap/rainwater for our tanks. Most quick fixes work well in the short run but can be a source of issues later on. I've learned taking my time is the best way to handle anything.