Evening all, normally when I join a forum I'll go through a more friendly and traditional route of joining and introducing myself but the need for a bit of advice has catalysed the process straight into asking for a bit of help.
I've had fish tanks for years, started fresh then went tropical then marine. I did go brackish for a while too (five tanks on the go at that point) but after downsizing my living quarters I've just got a nano marine now. It's 48l in Brit terms, I think that's about 12.5 gallons for you guys across the pond.
Anyway, it's been running for about 6 years without ever having any significant issues; odd loss of life occasionally but few and far between. I'll be open and honest and say I haven't maintained it to the highest standard over the past six months (maybe a bit more), a combination of health and family issues have taken priority and I've had no time to think about much else. In that time it's only had one clown swimming around in it bar clean up crew, it was actually the first fish I ever put in so was a decent age before it croaked a few days ago. Relative to its size the tank has a lot of live rock and a live sand bed about an inch or so deep. Bit deeper if anything but certainly not more than two inches.
Seeing as there were no fish I thought I'd do a thorough spring clean of the tank and rescape the layout with regards to the LR. Out came all of the rock (only mushrooms on it coral wise) and into a deep bin with a heater keeping it at a stable temperature but at present no powerhead keeping the water flowing round it. CUC are bagged and floating on top. Looking forward to getting it back to its best over the coming months with livestock/coral additions as a pleasant distraction from more serious matters.
Now here is where I got a bit cavalier in my method... Very thin film of algae was covering most of the glass and the sides of the tank had a lot of coraline covering them so went to town getting rid of it all. Plan was to then syphon out the remaining water with all the mess in it and replace it with fresh water (saltwater obviously!). The remaining balance of water needed to fill the tank up would be (is) the water the LR is sat in. The cavalier part was suddenly deciding I missed having the bright white sand the tank had when I first started it. Without giving it too much thought and before I syphoned out the 'dirty' water I gave the sand a thorough (very thorough) stirring and turning over in the hope that the sand below the surface would look a lot brighter and cleaner. After doing that I sucked out the remaining water (left about 1cm above the sand bed). I thought doing things in this order would mean anything nasty I stirred up from the sand bed would be removed with the water. Alas the sand doesn't even seem that much brighter!
Next step was putting in the fresh saltwater and here is where I need the advice. The water is unbelievably cloudy since I did all this approximately 4/5 hours ago and doesn't seem to be improving at a noticeable rate. There is also a very fine layer (almost silt like) of sand sat on top of the regular sand, didn't expect that to happen but it is what it is. I've turned on one of the powerheads thinking that a bit of current would sort that out but no joy. I prefer the aesthetic of not having the silt like sand but if it's doing no harm then I won't lose any sleep over it either.
Right now it's 3am our time and I'm going to need to get some sleep soon but that can wait until I've followed any advice you guys have!
Main questions are:
1) Has turning the sand bed over caused the cloudy tank in the guise of anything more serious than fine sand in the water (bacterial bloom or something?)?
2) Can the LR with mushrooms and CUC go in or does this need waiting out? I'm worried that my hand might be forced into it regardless dependent on the answer to the next question.
3) If I need to wait it out, how long is too long for the LR and CUC to be sat in the bin considering there is no water movement? CUC is bagged so I'm sure they'll be fine but don't want stuff in the LR to die and then cause a spike in the tank.
Feel free to chastise me for acting rashly with regards to stirring the sand, I'll take it constructively rather than personally. Any advice will be very much gratefully received :)
D.
I've had fish tanks for years, started fresh then went tropical then marine. I did go brackish for a while too (five tanks on the go at that point) but after downsizing my living quarters I've just got a nano marine now. It's 48l in Brit terms, I think that's about 12.5 gallons for you guys across the pond.
Anyway, it's been running for about 6 years without ever having any significant issues; odd loss of life occasionally but few and far between. I'll be open and honest and say I haven't maintained it to the highest standard over the past six months (maybe a bit more), a combination of health and family issues have taken priority and I've had no time to think about much else. In that time it's only had one clown swimming around in it bar clean up crew, it was actually the first fish I ever put in so was a decent age before it croaked a few days ago. Relative to its size the tank has a lot of live rock and a live sand bed about an inch or so deep. Bit deeper if anything but certainly not more than two inches.
Seeing as there were no fish I thought I'd do a thorough spring clean of the tank and rescape the layout with regards to the LR. Out came all of the rock (only mushrooms on it coral wise) and into a deep bin with a heater keeping it at a stable temperature but at present no powerhead keeping the water flowing round it. CUC are bagged and floating on top. Looking forward to getting it back to its best over the coming months with livestock/coral additions as a pleasant distraction from more serious matters.
Now here is where I got a bit cavalier in my method... Very thin film of algae was covering most of the glass and the sides of the tank had a lot of coraline covering them so went to town getting rid of it all. Plan was to then syphon out the remaining water with all the mess in it and replace it with fresh water (saltwater obviously!). The remaining balance of water needed to fill the tank up would be (is) the water the LR is sat in. The cavalier part was suddenly deciding I missed having the bright white sand the tank had when I first started it. Without giving it too much thought and before I syphoned out the 'dirty' water I gave the sand a thorough (very thorough) stirring and turning over in the hope that the sand below the surface would look a lot brighter and cleaner. After doing that I sucked out the remaining water (left about 1cm above the sand bed). I thought doing things in this order would mean anything nasty I stirred up from the sand bed would be removed with the water. Alas the sand doesn't even seem that much brighter!
Next step was putting in the fresh saltwater and here is where I need the advice. The water is unbelievably cloudy since I did all this approximately 4/5 hours ago and doesn't seem to be improving at a noticeable rate. There is also a very fine layer (almost silt like) of sand sat on top of the regular sand, didn't expect that to happen but it is what it is. I've turned on one of the powerheads thinking that a bit of current would sort that out but no joy. I prefer the aesthetic of not having the silt like sand but if it's doing no harm then I won't lose any sleep over it either.
Right now it's 3am our time and I'm going to need to get some sleep soon but that can wait until I've followed any advice you guys have!
Main questions are:
1) Has turning the sand bed over caused the cloudy tank in the guise of anything more serious than fine sand in the water (bacterial bloom or something?)?
2) Can the LR with mushrooms and CUC go in or does this need waiting out? I'm worried that my hand might be forced into it regardless dependent on the answer to the next question.
3) If I need to wait it out, how long is too long for the LR and CUC to be sat in the bin considering there is no water movement? CUC is bagged so I'm sure they'll be fine but don't want stuff in the LR to die and then cause a spike in the tank.
Feel free to chastise me for acting rashly with regards to stirring the sand, I'll take it constructively rather than personally. Any advice will be very much gratefully received :)
D.
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