PDA

View Full Version : Green/Grey Clumpy Crushed Coral


Shino74
01/09/2008, 12:38 PM
OK help, this is driving me mad, for the past two weeks I have been having to scoop away the top layer of my crushed coral due to it being clumpy and grey/green.
My readings are as follows:-
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
Phosphate 0
Calcium 475
Magnesium 1275
Sg 1026
Ammonia 0.25

All my corals are fine and growing well as are my 4 fish (2 Clowns, ! Six Line and 1 Yellow Tang)

Correct me if I am wrong but the above seem fine.

So these bits of crushed stuff that have formed into clumps....do I remove? and how on earth do I correct this?

Would a picture be of assistance or the above a good enough description. Someone please help put me out of my misery!

Steve

Shino74
01/09/2008, 02:18 PM
help....anyone......someone......please

Shino74
01/09/2008, 11:24 PM
Please?

ahullsb
01/10/2008, 01:18 AM
How long has your tank been running? Your ammonia should be 0 unless you are still cycling. Can you get a picture? That would help immensely. You might be better off slowly switching from crushed coral to sand.

Shino74
01/10/2008, 04:45 AM
Thanks for the reply. The tank has been running for nearly 2 years now! So changing from Coral to Sand is the answer?

Shino74
01/10/2008, 11:48 AM
OK So have just returned home from work and now my live rock is turning white....god help!

-=Efrain=-
01/10/2008, 12:47 PM
Pictures may help..

Shino74
01/10/2008, 01:02 PM
Ok here goes.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1049.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1062.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1064.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1066.jpg

And now the white covering on my coraline on live rock.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1051.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/DSCF1052.jpg

Hope these can help you guys stop me taking a hammer and smashing my beautiful work to pieces!

Shino74
01/10/2008, 02:01 PM
Bump!

realest
01/10/2008, 02:07 PM
I am not sure in regards of the rock turning white. But for the crushed coral sand. I had the same issue. But my was all over the sand (only where the light can hit).

I have setup a fuge and 1 month later. It is all gone!

Hope that helps!

ljosh
01/10/2008, 02:12 PM
You really should not have any ammonia in your tank. It is dangerous at any level.

What is your alkalinity?

It looks like your coraline algae is bleaching.

You might want to consider bringing your MG up to around 1400ppm.

Some other system info would be helpful

What does your filtration consist of?

Skimmer?

Carbon?

How often are you changing water?

Shino74
01/10/2008, 02:18 PM
Thanks for the responses, further info for you.

Fluval 405 running filter wool and phosphate remover...no carbon.

Skimmer Deltec MCE300

Lighting - Aqua Medic Ocean Light 150T (1 MH 2 x T5)

2 Tunze 6025 Powerheads

2 Year set up

No alkalinity test (Will purchase tomorrow)

I do have a Mg boost (Tropic Marine)

Should I also by a vacuum and suck away the green clumped algae??

How do I remove ammonia?

Water changes 20 - 25% fortnightly

1.5 Litre evaporation top up daily (RO/DI)

Hope that helps.

ljosh
01/10/2008, 02:35 PM
I would remove the clumps but you want to becareful disturbing the sand bed because you could make the ammonia worse. It looks like you have a lot of build up of stuff in there. What do you have for a cuc?

I would try and verify the ammonia test with your LFS or another kit. Since you say the corals and fish are doing fine.

The bleaching of the coraline could be caused by low alkalinity.

Your system sounds like you have decent flow and filtration.

What size is the tank?

How often do you clean the fluval floss?

How old are your bulbs?

Shino74
01/10/2008, 02:46 PM
Thanks for the reply.

Yes I will take a sample down to my LFS for ammonia and alkalinity.

Tank is 45g.

The filter wool is changed every 4 weeks and I have changed the sponges to new ones about 2 weeks ago.

The bulbs are as old as the light - 6 months.

Cuc consists of 2 Cleaner Shrimps and approx 10 Turbo's which like to spend all their time on the back glass!

I cant believe it either all my fish and corals are thriving tank looks so unsightly though with that mess at the bottom!

Thanks Again.

ljosh
01/10/2008, 03:02 PM
You may want to consider switching out your substrate to sand. I have no experience with it myself but lots of people advise against using CC because it traps debris easily.

Another thing to consider is that you fluval is trapping a lot of debris that would be better off removed by your skimmer. When it gets trapped in your fluval it rots away for a couple of weeks fueling algae. Where as in the skimmer it is completely removed before it rots. Fluvals make excellent FW filters but you may be better off running carbon and GFO in an inexpensive TLF phosban reactor. With enough pounds of Live rock the Fluval should not be required at all. How much LR do you have in there currently?

You should get some snails that will clean the sand bed like maybe Nassarius snails. They will also keep it stirred because the like to go into the sand as well. This should help with clumping. Keeping a variety of snails instead of one type would help all around. I like micro blue hermit crabs as well. Some here say they are predatorial but I have have no problem with them or red legged hermits.

Shino74
01/10/2008, 03:16 PM
OK I do wish I had gone with sand to start with, Ill post a question on how to change and over what period etc.
Below is a pic of my tank so you can gauge ow much live rock is in it!

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i202/shino74/Tank1.jpg

Thanks again

ljosh
01/10/2008, 03:23 PM
Thats is 45G UK?

Shino74
01/10/2008, 03:24 PM
Yes

Deb91
01/10/2008, 08:50 PM
Man you need so major help. It really looks like you let that go for a long time! I don't even know what to tell you but at least it will bump you up again. I saw your other post about switching over from coral to sand but I didn't think it was this bad!!! Good Luck!!!

stevelkaneval
01/10/2008, 09:05 PM
when i changed from cc to sand. i took all the rock out(put in a rubbermaid container w/water), took all water out(but i didnt disturb the cc, only water) then scooped all the cc out, it smelled like a mix of a loaded diaper, sulfer, and haveing your nose buried in a skimmer collection cup. so be prepared, put new sand in(if you get regular sand there should be no cycle), then i put in 30% new saltwater and filled the rest of the tank with old water, then lr back in then corals. everything went well in my tank no new cycle, like i said i didnt use live sand. you can get a cup or two from a fellow reefer and that will make the dead sand live.

like i said before DONT DISTURB THE SAND when your takeing water out.

FishFace28
01/10/2008, 09:42 PM
I hate to tell you, but I've got sand substrate, and I've got a similar situation on my hands. My sand is clumpy and brown/green icky. I've had this problem before, and a diamond goby is always my solution. My problem is that my tank isn't big enough to support a goby all the time. So, they clean me up, but eventually they get skinny. I don't know if you can have a diamond goby in cc or not. Does anyone know?

Shino74
01/11/2008, 12:34 AM
The thing I cannot understand is why my corals and fish seem so untroubled by this?
in fact my corals are thriving, its just the unsightly mess on the cc.

ahullsb
01/11/2008, 01:17 AM
I think you you could add quite a bit more rock for added filtration. It seems that your flow is good enough, so I'm guessing you have a very high nutrient load or something? I do think sand would give you far less problems. A phospate reactor, might help a little. A refugium is something that many people are using as well. If you haven't been testing your alkalinity, it would explain the rocks turning white. The coraline will come back if you keep ca, mg, and alk within acceptable ranges.

Jocephus
01/11/2008, 05:47 AM
I would add some hermits to stir the sand bed/CC. You can't effectively use nassarius snails due to the size of the crushed coral.

Also, do you have an urchin?

Shino74
01/11/2008, 09:14 AM
Thanks again to all that have given me some advice, No there is no urchin in here!

FishFace28
01/11/2008, 10:06 PM
What does an urchin have to do with things?

Jocephus
01/11/2008, 10:10 PM
When my urchin travels through my tank, it leaves a clean cut path through the corraline that looks very similar. Just checking to be sure that wasn't the case. I think you need some CUC.

Shino74
01/12/2008, 07:47 AM
Just got my KH / Alk test and it reads 5.4dKH or 1.94Alk.
So is this the reason by coraline is bleaching?

Shino74
01/13/2008, 02:45 AM
Bump!

ljosh
01/13/2008, 02:52 AM
That is a low reading. I would get it up to at least 8-9dkh.

I am not sure if that reading would cause your coralline to bleach but it can't be helping. The level is not actually much below NSW levels.

Shino74
01/13/2008, 03:21 AM
Thanks for the reply Josh. Well I carried out a 25% water change yesterday and off to buy some more live rock today to see if that helps. Will monitor my kDH over the next couple of days and dose if necessary.
If its not that any other ideas on what could be causing my LR to bleach?

FishFace28
01/13/2008, 09:35 AM
Shino,

I'm sure this will start a major controversy because there are widely differing views on this, but I talked to my lfs about my icky sand. They had me buy an aquarium vacuum. My sand bed is only about 2 inches deep, so this should be fine. It was really easy to use, and initially it seems to have worked great.