Something in my tank just isn't quite right...

[amy]

and I can't seem to figure it out. I'm sure it's probably something I'm not doing right, or maybe I'm missing an important item??

Let me see if I can explain my tank. (still struggling to learn all the terminology)

I have a 90 gallon tank, I've only had it for 6 weeks myself but it was transferred from a (supposedly mature tank). It is not drilled, so has an overflow box that hangs over the back. I have a 30 gallon sump (I think), I have a protein skimmer and live rock rubble in the sump as well. I have an ATO set up in a 10 gal tank.
I have a TEK light fixture 48" 6 bulb with a mixture of bulbs, some white, some fiji purple.
My water paramaters seem ok.
Temp 79
Salinity 1.024
Ph 8.2-8.4
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Calcium 380-400 (currently using purple up to boost it a bit)
Phosphates bounce between 0-2

The tank cycled quickly (within a week of set up). At about 2 weeks post set up I added the clean up crew, by 3 weeks started adding my livestock.
It currently consists of:

2 clowns (sabae I believe)
melanurus wrasse
regal tang
lawnmower blenny
mandarin goby
Bubble tip anemone
Frogspawn
some mushrooms
5 small zoa frags

My water seems cloudy and full of particles, my non fish livestocks colors seem duller than they were in store, my zoa's seem flatter and not perfectly round anymore. I am also feeding Marine snow every few days, and of course food for the fish too (daily)

Do you think I'm doing something wrong? Am I filling it up too fast? Is it just an immature tank that needs time to flourish?

I would appreciate any advice, thoughts or suggestions anyone may have?

Thanks
Amy

[Jfish]

No expert here but it does sound like your moving too fast. Did you get fully cured live rock that you moved over from an existing mature tank? How much live rock do you transfer over and was it kept in water the whole time/not exposed to winter?

Being not exactly sure on the maturity of the previous tank if sounds like you have a lot of fish already. I would also cut back or stop with marine snow since it can pollute tanks very easily. That stuff can cloud up the water right after introduced but it could easily be something else.

[whatcaneyedo]

Your phosphate goes as high as 2.0 mg/L? That might explain some of your problems... unless its a typo. Overall how much flow do you have? What brand/model of skimmer do you have?

[outacontrol]

Words of advise that most of us here have learned from "The only things that happen fast are BAD!" Nothing good in fish keeping ever comes fast.

I would slow down and not add anything new until everything becomes stabil.

So it the tank only about a month old?

[amy]

Yes, the live rock was fully cured. Out of the water for maybe a minute or two in total and kept warm.

[amy]

Sorry, phosphate goes to the second colour...which is 0.25.
I don't find there is a ton of flow in the system. I have 3 power heads in there. The skimmer is a vertex IN-100 skimmer.

[amy]

The tank was transferred over from an existing tank 6 weeks ago. But we used only half of the old water and put all new sand in.

[outacontrol]

I am wondering if your calcium is precipitating, how often are you adding purple up?
Do you have any SPS? (hard corals) From what you listed for livestock your system should be using very little calcium and not really need any additional added.

[fiorano]

could the issue maybe stem from the old sand? I know i've heard horror stories of people moving the sand and causing a tank crash. But i guess that would of happened much faster...

[amy]

I've been adding purple up for about a week and a half now, daily. When I started the calcium was 360. I don't have any SPS Corals, only what I listed. I'm off to google precipitating calcium