Guys I'm so discouraged, P***** Off, ready to give up

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

My biggest concern with leaving the clams in when doing this is that you might stress them out and they spawn as a result (weird stress reaction mechanism, eh? Such a reaction would make exam time far more exciting... errrr... awkward...). The resulting spawn would just exacerbate the current issue (in fact when I first looked at your tank I thought the clams had spawned until you said the water was green).

Yes, and I would move the clam to another tank. Maybe the LFS can watch it or I'm sure you can get a raise of hands here.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I've got a slightly different take on this. The tank is young, but not new. It's settled, biologically, for the most part. The cloudiness also looks like clam spawn, but if you say it's green, ok, maybe algae.

If this was my tank, and I'll probably get some disagreement, I would leave it alone. I would take the filter off the back, add some carbon to a bag and toss it in the sump. With no measurable PO4, I wouldn't worry about GFO right now.
I would not be doing large water changes, and in fact, would do no water changes. If it's algae, let it burn itself out. Feed sparingly. Keep the tank aerated. Buy a real skimmer for in sump. Stop messing with it, there is nothing in your parameters that dings any alarms.
I would remove the glass tops, let the light in. Don't move the lights around, don't change their cycle. Make a pot of coffee, relax. It's not an emergency or something to quit over. It just needs TLC.
I assume the fish are fine? Not gasping for air at the surface? Then algae isn't consuming excess O2. Still not sure that's algae. Is it green? Or is the water just cloudy?
Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. Often you can cause more problems than you solve by trying to fix everything overnight.

Brad I agree with you too since I phone Mandy and talked to her for about 45 mins on FaceTime and got to see her tank first hand. Lots of advice I gave her pretty much the same effect on what u have said here. Pretty much let it take it's course and do the basics to get by.

[asylumdown]

The water in that tank is what my 40 gallon QT started to look like when I had 7 large fish in it and was feeding heavily every day. It would take 70% water changed to get it to clear up, though with that many fish it would look like that 4 days later again.

I'm not suggesting that you do such huge water changes, but what I am wondering is along the same line as Daniella, it looks like a bacterial bloom caused by an overload in nutrients in the water column without enough robust benthic processes to process/lock them up. I can't find it on the boards, when did you move the tank? Depending on what happened during the move, a tank move can be like re-setting the clock on your live rock, if it got too cold, too dry, or was out of water for too long. It might be re-curing right now. From what I can see, you've got enough biological activity going on in the tank to be masking out of whack nutrient profiles, as your test kits can only test what's free and available in the water, not what's bound up in the cells of bacteria and algae. It's not uncommon for tanks with the worst algae problems to test the 'cleanest' for nutrients.

If you can find a temporary home for the things you're worried about losing, I would also have to agree with Brad and Skimmer King. Bacterial blooms/pelagic algae outbreaks are a stage you see in the early months of a tank's life-cycle, but they're almost always stages that start out small, build to a peak, and then subside. The worst thing you can do is suddenly go and change a whole bunch of other parameters in a knee jerk reaction which will only confound a process that is likely going to work itself out in time anyway. If you've got all the elements that normally keep a tank running - heat, rocks, flow, lights, and a nutrient export system that matches the level of input, eventually this will work itself out. I know the tank was almost a year old, but considering what you're seeing since the move, it honestly looks to me like you should be thinking about this as though it's a new system, and 99 times out of 100, all you need to do for a new system is wait.

[wmcinnes]

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

i disagree with you on this one lots of people are using cannister filters to polish the water and run CArbon and floss to help clear up . I have know some to run rock in there in smaller tank to help out with the Bio load. That is depending on the size of the cannister filter of course.

youre right, it just depends how you run it!

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

did you leave that clam without light all this time?

It needs light to survive.

Could it be a bacteria bloom? if you left the lights out for a month, maybe some corals on the liverock died?

Hard to tell where the cloudy water is coming from, bacteria bloom or calcium precipitation, or something else.

Hi daniela, when I had the tank lights out for a month we had no coral or clams yet only fish - the corals and clams are a new addition. Probably should have waited on them, I'm going to try and find a sitter.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Hi daniela, when I had the tank lights out for a month we had no coral or clams yet only fish - the corals and clams are a new addition. Probably should have waited on them, I'm going to try and find a sitter.

mandy you never told me that you had the lights out for a month and no live stock........


shame on you how is your tank doing today i will call you later ok.

[shootingstar]

Hey Mandy,
you know where I am
Call if you need a critter-sitter.
Cathy

Algae water. This happens with freshwater high tech planted tanks all the time. If you could borrow a uv steralizer or a diatom filter, it will clear up in a day. If not, just keep up with water changes.

My endlers would love this type of water.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

Algae water. This happens with freshwater high tech planted tanks all the time. If you could borrow a uv steralizer or a diatom filter, it will clear up in a day. If not, just keep up with water changes.

My endlers would love this type of water.

+1

My freshwater buddy uses his uv every now and then for what appears to be the same issue. Assuming it's algae and not bacteria or clam soup maybe see if you can borrow someone's uv?

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by shootingstar

Hey Mandy,
you know where I am
Call if you need a critter-sitter.
Cathy

Hey Cathy, thanks a ton - Frank called me right away and I brought my corals&clams to his place. Thank you though I know I can always count on you for help and advice!!