Problems, cloudy water, overdose ahhh

Discussion in 'ASAP' started by kstafford003, Jul 22, 2014.

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  1. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    Ok so I am asking for help since I am clueless.

    I'm sorry for the long post but I think the information is important.

    5 days ago I realized I might be dosing the tank in a low flow area since I was seeing precipitation near where I was dosing. I started dosing in a higher flow area which made heck of a difference. I took the dKH from 9.5 to 10.5 in one day. The next day the entire tank was cloudy I assumed from the water being out of balance. So I did a 20% water change and stopped dosing. 2 days later the tank cleared up and I thought everything would be a ok. I started feeding the corals amino acids again at that point. 2 days ago the GFO reactor broke and I thought I was in trouble. Yesterday I checked PO4 and it was at zero. So freaking out about a GFO overdose (I used 5 tbl for 18 gal system volume) I started feeding more amino acids 2 ml Red Sea reef energy. Today I come home from work and the tank is cloudy again and has this goupy gelatin stuff floating around the tank. There are also strings of stuff all over the tank. I tested the levels and I have this:
    Mg-1320
    Alk-8.8
    Cal-420
    No3-0
    Po4-0

    Could this be a bacteria outbreak from feeding too much reef energy after zeroing phosphates?? I'm lost. I have a new reactor coming in tomorrow and I plan on running 1 tbl of GFO from now on. Here are a few pictures of the problem areas.

    Thanks guys in advance!
     
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  3. DSC reef

    DSC reef Giant Squid

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    Pics aren't showing. Sounds like a bacteria bloom to me. Shouldn't have anything thing to do with alk or gfo. I would stop the amino acids and if you want to use them once a week is plenty. Post a thread to Dr Tim as he has great bacteria supplements to help your problem. For now keep params stable and no aminos.
     
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  4. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    Pics aren't uploading due to internet being slow. I'll post then up a little later tonight when Internet is better. Ok thanks I'll check that product out.
     
  5. Kevin_E

    Kevin_E Giant Squid

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    Your water chemistry, the big 3, looks great to me. I can't imagine the GFO doing anything. Sounds like a bacteria bloom.

    Do you dose a carbon source?
     
  6. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    Ok so here are the pics.
     

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  7. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    I stopped dosing carbon a few months back when I started getting cyano. I switched to the GFO reactor because I read dosing carbon would kill the chaeto and that would feed the cyano phosphates.
     
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  9. Billme

    Billme Eyelash Blennie

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    can you get better close up pics? I'm having a little trouble seeing detail.
     
  10. DSC reef

    DSC reef Giant Squid

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    I've never had a problem with carbon dosing and growing cheato. I've been running bio pellets by Dr Tim and using the waste away and my cyano is gone. You have a bacterial imbalance and once it's in check you'll be fine.
     
  11. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    I know the pictures suck. Unfortunately my iphone takes better pics than my camera and the blue on the pictures is always way over exposed. Basically the stringy things i was trying to take a picture of look like maybe they just captured some of the gunk floating around. The gunk all looks like the first picture. I had less gunk in the fuge today so maybe it is starting to clear up?

    I also checked out Dr. Tim's bacteria.
    http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/probiotic-bacteria
    Should I be adding this?
     
  12. kstafford003

    kstafford003 Feather Star

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    Here is another good example.
     

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