reefraiser
Reefing newb
Okay, soooo......this is going to be quite the story.
My tank is approximately 7 weeks old. It is a 75 gallon tank with a built in overflow and I am running a skimmer and sump and have a level 3 Hydor powerhead on the one side. The tank had 4 65w bulbs. Two 420/460 actinic and two 6000/10000k daylights. In my previous post I was told this was not enough for reef tanks or an anemone. So I bought another light that was recommended and it has two 54 watt bulbs I think. It arrived today.
Now for the PROBLEM!
For the past couple of weeks the tank has had a dust-like brown coating on the bottom and on the rocks. I simply cleaned the tank out and changed the filters frequently. This was tolerable and I was told it was normal. Now for the big problem. We returned from vacation and I cleaned the tank. Later that afternoon it was already dirty again. This was unusual. The next day it was solid brown and the water has became cloudy. I removed both of my fish and anemone along with most of the inverts to my old tank which is stable. I then removed the lighting and covered the tank with a blanket to block all light. Today I got home from class and the entire house smells like a huge FART. The tank is so couldy that you can't distinguish the few live rocks I left in it. It smells god awful. What do I do at this point? I am half tempted to empty the whole bastard and start over. I don't understand what would cause all these growths. I have replaced my lights, done frequent water changes recently with distilled water. The only difference between this tank and my old one was that I used sand from the LFS instead of crushed coral.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any input.
My tank is approximately 7 weeks old. It is a 75 gallon tank with a built in overflow and I am running a skimmer and sump and have a level 3 Hydor powerhead on the one side. The tank had 4 65w bulbs. Two 420/460 actinic and two 6000/10000k daylights. In my previous post I was told this was not enough for reef tanks or an anemone. So I bought another light that was recommended and it has two 54 watt bulbs I think. It arrived today.
Now for the PROBLEM!
For the past couple of weeks the tank has had a dust-like brown coating on the bottom and on the rocks. I simply cleaned the tank out and changed the filters frequently. This was tolerable and I was told it was normal. Now for the big problem. We returned from vacation and I cleaned the tank. Later that afternoon it was already dirty again. This was unusual. The next day it was solid brown and the water has became cloudy. I removed both of my fish and anemone along with most of the inverts to my old tank which is stable. I then removed the lighting and covered the tank with a blanket to block all light. Today I got home from class and the entire house smells like a huge FART. The tank is so couldy that you can't distinguish the few live rocks I left in it. It smells god awful. What do I do at this point? I am half tempted to empty the whole bastard and start over. I don't understand what would cause all these growths. I have replaced my lights, done frequent water changes recently with distilled water. The only difference between this tank and my old one was that I used sand from the LFS instead of crushed coral.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any input.