water cloudy and reddish brown cover on sand bed

[Pennekampdream]

Afternoon,

I have a couple of changes that occurred in my tank. 1st the sand bed got a reddish brown cover on it about a week ago.
2nd the water got cloudy overnight yesterday and a mucus like film appeared in the sock chamber.
I did clean the rear sump compartment about two weeks ago for the first time since it had a large buildup of stuff. I also feed a very small amount of reef-roids two days ago for the first time.
This tank was gifted to me about 3 months ago and was running for over 1 year with the previous owner.
I always perform a 5 gal weekly water change.

Tank is a 20gal cube with ATO and temperature controller.

Parameters:

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 8.9 dKH this jumped from 8.4 last night
pH 7.6
Temp 77.5

 

[Formulator]

You have a massive bacterial bloom. First priority is damage control. Get some air bubblers in there ASAP and make sure your wave makers are giving you good turbulence at the water surface. Bacterial blooms like this can quickly take up all the oxygen in a tank and suffocate your fish.

Start with some big water changes and run carbon if not already. Stop feeding the tank for a couple days and make sure the skimmer is working well.

As far as how we got here, what are your water parameters and what are you doing for flow in the tank?

 

[Pennekampdream]

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 8.9 dKH this jumped from 8.4 last night
pH 7.6
Temp 77.5

I don’t have a skimmer on this tank. I have one wave maker and the return pump. I will definitely start a portable air pump now.

 

[Formulator]

Salinity 1.026
Alkalinity 8.9 dKH this jumped from 8.4 last night
pH 7.6
Temp 77.5

I don’t have a skimmer on this tank. I have one wave maker and the return pump. I will definitely start a portable air pump now.

Are you testing your nitrate and phosphate?

You need to get a skimmer ASAP. Like tomorrow if possible. It will be instrumental in removing bacteria and provides a ton of oxygenation which your fish really need right now. Without a skimmer you are going to want a lot of bubbles going in there. Your lack of a skimmer or any mechanical filtration is what led to this problem. You need a way to remove organic waste from the system or it just rots and spikes your nitrate and phosphate which leads to bacterial blooms like this.

I would also pick up some activated carbon. You can just drop a mesh bag of it in your sump since you don’t have a reactor. It works just fine this way.

 

[Formulator]

Also, your pH is too low to support coral right now. This is due to the lack of air exchange and build up of CO2. A skimmer will fix this.

 

[Pennekampdream]

Thanks,
I will look into the skimmer. I think the reason for no skimmer on the tank is due to no room for placement of a skimmer since it’s only a small all in one type setup.

 

[Formulator]

Thanks,
I will look into the skimmer. I think the reason for no skimmer on the tank is due to no room for placement of a skimmer since it’s only a small all in one type setup.

That’s ok, I understand. You can run without one if you have other means of nutrient export. Changing filter socks at least every 2-3 days may be necessary without a skimmer. Its just easier with a skimmer and with your pH being that low, I think you are going to benefit from the added air exchange. I think they have some decent nano options that will work with an all-in-one setup.

You should also be testing your nitrate and phosphate if you aren’t already. Those levels will help inform your water change frequency to remove them. Nitrate should generally be kept below 20 ppm to avoid large bacterial blooms and algae issues. Phosphate should be kept in a range of 0.01-0.2 ppm. For a newer tank, I’d recommend targeting 5-10 ppm nitrate and 0.05-0.1 ppm phosphate. Just don’t let them get all the way to zero or you will have a different set of problems to deal with…