HELP! White water!!

[gilraen]

Thanks for the advice, I already emptied the whole thing and will start again with new mud as soon as I get it. By the way, I've read 5-6 books on saltwater and succesfully kept a 30 gal for almost 2 yrs. Now I went up to 55 gal but was totally new to the ecosystem method I guess we keep learning after all...

 

[lando]

Great call, grimock. It sounds like you had a major ammonia spike from all of the die-off in the mud. At any point did you test your water parameters? Your very first action when you spot trouble should be to determine ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SG and Ph of the water. Good luck in the restart.

 

[gilraen]

I didn't test for anything, when I saw that white water I pretty much lost all hope. I didn't know ecosystem sumps where so tricky to set up. With my previous 30 gal set up I had a fluval 304 filter and skimmer and it was a piece of cake! so what's the worst thing? that the 10 pounds of mud that I need is going to cost me $80!!!! oh well, live and learn. Again thanks to all of you for helping me figure out my mess, I really appreciate it and will keep you posted as soon as I get the system running again.

 

[grimlock3000]

Cool, glad to see you are still positive after losing $80 of Mud and a bunch of salt

Once you get your new Mud in, mix saltwater in the tank for a day or two, check the temp, ph, and SG for correctness, THEN add the Mud once the tank is ready for life. Just remember, never add saltwater to anything unless you have mixed it for 24 hours and heated it up to the same temp at the tank and you will be OK.

Most people use trash cans or some buckets with heaters and powerheards next to the tank to keep a fresh supply of premixed and heater saltwater handy.