Newbie aquarium question

Hmmmm. if that Sanders Picolo skimmer and yellow tinted water grosses
you out, wait until you get a "real" skimmer and get to empty out some
black green junk that would make the contents of a septic tank look
like drinking water.........


On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:21:26 +0000, Gill Passman
wrote:

wrote:
I just bought a 25gallon aquarium about a week ago and put the substate
and live rock in it. I haven't put coral and fish in and today I
suddenly found the water turned yellow!

I have pumps (Rio 800) running and using Biological filter calls.. What
do you guys think the problem come from? I changed water (about 60%
change) today but still feel water is yellow. What do you think? Shall
I do a complete water change?

Thanks!


OK I'm a newbie but want to ask a few questions of you....or clarify
that you are following the same concepts that I am....

The point of Live Rock is that it does your filtration for you....once
it is cured of course and most of the die off has happened - and this
die off is generally down to shipping and the decay of stuff that died
during shipping - cured rock is a good way to go when starting up unless
you are prepared to wait for it to cure itself - and it sounds pretty
much to me that this is what you are doing....even if
unintended....uncured rock is cheaper because your LFS hasn't made the
investment of keeping it for weeks to do it themselves....

Mechanical and convential biological filtration, from my research, are
fine if you want a fish only tank....but they will mean that your
nitrates and phosphates will be at a level that can sustain fish but not
inverts....so it is a choice as to what your priorities are......I want
corals, inverts and fish so have opted for all my "filtration" and
"conversions" being done by my live rock and now live sand (the sand
having been populated by the creatures in my rock)....

I know that you have been asked about whether you have a protein skimmer
or not....from my experience with my little 15 gall Nano I would not be
without one....this yellow water you are talking about is what I empty
into the sink from the cup of my skimmer.....what I see in the cup of
the skimmer is enough to freak me as to what it would be like if I
didn't have my cheap budget protein skimmer (cost me £18 plus the air
pump - £22)....it has to be said every penny spent is well worth
it...and if we got into a larger tank (or even my small tank) - if you
evaluate the cost of your corals against this one essential piece of kit
the cost works out.....the loss of your frags at between £20 and £40
pounds compared to a more expensive model still costs out well - let
alone the emotional cost and the frustration....

Gill



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!