reefpanda
Reefing newb
so i've had my aquarium for a little more then a year
and i have to admit i didnt take the berst care of it. it had a really bad blue-green algae problem. so i had enough one day. i took out all the rooms and washed them under tap water ( i know its a bad idea but i was desprete and sick of it). then i took out the sand and cooked it in the oven to kill the algae and any other harmful thing living in it causei had a bad bristle worm problem. I changed all the water and made new salt water. i put the rocks and the sand in and waited until morning for the water. i have no corals or fish. Just hermit carbs and snails and a tiger cowrie. so when i added everything i did a water test. everything was fine except my pH was a little low so i added a pH buffer which brings the pH to 8.3. at first it was clear and then it started getting murky white and then the bottom half turned lite green/yellowish. i read the directs on the back of the buffer and saw that it said it should clrear up in 15 20 minutes. so i waited and it just got worse. it said that the calcium and magnesium might be off balance and to check that. so this morning i went to the local petstore which also speacializes in saltwater fish. i asked the expert in that department and he said its normal it shoul dclear up in a couple of days. so i bought a protien skimmer and some live rocks to help the filtering. my questions are: what is going on with my tank and is it going to get better or worse? and, should i add the protien skimmer in the tank cause there are no fish in there producing waste and i have crabs and snails doing their job in the tank so would it be ok to add it even if there is very little organic waste being produced.
thank you for anything you can give me
and i have to admit i didnt take the berst care of it. it had a really bad blue-green algae problem. so i had enough one day. i took out all the rooms and washed them under tap water ( i know its a bad idea but i was desprete and sick of it). then i took out the sand and cooked it in the oven to kill the algae and any other harmful thing living in it causei had a bad bristle worm problem. I changed all the water and made new salt water. i put the rocks and the sand in and waited until morning for the water. i have no corals or fish. Just hermit carbs and snails and a tiger cowrie. so when i added everything i did a water test. everything was fine except my pH was a little low so i added a pH buffer which brings the pH to 8.3. at first it was clear and then it started getting murky white and then the bottom half turned lite green/yellowish. i read the directs on the back of the buffer and saw that it said it should clrear up in 15 20 minutes. so i waited and it just got worse. it said that the calcium and magnesium might be off balance and to check that. so this morning i went to the local petstore which also speacializes in saltwater fish. i asked the expert in that department and he said its normal it shoul dclear up in a couple of days. so i bought a protien skimmer and some live rocks to help the filtering. my questions are: what is going on with my tank and is it going to get better or worse? and, should i add the protien skimmer in the tank cause there are no fish in there producing waste and i have crabs and snails doing their job in the tank so would it be ok to add it even if there is very little organic waste being produced.
thank you for anything you can give me
