ahh my tank is so cloudy and my sponge is falling off!

[adam_anzivino]

I came home from work today and bam! my tank is cloudy, theres a bunch of that rusty algae all over the sand and rock i have, a piece of the sponge that was growing on the top of my rock broke off and was milling around the bottom of my tank! I dunno if this was part of my bio cycle, but my ammonia is at zero, nitrates are at about 20.
thanks a bunch if you can help me out with some info,
-Adam

[graphixx]

sounds like you need a few janitors in there. I would go and get a couple of snails and maybe a hermit or 2 and let them get to work on that algae!!!!! that is a good sign

[jojo22]

Yep!! All normal nothing to worry about you tank is just telling you to add some creatures like Greg said!!! Congrats on the maturing tank!

[adam_anzivino]

wow i was worried... i thought my tank was gonna explode and all that money woulda gone *flush* down the pooper :-) I'm planning on getting some hermits and snails tomorrow as a matter of fact cause i was reading up on em.
I heard inverts can't handle nitrate levels though, so i dunno how thats gonna work.. down the line however, i'll get a cleaner shrimp- any advice on those?
thanks so much!
-Adam

[adam_anzivino]

oh and any idea whats up with the sponge breaking off like that? i'm confused with that, i dunno if its dying...

[graphixx]

it could be, nothing to worry about. alot of the stuff that comes on live rock will eventually die off. it just happens

[hummer]

dont rush the tank

[jojo22]

also sponges are very prone to death after being exposed to air. so if you or the shippers let it hit air (buying online I'm sure they didn't ship in water, to save shipping cost) and it was destin to almost certin death from that point on.

[Sweetpea]

With nitrates at 20, your crabs and snails should be fine if acclimated properly. Still worried? You could do a water change before you bring them home to bring the levels down a bit.

Congrats on the next step in tank maturity! :)

[iVgOnMaD]

IMO, I think Nitrates at 20ppm, is ok for almost anything.

What level are you Nitrites at? If Ammonia is at 0ppm and Nitrites are below 0.5ppm your tank is most likely done cycling.

I would then be time to add some sand sifter snails, algae eating snails, and some hermit crabs.

Watch them for a week and if they live and your water parameters are stable, add a fish, a hardy one.

I would suggest not adding more than one fish per week to allow your bacterial colony to catch up with the extra waste generated by your new fish.