Does the water in am opae ula tank not turn stagnant?

[Mech]

Reason I ask is if you have no surface agitation or filter running then won't the water turn stagnant and start to smell?

Also is legionnaires disease not an issue? Thanks for looking.

[mcdaney]

In my experience, the answer is yes, it'll smell a little (more like sea/ocean water smell), but not as bad as you might think. But that's if you decide to put your nose close to the water and smell it haha! As long as you don't have decaying matter in your tank, it shouldn't smell foul. Don't overfeed too!

[Nexus6]

Ive always wondered this myself. Especially water in an enclosed tank. I think for this reason its good to have some type of filtration system in place. Ive noticed my opaes poop a lot and often wondered if it affects the water at all. Currently i have a HMF filter setup with minimal water flow. I plan on using a nano canister filter soon and hope the flow isnt too much for them. If they can survive in water that doesnt have to be filtered or changed, then they are hardier than i thought.

[mcdaney]

Ive always wondered this myself. Especially water in an enclosed tank. I think for this reason its good to have some type of filtration system in place. Ive noticed my opaes poop a lot and often wondered if it affects the water at all. Currently i have a HMF filter setup with minimal water flow. I plan on using a nano canister filter soon and hope the flow isnt too much for them. If they can survive in water that doesnt have to be filtered or changed, then they are hardier than i thought.

Filtered or non-filtered, the water smells pretty much the same to me haha!
Believe it or not, if the setup is correct, the algae and beneficial bacteria will actually make the tank water clean naturally.
The only thing that makes the tank "dirty" are algae growth on the glass

How big is your tank Nexus6?

[Mech]

That's fine it's just I've had a tank cycling for 5 - 6 months without opae ula and a situation came up where I've had to leave the tank unattended the whole time and there is pretty gunky stuff growing on my ocean rock and on the sand bed. I don't know whether to do a massive water change and syphon/scrape the walls of the tank before I add my shrimp?

[mcdaney]

That's fine it's just I've had a tank cycling for 5 - 6 months without opae ula and a situation came up where I've had to leave the tank unattended the whole time and there is pretty gunky stuff growing on my ocean rock and on the sand bed. I don't know whether to do a massive water change and syphon/scrape the walls of the tank before I add my shrimp?

How big is your tank? Are there any snails to help control the algae growth?

[Mech]

its 76 litres (20 US gallons) and im not sure what to do, they may turn up early
kind of worried now, going to go test the water parameters.

edit: no snails in it, nothing living at all.

[KenCotigirl]

I have 5 tanks in my house. 3 in the dinning room and two in the tv room. Also one at work. If they smelled my wife would want them gone. No off odors. Over feeding can create all kinds of problems.

Ken

[Mech]

think im going to remove the plant and hoover the sand a bit, what do you guys think lol.

[Nexus6]

Ive always wondered this myself. Especially water in an enclosed tank. I think for this reason its good to have some type of filtration system in place. Ive noticed my opaes poop a lot and often wondered if it affects the water at all. Currently i have a HMF filter setup with minimal water flow. I plan on using a nano canister filter soon and hope the flow isnt too much for them. If they can survive in water that doesnt have to be filtered or changed, then they are hardier than i thought.

Filtered or non-filtered, the water smells pretty much the same to me haha!
Believe it or not, if the setup is correct, the algae and beneficial bacteria will actually make the tank water clean naturally.
The only thing that makes the tank "dirty" are algae growth on the glass

How big is your tank Nexus6?

My tank is 5 gallons. Does the algae actually soak up nitrites/nitrates/ammonia?

[mcdaney]

think im going to remove the plant and hoover the sand a bit, what do you guys think lol.

Yup you should Mech. Is your tank near a window? Maybe that accelerated algae growth haha! I like how the rocks turn green

@Nexus6 Yup they do! Algaes are such under-appreciated organism.. But they're great! Just don't let them overrun your tank hehe. The key is balance.

[Mech]

Yes it's in front of a window but the blind is going to be shut all day from here on out, I have my led lights on a timer. The issue that I had was this tank was maturing nicely and I could access it daily until a sibling needed space to store his belongings and furniture cutting off access to my desk and tank. I've just gotten the room space back and need to get my tank ready. The opea ula were supose to be delivered next week giving me time to sort it all out but I've been told they may be here today it tomorrow!! I'm panicking.

[Mech]

update:

So with the receiving of the Opae Ula being today or tomorrow i thought i better check on the tank that's been left unattended for 7 or 8 months. I tested the water i my tank after cleaning all the algae and scum from the tank/sand and rocks.

I took out 30 litres of water and cleaned the ocean rock with a nail-brush in the old water then when it all settled i put 20litres back in from the same bucket. My test results are

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0 -> 10
PH - 8.2 > 8.4 (nice to see the ocean rock is working its magic )

Water looked good and didn't smell, i was really surprised. I am about 15litres short as i didn't want to add all the water back and put more gunk back in the tank so will mix another 10 litres of RO water and salt to top it up full again. i want around 1.018 as the shrimp coming have been in around 1.020.

I have RO water but its about 6 months old and its unmixed so i didn't feel good about using that water.




This is how its like at the moment, you cant tell me it doesn't look better.

edit: i have also added a filter to suck up the remaining crap floating in and around the tank, ive used the same heater as it gets cold here in the UK.

[mcdaney]

Yes that looks much much better!

[Mech]

have 50 litres of fresh RO ready for tomorrow to top my tank up

RO water is more exspensive over here in the UK i pay £2.50 for 25 uk litres of the stuff, but part of the reason for the Opae Ula tank is very low water changes