Trouble in Reef Paradise....

[aastretch64]

For the last couple of weeks I've registers increasing ppm of nitrates, and now increasin ammonia. In fact I thought my API test had gone crazy with 80PPM of nitrate and .25 of ammonia. I can't figure out the source so I did my weekly 15% water change and then used AmQuel Plus which helped a bit.

This morning I awoke to a maxima clam who had tipped to its side and his foot was curled. I freaked, basically performing the reef version of CPR, putting on the lights as fast as and placing him upright. He opened up like usual after that, but I don't want to take any chances.

I stated to fill my changout bin and during my lunch break, I will perform the super, duper, amazing, colossal, not for the faint at heart, 50% water change. May even do one tomarrow, depending on my test.

OHHH wowes me...no one told me that reef keeping could be so stressful!

Alex

[filmoholic]

Did anything die in there that you can't see?

[aastretch64]

You know I have been trying to figure that out myself. But all I have found where two or there dwarf hermits in the last month, and possilby a peppermint shrimp.

I've had the tank set up for about 4 months. Can live rock start to re-cycle at anytime?

And what amount of dieing matter will increase nitrates at a rapid rate. Could a small 1" hermit really cause that much damage?

Alex

[mcoomer]

Slow down....you could do more harm than good by overreacting. Why don't you take some water to your LFS and have them verify your test results. You might have a bad test kit. If they confirm the results start looking for missing critters and if you find something get it out of the tank. Finally, I wouldn't do a 50% change in a tank that's already stressed. Personally I would do smaller water changes spread out over a few days. Watch the animals between changes and look for signs of improvement.

[aastretch64]

I did an experment to test my kit, and tryed tap water and r/o. R/o registered 0 nitrate, and tap registered some. Plus I've used the same test for 4 months with no problem.

I do plan to take a test sample to the LFS, but as far as a massive change out goes, I would rather add a little more stress to my tank, then have my inhabitants in water that is 8 times more toxic then it should be (maybe even 80 times for coral according to some websites).

[nauticac4]

Do 10% or so every day over a few days. The rapid change of a 50% water change all at once will do more harm then good. It basically shocks the system. I made that mistake early on and lost some of my live stock. Many small changes are better than one big one.

[Gdevine]

Originally posted by mcoomer
Slow down....you could do more harm than good by overreacting. Why don't you take some water to your LFS and have them verify your test results. You might have a bad test kit. If they confirm the results start looking for missing critters and if you find something get it out of the tank. Finally, I wouldn't do a 50% change in a tank that's already stressed. Personally I would do smaller water changes spread out over a few days. Watch the animals between changes and look for signs of improvement.

EXCELLENT advice.

IMO, something most likely kicked the bucket in your tank. Do you have a biological filter as in a fuge?

[aastretch64]

I guess I should start from the beginning:

46 Gallon Main Tank, 20 Gallon Sump includes 10 gallon fuge with cheato. 60lbs live rock, (2) Ocellaris Clowns, (1) 6-Line Wrasse, (1) Yellow Watchman Goby, 20 hermits, 12 snails, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 emerald crab, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I have 446 watts of 14K MH / actinic. DIY skimmer pulling 1/2 cup a day of a nice brew of coffee, 15% weekly water change using reef crystals, Seachem Complete, Carbonate, and trace plus twice per week.

1 cube of formula one, prime reef, mysis, or brine everyday alternating (Recently dropped to 1/2 cube), Phyto-Feast and Rito-Feast (Have not used yet, but plan to start soon 1/2 teaspoon of each every other day)

4" Frag Trumpet Coral, 4" Frag Montipora Digitata, 1" Frag Of Acropora Sam., 8" Favia Brain, 4" Maxima Clam (All coral added within the week)

Perameters:

Temp: 78-79
pH: 8.4
SG: 1.026
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm :c(
Phosphate: 0ppm
Calcium: 420ppm
Alkalinity: 10dkh

Cheato does get some covering of tan dust, along with some tan dust in sump. I've had some red slime algae growing in the sump, and I bought the cheato, but goes away and comes back.

I have noticed that the cheato has not really grown even with 8-10 hours of light.


Fewwww. I'm out of breath.

Thank for the replies! Keep them coming because I value everyone opinions.

Alex

[aastretch64]

OK, so I split the difference in the advice. Just performed a 35% water change instead of the 50%. 80% in the fuge water was removed to get the slime algae and dust off the cheato, and the rest just on the main tank leaving the main tank sand alone.

I performed my usual 15% yesterday...

A 35% today...

A possibly a 25% tomarrow (depending on my test results)

After the change I observed the inhabitants. Trumpet still open, in fact more GSP came out (just put them in 3 days ago), clam opened as wide as can be, favia brain, well doesn't really look different then usual, And all the fish except for the yellow watchman acted normal. For some reason he swam to the top for about 15 minutes, then went back down to his usual rock.

So far so good.....



Alex

[Gdevine]

Ya know, you may want to put a big Mexican turbo in that fuge to keep the algae down. I have one in my 35g fuge (miracle mud & cheato) and he's fat and happy and the fuge looks great!

[smithcreek]

The small water changes people are recommending here will not help nearly as much as a few large changes. If you are reading ammonia your first instinct to do some large water changes is correct, and try to figure out what's going on. Any ammonia is going to stress you critters out way more than water changes. Just try to match ph, temp, and whatever else you're measuring like calc and alk.

[Johnsteph10]

Small frequent water changes are practically useless if you are wanting to lower harmful ammonia, nitrates, etc.

As long as the replacement water matches the temperature, alkalinity, and salinity then you are fine.

[Sheol]

I was having the same problem a week or two ago, but I blame the mini-cycle on the recent move & disturbance of the Lr + the subpar emergency skimmer I had to use. Things are improving, plus I just learned the wonders of activated carbon used in a reef system!

Matthew

[aastretch64]

Gdevine I've got about 3 snails, and 1 hermit in the fuge, but it seems like the snails are always straying away into the skimmer portion, and the return pump portion.

Strange thing about the ammonia and nitrates being so high is that the fish, crabs, and even the coral (only hads coral for 3-4 days) Don't look stressed or unhappy. Everything and everyone looks the way they did when I registered 0 ppm on all tests. Lively and entertaining!

I figure that overfeeding may be the culperate. After blowing out the rock with my baster I see some uneaten food...food that the fish are trying to eat now, and spit out (must taste like sh**). I netted out as much as I could. And I plan to feed less.

Alex

[aastretch64]

Just got home and did a test. I am still registering about 60 ppm of nitrate and .25 of ammonia. Even after the 35% change????

Alex

[aastretch64]

So I discovered what was causing my high ammonia and nitrate. It's call API Test Kit.

LFS tested the water, and registered 0 ammonia and less than 1 ppm of nitrate. Could be why there was no algae growth, and why everything looked so darn healthy.

I can't believe my API test registered 80ppm of nitrate!

Alex

[aastretch64]

bump

[uscharalph]

Originally posted by aastretch64
So I discovered what was causing my high ammonia and nitrate. It's call API Test Kit.

LFS tested the water, and registered 0 ammonia and less than 1 ppm of nitrate. Could be why there was no algae growth, and why everything looked so darn healthy.

I can't believe my API test registered 80ppm of nitrate!

Alex

Test kits aren't allways accurate. I frequently have my water tested at my LFS.

[TK3]

Originally posted by aastretch64
So I discovered what was causing my high ammonia and nitrate. It's call API Test Kit.

LFS tested the water, and registered 0 ammonia and less than 1 ppm of nitrate. Could be why there was no algae growth, and why everything looked so darn healthy.

I can't believe my API test registered 80ppm of nitrate!

Alex

Just remember that for next time. You can over react (we all do at times), and simply cause more problems. Guilty of that myself. Bad test kit had my alk at 30 dkh.

[kathainbowen]

*nod nod*

There are many test kits out their on the market that are known for being inaccurate. Any of the "dropper" tests aren't really considered to be a perfectly accurate system for water testing, considering there's so many things that can go off when it comes to one of those tests. The strip tests are worse! You can easily contaminate a test by not properly cleaning the vials or, in the case of the test strips, just by touching them with wet or damp hands. That, and you can get a bad batch of testing supplies. It happens.

Definitely, if you have a test kit giving you really odd results always double check. If you can't do that, a simple waterchange can never hurt, so long as the temp, alk, and salinity match-up.

[aastretch64]

I never had a problem until recently. What test kit would you suggest?

Alex