im new to this page and i need help with my tank

[mrkev91]

I have a 55g salt water tank. I been having it for 7-8 months now. I have always only test ammonia and nitrite the simple stuff. Today i bought the master test kit. All my test failed. My calcium was at 34 drops being at 680. My kh was at 13 drops being over 214.8 and my phosphate was at 0.25. In my tank i have blue tang,yellow tang, 2 clowns, a crown royal, a blue densel, a yellow watchman with the pistal shrimp, a cleaner shrimp. Crabs snd snails. Only 2 small torches. I need help!!

 

[Taahirs]

First thing :

Are you Dosing alk and calcium?
What salt mix are you using?

And then on a different note. Yellow and regal tangs are REALLY not suitable for your tank size.

 

[mrkev91]

What do u mean by dosing?? Once again im new to the new testing. My salt water i get it from my local store. Im upgrading to 125g in the next couple of weeks

 

[BrianD]

Return the tangs to the LFS until you upgrade.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Consider finding a local club that you can join (there is one listed in the clubs section here at RC) or ask your local store if they know of a club.

You are having issues and don't seem to know what you are doing 7 or 8 months into having a 55g tank. Why would you upgrade to a 125g tank???

There are lots of 'stickies' at the top of this forum you should read before you move on.

I don't mean to be harsh or mean here, but you need to learn some basics before things get out of control. Asking questions here is a good thing, but try reading about some of this before you ask.

I assume you got API test kits, and that's OK. Your calcium is at 680 which is too high, but that's not going to kill anything. If your alk was 13 drops, that's 13 dKH or 232ppm. Again, that's higher than you want it, but it can be fixed.

I'd question the store there you are buying your water (probably a bad idea anyway... make your own). Buy a gallon from the store and test it (or ask the store to test it for you before you buy it). If the parameters are OK then use it. If they are outside the 'normal' range, take it back and ask why?

I'll ask you to test your salinity (or specific gravity). Is it too high as well?
If it's high, have you been topping off for evaporation with store saltwater?
If it's 'normal' what water are you using to replace water lost to evaporation?
Do you do periodic water changes? How many gallons, how often and where do you get that water?

You need to get 10 to 15 gallons of 'normal' saltwater (hopefully the LFS water is really OK) and use it to replace 10 to 15 gallon from your tank. If the store water is normal, then that will start to lower your cal & alk levels. A15 gallon change should lower your cal from 680 to about 620. A week later do the same again and it should go down to about 570 or 580.

 

[mrkev91]

No i get what ur tryin to say.
Salinity is 1.025
I jst did a water change yesterday. And i test the water with my api test kit last night
I replace my water with salt water when it vaporates.
Water changes i do 10 gallons every 2 and the water comes from my local store.
Now i bought reef fusion 1 and 2. I use to put 4 full caps of each once a week. Reading the info in the bak says to put one full cap to every 65g. So i been putting way to much of it. So do i need to stop using reef 1 and 2 for a bit and do 15g water change for the next couple of weeks?? I do not have a sump on my 55 but i am putting one on my 125g when i buy it

 

[Dkuhlmann]

NEVER replace evaporation with saltwater, only use RODI. You replacing evaporation with saltwater was the cause of your problem.

Also stop dosing anything until you get a base reading of what your saltwater alone will provide. If you don't have any stony corals or a ton of coralline then you have nothing that will consume the nutrients that comes already in your saltwater. Again topping off with saltwater was your problem.

The reason for dosing is to replenish what corals are consuming and only if you have low readings of what is to be dosed.

 

[thegrun]

Okay, this may be the root of your problem, when you replace evaporated water you need to replace it with fresh water (preferably pure RO/DI water). If you replace the evaporated water with saltwater your salinity will start to rise along with all the trace elements since when water evaporates it leaves the salt and trace elements in the tank. I'm surprised your salinity is not much higher than it is, how are you measuring it?
I agree the tangs should be in a larger tank but if you really are going to upgrade shortly I do not see the need to return the fish, but expect trouble if you do not get them in a bigger tank soon.

 

[mrkev91]

Okay i c my mistake. But now my water doesn't vaporates as much usually by the time that the water vaporates its when my change water comes.. so how would balance that??

 

[CStrickland]

This page has a lot of good info for new reefers. It is a bunch of links, each one is like a chapter in a book of "how to reef" so you can start with the issues you have now by checking out the one called "tang tank sizes" as well as the ones about basic water chemistry.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074

You don't need to add anything right now like reef fusion, you tank isn't using that stuff up.

You can buy "distilled water" from the grocery store (not "filtered water" or "drinking water") for your evaporation. It's like $1 a gallon. It will get very expensive to keep buying saltwater when you move to the big tank. For $150 you can get a great rodi filter kit that purifies you home water. It will pay for itself in a few months, and you don't have to worry about whether the lfs is doing a good job replacing their filters and such.

I think you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you put in some time to research and understand the hobby before you move into the big tank. There's a lot of expensive mistake you can make from buying the wrong equipment, or just screwing up things like dosing. The fewer of those lessons you have to learn the hard way the better, that's what the page I linked above is good for. You'll still make mistakes like everybody, but a little reading goes a long way in preventing them.

I'm worried about the tangs though. I think they should go back to the store until you get everything settled. Besides all the other reasons, if they go in the big tank early they will think it's their territory and kill new fish, so you'll want them to be the last ones in. Also, I'm guessing you didn't quarantine them, all the changes will likely be so stressful that they get sick from ich that they are carrying now. When they die in your tank it will really mess things up.

 

[mrkev91]

I have read about the tangs before buying them. I have had them for 5 months now, they are doing fine. No itch at all, i feed them pretty good, veggies and formula u name it. They are happy, plenty caves to hide and space to swim, i know im not an expert yet but i bought them knowing i was gonna upgrade to a 120g.

 

[Sk8r]

THere's a sticky file up top, a monster titled SETTING UP, which is actually a master file of 'how to' and what to do. I'd say start there, and take notes.
Parameters that I use are as follows. Temperature 79-80. Salinity 1.024. Alkalinity 8.3 on the DKH scale. Phosphate 0. Nitrate under 10. Ammonia 0 [it's poisonous, so it needs to be 0 at all times]. Calcium 420. Magnesium 1300.
First advice, get a ro/di system and make your own salt water. Get boxes of Instant Ocean, eg, which will give you pretty close to the readings above on mixing it. Get a refractometer.
Keep a logbook of your tests and the results. Don't trust your memory.
Don't add things except pure ro/di to make up evaporated water; salt water, take 10% of the tank water out a week, put just as much new salt water in.
Put away all the bottles of 'stuff'. Just maintain it on those simple changes until you have corals.
Proceed with your plan for the big tank and good luck. Mixing your own salt water is definitely best. 1/2 cup of Instant Ocean salt mix to 1 gallon of ro/di will yield you very good sea water, and do not add anything to it---just the water drawoff and add, every weekend, until you get corals.

 

[Sk8r]

And welcome in!

 

[Ron Reefman]

You don't need to balance water chages made with saltwater and topping off evaporation with fresh water. That just takes care of itself. When water evaporates it takes the water away but leaves the salt and other chemicals behind.

Don't dose anything! You don't have enough stuff growing in your tank that you need to dose. The reason your cal and alk are high is because you are dosing the two part and nothing in the tank is using it. You dose that when you get below the normal levels and yours are already way to high.

If you can, get an RO/DI or but distilled water from the grocery store and buy some Instant Ocean salt and start making your own water. It should be cheaper in the long run and you can be absolutely sure of the water quality. Almost everybody here makes their own saltwater. And you'll have good clean top off water (RO/DI or distilled) to replace water that evaporates.

Don't sweat the tangs. You can consider possible changes after you get your water parameters in order. BTW, I have 2 (very young and small) in a 25 gallon frag tank and they are just fine.