New and still frustrated

[CaptD103]

Hi everyone, I am new to the hobby. I set a reef tank up about 3 months ago. I have a 65 gal tank and 20 gal sump. Rio 2500 return pump, hydor 1350 gpm powerhead in display tank, about 80 lbs of live rock. EShoppes skimmer in the sump. Currently have 2 azure damsels that I started the tank with. An approx. 10" snowflake eel, a Mocha clown, and a dwarf flame angel. I have a few easy corals. All of these are doing very well, and seem to be thriving. I posted 2 weeks ago or so because while all the above are doing fairly well, I can't add anything else to the tank without it dieing. The most recent fish got stressed out, became coated in ich, and died in 2 days.

I understand that the smart play would be to go fish less for 72 days and start over, but I'm not sure I'm ready to try that. There seems to be a lot of disagreement on if that's the best way to proceed.

I realize I got excited and started a little too aggressively. I'm trying to slow down and get everything back on track. I'm dosing with kick ich and rally, hoping they hope a little. I just started the rally today and it turned my water orange. I hope everything is OK with that?

I ordered a bunch of salifert test kits and the ones I have completed so far are ammonia .15, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, phosphate 1, calcium 430, salinity 1.025, pH 8.2-8.3, temp 80.5. My nitrate was 25 a few days ago but have managed to get it down to 10 by increasing flow and a water change.

My question is I was initially told that a skimmer and live rock were enough filtration but I'm wondering if a BRS dual chamber reactor with GHO and Carbon would be a good idea? Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Bender19]

There is a whole lot going on here.

1) The tank must go fallow and all your fish treated in hospital to kill ICH
2) You should QT all new fish so you do not introduce ich into the reef again
3) All Damsels are aggressive. Eels will eat what can fit in their mouth. The combination of this is most likely stressing out the new introductions, which is causing their immune system to weaken - which is allowing ich to infect and make the kill
4) Do not does any medications into your DT (there are certain exceptions to this)
5) Do a big water change to dilute anything you have dosed. Do a couple a few days apart to try to get the water chemistry back together.
6) Ammonia .15 can be a test kit error - BUT if is not, that is bad. Ammonia will kill your fish and corals.
7) Skimmer and Live Rock should be enough filtration along with a clean up crew (snails, some people also add hermits)
8) GHO and Carbon can be beneficial, but i do not believe that is what you need at this moment. Work on the above first!

 

[Reef_Chief]

Plus 1 to everything bender19 said.

I am also wondering who told you that increased flow would decrease nitrates? Unless ive missed something like a nitrate reactor in your setup?

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[Reef_Chief]

Also if you realise that the smart play would be to let the tank go fallow then i would follow that logic. It's a PITA but a few months of a fallow tank is definitely worth the years of pleasure you will get from this hobby. Reef keeping is a long game that has to be played patiently.

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[CaptD103]

I was told that increasing flow, and specifically breaking the surface of the water more, would help with gas exchange and the release of nitrate if I understood it completely. Is this not true? My nitrates and ammonia were both very low. I had too much turbulence in my sump so I put a ball valve on my return pump to get it under control. A few weeks later and my parameters were off. This led me to think the advice made sense. I've since returned my pump to full flow and corrected the turbulence with a filter sock.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Increased flow does nothing for gas exchange or nitrate. Increased flow that causes water movement (waves) at the surface will help with gas exchange (oxygen into the water and CO2 out to the air). But it does nothing regarding nitrates.

The filter sock is probably a good idea, just change it regularly. I had to change them every 3 or 4 days in my old system which was a bit over stocked. In my new system it's more like once every 7 to 10 days. I run them until water starts to build up higher inside the sock than it is outside the sock.

Take your time and read all you can find!

 

[Stolireef]

Just my two cents but an eel in a reef is pretty tough. As noted above, they'll eat any fish they can fit into their mouths, if I recall, they feed pretty heavy which puts pressure on your biofiltration, and they can wreak havoc on rockwork. I've been in this hobby for a while and I haven't seen too many (in fact I don't think I've seen any) eels in a reef tnak.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

3 months is not nearly enough time to settle into this hobby. Give yourself more time! Give the hobby more time. Think of it like becoming a martial arts weapons master...first you must learn to fight, before that you must understand weapons, before that you must make the weapons, before that you must HOLD the weapon. And you may hold the bow, katana, or sai, for years before you actually get to pull the string, swing, or stab.

 

[OrQidz]

Water quality is the fundamental thing you've got to have. It sounds like your tank isn't cycled, or doesn't have enough of a biofilter. Ammonia is bad - fix that first! Assuming it's an accurate reading, you need to do a lot of water changes to get that fixed.

Once you get that settled so your current livestock isn't in danger, you'll have to decide whether you want to gamble with every new addition getting ich.

 

[CaptD103]

So i bought some API tests. Seems maybe salivert may be giving some bad info. Looks like ammonia is 0, but I do have trace nitrite and nitrate around 20-30.

 

[MMacro]

So i bought some API tests. Seems maybe salivert may be giving some bad info. Looks like ammonia is 0, but I do have trace nitrite and nitrate around 20-30.

IMO.
Replacing your salifert kits with API kits is a step backwards. As long as the tests haven't passed their expiration dates and you are using them properly they should be accurate. I have never had any problems with any of my salifert kits.

 

[Stolireef]

IMO.
Replacing your salifert kits with API kits is a step backwards. As long as the tests haven't passed their expiration dates and you are using them properly they should be accurate. I have never had any problems with any of my salifert kits.

Yup. I way prefer Salifert to API. Red Sea makes pretty good kits as well but I find them a little annoying to use.

 

[CaptD103]

Well I went to a respected LFS today and had my water tested. Density 1.26. Ammonia 0. Nitrite 0. Nitrate 20-30. Phosphate 1.0. This agrees with my API tests and shows the Salifert test is inaccurate for ammonia. Maybe I got a bad one? Ordered from Amazon. Also read something about a bad batch of comparison cards from a printer issue?