New shipment at 10 tonight

Doing a 20% change and taking another day off for rock babysitting. Will be ready for another 20% change in another 12hours if things don't improve.
 
Don't be surprised if 20% isn't enough if your levels are that high. I might recommend changing the water, waiting a bit, and then test again. Letting it go for 12 more hours at 1 ppm or more isn't doing you any good. You may have to keep taking out water and adding new until you get it down below one. Otherwise the ammonia will continue to deep fry your rock.
 
DCDeacon said:
Don't be surprised if 20% isn't enough if your levels are that high. I might recommend changing the water, waiting a bit, and then test again. Letting it go for 12 more hours at 1 ppm or more isn't doing you any good. You may have to keep taking out water and adding new until you get it down below one. Otherwise the ammonia will continue to deep fry your rock.

Agreed. A high ammonia level will set up a vicious circle; High ammonia kills. Dead and damaged tissue releases more ammonia.
 
Right before I did my 20%, I got rid of one dead sponge. I've read that you don't want to do more than a 20% change at one time. Do you all agree? I can do 10 or 20 later this evening if the ammonia doesn't come down enough but is there a such thing as too much?
 
Yes I've read to do more small changes than one large change.
Back to your skimmer question, after the TBS went in I started pulling a very wet green skimate and pull it consitently. It slows daon for a while after I give the cup a good cleaning but comes back. I think it's OK fo rthe skimate to be wet as long as it's nasty, if it's wet and water-clear you need to adjust the cup.
I did 5 10% changes before my ammo stopped rising and settled down. Now it's nitrates I am still watching.
 
Bax,

I just did a 20 and the ammonia is still at 4+ so I figure that I should do another 10 soon at least. The skimmer water is getting more and more murky, and the bubbles a little dryer.

KP
 
kp1917 said:
I've read that you don't want to do more than a 20% change at one time. Do you all agree?

No, in this situation it will do no harm to do at least a 50% change. The 20% deal is used in relation to established tanks that are within normal parameters.
Steve
 
Hy, Deacon et. al.,

Just got back from the store with Amquel to help and some new stuff called Bio-Spira nitrifying bacteria (from Instant Ocean). Going to test now (it's been a couple of hours since the 20% change then I'll do a 50% change then add the Bio-Spira
 
kp1917 i just looked at ur location, Anchorage gezz it must be hard to reef up there. Hey at least u dont have to worrk bout a chiller LOL...
 
kp1917 i just looked at ur location, Anchorage gezz it must be hard to reef up there. Hey at least u dont have to worry bout a chiller LOL...
 
Hy,

Also I don't (embarrassingly) don't know the difference between total ammonia and free, I'm using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Saltwater Master liguid test kit.

KP
 
If it's the 8 drops of reagent A + 8 drops of reagent B, with nearly undecipherable colors of green, that's the test that I have. It measures total ammonia, which is both NH3 (toxic) and NH4 (not nearly as toxic).

Amquel or something like that will convert your NH3 to NH4. Unfortunately, your test will still detect the NH4.

Biospira is very similar to biozyme (the brown powder that got sent to you with your shipment). The biospira, biozyme, or bacteria in your LS & LR will eventually convert the NH4 to nitrite, then nitrate.

Look for obviously decaying sponges (if it peels off easily with the fingers...), and toss them. (My nose is pretty useless, so I can't use the stink test...)
 
Hy,

That is the test I have. I've gotten rid of a couple of sponges now (as soon as they turn white-ish I try to pull them). After a few changes and the additives it's down to 1-ish now. I also have Aquarium Systems "Fastest" which only measures to .8 but a lot more accurate if your ammonia is down to where it should be since the other goes from 0 - .25 - .5 - 1 - 2 - 4 - 8. The problem with the "Fastest" one though is that I keep getting a light blue-green and that color isn't in the range so I am assuming that I am still above .8

May I assume that if the other measures total ammonia, it might not be as bad as I thought?????

Thankyou for the help. I'll be posting new numbers tomorrow morning.


Kyle
 
kp1917,
You can extend the range of your FasTest by diluting your tank sample 1:1 with ro/di water. Double the resultant reading for a read of how much ammonia is present. ( A diluted reading of .7 would be a true reading of 1.4) HTH
 
Day 3

After all the water changes and Amquel & bio-spira, I got the ammonia down to under 1 - guessing about .75 last night, and the ph was up as well. Now this morning,

8:10am
Temp - 76.5
Ammonia - 1
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
PH - 7.8
Salinity - 1.024

So Why does the PH keep falling?? I will add more buffer but I buffed the changing water each time yesterday. How bad do I need to worry about this??

I haven't seen anything dying except some of the sponge. I have little feather dusters (less than an inch and see-through) and other very small life that still looks ok?

KP
 
Also, the protein skimmer is pulling out the nastiest stuff yet. Should I turn off the Magnum 350 now, isn't it's filters full of ammonia eating bacteria now??

Kyle
 
If you have die off in your water ... the PH will drop automatically.

If you put too much buffer in at one time, your Alkalinity will raise, which is not a good thing either ... so while you use a buffer make sure you check for that too!

My PH was very low at the beginning too, and it took some time and water changes to get it under control ... I didn't notice anything bad happening because of it (I was very worried!!)

good luck to you and your tank
Manuela
 
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