Purchased an established 55 gal tank.
- Thread starter Shawn O
- Start date
Shawn O
New member
I can't seem to find where I put the sheet of paper I had written my previous tests on so I just dipped in a test strip. PH 7.8~7.9, Nitrite 0, nitrate 80~160, KH 0~40. The last time I checked it I had .25ppm Ammonia, but I'm not so sure the test was accurate. No phosphate test kit yet but have no algae that I can find.
Will suck out all of the sand and go bare-bottomed until I get a stand set up. Will probably end up doing a 50% water change from removing the sand.
An RO/DI unit is on my list but I need to buy other stuff first. For now I'm getting my RO from the machine down the street. FOWLR for now, probably won't even attempt corals until I can upgrade to a 90gal.
Will suck out all of the sand and go bare-bottomed until I get a stand set up. Will probably end up doing a 50% water change from removing the sand.
An RO/DI unit is on my list but I need to buy other stuff first. For now I'm getting my RO from the machine down the street. FOWLR for now, probably won't even attempt corals until I can upgrade to a 90gal.
PH is too low. The best thing for an aquarium is stability. Water changes are a band aid and stressful. Address the core issue and get you measures good and stable. Do not add anything until you do. More live rock, get that sump going and a protein skimmer ASAP. Get some kordon amquel plus. If you ever see an ammonia spike, use it immediately.
Shawn O
New member
Sk8r, an Alkalinity test was not included with the setup. It came with high range PH, Nitrate, Ammonia and Calcium test kits. I've been to a three different petcos and none have them. I'd try my LFS but they aren't open on my day off, will have to try to get there before they close during the week.
Anyway, Nitrates were testing above 80ppm, on the API kit it was reading closer to 160ppm. PH was getting lower as well. Buffering the tank didn't seem to be doing a thing for the Nitrates or PH so I decided to remove the sand bed and start with new water. I set up a 10 gal tank with heater, powerhead and the rock my smaller dottyback hides in. I couldn't for the life of me find my larger dottyback. He was inside one of the other rocks in a bucket the entire time without heat, which made me nervous and rush. I also, at the insistence of someone else, bought some fluval Zeo-carb to replace the charcoal on the HOB filter. Didn't even notice the "for freshwater only" on the box. Anyway, I pulled an all-nighter cleaning out the tank, making and heating new SW and getting the fish back into the tank before leaving for work in the morning.
I came home to find my heater had failed, my Clarkii and Purple Striped Dottyback had died and my Matted Filefish was having labored breathing, laying on the bottom. The Ocellaris clowns, the Pajama Cardinals and the Firefish were hanging out near the bottom of the tank and seemed a little sluggish. I went out and bought a 150W heater and some Kent's Pro Buffer dkh. I added a little bit every few hours until it got almost up to 8.0 and went to bed. This morning the Filefish was a goner but the Firefish, Clowns, Cardinals and the Neon Dottyback are swimming more normal.
Long story short: I killed my fish when I used conditioned tap water and forgot to check the PH before moving the livestock back to the tank. PH was down to 7, maybe7.5. Combined with (I'm assuming) lowered oxygen from the added bacteria (and a covered tank) and low temps (74f). I basically shocked these poor guys to death.
After making multiple newbie mistakes in the span of 24 hours I intend to test, test and test some more before I kill any more animals. There's no bright side to this situation I can think of. My bioload is now lower but it's still no bright side to me. More than feeling stupid, I'm angry at myself for killing these little animals. I should have known better, I've been reading everything I could for almost a year before getting fish and still screwed up. I'm tempted to give the remaining fish, hermits and snails to the LFS and just quit until I can get everything I need for this before I try again but the wife won't let me quit after spending almost $400 on fish.
Up next; more test kits, tank stand, HOB skimmer and then (eventually) drilling the tank and a sump.
Anyway, Nitrates were testing above 80ppm, on the API kit it was reading closer to 160ppm. PH was getting lower as well. Buffering the tank didn't seem to be doing a thing for the Nitrates or PH so I decided to remove the sand bed and start with new water. I set up a 10 gal tank with heater, powerhead and the rock my smaller dottyback hides in. I couldn't for the life of me find my larger dottyback. He was inside one of the other rocks in a bucket the entire time without heat, which made me nervous and rush. I also, at the insistence of someone else, bought some fluval Zeo-carb to replace the charcoal on the HOB filter. Didn't even notice the "for freshwater only" on the box. Anyway, I pulled an all-nighter cleaning out the tank, making and heating new SW and getting the fish back into the tank before leaving for work in the morning.
I came home to find my heater had failed, my Clarkii and Purple Striped Dottyback had died and my Matted Filefish was having labored breathing, laying on the bottom. The Ocellaris clowns, the Pajama Cardinals and the Firefish were hanging out near the bottom of the tank and seemed a little sluggish. I went out and bought a 150W heater and some Kent's Pro Buffer dkh. I added a little bit every few hours until it got almost up to 8.0 and went to bed. This morning the Filefish was a goner but the Firefish, Clowns, Cardinals and the Neon Dottyback are swimming more normal.
Long story short: I killed my fish when I used conditioned tap water and forgot to check the PH before moving the livestock back to the tank. PH was down to 7, maybe7.5. Combined with (I'm assuming) lowered oxygen from the added bacteria (and a covered tank) and low temps (74f). I basically shocked these poor guys to death.
After making multiple newbie mistakes in the span of 24 hours I intend to test, test and test some more before I kill any more animals. There's no bright side to this situation I can think of. My bioload is now lower but it's still no bright side to me. More than feeling stupid, I'm angry at myself for killing these little animals. I should have known better, I've been reading everything I could for almost a year before getting fish and still screwed up. I'm tempted to give the remaining fish, hermits and snails to the LFS and just quit until I can get everything I need for this before I try again but the wife won't let me quit after spending almost $400 on fish.
Up next; more test kits, tank stand, HOB skimmer and then (eventually) drilling the tank and a sump.
Last edited:
Bpb
New member
Two pieces of advice I'd give going forward. Stop testing for PH using a liquid test. PH is a fluid value and will fluctuate through the day. I run a PH probe on a controller that monitors it 24/7 and it will fluctuate naturally from 7.8-8.3 through the day on average. That is normal. Dont chase PH. Don't use PH boosting, or lowering additives. They'll cause more harm than good and will muck up more chemistry in the water than just PH. If you want to elevate PH, open windows in your house, but by no means should you start doing a liquid test and tossing in a ph buffer every time it's low. Yikes.
Second. If you're going to be serious about fish and coral keeping, just become accustomed to not shopping at the big box stores for your needs. None of them will carry the tests you need. Become immediately comfortable with ordering online from bulkreefsupply.com or marinedepot.com. There are others but those are the big two. Try to remove Petco and Petsmart from your vocabulary. They're fine if you need a can of flakes, or a blister pack of frozen mysis, or even if you find a healthy fish you like, but otherwise, don't expect to find the quality of tests you'll need. They don't carry Salifert, Elos, Red Sea, or any of the other reputable titration tests.
Second. If you're going to be serious about fish and coral keeping, just become accustomed to not shopping at the big box stores for your needs. None of them will carry the tests you need. Become immediately comfortable with ordering online from bulkreefsupply.com or marinedepot.com. There are others but those are the big two. Try to remove Petco and Petsmart from your vocabulary. They're fine if you need a can of flakes, or a blister pack of frozen mysis, or even if you find a healthy fish you like, but otherwise, don't expect to find the quality of tests you'll need. They don't carry Salifert, Elos, Red Sea, or any of the other reputable titration tests.
CStrickland
New member
Poor Shawn!
Don't beat yourself up too much, everyone makes mistakes it's what you learn from them that counts. You really jumped in the deep end with this tank, now that you have a fresher start I'm sure things will go much smoother once you dust yourself off.
*hug*
Don't beat yourself up too much, everyone makes mistakes it's what you learn from them that counts. You really jumped in the deep end with this tank, now that you have a fresher start I'm sure things will go much smoother once you dust yourself off.
*hug*
Red Eyed Reefer
New member
Hey man, sorry for your rough start so far. I think everyone getting into this hobby ends up always finding out some of the right ways of how to do things after getting wet, even with research beforehand.
I know you do not have a sump as of now, but I have a SCA-302 skimmer that I will not be using. I got it used from another member on here that got out of the hobby, he used it for about 6 months. Not the best but it is a skimmer and it will export nutrients. As far as I know it works, it just may be missing a small screw for setting the water level adjustment pipe from when it was shipped to me. (probably fix this with any screw, I just never got around to looking at it)
It is yours if you want it, and are willing to come pick it up. (not sure where you are located in MA)
I also have a reef octopus BH-1000 (HOB skimmer that I used for my 55 gallon) that has a broken impeller shaft on the pump (I broke it cleaning it and lacking patience :headwallblue
. I don't know how much the replacement piece costs, but you can have that as well for free if you want it. (I think I paid $225 for this skimmer)
You say you are going to drill the tank... just be careful because from what I have seen is that 55 glass tanks are sometimes tempered on all panes. Just be sure before you drill.
Link for reference http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1436992
:beer:
I know you do not have a sump as of now, but I have a SCA-302 skimmer that I will not be using. I got it used from another member on here that got out of the hobby, he used it for about 6 months. Not the best but it is a skimmer and it will export nutrients. As far as I know it works, it just may be missing a small screw for setting the water level adjustment pipe from when it was shipped to me. (probably fix this with any screw, I just never got around to looking at it)
It is yours if you want it, and are willing to come pick it up. (not sure where you are located in MA)
I also have a reef octopus BH-1000 (HOB skimmer that I used for my 55 gallon) that has a broken impeller shaft on the pump (I broke it cleaning it and lacking patience :headwallblue
. I don't know how much the replacement piece costs, but you can have that as well for free if you want it. (I think I paid $225 for this skimmer)You say you are going to drill the tank... just be careful because from what I have seen is that 55 glass tanks are sometimes tempered on all panes. Just be sure before you drill.
Link for reference http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1436992
:beer:
Shawn O
New member
Bpb, I've heard that same advice given to others before and it's good advice. I was trying to bring it up to normal levels since they were apparently low to begin with, and dropping. They look to have dropped down to 7.0, which is the normal ph of my fresh water. I thought InstantOcean would have brought up the PH/Alk on it's own, but apparently not.
Thanks, CStrickland.
Shawn O
New member
Hey man, sorry for your rough start so far. I think everyone getting into this hobby ends up always finding out some of the right ways of how to do things after getting wet, even with research beforehand.
I know you do not have a sump as of now, but I have a SCA-302 skimmer that I will not be using. I got it used from another member on here that got out of the hobby, he used it for about 6 months. Not the best but it is a skimmer and it will export nutrients. As far as I know it works, it just may be missing a small screw for setting the water level adjustment pipe from when it was shipped to me. (probably fix this with any screw, I just never got around to looking at it)
It is yours if you want it, and are willing to come pick it up. (not sure where you are located in MA)
I also have a reef octopus BH-1000 (HOB skimmer that I used for my 55 gallon) that has a broken impeller shaft on the pump (I broke it cleaning it and lacking patience :headwallblue
You say you are going to drill the tank... just be careful because from what I have seen is that 55 glass tanks are sometimes tempered on all panes. Just be sure before you drill.
Link for reference http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1436992
:beer:
That would be most welcomed, Derek, many thanks. I'm in Weymouth so it's not that far of a drive. I'll Pm you about details. Thanks again. Would love to see your tank as well, the only SW tanks I've ever seen were at LFS'.
Shawn O
New member
Update: Remaining fish, crabs and snails are doing ok, eating like little pigs. They seem to be swimming around the tank more with the increased leg room. The Mrs. wants to get another Clarkii and put it in QT ASAP. Trying to tell her no and be nice about it, no more fish. Maybe some more snails in a few weeks but that's it.
CStrickland
New member
Send her in here, I'll tell 'er :hammer:
Glad to here they're settling out, I think ur back on track!
Glad to here they're settling out, I think ur back on track!
CStrickland
New member
I wouldn't call that an issue yet, people get in a lot more trouble trying to "fix" those numbers than they do from the levels in the first place. My alk ran a little high using IO salt until I got a couple corals in there, now its keeping up fine.
Have you read this yet? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ The chemistry is not easy to understand, I just had to read it explained by lots of different people before it "clicked" enough to have a basic idea of what's going on. I'm still pretty fuzzy on the details but I think most are, alot of posters act like they understand that stuff better than they do. sk8er's dirt-simple-chemistry sticky is really good too http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2152814
Have you read this yet? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ The chemistry is not easy to understand, I just had to read it explained by lots of different people before it "clicked" enough to have a basic idea of what's going on. I'm still pretty fuzzy on the details but I think most are, alot of posters act like they understand that stuff better than they do. sk8er's dirt-simple-chemistry sticky is really good too http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2152814
Shawn O
New member
UPDATE: Finally finished my stand, well the frame, anyway.
I moved the tank water and rocks into buckets to clean and move the tank. Fish, hermits, snails and a couple rocks (that had a fish and porcelain crab inside) went into a 10 gallon tank. Once the 55 was cleaned and put onto the stand I mixed about 12 gallons of new SW in the tank then added an inch of new sand and the rocks.
I left the critters in the 10 gallon overnight and discovered in the morning that there was a small banded serpent star in the 55. I've never seen this serpent star before. I'm assuming that since there were no fish, snails or crabs in the tank the serpent star felt safe enough to venture out into the open. The only way this star could have gotten into the tank is from a couple of empty snail shells i got with a hermit crab purchase a couple months ago. Either that or it was always in the tank and he'd just never come out into the open until now.
I'm kicking myself for not digging out my digital camera to take a picture. I'd hoped my cell phone would have gotten a better photo, but not the case.
I moved the tank water and rocks into buckets to clean and move the tank. Fish, hermits, snails and a couple rocks (that had a fish and porcelain crab inside) went into a 10 gallon tank. Once the 55 was cleaned and put onto the stand I mixed about 12 gallons of new SW in the tank then added an inch of new sand and the rocks.
I left the critters in the 10 gallon overnight and discovered in the morning that there was a small banded serpent star in the 55. I've never seen this serpent star before. I'm assuming that since there were no fish, snails or crabs in the tank the serpent star felt safe enough to venture out into the open. The only way this star could have gotten into the tank is from a couple of empty snail shells i got with a hermit crab purchase a couple months ago. Either that or it was always in the tank and he'd just never come out into the open until now.
I'm kicking myself for not digging out my digital camera to take a picture. I'd hoped my cell phone would have gotten a better photo, but not the case.
