Tank in serious trouble!!!

[hondadude2k5]

Things are actually looking better.

Nh4 is about .25
No2 is between .25 and .50
No3 is roughly 40ppm

Hell this is the best reading all week. The clown has even gone back to playing with the Frogspawn.

 

[hancockrich]

if you are getting saltwater, is it sealed in a box or is it being filled in your containers. if its not in a sealed box id definitely test it. it could answer alot of questions for ya....if it tests good then there is one less thing to think about. if ya dont mind me asking why do you buy saltwater? i have seen the boxes of ocean water here and there, but i dont see any reason to spend the money on them. but i make my own water cuz i have a RO and i dont have to pay a water bill...love the Army..hehe...
anyway just a thought.....best of luck getting your tank back in the clear....rich

 

[hondadude2k5]

I buy the pre mixed from Hector Rich. I wouldn't buy the stuff in a box.

 

[hancockrich]

if ya would like feel free go give me a call, my number is 520-456-5564 maybe we can put are heads together and figure something out...rich

 

[Fat Surgeon]

Hondadude, you have a PM

 

[dogstar74]

Honda dude,

If you are having NH4 issues and Nitrite issues, then something is dead in the tank.

Or.......

Have you been cleaning the glass of the tank or the windows in you house with ammonia based spray cleaners?

Just a thought.

Or.......

The tank cannot support the amount of livestock in the tank therefore, the biological filter i.e. the change of ammonia and nitrite to nitrate, is not taking place due to unavailable bacteria load.

I don't know you from anywhere, so I am only offering advise. But I'd quit using all the miracle crap it sounds like you're dumping in there and find the problem.
(Rogue sand bed, dying sponges on the live rock, insufficient time to cycle.)

If I didn't know better, it sounds like you are going through a new tank cycle. But like I said, I don't know better.

I hope it works out for you. good luck

 

[lovelylinda]

If you have a cannister filter, just removing all foam and media, and changing carbon weekly helped me with nitrates. I clean it well every week, run carbon only.

 

[hondadude2k5]

Yay, for a change I have a good update. After 12 days of fighting the tank I have it almost back to the good. My parameters are back to what I always kept them at.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 20ppm

I am gonna do a clean up water change this weekend to just add some clean water to the mix and then Ill shut down the canister filter and just use it intermitantly (sp?) every couple weeks. Ill work on making my refugium more efficient and i am gonna wait a few weeks till I replace the dead fish. Any ideas on getting rid of the hair algea?

 

[owsi]

It will go away when you get organics down. As said above, get rid of Cannister and just use it for a few (2 or 3 max) days at a time to polish water or run carbon in it for a week at a time, again if you run carbon too long it becomes ineffective and turn into a nitrate factory. Quit useing miricle cures, find the problem and things will take care of themselves.Most Carbon and phosphate reactors are good, buy good carbon, some are trash. When you start medicateing (De-Nitrate and all the other miracle cures) and don't address the problem, ie fish load, over feeding, bad flow, dead spots and non RO or contaminated saltwater for water changes, you make the LFS happy. By the way thats a good way to judge a LFS, do they ask questions and suggest problem areas, or just tell you to do water changes and sell you chemicals.

 

[jdieck]

Good you went over the hump but it will happen again if you do not correct what created it in the first place.
Here is what I see:
a) Second cycle started by dying things, note that Ammonia kils not only things you can see but also a lot of stuff in your rock like sponges and filter feeders as well as pods so the cycle extended because of that
b) you solved the issue basically by keeping on water changes until the bacterial population catched up, all available Ammonia has turned now into Nitrates which will be nutrient for Algae
c) You do not run a skimmer and you try to rely on a fuge for nutrient export
d) Seems there has been an issue with either over stocking or over feeding (Not sure which) but you might have been able to solve this because there was a biolad reduction by atrition.

My best recomendation:
You must find a way to increase nutrient export. A refugium is good support and may work but it will not support what we call a normal bio-load by itsel, if you want a refugium only you must consider that your biolad shall be always low. In summary get a good skimmer, chemical media is not efficient at all in removing Nitrates, the best is a skimmer which remove the suff before it turns into ammonia-Nitrate.

The second recomendation is to keep up with at least 20 to 25% water changes per week until you get a skimmer then you can reduce it to 10 to 15%

Finally I would advise not to get any additional fish or any added on bioload until you get the skimmer and after it has helped to get Nitrates to below 5 ppm and the Alge starts to dwindle. There is no way to get rid of the Algae if your Nitrates are at high level and also if the Nitrates are high potentially your phosphates will also so keep your tests up, let the tank stabilize and get a good skimmer and as mentioned above, if you have enough Live Rock, get rid of any mechanical filter media (foam or fiber) and use the filter to run carbon only which shall be changed every month to prevent it from also becoming bacteria prone converting to Nitrates.

 

[Sk8r]

I don't know how much space you can create in your sump, but my little in-sump Urchin skimmer is about 3" x 6" footprint, with an attached small pump that you can squidge in anywhere there's space. It does a good job on my 52 gallon, and having one and reserving the cannister only for special needs (like an emergency cleanup) might solve your problem. I've run all sorts of filters, and the ones with biological media aren't as efficient at getting stuff out of the system as a skimmer is. The Urchin is pretty trouble-free, but you have to dump the skimmate more often than some, because it is small. (Unlike a filter, a skimmer is more efficient when it's clean.)

 

[lcdrmurphy]

A Sock?

A Sock?

Dude,

Seriously, get rid of the SOCK. Even if it is new, it has all kinds of chemicals from the manufacuring process. If it has been washed, it has all of the crap from the detergents. And if taken off of the floor, I don't want to get into it.

I would not be surprised if that addition was the source of all your recent problems.

--Murph

 

[hondadude2k5]

Sock has been gone for days now. I got a filter bag for the tank.

 

[hondadude2k5]

UPDATE! The parameters of the tank have been really good the last few days but we lost the other Black Onyx. She was really active the last few days but I think it was a combination of the stress and heart break that killed her. We are gonna run the tank empty for awhile with just the coral.

 

[hondadude2k5]

Well here we go again with the updates. The tank has been sitting for the last month running through normal phases. I have been doing the water changes and doing normal dosing as if nothing was wrong. the water parameters are good and the tank has come back to life really well. I haven't lost any of the corals and some are healthier than i would have thought. I do have a slight hair algea issue but that was the least of my issues. I added the first fish to it yesterday and she seems to be doing ok. I am gonna wait a few weeks to add another. i hope to avoid any reoccurence of that near tank crash again.