tired

[evb9]

I am at the point of giving up. I know you guys like water par. : cal. 440, mag 1275, Ph 8.2, alk 2.5, no2 0.1, no3 20, amm. 0.25. I don't know how they got out of whack, maybe from the coral dying? 2 weeks ago everything was fine. My purple hornets look horrible (lost one) I'm about to lose my blue magician, king midas' 20 or so half are open, one of my ppe's are dead, and my rastas are probably goners too, all mats look to be reseeding also. I have a 29 gallon 4 t-5s the corals were more than half way down (10 inches) i moved my rock and put them about 6" down. I just switched from 2 actinics and 2 10 k daylights to 2 actinics a fiji purple 10k daylight bulb. Bi-weekly water changes (5 - 7gallons) My lfs are useless i really don't know what to do. My rpe, car, sunkist, fruit loops, pixe dust, tubb blues, and ALL the cheap zoas are great I have a couple acans too, they're fine. Is it a lighting problem?

 

[Surf&turf]

You have an ammonia problem for some reason.
What corals are dying?
Have you lost any fish?

 

[evb9]

fish are fine 80% of my corals are perfect, i'm realllly at a loss lol i have NO idea where this amm. spike came from nothing has died, fish, snails, etc. except for these few corals. one month ago i had an ocean now i have a septic tank. I'm going to do some water changes over the next few days and i will test again tomorrow because i don't think my stuff is that out of whack.

 

[Ericdrbn]

Has a deep pocket of sand been disturbed recently?

 

[evb9]

i had some cyano algae so i was battling that, i don't have a deep sand bed but i was definitely messing with the little bit i do have. i just can't see it being the spike killing them, my fish are fine. I know any amm. is harmful but man nothing is dying except for my expensive zoas.

 

[Friday Night]

Powerheads? filter? dead matter caught inside?... yea that suxs.. take a break/beer come back dont give up!

:beer:

 

[Mr. Microscope]

Shouldn't alk be at like 8-11? Throw some baking soda in there.

 

[jjmcat]

HOw long has the tank been set up?I would also like to know what kind of bio-load do you have?Fish,etc.....

 

[KafudaFish]

Shouldn't alk be at like 8-11? Throw some baking soda in there.

Depends if the reading is in meg/L or dKH.

If it is in meg/L that is in range but if in dKH then it would be low.

The Ca would have a hard time being at 440 though.

 

[evb9]

man i got catch up here lol. its a 29 gallon 10 gallon sump, oversized skimmer reef octo 110, 2 koralia 1's. its been setup for a few days short of 6 months (5 months 20 ish days) fish are mccosker wrasse, swalesi basslet, and a yellow assessor. I had a dracula goby that died but he jumped lol so he's not rotting. I feed once a day and sometimes skip. i have all z's and p's, 3 acans, and a favia, nass. snails astera snails. I did put some macro algae (grape cal. and cheato) But that has disappeared, i believe it died and thats where the amm. spike came from.

@kafudafish my mag and cal. where tested at my lfs (thats why i said their useless) i really need to buy those tests kits. I have the red sea master test kit and the alk is meg/l

 

[jjmcat]

I would do several water changes this week to get your prams back in check. I also think your alk is a tad on the low side. I always try to keep mine at 3.5.I have noticed 2 things when my alk went low.1..My millies would suffer and 2…My zoas would sometimes melt away.

 

[jjmcat]

http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/AlkConv.php

 

[evb9]

yeah i'm going to start the water changes tonight. how do i raise my alk??

 

[KafudaFish]

1. Go over to the chemistry forum and look at the archives and read RHF's articles on it and dosing. You need to understand the relationship of alk and Ca. Use the calculator to figure out how much you need to raise them.
2. Buy a test kit for both and test.
3. If you boost start very slow and make SMALL changes just like anything else.
4. They are probably reacting to the change in lighting.
5. Your ammonia reading means that either your tank is cycling again or something has died and your tank is unbalanced.

If your sand bed was dirty then messing with it could be one of the causes. Can you clean a small section at a time and see what collects at the bottom of your bucket? After it settles out slowly drain the water out of the waste bucket and smell the sand. That will tell you if you have anoxic areas.

 

[KafudaFish]

Back to the lighting change how did you do it? Was it all at once or a new bulb every few days to one a week?

 

[evb9]

yeah i changed the lighting i went from daylight actinic daylight actinic, to actinic actinic daylight fiji purp. only one new bulb added, i built my rocks like a mt. and the zoas are coming back only lost my 5 p frag of purple hornets and 1 ppe. I guess i can deal lol. As for my chemistry i've never had this much trouble i messed with the sand bed and i think my chaeto died, thats the only thing it can be. i will test again friday and give you guys all par. and see if anything looks better thanks for all the advice guys