alancolinet
New member
Hello all.
I have just recently started doing tank maintenance in full force again after not doing so for around 4 months.
By maintenance, I mean partial water changes. The other things (cleaning powerheads, scraping diatom algae, cleaning protein skimmer, changing out RO/DI unit filters and membrane, etc.) I have been doing as I'm supposed to.
I stopped doing water changes when I read that there really wasn't a point to doing them unless something was amiss in the system. Well, my laziness let that go on for too long. :strange:
Now that I am trying to get back into the swing of things, I'm finding that my tank has the following parameters:
pH - 8.0
Temp - 79-82
Salinity - 1.026
kH - 9
Mag - 1400
Ca - 420
Phos - 1.0 :sad1:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 60-80 :eek1:
System info:
34 gallon Red Sea Max 130 system (29 display) w/ a 5 gallon hang on Fuge filled with Miracle mud and live sand (4-6 inches). I calculate that I have around 37 gallons total system volume.
150 watts 10K and True actinic T5 lights (12 hours actinic, 6 hours 10K, 4 hours moonlight).
1 Bag of Chemi-pure Elite carbon (removes phosphates, nitrates, acts as carbon w/ no phosphate leeching).
Protein skimmer that came with Red Sea Max system 130
2 return pumps from backplane, along with 3 Koralia power heads for x20 tank flow
Coralife 4 stage RO system with DI attachment
Using Oceanic Sea salt mix (reads 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate 24 hours after mixing)
4 inches of coral rubble substrate (12 lbs.) with 45 lbs. of liverock.
Livestock:
1 x Rusty Pigmy angel
1 x Cinnamon Tomato Clown
1 x Algae blenny
1 x Yellow watchmen goby
1 x Blue Pseudochromis
1 x Red sponge
1 x Tiger pistol shrimp
1 x Skunk cleaner shrimp
2 x Pom-Pom Boxer crabs
1 x Porcelain filter feeder crab
1 x Rose BTA anemone
1 x Large Brittle Star
1 x Mexican turbo snail
Lots of pigmy brittle stars
Lots of non-plankonic Cerith snails ( I can't remember where I got them from, ordered online around 1 year ago, but they do not have a planktonic larval stage... so there are a lot of them)
Lots of amphipods, copepods, etc.
Also, somehow my cleaner shrimp has had babies... even through it's the only one it the tank and I've had it for 1.5 years. I found them in the fuge.
Corals:
Green star polyps
Several colors of palys
2-3 different types of Ricordia mushrooms
Pulsing xenia (yes, mine do pulse)
Assorted Zoo colonies (which are dying off)
Situation:
The reason I started doing the water changes again are because I noticed that I couldn't seem to keep zoo colonies alive in the tank. The pallys, shrooms, and everything else is doing fine... though only the mushrooms seem to be really growing and spreading, the rest just relocate themselves but haven't really shown any growth.
This is what I've done over the last 3 days. I've done 3 partial water changes of 28% each day. I've tested my makeup water and water change water and both have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates.
I'm currently running a single bag of Chemi-pure Elite for my carbon/waste removal.
I just vacuumed out the top layer of the substrate in my fuge (had a lot of dissolved organic compounds that settled on the surface about 1 inch deep) thinking that this could also be contributing to my phosphate and nitrate problem.
I ordered a denitrator to help keep the nitrates down. It should be here sometime this week.
I've pretty much replaced almost the entire tank volume at this point and my nitrates are still 60-80 PPM with my phosphates STILL at 1.0 PPM.
What else could it be? Any help would be appreciated.
I have just recently started doing tank maintenance in full force again after not doing so for around 4 months.
By maintenance, I mean partial water changes. The other things (cleaning powerheads, scraping diatom algae, cleaning protein skimmer, changing out RO/DI unit filters and membrane, etc.) I have been doing as I'm supposed to.
I stopped doing water changes when I read that there really wasn't a point to doing them unless something was amiss in the system. Well, my laziness let that go on for too long. :strange:
Now that I am trying to get back into the swing of things, I'm finding that my tank has the following parameters:
pH - 8.0
Temp - 79-82
Salinity - 1.026
kH - 9
Mag - 1400
Ca - 420
Phos - 1.0 :sad1:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 60-80 :eek1:
System info:
34 gallon Red Sea Max 130 system (29 display) w/ a 5 gallon hang on Fuge filled with Miracle mud and live sand (4-6 inches). I calculate that I have around 37 gallons total system volume.
150 watts 10K and True actinic T5 lights (12 hours actinic, 6 hours 10K, 4 hours moonlight).
1 Bag of Chemi-pure Elite carbon (removes phosphates, nitrates, acts as carbon w/ no phosphate leeching).
Protein skimmer that came with Red Sea Max system 130
2 return pumps from backplane, along with 3 Koralia power heads for x20 tank flow
Coralife 4 stage RO system with DI attachment
Using Oceanic Sea salt mix (reads 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate 24 hours after mixing)
4 inches of coral rubble substrate (12 lbs.) with 45 lbs. of liverock.
Livestock:
1 x Rusty Pigmy angel
1 x Cinnamon Tomato Clown
1 x Algae blenny
1 x Yellow watchmen goby
1 x Blue Pseudochromis
1 x Red sponge
1 x Tiger pistol shrimp
1 x Skunk cleaner shrimp
2 x Pom-Pom Boxer crabs
1 x Porcelain filter feeder crab
1 x Rose BTA anemone
1 x Large Brittle Star
1 x Mexican turbo snail
Lots of pigmy brittle stars
Lots of non-plankonic Cerith snails ( I can't remember where I got them from, ordered online around 1 year ago, but they do not have a planktonic larval stage... so there are a lot of them)
Lots of amphipods, copepods, etc.
Also, somehow my cleaner shrimp has had babies... even through it's the only one it the tank and I've had it for 1.5 years. I found them in the fuge.
Corals:
Green star polyps
Several colors of palys
2-3 different types of Ricordia mushrooms
Pulsing xenia (yes, mine do pulse)
Assorted Zoo colonies (which are dying off)
Situation:
The reason I started doing the water changes again are because I noticed that I couldn't seem to keep zoo colonies alive in the tank. The pallys, shrooms, and everything else is doing fine... though only the mushrooms seem to be really growing and spreading, the rest just relocate themselves but haven't really shown any growth.
This is what I've done over the last 3 days. I've done 3 partial water changes of 28% each day. I've tested my makeup water and water change water and both have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates.
I'm currently running a single bag of Chemi-pure Elite for my carbon/waste removal.
I just vacuumed out the top layer of the substrate in my fuge (had a lot of dissolved organic compounds that settled on the surface about 1 inch deep) thinking that this could also be contributing to my phosphate and nitrate problem.
I ordered a denitrator to help keep the nitrates down. It should be here sometime this week.
I've pretty much replaced almost the entire tank volume at this point and my nitrates are still 60-80 PPM with my phosphates STILL at 1.0 PPM.
What else could it be? Any help would be appreciated.
