What now?

A

Allanira

New member
Ok heres whats going on. I have had my 55 gal tank up for 4 months now. I have a 55 gal sump with a fuge in it, with cheato algae. I have a ton of LR (or atlest it feels like it lol), live sand for a bed, 1 chromis, 2 maroon clown, 1 corys wrasse, 2 red legged hermits, 5 turbo snails, and 2 cleaner shrimp. I went through green hair algae in the first 2 weeks, then diatom for 2 weeks, I just went through a cyano outbreak (which is now gone thank God), and now have green algae growing on the front glass. I have 2 kaloria 3s, and 2 kaloria 4s in the tank a Rio hyperflow 17 for return pump, and an overflow box that I dont remember what kind it was lol. I have good flow and want to add other things now. I would like to start some corals or anemones but know its too soon yet. I did have a slight hiccup resently when I parameters which were stable for 2 months went haywire this week. My parameters as of last test were

S.G. 1.022
Ammonia .25 ppm
pH 8.4
Nitrate 10 ppm
Nitrite .05 ppm
Alk 1.7
What does everyone suggest I do next? I would love to have more coralline algae and dont. I was adding Purple Up for a while but stopped when my parameters when haywire. I am not putting in any kind of addative now. Just salt for the water when I change it. Thanks in advance for any advise.
 
You say nothing of a protein skimmer. Do you run RO/DI and regular water changes?? How good are your filters in there. A set of new filters may not be a bad idea.

Ammonia should always be zero. Trites and trates should also be zero. What temp do you run the tank at?? Are you measuring phosphates?? Do you run carbon??

Watch what you feed and how much. Do regular water changes and ruin your skimmer rich (as opposed to lean).

Koralia.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12858421#post12858421 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr James
You say nothing of a protein skimmer. Do you run RO/DI and regular water changes?? How good are your filters in there. A set of new filters may not be a bad idea.

Ammonia should always be zero. Trites and trates should also be zero. What temp do you run the tank at?? Are you measuring phosphates?? Do you run carbon??

Watch what you feed and how much. Do regular water changes and ruin your skimmer rich (as opposed to lean).

Koralia.
Click to expand...

I agree all excellent points

what kind of test kits are you using and how old are they.
With the bioload and flow you have you should not have an ammonia reading at this time
 
yeah...either your test kits are wrong or your tank is going through a new cycle. Did something die recently?
 
purple up=calcium fyi..
and test for phosphates..
definitely dont add anything til your pars even out constistently..
thats a ton of flow for a 55g?!
 
Nothing has died. I just set it up 4 months ago. I dont have a protein skimmer that works so I am selling the one I have and getting a new one. I just have to wait for this one to sell first. Dont have the money for a new one yet lol. I dont have a test for calcium or magnesium yet. I need to get those. Alk is measured in dkh. Sorry bought that I had to check the test kit. Its a Marine master kit from Red Sea. Any other ideas?
 
I also wanted to say that I have so much flow cause everyone is saying that you need a lot of flow. I didnt want to be caught unprepared when it came to flow. I started out with 1 kaloria 4 and 1 kaloria 3 and got the other 2 kalorias at different times. I want to be able to keep corals alive and found out that you need a lot of flow for that. I am also going to be doing the tests again here a little bit to see if everything might have come back down. I bought the test kit less than 2 months ago and they had just gotten them in that morning. I still dont understand why everthing went to .... pot like it did practicly over night. I am running ro/di water and doing weekly water changes. Which reminds me that i need to get the next water change ready for friday lol. I'm not adding anything else until I get this figured out, and until its time for me to add corals and stuff. I have some cool lookin fish in there now. I just need to know what to do now until I can get a new protein skimmer. The only LFS here has a really crummy skimmer for $300 that I am not buyin cause of how expensive it is and what kind it is. Thats a hassle I dont need. I have already spend over $500 on the one I got and it still doenst work. Thats why I am selling it and getting a new one. Any more advise would be great. Will post new parameters later today. Hopefully 20% water changes for the next few weeks will work.
 
3 months is not an established tank. Measure every day and keep a record of it. Don't adjust anything unless you can establish a week long trend.
 
I test weekly like everyone on here suggested when I first set the tank up. I am keeping a record of it. It was steady for 2 months and I have had it set up for 4 months now. I just need to change my profile. I havent adjusted a thing except adding the purple up and have stopped that cause everything went out of wack all of a sudden. The only thing I am adding now is once a day I feed a tiny bit of brine. Enough so the fish can eat it before it gets down to the sand bed and start fouling things up. I dont feed anything else. I have enough algae in there for the hermits and snails. Like I said I need to test today to see if everthing has evened out again.
 
Ok just ran all the tests again today. And here they are
S.G 1.022
Ammonia between 0 - .25 ppm ( its gone down)
pH 8.6
Nitrate 10ppm
Nitrite .05ppm
Alk 2ppm ( looked closer and it its ppm not dkh)
What does everyone think? I havent added anything today. I need to feed them and trust me the natives are restless right now lol. Should I do a water change today for wait till friday when I usually do it?
 
A water change is always a good idea when you need to freshen things up.

You definitely need to bump that Alk. up. Mix a teaspoon of baking soda with some topoff water and pour it in the sump. Wait a few minutes and test it. It should raise it a couple points. Keep doing that each day until you get up in the 7-10 range. Keeping alkalinity in the proper range will stabilize your pH, which can help your livestock coast through bumpy times like you are going through.
 
you should have zero ammonia & zero nitrite

also, you may want to raise your SG just a bit.

what did these parameters tested at when you started adding livestock to your tank? did it ever finish it cycle? at it looks like it's not done right now.


J.
 
If it were me I would start doing water changes twice a week slowly bringing the SG up one point at a time until you get it around 1.025 or 1.026. By the time you bring the SG up you shouldnt have any ammonia or nitrite as long as you dont add any more livestock. Then you can test for everything else. I'm no expert but I dont think you should be having any Alk or Cal problems with a new tank with no corals yet. What kind of salt mix or you using? I use red sea coral pro salt and my alk is at 9 and cal is 460 at a SG of 1.026.
 
I am going to do a water change tomorrow. I got a new salt. Instead of Instant Ocean salt I got Instant Reef salt. It has calcium and magnesium in it compared to what I was doing. I also just got a test for calcium and did it. Its at 585mg. I dont want to do the water change tonight in fear that it will make my fish go a little crazy. I have been testing every week. The first 2 weeks the parameters were
S.G. 1.022
Ammonia 7.5ppm
Nitrate 50ppm
Nitrite greater than 1
Alk 1.5
pH 8.6
weeks 3-4
SG 1.022
Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Nitrite.2ppm
Alk 1.5
pH 8.2
weeks 5 through 14 everything stopped. It looked like this
SG 1.022
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Alk 1.6
pH 8.4
then week 15 and 16 everything fell apart. All the snails, fish, hermits and shrimp are accounted for. I started adding fish in 4th week. Dont yell I didnt know better and the guy at the LFS near here said to start then. I added 2 chromis and 1 commited suicide. He jumped out of the tank and hit the lights then fell into the cabinet below before I had a sump in there. My husband picked him back up and put him back in asap but he died. Then 2 weeks later I got the 2 hermits, then 2 weeks later I added 50# LR, 2 weeks later 2 maroon clowns and 5 turbo snails. the last addition was 2 weeks ago and that was the corys wrasse and 2 cleaner shrimp. Thats all I have added lately. I put the sump in 2 months ago and added live sand, LR and cheatomorpha in there. It just took a bit for me to get the cheato. Dont yell again. I am going to get a protein skimmer soon. I promise. I just need to sell the pos I have and get a new one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12858875#post12858875 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Allanira
I also wanted to say that I have so much flow cause everyone is saying that you need a lot of flow. I didnt want to be caught unprepared when it came to flow. I started out with 1 kaloria 4 and 1 kaloria 3 and got the other 2 kalorias at different times. I want to be able to keep corals alive and found out that you need a lot of flow for that.
Click to expand...
the preferred rate of flow for your tank would be 20-40 times its vol in gph
that would be 1100-2200 gph
2k3's--1600
2k4's--2400
that is 4000 gph way too much flow for lps corals. You would be great with the 2k3's and nothing else.
or you could put the two 4's on an interval timer

here is a good thread on the koralias and flow

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1359857
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12862233#post12862233 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Allanira
then 2 weeks later I added 50# LR
Click to expand...

... and that started a new cycle.


J.
 
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