Tank Crashing

[frnkynlop]

Hey Guys,

First and foremost I want to apologize for the long post, but I really Don't know what to do. Second Let me give you some background of my setup. I have a 90 gallon dt(3yrs up and running) with a 30 gallon sump which is filled up ? the way, In the sump I have some chaeto along with a vertex in 100 skimmer. My light is an 8 bulb tek light. Live stock includes 2 rbta, some frogspawns, leathers, bubble, and flower pot corals, 3 clown, 3 medium tangs, file fish, mandarin, and 3 damsels as well as approx 90 to 100lbs of live rock and about 80 lbs of live sand. In the sump I have about 5 to 10lbs of live rock as well. As for My reading salinity at .27, nitrates 20ppm, phosphates 1ppm, cal 510, mag 1600, KH at 9 and PH @ 8.2.

Now for the problem, about a month ago I noticed that my corals weren?t looking so happy, so I started testing everything and found my nitrates were around 40ish via API Test kits. I did a couple of water changes with no reduction. One thing I would like to mention is that I had been running this system with tap water till recently. I now use rodi water; I also changed my salt from reef crystal to ESV Salt and my nitrates went from 40ish to 20-15ish via the new red sea test kits. My problem now is that my corals still look unhappy and I?ve lost one colony of hammers and about to lose a colony of frogspawns. My flower pot coral is looking kinda sad too, but everything else looks happy. I?m at my wits end.

For the past month I?ve done 25gal water change every 3 to 4days. I also removed the bio balls from my sump. I don?t know what the heck I?m doing wrong any advise would be greatly appreciated as I don?t want to loose any more of my oldest corals. Thanks for reading this long post.

Frank
:banghead:

 

[jnelson]

It sounds like you made a LOT of changes pretty quickly:

- Changing from tap water to RODI
- Changing from Reef Crystals to ESV
- Changing from bio balls to no bio balls

If these weren't done gradually, it is very likely that the changes shocked the system. Have you checked nitrites/ammonia? Make sure none of the dying things are polluting the water.

 

[frnkynlop]

yeah I've checked the ammonia and it's at 0. As for the changes I first changed the salt, approx week later took out the bio balls. and roughly 2weeks later I changed to the rodi water. Was that to fast??

 

[jnelson]

With regards to the salt... Most people recommend mixing old/new salt when changing over. For example - 75/25, then 50/50, then 25/75, then 100% new (old/new ratio).

Also, your tank was established for a while, so the bio balls should have been removed in small portions (instead of all at once).

 

[frnkynlop]

so you think I might have started a mini cycle. If I did should I stop doing water changes. Also the only things looking bad are the froggies and flower pot corals.

 

[jnelson]

In this case, yeah, I think you should just leave things be.

If anything else dies, be sure to remove it ASAP and then resume the water changes to dilute/remove any ammonia or nitrites.

 

[frnkynlop]

Guys,

Thanks for the replies. Just have a few dumb question, how come the froggies and the pot coral the only ones suffering and also do you guys think my levels are in check I know the trates and the phosphate are high, but does everything else look ok?

 

[pauliwalnuts]

Flower pots are usually hard to keep. Are you watching your fish ? They may be nipping on them if the coral is showing signs of stress (File Fish being a good contender). IMO, you might have shocked the biological filtration with all the water changes. I would slow it down to once a week and try to concentrate on what is causing the nitrates and phosphates, then remedy the cause. Maybe look into a refugium with some Chaetomorpha for the nitrates, and a phosphate reactor to lower the PO4.