HELP!! Water change didn't drop ammonia

[bogamil]

My tank has been degrading..
I found ammonia spiked to 1.0 and nitrates near 20ppm
So I did a 33% water change last night.

Today I found the ammonia near the same and nitrates slightly lower than yesterday.

My tank is about 4 months old, I've had about 6 deaths this past week
I have a skimmer and live rock, several crabs and snails, star polyps, 3 mushrooms, and 1 goby.

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to reefs.org. You're going to have to change more than a third of the water with ammonia that high (nitrate reading really isn't that bad). Try 50%, and DON'T vacuum substrate or wipe down any inside surfaces when you do this. If in doubt, check your make up water before you mix the salts, then after, before you change the tank water (just to be sure).

 

[Anonymous]

Also, make sure there is no ammonia and nitrate in the water you use for the water change.

 

[Anonymous]

Heh.. uh, yeah, in case you didn't understand this...

If in doubt, check your make up water before you mix the salts, then after, before you change the tank water (just to be sure).

Then I did mean this..

Also, make sure there is no ammonia and nitrate in the water you use for the water change.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, welcome to RDO...

Can you give some more detail please? - Tank specs / inhabitants / history (what all died?)...

Thanks!

Norm

 

[bogamil]

i have a 30 gal, started beginning of Aug. With a Sea Clone PS -- doesn't seem to do anything...

Besides what I have in there now (mentioned above), I had a clown, bengaii, flame scallop, linkia starfish, & yellow tang.

The fish died really quickly after I saw symptoms -- looked very much like brooklynella.

I use tap water with reefsafe and instant ocean.

 

[Anonymous]

tap water, have you tested freshly mixed water to see how bad it is?

Also, 33 % is hardly a large change, when things are that bad, dont bother with small changes, go for 50 %, personally I drain down to the sand if I'm really worried about something dieing.

 

[Anonymous]

>... a Sea Clone PS -- doesn't seem to do anything...

That is in par with most people's expection. You need something better if you want to have something that will do something other than wasting your electricity.

Also, as MegaDeTH said, how good is your tap water? Very feel people can get away with tap water unless we are very lucky.

 

[hsosa]

Use RO water. the tap water is killing your system. and do another water change. better skimmer. as well

 

[Anonymous]

A 30 gallon with a suck... I mean seaclone skimmer huh?

:?

Hmmm... Sounds familiar... - I had the same type of setup..

I might sound a little brash here so please don't take me the wrong way.. I'm tired right now and mad.. - Not at you, but the LFS you bought your inhabitants from.

Ok....

However you have to do it, 1st get clean water to make your salt mix with. (The "reefsafe" additive I have no clues about but you shouldn't need it with clean water) - And by "clean" I mean either RO/DI or Kold-steril water. Mix it and let it settle before doing as close to a 100% change as you can. (There's almost always some settling with salt mixes..)

Then get rid of the Suckclone.. Look into a Remora hang-on unless you decide you can go with a sump-based unit of some sort (I now have a Euroreef ES5-2 in my sump - talk about a 180 in performance!) Anyway, do not go with the Rio powerhead on that Remora if that's what you decide to go with...

Another tip: If your LFS (or a local reef club member) can't supply you with RO or Kold-steril water (or even already mixed saltwater for that matter) then check with your local water treatment facility. They usually have to have RO/DI water on hand for their daily tests and typically make more than they need. (I had to rely on my local facility for nearly 2 months till I could save up for my own RO/DI!)


Don't try to go with another tang in that 30 after you get back up in good shape. They get too big and really do need more room than that. And the same goes on that linkia star..

In that line of thought, what kind of goby do you have?? (Please, please, please don't say mandarin...)

Also, going back to getting help from a local reef club member.... - If you need help finding a local club just say the word. :wink:

And like I said, sorry if I sound abrasive, it's just been a long day......

 

[mrrrkva]

Not to disagree with the folks on the board, but when u do the water changes make sure the water is the same temp and PH. Also what is the water parameters of your TAP water. Also I would agree that RODI water is necessary especially if your tap water is out of wack. If you doing anything more than a 20% water change make sure you doing a few things. PREMIX saltwater in another bucket, Do 20% in morning and wait and do another 20% at night. The shock of larger changes than that can put everything in shock. Dont overload your tanks with fish. That tang alone to a relatively new system can overload your bioload. Really you shouldnt have a tang in any less than a 90 gallon. Also, flame scallops dont last that long in captivity. How much liverock do you have? What other types of filtration are u using. And the seaclone is a terrible skimmer. I would go with the remora

 

[Anonymous]

>... Not to disagree with the folks on the board, but when u do the water changes make sure the water is the same temp and PH.

I did not remembe anybody has ever suggesting purposely do it otherwise.

 

[mrrrkva]

just reread my post and it did sound bad, got caught doing something else midstream.

I meant to diagree about doing a 50% water change at one shot. I think this is drastic and will stress out the already stressed out fish.

And when you do a change especially if it is large, to make sure temp and PH are the same

 

[Anonymous]

I ONLY do more than 50 % water changes, and ONLY in one shot, I do match ph/sg/temp, I ususally shoot for 80-90 % changes, right down to the sand, and I only do them if something doesnt look right, ie sick coral, I have not found this to be detrimental to the animals at all.

Doing less or repeated 20 % water changes just doesnt work very well, see the following for the formulas that explain why it's extreemly wasteful & no where nearly as effective in controling a bad situation.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/tb_wctext.html
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_ ... cdata.html

 

[bogamil]

Hey, it is a psychadelic mandarin and its the oldest fish i've had... he is the most active of all my creatures...

thanks for all the help... i really hate that protein skimmer.

My tap shows .25 ammonia with my test kit... could be test kit error as well. where else can i get RO water?

any thoughts what could have caused this? it spiked all the sudden -- i figured that 50% would have at least reduced the readings. also, i read that maybe my tank didn't initially cycle completely and this is the "real" cycle. some other guy in a diff forum had the same problem as me... and the advice was to let it run its course...

???

 

[hsosa]

You can get water at a water store if you live a large city. Or you can buy a system here. This is the cheapest RODI ive found much better than namebrand stuff. ebay has systems for $75 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :EOAB:US:6
make sure you get the TDS meter. $100 you can make your own water. This is a basis for your sytsem you dont want to have more problems with water quality. Plus you will save your money. This hobby is expensive.
My three big fish.

 

[hsosa]

I mean 4. I forgot the giant clown. he s 10yrs old. still pimping.

 

[Mouse]

Polyfilter my freind

 

[Ben1]

You really did have bad fish selection. A tang is not going to work in a 30 gallon. A Mandarin needs a very established tank with lot of live rock and sand where the pods he will eat can breed. They do best in large systems 100 gallons and up with a low number of pod pickers.

Also a flame scallop can't live with out direct feeding of a phytoplankton like DT's. It probably died and your system was already overloaded . The bacteria must not have been established enough to handle the ammonia let off during the deaths.

I would be sure to take it slow. What type of test kit are you using anyway. Make sure it is a top quality kit like Lamotte or Salifert. I would also recommend a large water change at 50% or more with matched ph/temp and not add any additional live stock for many weeks. I would bring the mandarin back to the LFS while you can and get SC for a new fish once your issues have been solved.

 

[Anonymous]

He did say it's an older fish, so he's doing something right for the mandarin, if I understand the post, the mandarin was 4 years old?