what happened

[b-ridge]

I did a water change consisting of regular water. Because I used tap water I put in the recommended dose of amoquel plus and I put in the recommended dose of red sea no3po4 remover. I let the water sit for 24 hours in 2 55 gallon drums. 1 I use for saltwater mixing the other for rodi water/top off water. I did water change and woke up and found my hammer and torch completely white and a couple of my other corals with white stringy things just flowing with the water. My clam was completely wide open. I checked my levels and my salinity was low. It went down from 1.024 to 1.006. My ammonia was high but my nitrates dropped to the lowest I have ever had them. I have a 240 gallon tank with a 125 gallon sump and a 75 gallon fuge. I did a 75 gallon water change. My question is why did my nitrates go so high? I believe the corals died because of the drop in salinity and temperature so quick. Because of the coral dying is that what caused my nitrates to spike? I went and got salt and placed the recommended amount of amoquel in my tank to reduce the ammonia. My salt is now 1.023 and I will check the ammonia level tomorrow after letting it take affect overnight. When my membrane and cartridges arrive hopefully by friday I will begin to make rodi water and do a water change. after the water change I am going to begin dosing prodibio bio optim and bio digest. Any feedback or suggestions would be highly recommended please and thank you

 

[lnevo]

First off stuff died which causes an increase in ammonia which then gets converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. Hold off on the prodibio right now. I use it myself, but its not a band aid for issues. To start you should do some large water changes with proper RO water. You didnt say what your nitrates were at and how did your salinity get out of whack? Get that working properly before you start adding more things to go wrong

 

[b-ridge]

Nitrite is fine. Nitrate was about 60 ppm. They went down to 20ppm after water change. I plan on doing a large water change of at least 55 gallons Saturday after I get my RODI back on track. I will wait 3 days and do another 55 gallon water change. Salinity got so low cause it was just regular water being changed out. Was moving so quick I forgot to add salt. Dumb silly mistake as I have been doing this almost 3 years now. So when do you suggest I start the prodibio? If I had this reef angel hooked up this would of never happened. Lol

 

[lnevo]

A reef angel would not solve your problem here...you did a water change with freshwater...you have bigger problems than your controller... I suggest you start prodibio once you get salinity stabilized, nitrates back to where they normally are and have a few weeks to observe everything not dying off and growing again.

 

[b-ridge]

I was just joking lnevo. If my controller was hooked up it would of alerted me that my sallinity was low with the salinity probe though correct? Salinity is back where it should be and normally is. I am still gonna do another water change of 50-75 gallons on friday/saturday. This time not forgetting to add the salt. Ammonia is still a little to high for my taste but the fish are doing quite well for some reason or other. nitrite is still at 0. Nitrate is now between 20-30

 

[lnevo]

You need to just get it up and running...there's a wizard to configure everything you need. I will help you remotely....you don't need me to drive 10 hours to plug your cords into the relay box. Let's get it going already stop making excuses lol

You should not have ammonia in your system, but the amquel is probably messing up your test kits.

 

[b-ridge]

your right lnevo. On your next day off I am gonna call you and we will be on the phone all day unless you prefer to FaceTime or Skype. Lol. Its not 10 hours its 2 hours each way for a total of 4-5 hours. I was thinking the same thing as far as the amoquel but the corals died for some reason or other most likely cause of the drop in salinity and temperature so quick so with the die off I expected some ammonia. how long you think until my test kit should read properly? Probably after next water change?

 

[lnevo]

You said you were 3 hours from the city, i'm an hour away from there, then with the wife and kids needing to stop for bathroom breaks...you get the idea...its easily an a full day event.

Remotely we can spend more time focusing on whatever issues. I'm fine with Facetime...but get started...lets see where you get stuck first.

Your testing should be better once you do the next waterchange,,

 

[b-ridge]

Trust me completely understandable as far as the wife and the kids. That's why when I drive back home to North Carolina I drive at night. Everyone is sleep and don't have to stop.

Ok. I'm gonna get started your next day off. At least then I can show you what I'm working with and the dilemma/problems that may arise. Much easier to see something then to be told what it is. So,etching tells me I am gonna have to order another plug in box and expansion since my sump is in the basement but my tank is on the first floor. Domt know if the jebao cables will be long enough to reach as well as my lights eventhough they aren't controllable yet. Only controllable with the controller that came with it.
Yes I think the testing should be better also after water change this week. Keeping my fingers crossed