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long time reader first time poster, with some questions


andrewts

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Hello NR world. I'm pretty new to the world of saltwater, and I know I started with a lot of "expert" choices. (Some of my confidence here comes from my success with my 55g planted tank {including crabs, frogs, rams, etc.}, my dwarf African cichlid tank {Tanganyikan, which has an SG of about 1.10 in a 29g biocube}. However, overall I've been relatively successful. A little bit earlier today, I had an ammonia spike which is still going on. I know my tank has cycled completely, by testing the filtration capacity instead of just watching the readings drop. I'd really like to figure out how to get past this hurdle without losing my beloved inhabitants.

 

So I've got a Fluval Spec V with:

 

-InTank media basket running filter floss, nitrate removing pad, phosphate removing pad, poly-filter, chemi-pure elite phosphate, and fluval bio nodes.

-Fluval CP3 HOB with all the medias removed and replaced with chaeto in the main section, refugium light on the macro, and nodes in the trickle chamber.

-stock pump on the filter chamber

-Hydor Pico 70 as the circulator pump

-Hydor 50 as the heater

-Kessil 150 sky blue as the day light, and stock light for moon light

 

Inhabitants include:

Florida fighting conch

pom pom crab who arrived without nems

Kenya tree

devil's hand leather

zoas

grogorian

silver xenia

white xenia

mandarin dragonet

dwarf pink feather duster

orange tree sponge

two turbo snails

a few nassarius snails

a shaving brush and some dragon's breath

 

Everything has been pretty stable except for my pH dropping from the standard 8.2-8.3. So, today I decided to pick up some much longed for items from the LFS. A peppermint shrimp, a GSP frag, a mushroom polyp (I believe Rhodactis sp?), and pocillopora frag. I also took out four red legged hermit crabs while I was acclimating my new arrivals. I am hoping to keep a relatively peaceful tank, but needed to borrow some while I get my clean up crew fully situated (looking forward to a great shipment from reefcleaners.org), and that's why I'm not sure exactly how many nassarius snails I have. My roommates were very helpful here. They have a 45g reef tank (a little over a year old) and a 180g reef tank (about 5-6 months old). My tank is about 4 months old (realized I forgot to add that in). After removing the hermits and adding the new guys, I realized everyone looked pretty unhappy, and my silver xenia was missing a bunch of its tentacles! Did some tests, and found

 

SG-1.0235 (Pinpoint salinity monitor)

pH-7.99 (Hanna pH checker)

Nitrite, nitrate, phosphate- 0 (API test)

Ammonia- (with API test) turned blue before showing 5 ppm; Tetra easy strips showed 3.0

 

I normally use Nutri-Sea water for water changes & RO/DI for top off, but I have once used my roommates storage tank of RO/DI salt-mix with buffers for a WC and recently I've had to get the Petco saltwater for WCs (just the last two weeks). I was hoping to add some tigger pods tonight, I have added mostly Tisbe pods in the past.

 

Any input would be appreciated, minus saying to scrap the tank please... I'd really like to get through this, and everyone here has already helped me without even realizing it.

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jedimasterben

Stop testing pH is the first order of business.

 

 

Second, how much food have you been putting in? The food you put in is what makes your 'bioload'. You can literally fill your tank with animals and have the same bioload if you feed the same. If your tank is showing ammonia, then you had a lot of food put in that the biological filter has not been able to process.

 

 

The tank probably has around 3.5g water in it. Just do a 100% change, that will fix the issue for now until you can identify what happened.

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Thank you very much!!

The only fish in there is the mandarin, and I haven't noticed anyone else dead. I really hope it stays that way. I since have done a 50% WC. I didn't want to leave anyone out of water during the change. Retesting gave close to the same results, minus the test taking the five minutes to be dark green instead of immediately changing colors. I feed about a quarter of a cube of sprulina enriched frozen brine shrimp soaked in garlic guard by sachem, and a cap full of phytoplankton just about every other day, which hasn't changed since establishing the tank. I thought testing for pH was important? I understand that alkalinity controls it, but I shouldn't test for it pH all?

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jedimasterben

No, pH only matters when you're using things like calcium reactors or dosing kalkwasser to prevent it from going too high or low. It should not be something that you regularly test for as most people assume that if it is different that it is a bad thing, but pH changes throughout the day.

 

Also, corals can be left out of water for some time, the 10-15 minutes (at the most) that it would take to do a 100% change is nothing to them :)

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Thank you all very much.. I did the major water change, and searched through the rockwork. I got rid of one more hermit, and found a sexy shrimp! The peppermint had died under the majority of the rock. None of the corals look particularly happy. @FlowerMama- Thank you, and I put the mandy in a temporary QT. I'm really hoping to train him. He was ordered online, so there's not really an easy way to do a return. @Jedimasterben- Thank you! I was always afraid if they got air during cleaning under a rock I would hurt any of the corals...

 

Still wish I knew how to better prevent this.. I will definitely be much more sparing with the food, I guess I'm hoping having some scavengers when the rest of the CUC arrive will help, but I'd imagine the bioload still wouldn't change, right? My roommates and a couple LFSs said that having SG at 1.025-1.026 is ideal for coral only but closer to 1.022 lowers the chance for illness in other inverts and fish without harming the corals... is there any truth to that?

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jedimasterben

Corals need salinity in the 35-38ppt range to maintain their osmotic pressure. Keeping it lower won't be good for them.

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