Need some help and identify some things.

[Kyle99]

Hey guys so ive been having some bad luck with the tank lately. Nitrates skyrocketed, phosphates are who knows what (i dont have a test reagent for my hanna), and the tank is looking like poop. 

 

Ok so ive had these small tube things show up along with these werid spores. (The first picture shows both) 

 

Second, after getting home from work today i knoticed that my duncans are pooping? I think? There's brown balls coming from their mouths. Plus they havnt been opening up much more than that. They have forsure shrank sense ive gotten them. I mover them lower to the tank but more under the light about a week ago to see if they have improved. Which they did but they still close up as soon as the light starts dimming down. (Picture #2)

 

Third, i think its a candy coral but im not sure, there are these weird white hairs at the verry bottom of them when they are glues. Is this normal or something worry about? (Picture #3)

 

Fourth, my pulsating zynas(still havnt figured how to spell that) arnt doing to well. But all my others ,except the duncans, are doing amazing. Pallys, mushurms, the candy coral, and daisys they where large when i got them but one branch of the 3 started to shrivel up. So i moved them to the middle of the tank. That branch recovered. Then the middle one shriveled up. Then recoved so i moved then back to their original placement and now they both shriveled up. The therid one has had no issues. (Picture #4 and #5) 

 

Will have water tests up here in a little bit after they are completed. 

[Kyle99]

Red sea test kit 

Alk-8.5 dkh (waterchange last sunday)

Ph-7.6 @ start of the dimming the lights down) 

Nitrite - 0.0 - .05 ppm

Nitrate - 50 on the test card 

Ammonia - 0.0 ppm 

[RayWhisperer]

First pic has spirorbid worms, a pineapple sponge, and hydroids.  Spire are the spiral fan worms, pineapple is the q tip looking thing (also another common name for them q tip sponge), hydroids are the cleanish tubes. You can see the tentacles in the top right of the pic. Hydroids are the only thing moderately bad. 

 

Yes, crap.

 

dunno. Maybe some type of algae, maybe some biofilm. Hard to say what, really. 

 

So, what are you wondering? How to spell it? Xenia. 

 

My question to you is. If the water quality has gotten so bad, why haven’t you done anything about it? Why are you waiting on other test readings when you know others are way out of whack? Time for several very large volume water changes.

[Kyle99]

2 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

 

So, what are you wondering? How to spell it? Xenia.

What could be causeing it? 

 

3 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

My question to you is. If the water quality has gotten so bad, why haven’t you done anything about it? Why are you waiting on other test readings when you know others are way out of whack? Time for several very large volume water changes.

Ive done larger water changes this past sunday (5g on a 20 gal long). Ive read somewhere that doing too many changes in to short of time was bad so i was gonna wait till this sunday to do anther 5g change but if thats just a myth that i just read somewhere then im getting these numbers down. Btw im feeding half a cube of brine shrimp every other day. Only the coral the 2 clowns and 2 hermets and a few snails. 

[RayWhisperer]

Sure, changing large volumes of water can be detrimental in certain instances. However, it’s far less detrimental than polluted water. I’d suggest 7 to 10 gallons twice a week until you get things under control. Feeding brine is useless. Feed it as a treat once a week, at most. Feed with a quality pellet, and flake, instead. Turn off your filter and feed sparingly. When done, turn the filter back on. Also, since were talking about the filter, clean that weekly, too.

 

you want to know what’s wrong with your Xenia? I’d say it’s probably your water. TBH, none of the stalks look that healthy. Xenia doesn’t feed like many corals. All it’s nutrients are derived from photosynthesis, and the water.

[Kyle99]

23 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

Sure, changing large volumes of water can be detrimental in certain instances. However, it’s far less detrimental than polluted water. I’d suggest 7 to 10 gallons twice a week until you get things under control. Feeding brine is useless. Feed it as a treat once a week, at most. Feed with a quality pellet, and flake, instead. Turn off your filter and feed sparingly. When done, turn the filter back on. Also, since were talking about the filter, clean that weekly, too.

 

you want to know what’s wrong with your Xenia? I’d say it’s probably your water. TBH, none of the stalks look that healthy. Xenia doesn’t feed like many corals. All it’s nutrients are derived from photosynthesis, and the water.

Thanks for the help! And i only have 5g buckets at the moment so would 4 5 gal changes a week work? And i have some omega pellets that i feed everynow and then but only as the fish ate making shure all where eaten. I was always worried about not getting enough to feed the hermets then end up with missing snails so i didnt feed that much. 

[RayWhisperer]

Do 10 gallons twice a week. That’ll get you about 75% water change over a weeks time. That will knock the nitrates, and probable phosphate down to a manageable level within 2 weeks. If it jumps back up, time to start figuring out where it’s coming from. Obviously it’s cause was overfeeding, but once it’s there, it can be difficult to get rid of. So, as a precaution, I’d suggest vacuuming the sandbed in 1/3s with each water change. Sandbed soften trap detritus, and absorb nitrates and phosphates in extreme cases. Vacuuming is a good practice to get in.

[Clown79]

The nitrates are very high and most likely the cause but also fluctuations in alk as well.

 

 

Brine is not very nutritious but will add waste to the tank. Feeding mysis once a week would be far better.

 

I prefer feeding pellets daily, I find more waste with flake food. 

Feed only enough that lasts for a minute. 

 

 

Cause of nitrates being high can be the brine but possibly other factors as well like maintenance issues:

 

-Not maintaining filter media properly causing  detritus buildup.

 

- not maintaining filters or back chambers

- not vacuuming the sand and Turkey basting rocks weekly with waterchanges

 

- bad water source

 

 

Doing large or frequent waterchanges is only dangerous if you don't match up parameters.

 

otherwise doing a 50% waterchange in 1 day won't do any harm but will reduce your nitrates to 25ppm. 

 

 

Reducing the nitrates is important but finding the cause is equally important because if the cause isn't rectified, as you reduce the nitrates with waterchanges, they will easily creep back up. 

 

 

I would go through everything you do to maintenance wise and see if there is area for improvement.

[Kyle99]

On 11/24/2018 at 10:30 AM, Clown79 said:

The nitrates are very high and most likely the cause but also fluctuations in alk as well.

 

 

Brine is not very nutritious but will add waste to the tank. Feeding mysis once a week would be far better.

 

I prefer feeding pellets daily, I find more waste with flake food. 

Feed only enough that lasts for a minute. 

 

 

Cause of nitrates being high can be the brine but possibly other factors as well like maintenance issues:

 

-Not maintaining filter media properly causing  detritus buildup.

 

- not maintaining filters or back chambers

- not vacuuming the sand and Turkey basting rocks weekly with waterchanges

 

- bad water source

 

 

Doing large or frequent waterchanges is only dangerous if you don't match up parameters.

 

otherwise doing a 50% waterchange in 1 day won't do any harm but will reduce your nitrates to 25ppm. 

 

 

Reducing the nitrates is important but finding the cause is equally important because if the cause isn't rectified, as you reduce the nitrates with waterchanges, they will easily creep back up. 

 

 

I would go through everything you do to maintenance wise and see if there is area for improvement.

This is my maintence process. 

1 mix rodi water with red sea salt for a min of 2 hrs 

While mixing i will shut the filter off. Then replace the carbing in a mesh bag i have. Then when i siphen the water out i lightly vacume the bad spots of the gravel that ik are the buildup spaces which hapens to be behind the rocks and on ether side of the tank. Then ill sipen everything out of the filter weekly and every two weeks  i will take it off and clean it out well. 

 

Now i will say some times im not as consistant as id like to but that is my prosess that i try to stick to 

 

Also i stand corrected it is missis shrimp. 

 

After what ray said ive been feeding omega one pellets but only a few at a time till they eat all of them then add a few more.