Brand new old aquapod 24g, first saltwater tank, many questions.

[Nknoll]

Not sure if I can order those lights either. The delivery time says discontinued.

 

I sent them an email asking about if the replacement hood will fit my tank or if I can order those bulbs. No answer yet.

[Tamberav]

10 minutes ago, Nknoll said:

Thanks so much for the reply. The bulbs have a square pin formation or German format. I've found one spot that has bulbs with these pins but I'm not entirely sure if they will work in my hood.

 

http://www.jbjnanocubes.com/contents/en-us/d557_55_Watt_Power_Compact_Bulbs.html

 

Why did you end up replacing the pump and filter media? We're they bad or just not good enough?

So they have 4 pins and not 2? The ones I linked say it is for the Aquapod and have the same model # it looks like.

 

I replaced it because the ceramic rings is just not needed and sponges/biomedia are bad. 

[Nknoll]

1 hour ago, Tamberav said:

So they have 4 pins and not 2? The ones I linked say it is for the Aquapod and have the same model # it looks like.

 

I replaced it because the ceramic rings is just not needed and sponges/biomedia are bad. 

Yeah they have 4 pins in a square formation, not in a line. My original post shows the model number of the lights.

 

Why is it that the sponges and biomedia balls are bad? 

[Tamberav]

35 minutes ago, Nknoll said:

Yeah they have 4 pins in a square formation, not in a line. My original post shows the model number of the lights.

 

Why is it that the sponges and biomedia balls are bad? 

You can't clean them properly. Floss is disposible.

 

The ones I linked look to be a square formation and say 2020 and 2021 which looks to be what yours say?

[Nknoll]

They look like they have two pins to me...

 

They have the same product number but this product was discontinued long ago. I think those are different lights. Unless lights with 2 pins work in sockets for 4 pins?

[Nknoll]

If I wanted to replace the sponges with filter floss in the back chamber, can I do that immediately or do I have to wait for bacteria to establish?

 

Also what should I replace the bio balls with?

 

Will those types of filter media work in a media reactor, like the one I plan on ordering?

[Tamberav]

7 hours ago, Nknoll said:

They look like they have two pins to me...

 

They have the same product number but this product was discontinued long ago. I think those are different lights. Unless lights with 2 pins work in sockets for 4 pins?

I think it may be that the other two pins are just directly below the top two to they are not visible in the pic?

 

7 hours ago, Nknoll said:

If I wanted to replace the sponges with filter floss in the back chamber, can I do that immediately or do I have to wait for bacteria to establish?

 

Also what should I replace the bio balls with?

 

Will those types of filter media work in a media reactor, like the one I plan on ordering?

Replace them with nothing 🙂 Use exactly what you need, and nothing else. Some people use marine pure blocks but I always have plenty of live rock so never tried em. 

 

I don't use a reactor, it strips the water too much for me and starves corals. It's just another thing to clean. I just toss a bag of BRS Rox carbon with a little purigen on the media rack. 

[Naekuh]

Seachem matrix is also good biologic medium. 

Marine pure blocks are expensive as hell... a 1L bottle of matrix will run you about 14 dollars. 

 

I just give it a good shaking every now and then to make the lose detritus fall in my water change bucket, and then plop it back in the sump.  

[Pantera61]

I just replaced the LED lighting on my JBJ 28 nano with a kessil a80.  My fish and corals love it.  The light and bracket will run you about $200 but are much better than my brand new LED's 

 

[Nknoll]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

 

The last week has been pretty rough. I put the clean up crew in to clean up the suspected algae and watched them all die over the course of the next couple days.

 

I'm not sure what happened, all of my water parameters were ok before putting them in and I took more than an hour acclimating the clean up crew. The lfs guy seems to believe the die off is due to excessive stress put on the critters in the shipping and acclimating process.

 

Since then, my amonia has been through the roof and the water became very cloudy. I got all of the dead clean up crew out of the tank and scrubbed the live rock of the excessive algae. Also performed one 40% water change and one 20% water change (10gallons and 5). The water is much more clear but amonia levels are still very high. The pH nitrite and nitrate levels all seem to be fine.

 

I've removed the lid and haven't turned any lights on it for the past couple days. Also removed the sponges, ceramic rings and black bio balls. Replaced them with carbon and seachem matrix.

 

I may have over reacted to the die off of my clean up crew and spike in ammonia  but I ordered a nyos torq media reactor, aquamaxx hob 1.5 protein skimmer and ai prime hd LED light, which should all arrive tomorrow.

 

I've got a 5 gallon sump area under my tank that I plan on putting the media reactor in and I'm really hoping it helps with the elevated ammonia levels.

 

Does anybody recommend any actions to take? I've wondered if the bacteria I'm adding into my tank is not good? That wouldn't explain the cloudy water, which I'm sure was due to excessive bacteria. I have literally not put any food into this tank and thought I bought cured live rock so I understand cycling a new tank can take a bit but it's been more than 6 weeks now... Very high ammonia after adding clean up crew when the ammonia level had tested good for a couple of days. 

 

[Clown79]

24 minutes ago, Nknoll said:

Thank you everyone for your replies.

 

The last week has been pretty rough. I put the clean up crew in to clean up the suspected algae and watched them all die over the course of the next couple days.

 

I'm not sure what happened, all of my water parameters were ok before putting them in and I took more than an hour acclimating the clean up crew. The lfs guy seems to believe the die off is due to excessive stress put on the critters in the shipping and acclimating process.

 

Since then, my amonia has been through the roof and the water became very cloudy. I got all of the dead clean up crew out of the tank and scrubbed the live rock of the excessive algae. Also performed one 40% water change and one 20% water change (10gallons and 5). The water is much more clear but amonia levels are still very high. The pH nitrite and nitrate levels all seem to be fine.

 

I've removed the lid and haven't turned any lights on it for the past couple days. Also removed the sponges, ceramic rings and black bio balls. Replaced them with carbon and seachem matrix.

 

I may have over reacted to the die off of my clean up crew and spike in ammonia  but I ordered a nyos torq media reactor, aquamaxx hob 1.5 protein skimmer and ai prime hd LED light, which should all arrive tomorrow.

 

I've got a 5 gallon sump area under my tank that I plan on putting the media reactor in and I'm really hoping it helps with the elevated ammonia levels.

 

Does anybody recommend any actions to take? I've wondered if the bacteria I'm adding into my tank is not good? That wouldn't explain the cloudy water, which I'm sure was due to excessive bacteria. I have literally not put any food into this tank and thought I bought cured live rock so I understand cycling a new tank can take a bit but it's been more than 6 weeks now... Very high ammonia after adding clean up crew when the ammonia level had tested good for a couple of days. 

 

If the tank is new and just finished cycling, a bunch of snails dying is the cause of the ammonia spike. 

 

 

[Tamberav]

What are you putting in the reactor?

 

It sounds like the rock wasn't fully cured and some dying snails caused a spike in ammonia which probably lead to more dying snails. 

 

If all the dying snails were removed, a cycled tank should stabilize quickly. 

 

 

oh... if the snails were SHIPPED, you DO NOT drip them. You toss them right in, opening the bag causes pH to rise which makes ammonia in the bag toxic and can/will kill them.

 

https://www.reefcleaners.org/acclimation

 

 

I never drip shipped live stock except very delicate things like starfish, shrimp, ect. I never drip shipped corals, snails, or fish... nono!

[Nknoll]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

What are you putting in the reactor?

 

It sounds like the rock wasn't fully cured and some dying snails caused a spike in ammonia which probably lead to more dying snails. 

 

If all the dying snails were removed, a cycled tank should stabilize quickly. 

 

 

oh... if the snails were SHIPPED, you DO NOT drip them. You toss them right in, opening the bag causes pH to rise which makes ammonia in the bag toxic and can/will kill them.

 

https://www.reefcleaners.org/acclimation

 

 

I never drip shipped live stock except very delicate things like starfish, shrimp, ect. I never drip shipped corals, snails, or fish... nono!

I did drip acclimate them. This is what I was told to do though. 

 

I read the article and I don't really understand. Is there a more in depth article that explains the pH and ammonia thing?

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, Nknoll said:

I did drip acclimate them. This is what I was told to do though. 

 

I read the article and I don't really understand. Is there a more in depth article that explains the pH and ammonia thing?

pH drops in sealed bags (no fresh air circulating, oxygen consumed, CO2 released), once you open it, new air + dripping your high pH from your tank water = makes ammonia more toxic.

 

Ammonia is much less toxic at lower pH.

 

Snails are dirty shippers...especially if they were not shipped overnight. Hopefully the place you ordered from replaces them for you. 

 

If you drip (and you probably need to to get a guarantee if the seller told you to drip), I would put a few drops of Prime in the water to detoxify it. 

 

I also tend to put a cap of prime in the DT whenever I am doing a drastic change just to cover my ass, can't hurt. A large snail order or say a deep cleaning = toss some prime in.

 

It also could of been a bad batch of snails, especially if some died/started to die in the bag and fouled the others. It happens sometimes.

 

[Nknoll]

I don't think I'll be buying any clean up crews online anymore. I found a lfs about an hour away that'd give me the same cuc for about a third of the price.

 

I'm still having very high ammonia while the other levels look perfect. 8.0 pH, 0 ppm nitrite and 0ppm nitrate, 8.0+ on the ammonia.

 

The last cuc member died about 6 days ago. Since then I cleaned out the tank and did a 20% water change and 40% water change.

 

Why is it still so high? I've literally had a tank using power for 7 weeks now and not a single fish or a single feeding. Quadruple checked for any dead cuc, 99% sure I got them all out. Getting very frustrated here.

[Nknoll]

Ammonia continues to be high after 2 additional 20% water changes in the past two days.

 

Really don't know what's going on. I feel like the live rock or live sand I bought is actually rotting/ decaying, adding more to the ammonia than it has beneficial bacteria to harbor.

 

I'm thinking it may be time to call the experiment quits for now. If I try again, I'll probably use dry sand and rock and add my own bacteria.

[j.falk]

Rotting live sand...probably not.  Live rock...more likely (especially if it is uncured live rock).  Uncured means it didn't go through the die off stage before it was sold to you.  This will pollute your tank and take several weeks and several water changes to correct.

 

My advice:  Take the rock out and scrub it down with a new toothbrush...rinse it really well and put it back in the tank.  Then walk away and leave the tank alone for a week or more (do keep up on water top offs) then come back and retest everything.  

 

On a side note:  Smell the water, does it stink like something is rotten in the water?  If so, more water changes are definitely needed...if not, leave it be.  

 

Side note 2:  It shouldn't take you more than 15 - 20 minutes to add a clean up crew to your tank.  Don't drip acclimate.  Float them for 15 - 20 mins to get the temperature adjusted.  Then open the bag, pick the snails up with your hand and drop them in the tank.  Discard the shipping water...never add shipping water to your tank.

[Tamberav]

The rock doesn't look very porous to me would be my only complaint about the rock. I would just ride out the cycle since apparently it finally got kick started. No real reason to tear the tank down.

 

 

.