Nitrite spike and other problems

[antigonus]

I have had my tank running for around seven months, and feel that despite a few difficulties everything has been going fairly well.  

 

In the past week though, I have been having some problems, first I noticed that my Clove Polyps were starting to look rather closed up, Nitrates were higher than usual so I did another water change. I then realized that my Turbo snail had died I had when I saw other snails and a hermit crab converging on it. I then removed the corpse.  I used what salt mix I had left on a water change so I unfortunately can't do another one until I get more tomorrow. 

 

My parameters are as follows: Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0.5 Nitrate: 0.5, Ph: 8.0, Dkh: 9.5, Salinity: 1.024

Anyone have ideas on what might be going on? 

I just have a few questions

1. Could the Turbo snail dying have caused this? Or was its death the result of this Nitrite spike? 

2. How sensitive usually are Clove Polyps? Mine went from looking good to seemingly dead in just a few days. 

[mcarroll]

Nitrates were not high if you only ended up with 0.5 ppm after a water change.

 

Most likely the problem is the opposite – nutrient levels are too low.

 

Nitrates you already know are too low – 5-10 ppm is a good target range, though the absolute number isn't so importatnt.

 

Phosphates is what you need to know, so get that tested at the LFS or pick up a test kit for it.

 

In the mean time, remove any extra filtration you have running – no media, no algae filters, etc.   You should be left with just live rock and your protein skimmer, if you run one.   Nothing else.

 

That should help a little, but let us know about the test result for PO4.  🙂 

[antigonus]

1 minute ago, mcarroll said:

Nitrates were not high if you only ended up with 0.5 ppm after a water change.

 

Most likely the problem is the opposite – nutrient levels are too low.

 

Nitrates you already know are too low - 5-10 ppm is a good target range, though the absolute number isn't so importatnt.

 

Phosphates is what you need to know, so get that tested at the LFS or pick up a test kit for it.

 

In the mean time, remove any extra filtration you have running – no media, no algae filters, etc.   You should be left with just live rock and your protein skimmer, if you run one.   Nothing else.

 

That should help a little, but let us know about the test result for PO4.  🙂 

Fair enough, I get that some corals need higher nutrient levels, do you know why the Nitrite spike could have happened though? 

[mcarroll]

I'm not sure that .5 ppm nitrite is considered a spike in saltwater due to the pH.  In Marine Aquarium Handbook, Moe says that fish seem to tolerate up to 15 ppm for a limited time, for example.  It's much more toxic in freshwater.

 

That said, if the reading is true, then it would indicate your tank's ecosystem still isn't quite grown in and is slightly out of balance.  I don't know your tank's story and what has happened so far along the way, but for a tank that's only several months old it certainly could be considered par for the course.

 

If the turbo was a big one, that's a pretty good ammonia spike for what little action your ecosystem has seen so far.....so IMO this is normal, no need for concern or worry. 

 

Keep taking baby steps and take lots of time in between steps.

[antigonus]

Yeah it was pretty big, so far the only thing that died for sure in the tank before this was an emerald crab and a cerith snail. 

 

I'm just going wait and see, and not get any more corals until my tank matures a bit I think. 

[mcarroll]

Oddly enough corals can be great early-inhabitants for tanks as they can utilize many forms of dissolved nutrients that would otherwise have to be dealt with by us or that might go to algae.

 

But they do require nutrients in the water as there will be very little for them to eat in a brand new tank.

 

So once you feel comfortable again AND the tank has some nutrients (nitrates AND phosphates) showing, I would give coral another try.

 

BTW if snails were dying, chances are that's from starvation.  That's prolly because algae were starving just as much as your corals were.

 

Was there any significant amount of green hairy type algae growing over the last few weeks?

 

[antigonus]

There hasn't been much green hair algae for a while, I do see a fair amount of bubble algae on the rocks though. 

[mcarroll]

Bubble is one that tends to thrive when nutrient levels are low...it's got a pretty good rootlet system to assist getting surface nutrients, especially phosphate.  It's also an algae that snails don't eat.  You'll have to control it, or get a population of emerald mithrax crabs going to help you.  When you work on it, just work slowly about like if you were pulling/pinching out little clumps of green hair algae.  (It's related, go figure.)  Google Mark Levinson's hair algae video on utoob if you've never hand-pulled algae.  You work on bubble algae about the same, including precise removal of as much of what you get loose as possible....close to 100% is ideal.

 

You also need other algae like hair and coraline growing to take real estate away from "pest algae" like this.   Your CUC will eat hair alge, thus it's not a pest.  😉