Kody Rex Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 I need help!! My father and I have a 175 gallon tank that is filtered through a sump tank with a protein skimmer. On Sunday it will be set up for about one month. But last Sunday our ammonia and nitrite and nitrate finally came down to where they were good. So two days ago we got two clown fish a Frog Spawn/Hammerhead coral and a neon orange mushroom coral. But the Frog Spawn closed up and almost immediately and the mushroom coral disappeared this morning. The tank parameters are still reading good but my dad hasn't done saltwater since he was in college almost 12 years. We need some help from an experienced aquarist to tell us what we are missing. Oh sorry it's a 275 gallon tank. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels at now? Did you do a waterchange before adding livestock after the cycle finished? Sounds like the tank just cycled. How did you cycle the tank? 2 Quote Link to comment
suko_reef Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 check phosphates and kh 1 Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 Just finished testing everything this morning. -Nitrites are at 0.3mg/L maybe even a little less. -Nitrates are at 5mg/L -Ammonia is at 0.3mg/L -phosphates are 0.5mg/L -KH is 110mg/L We did a water change the day before we got livestock and did a 20% water change. What do you mean when you say the tank cycled? Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 2 hours ago, Kody Rex said: Just finished testing everything this morning. -Nitrites are at 0.3mg/L maybe even a little less. -Nitrates are at 5mg/L -Ammonia is at 0.3mg/L -phosphates are 0.5mg/L -KH is 110mg/L We did a water change the day before we got livestock and did a 20% water change. What do you mean when you say the tank cycled? An aquarium needs to be cycled before adding any livestock You should read up on the nitrogen cycle, it's an extremely important process to understand. The reason your corals are doing poorly is because they are in a new tank that possibly didn't fully cycle. Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 before adding anything and often most wait a month after cycling to add corals to allow the system to establish. Another issue could be lighting. What lighting are you running? Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 Okay thank you so much. I'm going to have to read up about nitrogen cycling. The lighting is an LED marineland 48 inch strip light with both the day and night lights. Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 I've read up quite a bit and watched several videos. Based on the research I've found I think the best option would be to get some Dr Tim's nitrifying bacteria so that those bacteria can feed on the ammonia from the fish poop and the decay of one of our corals. If you think another method is better I would love yours and others opinions on how to quickly cycle a tank. I just don't want to hurt the clowns and would love to see some coral surviving in about a week or two. Anyways thank you for the help you have given me. Do you think If I got the tank to cycle here in the next week the frog Spawn Hammerhead would open back up. Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 It's not looking so good this morning does anyone know what this is. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Kody Rex said: It's not looking so good this morning does anyone know what this is. Kinda looks like brown jelly disease. Is your light the standard light that comes with the tank? That may be an issue. Corals require a certain spectrum of lighting. Yes, get some bacteria in there like biospira. Unfortunately there is no way to rush a cycle. Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 Thank you so much for all your help I've decided it is brown jelly disease and have been reading up about curing it. The unfortunate thing is we live in a small town and have to travel to Utah to pick up supplies which is what we are doing know. Anyways I think we need some Iodine and some way to suck up the brown gunk. The poor coral has just been through a lot and I am having a hard time deciding what's best for it. The lighting situation is a bit tricky because my dad bought it a while ago. I've tried researching about it online to find things like how many watts it has or what spectrum of light it was made to create. Unfortunately my dad threw the box away but he said it was made for coral. Do you recommend biospira or do you think there is better bacteria out there? I have heard of good things about Dr Tim's bacteria. Quote Link to comment
Kody Rex Posted February 13, 2020 Author Share Posted February 13, 2020 Just here to update the tank was able to get cycled but I lost the coral. After lots of hard work and careful study and testing we tried again. Sadly the anemone we tried died also. Having no clue what was wrong since getting our parameters perfect. We had our water sent in to ICP Analysis and it turns out our water contains very very high amounts of copper which is extremely dangerous to invertebrates. We had to put a deionized on to our RO unit to unsure the copper is out of the water. But after lots of problems we are almost ready to try again. Quote Link to comment
Kentech5 Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 50 minutes ago, Kody Rex said: Just here to update the tank was able to get cycled but I lost the coral. After lots of hard work and careful study and testing we tried again. Sadly the anemone we tried died also. Having no clue what was wrong since getting our parameters perfect. We had our water sent in to ICP Analysis and it turns out our water contains very very high amounts of copper which is extremely dangerous to invertebrates. We had to put a deionized on to our RO unit to unsure the copper is out of the water. But after lots of problems we are almost ready to try again. Copper will definitely destroy your inverts. I would probably still try something easier than anemone once you get the tank cleared out. Polyfilter is good for helping with that I believe but you probably need to completely replace the water. I think copper can leech into rock too which could be a problem. Quote Link to comment
5*Chris Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 On 12/27/2019 at 5:17 PM, Kody Rex said: Okay thank you so much. I'm going to have to read up about nitrogen cycling. The lighting is an LED marineland 48 inch strip light with both the day and night lights. Definitely need a proper light Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 On 2/12/2020 at 10:58 PM, Kentech5 said: Polyfilter @Kody RexI agree this will help...doubt there's a need to replace anything in the tank like water or decorations. Copper has to be dosed continually just to maintain a level. Once the source is removed, levels should fall naturally AND with water changes AND with activated carbon usage AND with Poly-Filter(tm). On 2/12/2020 at 10:05 PM, Kody Rex said: We had to put a deionized on to our RO unit Are you sure your tap water is where the copper was coming from?? Where does your water come from? Does your municipal water report show high levels of copper? Last thing: can you please post test results for everything? (alk, ca, mg, no3, po4) Last, last thing: Check out this book for better/more complete info: Marine Aquarium Handbook Beginner to Breeder Get a used copy if need be! 👍 Quote Link to comment
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