My reef tank is dying! PLEASE help!

[Nate Dawg]

My reef tank is dying!!! PLEASE HELP!

 

The ammonia in my 10 gallon reef tank is at about 1.5 to 2 right now. I keep doing water changes (about %15) every day since about 4 days ago. half my corals are dead. I'm adding stability to the tank (about 1 capful each day)

And I'm triple dosing the tank with prime (which gets rid of about half of the ammonia right away.)

 

The ammonia goes down but the next day is up to around 2!

 

How do I save my corals? Right now I have them in a separate bucket of saltwater.

What should I do with my two, one year old percula clownfish?

 

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks

[cbass]

Sounds like something rather large died in your tank. Did you THOROUGHLY look around and under everything to make sure there isn't anything in there, rotting away, and generating all of this ammonia? I assume your tank has been established for a while and isn't going through an initial cycle.

[phiber_optikx]

+1 also those products don't do anything so stop mucking up your water or you will never be able to find the real problem. How long has the tank been up?

[nano_keeper30]

YES double check everything, make a holding tank out of anything large enough to house your livestock for about an hour and fill it with fresh saltwater mix.

 

Make sure it is tempature balanced though.

 

Then get a bucket, remove about half your water, then take out your liverock and swoosh it into the change water. While doing this check for anything that may be dead under the rocks

 

A large turbo snail, with nothing to eat it that has wedged between some rocks and died can cause lethal amounts of amonia.

 

Did you have any nems in the tank ? Everything accounted for ? Check your filters and or sumps (not sure what you hae) for anything stuck it there.

[beeker]

Make up your saltwater with Ro/Di water, get it to the proper salinaty 1.025 and then change the tank water, only change half of the tank water, do a water change today and tomorrow siphon out the sand if you have sand in the tank

 

And don't add any of those chemicals just do water changes only, those chemicals aren't helping your tank become stable they are most likely the reason for your corals dying

 

if you do choose to add anything chemically make sure it's only alkalinty, calcium and magnesium, and make sure you have the proper test kits for these chemicals before you decide to start adding them, you'd only dose 1 part of each chemical 1 time a day but you have to know what your doing so read up about dosing if that is a route you decide to go in the future

 

but for now focus on not adding any chemicals and just doing a 2 water changes a week of about 3-5 gallons

[Nate Dawg]

I had a fairly large montipora (about 5-6 inches in diameter) that died right after the ammonia spike (about 5 days ago). I just tore him out of the tank today and tossed the skeleton.

And I just did a gravel siphon with a 15% water change today.

The ammonia has still stayed the same.

 

The tank is 1 year old.

No nems (looked around nothing dead)

[beeker]

Well just keep up with the water changes and the sand siphoning once a week and your tank should balance out in a few weeks, i never test my tank for nitrate, phosphate or amonia, i mainly just watch the corals and typically if they look good then i keep my dose's the same when they start to look off i test my calc/alk and mag

 

other than that i can say Vodka dosing once or twice a week with 80 proof vodka helps a lot, but you need a good skimmer and remember only 1 drop of vodka per 30 gallons of water, if you feel confident enough to try vodka dosing i reccomend it to improve tank and coral health, the only negatives i had were when i dosed it everyday for over a month, i found dosing it once a week or twice a week really helps things stay stable and something in the Vodka which i can't understand myself actaully improves the corals health i know this becuase of my own trials with Vodka dosing and what i have seen firsthand

 

but i'd try to get the tanks Alk/calc and mag stable in the next 3 weeks to a month before you try the Vodka

[zemuss]

You have a 10 gallon reef? Okay tell us what else you dose please. Tells us everything that is in the fish tank.

 

Stop your dosing for now.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

you got a back up tank?

 

take everything still alive out, and place it into a bare bottom QT tank, then deal with the main tank with just water changes

 

i dont dose sh!t anymore...... there is no miracle in a bottle that can help you with anything in a tank....dont even waste your money on that stuff....not for algae or for jacked up parameters....

 

get whats alive into some clean water asap

[TheMac86]

Dosing a 10g is not necessary, water changes should replenish most elements. Depending on your routine maintenance. For the ammonia issue, notice any missing hermit crabs or snails that may be decaying?

[Deano]

you got a back up tank?

 

take everything still alive out, and place it into a bare bottom QT tank, then deal with the main tank with just water changes

 

i dont dose sh!t anymore...... there is no miracle in a bottle that can help you with anything in a tank....dont even waste your money on that stuff....not for algae or for jacked up parameters....

 

get whats alive into some clean water asap

 

I totally agree, STOP dosing.

 

Right now how this happen doesn't matter. The problem is you keep trying to kill killing the ammonia spike but if you go back to basics and reread how the nitrogen cycle works you will realize that you do not have enought nitrites to consume the Ammonia. You haven't got any choice but to let the tank recycle. Find a tank to put the surving corals in and let the tank recycle.

[Alexraptor]

I totally agree, STOP dosing.

 

Right now how this happen doesn't matter. The problem is you keep trying to kill killing the ammonia spike but if you go back to basics and reread how the nitrogen cycle works you will realize that you do not have enought nitrites to consume the Ammonia. You haven't got any choice but to let the tank recycle. Find a tank to put the surving corals in and let the tank recycle.

 

Seems to me that someone else needs to go back to basics.

 

Nitrites do not consume ammonia.

Nitrifying bacteria converts Ammonia into Nitrite, which in turn is converted into Nitrate.

[nano_keeper30]

Also dont assume your corals dead dead. Bleaching is a common reaction to amomia and other stress. Not all coal that turns white is dead. You may have thrown away a perfectly fine monti that would of recovered.

 

A good way to tell if a coral is a goner, smell it ! If it smells like like a cup of sea water its probably gone.

 

If it smells like a bad date experience than chances are it is still alive and has a chance of recovery.

 

If in week or two it starts turning brown with alge and stuff growning on it, toss it...its dead.

[tankcrazed]

Sometimes a dying coral releases toxins that trigger a chain reaction in the tank..meaning the other corals die as well.

Set up a bucket of fresh salt water, make sure the temp is the same as in your tank. I'd actually do an 80 water change, add carbon and check the rocks where you suspect something dead.

[Deano]

Seems to me that someone else needs to go back to basics.

 

Nitrites do not consume ammonia.

Nitrifying bacteria converts Ammonia into Nitrite, which in turn is converted into Nitrate.

 

You are correct and I stand corrected. Thats what I get hastingly responding.

 

Point is this tank Nitrogen cycle is out of balance and there are not enought Nitrifying bacteria in the system to complete the cycle. Trying to neutralize the ammonia un-naturally is only defeating the purpose.

[lakshwadeep]

^Yes, that was confusing.

 

Nate dawg:

There isn't enough info to even explain what's going on.

 

Can you please list the numbers you're getting for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate over the past few days/weeks?

What is your s.g./salinity?

What test kit brands are you using?

What is your water source?

 

What's your complete livestock list?

Did you notice anything that happened right before the problems?

What was the timeline for the livestock deaths?

 

It's a good idea to do a much larger percentage water change than 15%, because that means a lot of the ammonia is remaining in the tank. You could try something like 50% or more. +1 to moving the livestock out of the tank for better success. Although they aren't good for normal tanks, it's okay to use ammonia detoxifiers since ammonia is so dangerous. Avoid other things like vodka for now; that would only make this more complicated. You could try hooking up a filter with filter media for extra surface area for bacteria to grow on.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

^Yes, that was confusing.

 

Nate dawg:

There isn't enough info to even explain what's going on.

 

Can you please list the numbers you're getting for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate over the past few days/weeks?

What is your s.g./salinity?

What test kit brands are you using?

What is your water source?

 

What's your complete livestock list?

Did you notice anything that happened right before the problems?

What was the timeline for the livestock deaths?

 

It's a good idea to do a much larger percentage water change than 15%, because that means a lot of the ammonia is remaining in the tank. You could try something like 50% or more. +1 to moving the livestock out of the tank for better success. Although they aren't good for normal tanks, it's okay to use ammonia detoxifiers since ammonia is so dangerous. Avoid other things like vodka for now; that would only make this more complicated. You could try hooking up a filter with filter media for extra surface area for bacteria to grow on.

 

my reef has always responded negatively to prime

[NathanF]

Stability actually boosts/seeds biological filtration. Has worked very well for me.

 

But with the tank being a year old something is in there overpowering the established capacity.

 

Also, what test kit are you using? Prime does not remove ammonia. It converts it to a form that's nontoxic but the ammonia still shows up in tests since (most?) kits cannot differentiate.

[Walking_Target]

Less junk, more Waterchanges. Now.

[Dani3d]

Problem is, Prime only neutralize ammonia for about 24 hours and that's it. You must keep doing water change try to buy more live rock that is completely cured. If you can, get some sand from a well established and disease free aquarium as this will help with your cycle.

 

I am with the other...what is making your ammonia rise like that?? something must be decomposing, either uncured liverock or something else.

 

My reef tank is dying!!! PLEASE HELP!

 

The ammonia in my 10 gallon reef tank is at about 1.5 to 2 right now. I keep doing water changes (about %15) every day since about 4 days ago. half my corals are dead. I'm adding stability to the tank (about 1 capful each day)

And I'm triple dosing the tank with prime (which gets rid of about half of the ammonia right away.)

 

The ammonia goes down but the next day is up to around 2!

 

How do I save my corals? Right now I have them in a separate bucket of saltwater.

What should I do with my two, one year old percula clownfish?

 

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks

[gulfsurfer101]

I'd run carbpn and do a 20% wc' and see from there. Franks spaghetti house is the s^%$!t. I wouldn't take out anything in your tank. Just do massive water change about 5g out of every 290g and run some carbon for about 24-48hrs and test after that. If things are off do another wc.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

I'd run carbpn and do a 20% wc' and see from there. Franks spaghetti house is the s^%$!t. I wouldn;'t take anything iut your tank. Just do massive water change about 5g out of every 290g and run some carbon for about 24-48hrs and test after that. If things are off do another wc.

 

well, dude has been dosing whilly nilly with all sorts of crap, id pull the survivors out and put them in QT with fresh mixed water.....if this was just a standard case of parameter spike id do just big water changes....

 

yeah in the display, id do WC and run some media like carbon till it gets back to normal....

[Frag Factory]

lol

[lakshwadeep]

my reef has always responded negatively to prime

 

I did not explain fully that I meant for this to be a short-term option, where the livestock probably should be removed immediately while adding it. It's basically a lesser evil than if the livestock were to die before other methods could lower the ammonia level.

[Dani3d]

Yes it,s a good temporary fix and the only drawback is if the temperature is higher then 30C, then it could create a low oxygen level condition. It's all written on the bottle. Prime can be a life saver in emergency situation.

 

Ammonia is also much more toxic (more free ammonia) in high PH like our reef aquarium, so it become toxic very very fast. Prime could be the only thing that can save a fish quickly. In freshwater and low PH, ammonia is in the less toxic form as ammonium, but not in our tanks!

 

 

 

I did not explain fully that I meant for this to be a short-term option, where the livestock probably should be removed immediately while adding it. It's basically a lesser evil than if the livestock were to die before other methods could lower the ammonia level.