bdrogers2000
New Member
About two months ago I purchased a tank that was up and running. This is my first experience with an aquarium, and looking back I think that I should have started from scratch.
The aquarium is 240 gallons housing two oceallaris clowns hosted to a carpet anemone, a purple tang, a blue hepatamus tang, a vlaminig tang, a sailfin tang, and a threadfin butterflyfish. There are also many hermit crabs and various snails as a cleanup crew, and a small horsehoe crab that I am probably going to give back to the LFS, but that is another story.
I have appoximately 250 lbs of live rock in the display tank, and some more in the sump. I have a small ball of cheato and a few red mangroves that I am growing in the sump/refugium, but I don't think that they are large enough to make any difference in the filtration process.
So down to the nitty gritty, I have a three part question. Initially my nitrates spiked to about 80 ppm. Unfortunately I had to go out of town for work for a week and things got out of control while I was gone. For the next two weeks I conducted about a 30 gallon water change. Eventually the nitrates dropped to about 30 ppm. I can't seem to get them any lower than that. I did a 75 gallon water change at one point, and there was no noticeable difference in the nitrate count. At first I assumed that a lot of the life in the live rock had died, and that caused the spike, but now two months later I am not sure what to do. Please let me know what I can do to get the nitrate level to a more acceptable level. About two weeks ago I started using Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Remover and I am still not seeing a reduction.
I am also having problems with the tank pH. The level has consistently been 7.8. I have been using Kent Marine SUperbuffer-skH which the previous tank owner gave me. This doesn't seem to be doing any good. I do have 30 lbs of aragonite sand that I can add to the display tank, but I am not sure I want to do that until I get the third problem under control.....
There is a 7 inch Pocupine Puffer in the tank. A few weeks ago, right after the nitrate spike, he appears to have gone blind. A week or two after that I noticed small white spots growing on him, this obviously concerned me. I teated the entire tank with Pimafix and Melafix, which cured the white spots. He still seems to have some sort of fin rot going on, which is beginning to rot a significant portion of all his fins. What can I do to treat the fin rot, and possibly the blindness? It has been suggested to me that diet may be a part of the problem. I have been feeding the puffer fortified krill several times a week and shrimp pieces twice a week that I add vitamins to.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, I am running out of ideas and am very worried about the puffer.
The aquarium is 240 gallons housing two oceallaris clowns hosted to a carpet anemone, a purple tang, a blue hepatamus tang, a vlaminig tang, a sailfin tang, and a threadfin butterflyfish. There are also many hermit crabs and various snails as a cleanup crew, and a small horsehoe crab that I am probably going to give back to the LFS, but that is another story.
I have appoximately 250 lbs of live rock in the display tank, and some more in the sump. I have a small ball of cheato and a few red mangroves that I am growing in the sump/refugium, but I don't think that they are large enough to make any difference in the filtration process.
So down to the nitty gritty, I have a three part question. Initially my nitrates spiked to about 80 ppm. Unfortunately I had to go out of town for work for a week and things got out of control while I was gone. For the next two weeks I conducted about a 30 gallon water change. Eventually the nitrates dropped to about 30 ppm. I can't seem to get them any lower than that. I did a 75 gallon water change at one point, and there was no noticeable difference in the nitrate count. At first I assumed that a lot of the life in the live rock had died, and that caused the spike, but now two months later I am not sure what to do. Please let me know what I can do to get the nitrate level to a more acceptable level. About two weeks ago I started using Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Remover and I am still not seeing a reduction.
I am also having problems with the tank pH. The level has consistently been 7.8. I have been using Kent Marine SUperbuffer-skH which the previous tank owner gave me. This doesn't seem to be doing any good. I do have 30 lbs of aragonite sand that I can add to the display tank, but I am not sure I want to do that until I get the third problem under control.....
There is a 7 inch Pocupine Puffer in the tank. A few weeks ago, right after the nitrate spike, he appears to have gone blind. A week or two after that I noticed small white spots growing on him, this obviously concerned me. I teated the entire tank with Pimafix and Melafix, which cured the white spots. He still seems to have some sort of fin rot going on, which is beginning to rot a significant portion of all his fins. What can I do to treat the fin rot, and possibly the blindness? It has been suggested to me that diet may be a part of the problem. I have been feeding the puffer fortified krill several times a week and shrimp pieces twice a week that I add vitamins to.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, I am running out of ideas and am very worried about the puffer.