Injured and need help!

[PiscesGirl]

I did a water test with my Saltwater Mater Test kit (the one with the 4 tubes to use for testing and the liquid droppers)

Nitrate: looks like cherry kool-ade 80-100 YIPES
pH: 7.8
Ammonia .25 Looks like lemonade
Nitrite .50(its purple)

So I said to myself UHOH! and did a first time ever water change in my new 55 gal. tank(the sump is directly below)
I read you can't just mix and dump so I mixed all my salt water and made sure it was dissoved...then I let it sit for a while as I proceeded to
1)turn off sump pump
2)take out sponge from overflow filter and rinse in saltwater (and take out the small krill that got trapped in there ewwwwwww
3)took out water by siphon into a 5 gal bucket which is too heavy for me to lift and dump
4)took previously dissolved salt water and dumped into the sump and the lid kept closing on me
5)turned pump back on...wasn't working (I'm trying to figure out what pump I need but I do need a new one...something is broken off of this one and it doesn't work quite right.
6)played around with pump and it got my finger sliced by something...but it worked! and it hurt !!!!

So needless to say I only changed about 5 gal of water...WHEW that's a lot of work and I know I should probably change more.
Are my fish in real danger?? What do I do?

[KMP]

let's see if i've learned anything from the great people on this site...

i would recommend you reduce the variables by addressing one problem at a time. first being, getting those nitrates in check. how do you do that - water change, water change, water change. being as high as it is, i'd go for a 50% water change, test the next day and based on that determine how much to do then. i think it's fair to say you probably have a few water changes ahead of you to get those numbers down.

you also mentioned cleaning your sponges. keep doing it - daily. you mentioned lots of krill. monitor how much you are feeding - don't feed to much and turn the pumps off when feeding so the food doesn't just go strait into your filtration.

this addresses your nitrates which if those parameters improve, it's fair to say the others will follow suit.

i have used ph 8.2 to get the ph up; however, as mentioned before stay focused on the nitrate issue first and go from there.

and for the finger - get a band aid and stop whining. j/k :-)

[lcstorc]

Water changes will help the nitrites and amonia as well as the nitrates. You say this is your first waterchange? How long has the tank been up? This is something you really need to do often particularly in a new system. Established tanks with really good skimming etc you can aford to be a bit lax but the newer the system the more important it is.
What kind of filtration are you running? What kind of bioload. (Sorry I know I have read your stuff, but it is hard to keep everybody straight.)
Wait, didn't you just put in a fuge? I forget what all you put in it, but you may be having a cycle started by that.
Regardless the best move is as KMP said. waterchange, waterchange, waterchange.
i would probably not go to 50% but I have been know to do 30% twice a week when I was having problems with trates in my tank. It never caused a problem for me.
Generally people say to mix your salt and water for 24 hrs with a powerhead and heater before adding. I have shortened that in an emergency, but it really helps to fully mix the salt and stabilize everything. Also, test your new water. I had a problem once that was caused by nitrates and phosphate in my new water. Make sure you are not doing that.
We siphon out the water from the tank and put in 5 gallon containers which we dump. You could certainly use smaller containers if the 5g are difficult to carry. I'll admit I am spoiled and my husband usually does that part. Be sure to have enough containers ready before starting since it is a pain to stop and start over. The new water is waiting there in a 30g trashcan and once we are done with removal we add the new water.
One 10% waterchange will reduce things much better than 2, 5% changes. Saw a link once that works the percentages, but it really makes sense when you think about it. You may want to do one big change, but follow up with regular testing and waterchanges. They are probably the best thing you can do for your tank IMHO.
Hope this helps.

[cheeks69]

Nitrates will not kill your fish but Ammonia will so as advised do a large water change, at least 30% if you can't do that much at once then do several smaller ones for the next few days until that ammonia goes down to 0.

How old is this tank ? How much LR do you have ? What are you using for a skimmer ? What do you have for livestock ? In an established tank you shouldn't be getting ammonia unless there's alot of dieoff. Have you added any new rock recently ?

[PiscesGirl]

The tank is 55 ga.
35lbs of live rock
No skimmer
Fish:
2 clarkii's
1 tomato
1 yellow fish
1 snowflake eel
1 sick lionfish

I got the tank from someone...it was set up for 2 years.
I got the rock and sand from someone else...set up for many years.
The fish came with the set up...didn't know what to do with them so they've just been in the tank.

P.S. I did get a band-aide and some antibiotic cream...ahhh feels better.
It hurt the most when I was doing the dishes...ouch!
Much better now though.
Come on KMP if I'm entitled to a little whinning.

[cheeks69]

Well the bio-load is high for a 55 and with no skimmer there's going to be problems. What are you using for nutrient export ? If it's just water changes then you will have to increase the frequency and % of the W/C and decrease the feeding until your tank stabilizes. I would also suggest you get a good skimmer and increase the amount of LR by at least another 20 lbs. but make sure this is CURED LR if it's not cured then you must cure it in a seperate container and test to make sure there's no ammonia before you add it to the tank.

[PiscesGirl]

Just water changes for now...planning on getting a skimmer ASAP.
I really haven't fed that much, just a few times.
Thanks for the tip on the LR.

[cheeks69]

Which skimmer do you plan on getting ? Do you have a sump ? If not there's only about 3 real good HOT skimmers that I would recommend. The aquaC Remora the Aqua-Medic Turbo-flotor and the Deltec MCE600 HOB Skimmer. Just my 2 pennies

[lcstorc]

IMHO a skimmer should be your next purchase. I was unconvinced of the need for one until we got one. All it took was looking (and smelling) the skimmate and I knew that this was stuff I did not want in my system.
In fact I recently had to turn mine off for a week due to some additives my husband added to the system and I was freaking out. It is back on now trying hard to pull the mess out of the tank. I am afraid to test my water since things were going so well before and I know it will depress me.
Without one waterchanges are even more critical as is all other tank maintenance (cleaning sponges etc). Stay on top of it and things will get better. Hopefully before anything truly bad happens.
Best of luck and let us know if we can be of more help.
BTW I read that you do not have a RO/DI unit. Are you using tap or getting your r/O from somewhere? If you are using tap then I would look around and see if you can get r/o water from somewhere. That will help a lot. My lfs sells it fairly cheaply, but you have to bring in your own containers. Also, I have heard of people buying it from the grocery store. Do a search (on RS) for waterchanges or r/o and you should find the thread(s) I am talking about that tell you where everybody gets their water. There are many choices.
Again hope this helps. I have been there so I know exactly how you feel. mine was caused by some lr I bought on-line that was sold as cured but obviously was not or was not cured enough since it sent my system into a major cycle. unfortunately, I lost a number of fish before I was able to get things under control. Hope you have better luck.

[Woodstock]

That is a high bioload and with that your maintenance will increase dramatically. I suggest 20 gal water changes daily or everyother day until the trAtes are 10ppm or less; then as often as necessary to keep them there... which will probably be atleast once a week?
Ditto to getting a skimmer... they remove dissolved organics before they foul the water. I recommend an Aqua C Remora PRO with a mag 3 pump.
Do not feed until your water is finished cycling and the trAtes are down.

[PiscesGirl]

Thanks for the help.
I think my top things are water changes and looking for a skimmer and getting ro water.
Thanks for all your help!

[PiscesGirl]

I found a Aaqua C Remora Pro with a mag 3 pump for 240...is that a deal?
Also, I would like one that would be in the sump or hang off of the sump would this one work for that?

I also fount a Turboflotor Skimmer...one used one new
T1000 model

[Snelly40]

i'd go with the aqua c remora, 240 is a good deal on that and it is a great great skimmer, it will really help you out. Good luck with the nitrate battle, we've all been through that one many times