Hi I'm new

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 01:47 PM

Hi everyone. I'm having an alge problem with my reef tank. I have recently lost all my cleaning crew and six of my corals. I've tested my water and everything shows up good but when i add new cleaning crew they die with in two weeks. The tank is about a year old. What can i do??

sambrinar · 07-26-2008, 02:12 PM

HI, how unfortunate, there are alot of people here that are very willing to help, but they will need information like...

parameters (sg, nitrate,nitrite, amonia, temp, phosphorous etc), lighting, size of tank, inhabitants of tank, what has died, anything you can post about the tank will help

Frankie · 07-26-2008, 02:18 PM

Welcome to RS!
Like Brenda stated, even if you feel your water tests are correct the only way we can help you is by reading the results ourselves.
Why don't you start off with the basics and what kits your using. What do you use to measure the salinity? What do you use to top off the water? Tap? What salt do you use?
Also what does the shells look like when you find them dead? Are they broken?

lcstorc · 07-26-2008, 02:58 PM

Welcome to RS!
Ditto Brenda and Frankie.
We'll get to the bottom of this.

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 03:08 PM

The test kit I use is API saltwater master test kit. It test my nitrate ammonia nitrite and ph. my Ph usually comes up in between 8.2 and 8.4. my ammonia is around 0. my nitrite is 0 and i just tested my nitrate and it came up 160 which i have never seen before. I'm going to do a partial water change i hope it helps. to test my salinity i use instant ocean hydrometer. I just tested it and it came up a little under 1.026. my temp. is 78 Degrees.

My tank is a 29 gallon bio cube. Yes i use tap water to top it off. I've always used tap water and I've had the tank for over a year and its just now doing this. the salt i use is instant ocean sea salt. i had a sand sifting star, a sea urchin, 20 scarlet hermit crabs no shells were broken the crabs just died, i also had 2 types of mushroom coral, a hammer coral, tree coral, and another coral i don't know the name of and all that has died. I have a button polyp that closed up for a while but its still alive and just reopened. the corals have melted away.

I've used poly filter to check for toxicans and it has came back fine. my lighting i have came with my bio cube.

i hope you guys can help thank you

Witfull · 07-26-2008, 03:12 PM

trates are WAY high and at KILLER levels. trates kill inverts and coral at appx 25ppms. check your tap water for nitrates.

lcstorc · 07-26-2008, 03:14 PM

Well the nitrates explain the corals.
Have you changed anything about the way you treat the water?
Are you washing the hydrometer and storing it upside down each time?
Sand sifters often starve in small tanks so that one is not so suprising.
The hermits though I have no idea.

lcstorc · 07-26-2008, 03:15 PM

Well there you go. I didn't know about inverts and trates.

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 03:19 PM

tap water is showing up 0

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 03:21 PM

my nitrates have never shown that high before usually they are way better Im doing a water change right now. and my corals all died before my nitrate ever showed that high.

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 03:39 PM

well i did a water change its still showing high.. i guess it takes a while to go down i tested 3 days ago and it was fine what could of caused it to go up so fast

tbone71788 · 07-26-2008, 03:41 PM

it was so beautiful and now its just green with alge

sambrinar · 07-26-2008, 05:20 PM

If I am remembering correctly, there has been discussion on the biocubes before with hidden sponges that can store detrius in them causing an increase in nitrites, hence nitrates. I have a 12 gal eclipse, so nothing was stored, but I will see if I can find the link with the hidden spots and bioballs.

the discussion might have been on the nano cubes. I'll be right back when I find it.

sambrinar · 07-26-2008, 05:39 PM

Here is threads with some good answers...

12g new tank nitrate question...

Pretty Much Sold on Biocube 29

There are several people in the nano link that have one of these, you could shoot one of them a pm with this thread as a link

Tru2nr · 07-27-2008, 10:29 AM

and just keep in mind this much your trades are at 160....with a 50% water change your trates are at 80....this is going to be an ongoing process to correct this problem...i would personally take everything in the filtration/hood system apart and try to figure out if theres something that could be causing the spike but then again i love to take things apart(just look at my 4 fixtures retrofitted in my canopy lol) andways i would do a 50% 20% 50% 20% in 24hr intervals that should bring you back down to being safe as well as not removing all of the good bacteria

07-26-2008, 01:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Hi I'm new Hi everyone. I'm having an alge problem with my reef tank. I have recently lost all my cleaning crew and six of my corals. I've tested my water and everything shows up good but when i add new cleaning crew they die with in two weeks. The tank is about a year old. What can i do??

07-26-2008, 02:58 PM	#4 (permalink)
lcstorc Sunshine Reefer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cocoa Fl Posts: 21,932 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Hi I'm new Welcome to RS! Ditto Brenda and Frankie. We'll get to the bottom of this. __________________ Peace LYNN You can't change the past but you can change how you view it. A reef tank is like a racecar. The faster you go the harder you crash. Lynn and Franks saltwater adventure Lynn's 20g clown tank Lynn's 90g of sunshine Every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

07-26-2008, 03:08 PM	#5 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new The test kit I use is API saltwater master test kit. It test my nitrate ammonia nitrite and ph. my Ph usually comes up in between 8.2 and 8.4. my ammonia is around 0. my nitrite is 0 and i just tested my nitrate and it came up 160 which i have never seen before. I'm going to do a partial water change i hope it helps. to test my salinity i use instant ocean hydrometer. I just tested it and it came up a little under 1.026. my temp. is 78 Degrees. My tank is a 29 gallon bio cube. Yes i use tap water to top it off. I've always used tap water and I've had the tank for over a year and its just now doing this. the salt i use is instant ocean sea salt. i had a sand sifting star, a sea urchin, 20 scarlet hermit crabs no shells were broken the crabs just died, i also had 2 types of mushroom coral, a hammer coral, tree coral, and another coral i don't know the name of and all that has died. I have a button polyp that closed up for a while but its still alive and just reopened. the corals have melted away. I've used poly filter to check for toxicans and it has came back fine. my lighting i have came with my bio cube. i hope you guys can help thank you

07-26-2008, 03:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
lcstorc Sunshine Reefer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cocoa Fl Posts: 21,932 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Hi I'm new Well the nitrates explain the corals. Have you changed anything about the way you treat the water? Are you washing the hydrometer and storing it upside down each time? Sand sifters often starve in small tanks so that one is not so suprising. The hermits though I have no idea. __________________ Peace LYNN You can't change the past but you can change how you view it. A reef tank is like a racecar. The faster you go the harder you crash. Lynn and Franks saltwater adventure Lynn's 20g clown tank Lynn's 90g of sunshine Every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

07-26-2008, 03:15 PM	#8 (permalink)
lcstorc Sunshine Reefer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cocoa Fl Posts: 21,932 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Hi I'm new Well there you go. I didn't know about inverts and trates. __________________ Peace LYNN You can't change the past but you can change how you view it. A reef tank is like a racecar. The faster you go the harder you crash. Lynn and Franks saltwater adventure Lynn's 20g clown tank Lynn's 90g of sunshine Every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

07-26-2008, 03:19 PM	#9 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new tap water is showing up 0

07-26-2008, 03:21 PM	#10 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new my nitrates have never shown that high before usually they are way better Im doing a water change right now. and my corals all died before my nitrate ever showed that high.

07-26-2008, 03:39 PM	#11 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new well i did a water change its still showing high.. i guess it takes a while to go down i tested 3 days ago and it was fine what could of caused it to go up so fast

07-26-2008, 03:41 PM	#12 (permalink)
tbone71788 Fire Coral Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 73 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new it was so beautiful and now its just green with alge

07-27-2008, 10:29 AM	#15 (permalink)
Tru2nr Elegance coral Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1,171 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Hi I'm new and just keep in mind this much your trades are at 160....with a 50% water change your trates are at 80....this is going to be an ongoing process to correct this problem...i would personally take everything in the filtration/hood system apart and try to figure out if theres something that could be causing the spike but then again i love to take things apart(just look at my 4 fixtures retrofitted in my canopy lol) andways i would do a 50% 20% 50% 20% in 24hr intervals that should bring you back down to being safe as well as not removing all of the good bacteria __________________ My 55g Chronical of addiction... Mistakes Have been made in the past.....still trying to clean up from them in the present....mistakes will be made in the future.....so what do we do?...... we party until we make another mistake!!!! WARNING: Corals in Tank, Add Crabs at own risk

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