Jonnys Journal

[Jonny967]

Where about are you if you are 300 miles from hampshire, I am in Lacashire myself, in a month or two I should be able to frag my Xenia, if you are local I could perhaps supply you with one. They grow very quickly anyway so a frag would become a large one in a short space of time.

Surprisingly i'm not far at all from the forest of bowland! I'm not far from Roughlee, i pass through the forest quite often on my way up to stocks reservoir.
I will keep trying with LFS and think i might go to cascade at bury this weekend just on the off chance, if i don't find anything i will take you up on the offer.

Cheers

 

[TigerIssey]

Stocks is near Clitheroe isn't it, we are about 40 mins from there maximum (if you get stuck behind a Tractor), the other half works in Clitheroe.

We are not far from the reservoir at Barnacre or Wyre fishery at Scorton.

 

[Jonny967]

Hi All,

Have not been around for a while but have had a major problem with the tank and need some advise!

A few weeks ago i noticed that my nitrates had suddenly risen from below 12.5mg to over 50mg i have no explanation for the sudden rise as the tank is not overstocked and nothing was dead plus i have over 90Kg of live rock? anyway fearing for the inhabitants i took all the live rock out of the tank and revealed a hell of alot of dead bristle worms under the rack so i quickly syphoned all the crap out and began some big water changes (50%) which i did three times. I have now returned nitrates to 5mg with ammonia and nitrite at 0. I just dont understand why all these worms were dead and the corals/fish were fine?
I put all the rock back into the tank after around 30 minutes of cleaning and did the water changes with some reef safe nitrate remover as recommended by my LFS. All levels were normal but all the coral went downhill and more or less disintergrated within days? i managed to save my anemones and mushroom corals and put them in another tank but over the next week every fish apart from my boxfish died with good water quality?
I really can't understand the problem as i have left it a few weeks then added a couple of fish which are doing great, but every coral i have tried to add takes a turn for the worse within a couple of days, i now have a major outbreak of bubble algae and do not know where to start with getting it under control apart from removing the effected rocks and jet washing them
The only change to the tank was new bulbs and relectors a week before all this started, has anyone got any ideas of shall i taken everything out and but new live rock and more or less start again?

 

[seffieuk]

Hi All,

Have not been around for a while but have had a major problem with the tank and need some advise!

A few weeks ago i noticed that my nitrates had suddenly risen from below 12.5mg to over 50mg i have no explanation for the sudden rise as the tank is not overstocked and nothing was dead plus i have over 90Kg of live rock?

If you are doing regular tank maintanance and this happened suddenly it is likely something died - a large water change should have sorted it out

anyway fearing for the inhabitants i took all the live rock out of the tank and revealed a hell of alot of dead bristle worms under the rack so i quickly syphoned all the crap out and began some big water changes (50%) which i did three times.

Do you have good flow under the rack?

I have now returned nitrates to 5mg with ammonia and nitrite at 0. I just dont understand why all these worms were dead and the corals/fish were fine?

Maybe the worms died of something else, not the nitrates

I put all the rock back into the tank after around 30 minutes of cleaning and did the water changes with some reef safe nitrate remover as recommended by my LFS.

Because you took the rock out for thirty minutes you have probably had a mini cycle. Don't use nitratte remover, sort the problem out

All levels were normal but all the coral went downhill and more or less disintergrated within days? i managed to save my anemones and mushroom corals and put them in another tank but over the next week every fish apart from my boxfish died with good water quality?

I suspect you had a mini cycle

I really can't understand the problem as i have left it a few weeks then added a couple of fish which are doing great, but every coral i have tried to add takes a turn for the worse within a couple of days, i now have a major outbreak of bubble algae and do not know where to start with getting it under control apart from removing the effected rocks and jet washing them

Ok, lets just take a deep breath and start sorting the problems out - as you have few corals and fish I think i would move them to a holding tank - a plastic box will do with a heater and a powerhead piece by piece take the rock out and scrape off the bubble algae being careful not to burst the bubbles, then place the rock back (after doing each one) - this will take some time so it is good to have someone help you for the company and to help keep an eye out for every bit of bubble algae.

You mentioned the corals not thriving - what lighting have you got, have you changed it recently? You said you have a lot of bubble algae, it might be that your phosphate level is high which is feeding your bubble algae so lets get rid of the algae then you can test again, in particular for phosphate - think of this as being a weeks job, not just a couple of day

The only change to the tank was new bulbs and relectors a week before all this started, has anyone got any ideas of shall i taken everything out and but new live rock and more or less start again?

Changing the lights suddenly, particularly if the old bulbs were 'too old' can cause problems for corals

Hope that is of some help

Seffie x

 

[Jonny967]

Hi Seffie,

thanks for the reply, when this first happened there was not dead fish in the tank but only the bristle worms dead which i think then put the nitrates up. i have a theory that there is something else in the water that killed the brissle worm and/or polluted the tank but i have measured everything possible - all of which show good water quality. I can't understand why even now no type of coral can tolerate the tank, it just doesn't make sense?

 

[ben1987]

How old is the tank J? could it be a really old sand bed got disturbed?

 

[Jonny967]

Your probally right ben, I usually disturb the sand at the front weekly but when I took all the rock out I gave under the rack a really good stir! Which inturn would not have done much good. It still doesn't explain what the problem is now though as all levels are normal yet I still can put anything in?

 

[seffieuk]

how are things progressing?

Seffie x

 

[Jonny967]

Finally got the water quality back to a reasonable level. Everything is 0 apart from phosphates that i have managed to get somewhere below 0.5ppm (its kind of hard to seperate the colors on the test scale below 0.5ppm) calcium is 450 and ph 8.2.
I am not going to start transfering any of my corals back yet but i have added my Clown Tang which is glad to be back, he is also very busy eating any blotches of algae left growing.

Thanks for your help seffie and Bud, the Rowaphos has really helped compared to the seachem i wouldn't have had a clue one wht was the best stuff to use. I would also like to know which buffer you use as i am using a Seachem? but a bit worried about the qulaity of their products following the crap phosphate remover

 

[Jonny967]

Quick update and a couplke fo questions

My phosphates is now 0.05ppm which is pretty good according to my book, but i still have the red hair algae growing? It is quite fast growing so i am unsure if there is anything available that can eat it as fast as it grows. What i need to know is f all parameters are good will the algae starve to death or is it not as simple as this?