Nitrate/nitrite Emergency!

[macpegg]

New tank setup:

Nitrate - 25pm Purple on colour Chart
Nitrite - 50pm Red on colour chart


I think its this way round, im at work.. so going off memory.. but colours are correct. Im sure Nitrite turns into nitrate which is pretty bad.

I did a test last nite and papped myself when i discovered these readings.. Hermits are fine and so is convict blenny.. and a pencil urchin. which do not show any distress. i understand marine life can sustain some levels but i believe these levels are a little higher.
I did have some problems with Ammonia which i did sort out, but im guessing the damage had been done.

LR is in also
Skimmer
and sulphar balls and some other crushed stuff which i cant seem to rember what its called, which i was told reduces.. made by CT

Im guessing somethin has collapsed.. How do i rectify this problem? Complete water change? im sure just swapping say 50% aint gonna help..

No algae bloom as happend.. which i thought might have.. test tubes are clean.

I just need to know if a quick way to stop and reduce the toxins, preferbaly not a full water change.. since i canot by any more salt till Tuesday. Maybe some kind anerobic intervention perhaps?

thanks in advance

 

[SkiFletch]

First, purple on the test kit is NitrIte and thats 0.25ppm. Red on the test kit is for NitrAte and thats 50ppm. TBH, I'd relax and just mix up a batch of 50% water for a change. When you go home, test it out and see what happens. If its the same, do the 50% water change. If things are lower, sit on it for the weekend.

Do you vaccum your sand/substrate when you waterchange? If not, start doing so.

 

[Eversurf]

Do you guys all vacuum your substrate? I don't.

 

[superman]

Don't get too freaked out before you double check those readings with another type of test kit, but definitely in the mean time do a large water change as directed by ski.

 

[macpegg]

Thanks fo the reply
Did a 50% water change, Nitrate is a lovely sky blue colour. Nitrite Has just a tint of orange but border line yellow.

PH is is 8.2
Ammonia is 0
Phosphate just say has a tint of blue. say 0.03pm So placed in some phosphate remover. just incase this got any worse.

Corals are now picking back up. Placed fish back in the tank, things look chirpy again.

Sunday:

I bought two cleaner shrimp and they died within 5 mins when placed in the tank, i tried to revive one by placing it in another established tank but i failed to keep it alive. I really cannot understand why this has happend. The hermits are fine and snails.. So i would assume the cleaner shrimp wouldn`t have had a problem.

When buying these shrimp, the water they came wwith did smell like something had died.. That smell when a snail or anemone dies. So just placed the shrimp in the tank.. Maybe i should have acclimated them. Or my water was maybe too good? compared the water they came in and had a shock. So this is probably my own stupid fault.

 

[AndyS]

Shrimps are sensitive to changes in PH, salinity and Temp, it was probably the lack of acclimatisation that killed them, sorry.

 

[macpegg]

I kinda knew it would be my fault. Another £24 wasted. God this is expensive

 

[AK77]

Yeah it is expensive, which in a way is a good thing, because it forces you to be much more careful and attentive to your fish and aquarium as a whole, until such times as it is so well balanced that it becomes second nature.

Just a thought on the Nitrate front.. have you checked your filter sponges for excess detritus and waste build up? Is there good water flow around the live rock? Also, have you considered introducing some mangrove roots to help with nitrate removal. I know some people use them in their tanks for this. Do you use live sand?

Talking of water from the LFS. I purchased a blood shrimp and a royal blue tang yesterday. I tested the water in both bags before adding to my tank, mainly out of curiousity to compare to my own. The shrimp's water was SG 1.024, while the water the tang was in, read as 1.015. Being new to this myself I was cautious and a little alarmed. My tank is SG 1.023. Is there any reason why they keep the fish in water with an SG of 1.015 ?

 

[SkiFletch]

Low sg is a tactic many LFS' use to ward off ich outbreaks. Marine ich does not live in water with a low salt concentration. In most cases the fish can tolerate 1.015 for a few months, longer than the LFS has them in-store. However marine ich doesnt survive much below 1.019-1.020. When water is that far off, a longer period of acclimation should be followed. I won't buy from an LFS that keeps fish under 1.023 just cause I'm stubborn and dont want to spend countless hours acclimating. PITA

 

[macpegg]

I bought a pair of boxer shrimp from the same lfs and tested hi water before i acclimated them, and his water tested 1.015SG, where mine was 1.023. So I acclimated them over a period of 3 hours. Happily this worked. But this was probably the cause to why the cleaner shrimp died, from salinity shock.

 

[AK77]

Yeah it wouldn't surprise me. I suppose the real danger is if your LFS is very local. Mine is like 10 minutes in the car if that. As such, the water temperatures wouldn't drop that much in the time taken to get from the LFS to home, therefore people would spend less time allowing for temperatures to balance and maybe not even mix the waters.

It was purely out of playing with my new toy - the refractometer lol and wondering what the LFS water was at in comparison to mine. I too was shocked, and now test the water as a matter of course if I buy any new livestock. The Blue Linkia starfish that I bought from ebay and arrived the next day was given nearly 3 hours temperature and water acclimitization. Its been moving around for the past few days and doesn't show any signs of stress.

A useful thing to do is slit open the bag, and use a bulldog clip to pinch the side of the bag to the edge of the tank. This prevents it from moving around in the current and also makes it easier to add water using a small beaker. I've found this to me much more helpful and accurate than leaving the bag to float around on its own and then submerging to add tank water.

The one pictured below are ideal, as they have a flat surface and so should not scratch of mark the tank/canopy

AK