please help

[ginamoore]

help my nitrate is at 140
ammonia o.o
nitrite .25
wide range ph 7.8

what should i do? a water change? or will it just naturaly go down sense everything elece is with in safe range?

 

[ste2k3]

you will need to do a 20% water change everyday this week to get them down to safe levels. there should be no nitrite and no more than 50 nitrate. your ph is a little low but I wouldn't worry about that now. how much do you feed? I would cut the feeding right back so there is hardley any food going in. what filter do you have?. it sounds like its not coping with the waste produced.a high nitrate would indicate that the filter is doing its job but there is to much waste produced but if you have nitrite as well then the filter is not managing to break down the waste as fast as it is being produced. Are al the inhabitents OK?

another posabillity is that the test kits are wrong or out of date? have you double checked ?. I am very suprised that you haven't lost anything.

good luck getting it back down

 

[reefboy2002]

first of get a test done from your local fish shop
then yo can be double sure

the first thing that you are gonna see a change in your livestock
is the anemones try and see if some 1 can save them for you
cos if you dont get the water sorted imeddetly they are gonna
die and pollute your tank if they do they will just discentegrate
and you will have a big amonia attack and probably loose all you stock

how long as the tank been set up for
i think you have stocked up before the cycle had finished
there for you have problems with nitrites
nitrites and ammonia are powerful stuff in marines your fish could
start dropping like flies

what filteration system do you have how much live rock

also if you can try and get some 1 to save some of your stock

re.

2 anemones
2 starfish
5 blue leg hermit crabs
2 fire fish

they are the less hardiest specise that you will see die soon
if you dont get them sorted immediatly

i dont agree with steve with 20% i would say 10 gallon water change every day
with ro water
how are you doing your waterchanges just syphoning water out of the tank
or useing a gravel syphon cleaner
if useing gravel syphon cleaner stop and just syphon the water out
this will help your sand bed mature

nitrates try and get some calerpa put that in that will also help by eating the nitrates when your nitrates are down this should help to stableise your nitrates

nitrite is mainly because of waste food non mature tanks

try and use ro water if you all ready dont



cheers reef

 

[ginamoore]

well, lucky for me i tested the water again and everything was fine this time so i guess the test i did was wrong thank goodness! but i did a small water change anyway i havent done one sense upgradeing. and added another power head for better circulation. thanks for all the help guys

BTW i have about 80lbs of live rock still adding more
wet /dry sump
protein skimmer

and i dont syphon the coral bed, just the water.
I do stur up the coral just a little to remove any uneaten
food.

going to check levels again today and see what is up. i'll keep ya posted.

thanks Gina

 

[reefboy2002]

dont stir the snad bed m8
u r upsetting the bacteria all the time
your bristle worms will take of uneaten food and your stars

cheers ritchie

 

[ginamoore]

cool i will just leave the coral alone then i didnt mess with it much anyway.
thanks a bunch

 

[ostrow]

Gina, if your signature is your entire cleanup crew, you are way understocked. Generally you want to approach one snail/crab per gallon, so for 125G that's a good hundred critters. If you have 5 blue legs and no snails or other crabs, you should address this as your waste will build up and nitrite/ate will continue to plague you IMO.

All the more so since you have crushed coral instead of live stand. Get some cerith, nerite, bumblebee snails, and/or more crabs!!!

 

[ginamoore]

was thinking of doing the live sand but have no idea how to do it. any pointers would be helpfull. I know i need a better clean up crew. i bought 5 snails 2 weeks ago and i dont know what happoned to them they all died but one . i dont think i interdused them to the tank right. i am going to try again this weekend. what kind of shrimp can i get that are reef safe and how many can i have. i like the big ones i dont remember what they are called . and i have anemone's so i need one that wonlt eat them. altho i am getting ready to trade the anemones for something elece sense i am going reef. mabie some clean up crew critters . I have alot of critters that live in my coral bed. so hopefully they will take care of things untill i get some more clean up guys.
thanks for the help guys.

 

[ostrow]

This may sound stupid, but what made you think the snails died?

I think I suggested before you look for packages of snails or sellers on other forums. But I'd go for cerith and nerite snails.

If you have worms in the coral that's interesting and good. Didn't know that would happen.

For sandbed, the rage now is "Southdown" sand, sometimes labelled caribbean play sand. I've heard it's more widely available on your side of the pond. But any store that sells reef items will sell bags of live sand. That will only give you bacteria not critters. But you can include and mix in some of the top layer of the crushed coral if you say there are critters there. But you'd have some work getting the coral out and adding the sand, waiting out the sandstorm, etc. Can be done. But it won't be pretty at first...

 

[ginamoore]

This may sound stupid, but what made you think the snails died?

ummmmm because there shells are empty. but for real they did die and i dont know why. one is still alive and kicking. the others just fell to the bottom and died in the first 2 days. i saw my star eating one of them. everything elece is great.

 

[ostrow]

What kind of snails? Did you put them in rightside up?

 

[ginamoore]

Yea i put them on the glass. and they stuck for a little while.