13.5g resulting from hurricane Ida

Treenk

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Well I had to evacuate from home because of hurricane Ida. I had a 29g biocube with 13g sump crazy modified. During the evac most of my corals died, and now that I am back my house has to be gutted. So I'm living in a trailer in my driveway and I have to save what's left. I bought the fluval 13.5g yesterday. I rushed to set it up in the closet to transfer everything left, so I can get mine out of the house.

Trying to make the best of it. I set it up as is from the box along with its protein skimmer. I have 2 clownfish one standard the other a Picasso. I have a Duncan which seems to have not even noticed what it's been through. A hammer on its last leg. An unknown sps which seems to have a few spots that I think are recovering. And maybe a dozen heads of beauty and the beast zoas that are so discolored you can only see pink in pure actinic light. It's been a sad run for my aquarium life but it's really nice to have one in my room again.
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I have an orbit marine light sitting in a box I'm thinking of retrofitting instead of this crappy 2 mode light. I also know I need to figure out something better as far as filtering goes since I lost 2/3rds of my live rock and my chaeto farm. But not sure what to do yet.
 
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Treenk

Treenk

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Well things have been going fine and then all of a sudden today my smaller clown keeps going to the top to lay so I checked parameters and I'm almost to 1ppm ammonia =/ not sure why the sudden spike. I can't do a water change until tomorrow hope he makes it.
 
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Treenk

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I keep having to do 50% water changes every couple days I can't seem to get the amonia under control. I'm going to try put in more turbo start stuff and see if it will add enough bacteria.
 

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I keep having to do 50% water changes every couple days I can't seem to get the amonia under control. I'm going to try put in more turbo start stuff and see if it will add enough bacteria.
What are you using for a test kit? The API seems to register ammonia even if there's none present. If possible, I'd try testing with another kit just to make sure ammonia actually is the problem. Starting with all live rock and turbo start should have given you enough base to avoid ammonia spikes. The fact that big water changes aren't having an effect also makes me question the accuracy of the ammonia readings.

Is the clown going to the surface just at night? Sometimes it's an issue with oxygen (though in the picture of your tank, it looks like you have decent surface agitation). Sometimes that's how they sleep - mine sleeps on its side in the top corner of the tank. It's perfectly healthy.
 
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Treenk

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What are you using for a test kit? The API seems to register ammonia even if there's none present. If possible, I'd try testing with another kit just to make sure ammonia actually is the problem. Starting with all live rock and turbo start should have given you enough base to avoid ammonia spikes. The fact that big water changes aren't having an effect also makes me question the accuracy of the ammonia readings.

Is the clown going to the surface just at night? Sometimes it's an issue with oxygen (though in the picture of your tank, it looks like you have decent surface agitation). Sometimes that's how they sleep - mine sleeps on its side in the top corner of the tank. It's perfectly healthy.
Yeah I was using api.. and using my finger to shake it, fail on my part two times over. He is still OK, but definitely likes floating on his side. He does it more towards the end of the day for sure, but he does it off and on all day. When I first got him he hosted the power head and slept on his side, but this seems different. I'm hoping he's just weird. He is also more likely to do it after he eats.
 
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I ended up tossing one of my new ricordia frags it started growing bubble algae and just don't even feel like dealing with it for a 20 dollar frag. I hope it isn't too late.
 

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I ended up tossing one of my new ricordia frags it started growing bubble algae and just don't even feel like dealing with it for a 20 dollar frag. I hope it isn't too late.
You’re probably fine. Bubble Algae doesn’t spread crazy fast.

In the future, you can take the frag out, manually remove the bubbles, scrub the spot where they were with a toothbrush, quick dip in old tank water (or honestly, freshwater if it’s a hardier coral), then put it back. It’s not as bad or hard to get rid of of aiptasia, Dinos, or the majority of pest algaes.
 

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