32 Gallon Nano

SPR1968 · Oct 29, 2021

Hi and welcome to Reef2Reef!

Magic City Reefer · Oct 29, 2021

Welcome to R2R!!!

Fish Think Pink · Oct 29, 2021

angygil1 said:
As you can see in the picture I had a Mandarin Dragonet. He somehow scraped the side of his face on a rock and I noticed he had a round circle from it. I took him out of the tank and called the fish store here in my town and they told me it would be OK put it back in there to come in the next day and they would give me something for him. So I did and woke up the next morning and he was dead. And that’s when all my problems started.

Hi Angie,
Welcome. I'm Lisa. Glad you joined and SORRY for your losses.

IMO you answered the root cause - mandarins are poisonous (its their protection) and while rare I suspect his death poisoned your tank. I'd:
1) run charcoal
2) gather plastic storage bins, start making clean saltwater and do 100% water change - don't worry about rocks or sand or .. that's where your bacteria are and the reality of doing 100% water change is impossible, so just do as much of a change AT ONE TIME as you can change - try for at least 75% and everything above heading towards 100% is bonus.
3) after water change - run charcoal again (new charcoal - charcoal effectiveness drops quick - you can search 'net for details - don't do bake and reuse in this case, which you might find when searching 'net...)... thinking chemipure blue would be helpful

Also, your 40% water change should have returned your alkalinity to at least measurable. DO NOT DOSE anything until you get at least second test confirmation. I'm mailing back an expedited www.aquariumwatertesting.com ICP test myself as something here is wonky and while I suspect my magnesium is low... but 2nd opinion LFS test said high, and 3rd LFS test said low... (ARGH!!) it might not just be magnesium ... so I'm paying some money (again) ... LFS will charge for magnesium and some other tests, but depending what you want checked for second opinion it can be inexpensive (and quick) compared to ICP. My first ICP test was a while ago, and its mentioned in my build thread. Check age of your reagents on alk test as it just doesn't make sense to not at least be 5 (which is lame and horrible impacting everything, but say your salt brand has an 11 alk like mine, 40% water change... should get you a 4 or 5 UNLESS that is too low to be measurable (but near 100% water change would fix if it is just crazy low, but can't think of anything that would cause THAT low of number... [edit: unless your test can't measure that low; your test brand wasn't mentioned - another reefer within thread did ask but likely you haven't seen that yet] Defer to others here)

Hang in there!

'start where you are, use what you have, do what you can' - Arthur Ashe, tennis player

Wishing you much success. Whatever it is, know you will find your way.

Jimbhoy13 · Oct 29, 2021

Welcome to R2R Angie. Sorry about your losses. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

attiland · Oct 29, 2021

angygil1 said:
Hello. Im Angie. Im new here. I have a 32 gallon nano reef tank. I’ve had it for about six months. I have a clown fish, I have one Blue damsel, one domino damsel, I have four blue leg hermit crabs, I have one Asteria snail, two Zoanthids, and some candy canes. And pieces left from my mushroom coral that survived.
My tank was doing great then all of a sudden I had a spike in ammonia and I lost most everything else I had. My tank looks very sick right now. I’ve been testing my water and I cannot get my alkalinity up. I just did a 40% water change and it shows no alkalinity in the water at all. My pH is 8.2 my salt is 1.024 my calcium is 460 my magnesium is 1380. My ammonia is it 0, nitrate 0. nitrite 0.
I was told to put baking soda in the water and this would help raise the alkalinity. I don’t want to do anything until I talk to a few people. Any suggestions?

Welcome to R2R

don’t put baking soda to the water t I’ll you sort out testing for alkalinity. 0 alkalinity is impossible