Everything is mad

[josepy1]

So guys, i have a major problem! Im stumped and need someone elses brain then mine. I have hhad this 90 setup running pretty smothly for the last two and a half years, with little problems till about 3 weeks ago. now keep in mind everytin has been stable in this tank for ever, except for the occational ph swing. I did make a mistake and dump about 12 sps coral in there in about a months time without checkin alk, i got a alk swing from 10-7 got that undercontrol. Skimmer started to spit out tons of tiny bubbles making stuff mad so i removed cleaned checked it ten removed it.. Put new ati blue plus x4 then three months later put 2 pheonix 150 mh. since then my sps have been slowly melting away, all lps are mad except for my scolly, candy canes and chalices. I have no sump, fuge, no skimmer. i have a fluval 405 with carbon 4 power heads like 200 poiunds of LR. Fish are fine, blue hhhippo, yellow tang, melonorus wrass, coral beauty. water peram is a follows,

ph 8.3 all day three tests a day
alk 9.8 dkh three days in a row.
Mag 1250 two days ago. 1375 today
salinity 1.024 1.026 three days ago.
calc 420 stable
temp 77 digital and two liquid tubes. three times a day.
nitrates 1

this all started with my palythoas and zoantids not fully opening. algae has never been a problem, but now seems to be a minor problem.

Great, patient people at lfs have been on the phone with for weeks are stumped.

 

[shapermike]

the one thing I have heard is that the city water supply has been adding chlorine's and that could be tainting your ro water supply if you have a RO Unit.

 

[cvasaltyfish]

The first thing I would do is get your skimmed back up and running second check your ammonia levels and make sure they are ok how often do you do water changes? The other thing is did you give and break in time for your corals when changing and adding the new lights. It may have shocked them going from t5s to t5s and mh. I do know the ati blue+ are a very high par rated bulb.

sent from my hand held computer

 

[josepy1]

ammonia is 0
10 galons a week
three months between new t5s from new mh's

RO machine does not remove chlorine?

 

[swannyson7]

Do you have a test kit for phosphates? Also, what type of algae are you noticing? If it's cyano or dinos, it could be growing a film over your corals which will prevent them from opening.

 

[Sasquatch]

bulb age? how often is the carbon changed and how much do you use? is your tank water totally without color if put in a white salt bucket?

 

[josepy1]

.I use two 7 oz bags of activated carbon that i chhange out every month to 6 weeks. its a brown hairlike that came out about 3 weeks ago due to my metal hhalides ggoingg bad i believe, i hhave been adding alae magic which i have used in the past to remove hair. I also have some redish which i think is red slime which i will take care of with the other stuff. sasquach my water is completely without color in a white salt bucket. Thanks for all of your help, more is appreciated.

 

[josepy1]

correction ammonia is 0.5

 

[MoneyPit]

Shouldn't ammonia be zero ? I have not had any readings above 0 since I first cycled my tank. Don't know if 0.5 would affect things anyway.
I agree that a phosphate test should be done. How long have your MH been up and running ? Did you slowly aclimate them to the extra light, adding to the on time each week ?

 

[josepy1]

i just talked to an amazing man and he says i hhave what is called new tank syndrom. i guess i got a little crazy and took out to much good and bad bacteria by changin out to much water. so now i got a new cycle. OMG. this is the ting i hhave been missing for the last two weeks, it makes perfect sense, and i would hhave never chhecked ammonia never, ever. now witout takin any more good bacteria how do i gget the ammonia down.?

 

[MoneyPit]

I thought that the good bacteria lives in the rocks and sand, not just floating in the water column to be sucked out.

 

[josepy1]

here is a good link for this matter. The Nitrogen Cycle - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, fishless cycling i agree wit you money but when stuff starts to go south i tend to change out water, and cleanin out the fluval. Im not to sure how or why but i do know this is the issue. now hhow to remove them without killin the good bacteria. Anyone

 

[MoneyPit]

Good article. There seem to be several products on the market that claim to remove ammonia from the aquarium and are reef safe. Without personally trying any of them all I can say is give it a shot. I searched for "reef safe ammonia remover" Some of them claim to be for an emergency problem like yours. The other option is to wait it out, it should cycle through.

 

[josepy1]

yea it will cycle out . underwaterworld says dont add anoyting if need be ill house the corals somewhhere till things clear up.

 

[josepy1]

still palythoas and zoanthids not fully opening up, hammer corals still not back to normal, everything else is back to 100% expansion. i have made everything stable, since my last post, no ammonia, no nitrates, no nitrates, no po4. calk 440 mag 1350, alk 9.2 ish, salinity 1.024, temp 77 . you guys got any opinions? chalices are fine lps are good aussie scoly is fine