My parameters are out of wack in my first salt water nano reef (fluval evo 13.5)

[kiran]

I thought it was pretty cool you were willing to implement the changes made in the original build usually folks will just ignore. a disease wipe from the pet store mix seems common nowadays and happens in 5 year old setups we can see in the disease forum, truly a management challenge that sets marine keeping well above the usual go

even the clean up crews you add matter in terms of disease prep and clearance, buy from fallowed sources

your next round coming up will be better I bet. your cycled stayed in place, you can clean the rocks off externally in saltwater and set back clean and have a touched up tank before fallowing it 90 days. feed the corals, do water changes, keep rocks clean, add only qt fish/very easy redo.

You and Jay have been a tremendous help through all this. Really do appreciate it and for being so patient with my mistakes.

 

[NauticalMiles1010]

Hey guys, new to this place so forgive me if I posted in the wrong section. I'm having some issues with my tanks elements. I posted a screenshot below if you guys could look it over and give me some advice on getting my tank stable. I have a Fluval Evo 13.5gal

I've done 2 water changes in the past 3 days (50% water change) and replaced my filter pads. I also bought some bioculture called microbacter7 because thats what one of the aquarium shop owners recommended I do after the water changes.

I did a test today and these are my new parameters (I only had test kits for these elements):

• Temp: 25.6c
• Salinity: 32ppm
• Ammonia: 0.2ppm
• Nitrite: 5ppm+ (My api test kit maxes out at 5ppm so I dont know how high it really is)
• Nitrate: 20ppm
• Ph: 7.8
• Calcium: 360
• Alkalinity: 17dKH (this also seems weirdly high)
• Phosphate: 0.25
• Iodine: .06

I'm really worried that my tank is gonna crash. I've had 2 fish die on me in a week. The rest seem to be doing ok and my corals are blooming and look alright for the most part but being new to this hobby I'm not entirely sure.

I went to get my water tested by a fish shop owner today and they said my nitrates were fine but I dont think he tested anything else tbh.

Thanks guys.

i would start of by doing 10% water changes every other day it will slowly bring your levels back down but don't do anything dramatic. what do you does and how much per day or week?

 

[Tamberav]

I used Seachem's Reef Dip.

I've heard the horror story's of not rinsing your corals properly after dipping so I was extra diligent in making sure they were rinsed by putting them through 2 separate containers of clean saltwater and turkey basted them through both stages to try and get off everything. I spent at least an hour just making sure the rinsing part was thorough. I think I spent maybe like 3-5 minutes max doing the actual dipping process from start to finish before rinsing them. Should I have dipped them longer? I was worried about hurting the corals by dipping them for more then a few minutes

I admit I was kind of quick with my coral stocking but it was really hard to resist during the TSA sale. But from what I was told earlier by brandon my parameters were fine the day I posted them (I added the coral to my tank the day before that so I'm assuming it was fine then too).

I've been keeping an eye on my coral and inverts and they all seem fine.

Seachem reef dip is just iodine based, not very harmful to corals (or most pests lol). You should dip corals based on whatever the bottle says. Too short and you are not removing pests/problems. Most corals handle dips easily... the ones that I have had that are finicky are things like smooth skin acro's which are not beginner friendly anyways.

It sounds like you did rinse them enough and I don't think seachem dip would be much worry with fish.

 

[kiran]

your ammonia above is overreported by ten times above, 100% fact. and, since its a non digital reading, double that. this is mentioned so that you wont take focus away from fish disease preps and aim them at cycle preps, for a tank well past cycling and 100% into ammonia control. params didnt kill your fish, no fallow no qt did, this makes it easy to not repeat knowing that. see fish disease forum for backups/proofs etc.

your ammonia issue above is nh4 vs nh3 + not being on seneye, that's specifically why it appears bad, but isn't. the ammonia kit you're using in the instructions has a conversion table that prevents overreporting by 10x.

I was wondering if anyone could answer the ammonia question for me.

I looked at the card that came with my Red Sea kit about the ammonia (I linked it below), and I tried looking at the chart and it just left me more confused. Can someone explain it to me like I'm a child lol. I'm horrible at math so I just want to make sure I understand it properly

 

[brandon429]

take a reading of the level and post the actual reading pic against the card first

 

[kiran]

So here are my ammonia test results. I'm not sure what to make of it. I used 2 test kits. API and Red Sea:

API Results:

Red Sea results:

Here's an update of my parameters. Just finished testing a few minutes ago. Did a 30% water change yesterday.

From what I've read I should not be worrying about nitrites? I've been told that it should be at 0. I'm doing a fallow so I haven't had fish in the tank for a couple days.

My alkalinity is slowly lowering. I think I can get it to acceptable levels in a month.

Forgot to include Phosphates. The API test kit said I'm at .50
I don't know why my Phosphates are always so high. Am I feeding too much? I haven't fed my corals the last few days and did a 30% water change yesterday. Shouldn't my phosphates be at 0?

 

[kiran]

@brandon429

Just wondering if anything seems off with you when it comes to my parameters or if I should have any concerns over what I mentioned.

Wondering if I should do another water change tomorrow to bring down Alk some more.

 

[Aqua Man]

Forgot to include Phosphates. The API test kit said I'm at .50

For phosphate, Hanna is the best to get an accurate reading.

Wondering if I should do another water change tomorrow to bring down Alk some more.

13 is not terrible. How do the coral look? Have you decided on what your target ALK is going to be?

ALK gets used pretty quick by coral and coralline algae. I would just let it fall gradually to your target.

Shouldn't my phosphates be at 0?

No. Having 0 PO4 is an invitation for Dinos!

 

[kiran]

For phosphate, Hanna is the best to get an accurate reading.


13 is not terrible. How do the coral look? Have you decided on what your target ALK is going to be?

ALK gets used pretty quick by coral and coralline algae. I would just let it fall gradually to your target.



No. Having 0 PO4 is an invitation for Dinos!

The coral all look fine. There's one that I'm concerned about that I thought was dying because it looked "closed up" but after posting here about it I guess it's fine and that was just how it looks (it' a trumpet coral).

I want to get my alkalinity to around 9 or 10 dKH.

 

[kiran]

Hey guys,

So another update. I did a test yesterday before doing a water change and these were the results:

I think my Ammonia was around .02 yesterday? If I used the chart correctly. I attached 2 separate test results below. One from API and one from Red Sea.

API Ammonia Test:

Red Sea Ammonia Test:

My nitrates are also reading unusually high even though my tank is only coral and inverts. Is this normal?

I did a 20% water change yesterday and my nitrates are still reading really high. My Magnesium and Calcium also seem to be kind of high for some reason even though I'm not dosing anything


Here are my test results from today. Approximately 20-22 hours after the water change:

API Ammonia Test Kit:

Red Sea Ammonia Test:

Also here's my Seachem Ammonia reader incase it helps:

I'm hoping my ammonia is fine at this point.



My nitrates are also still testing really high despite the water change from yesterday:

Red Sea Nitrate Test:

API Nitrate Test:

Here's a minute long video of my tank as of today after the water change:




My Cloves in the back have completely closed up. They started slightly closing up yesterday before the water change and today they've been closed almost the entire day so far. My hammer is also looking kind of thin and not extending too much. I don't know if it's the flow or lighting. I use the suggested BRS 16HD Prime @ 25% for my tank.

This is what my cloves looked like just a few days ago:

Should I do another water change? I'm getting pretty worried tbh. I can never seem to get my parameters to the proper levels. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry if I'm getting annoying at this point. I try and do my own research but I end up needing clarification a lot of times hence why I keep posting these.

Thank you!

 

[Aqua Man]

So another update. I did a test yesterday before doing a water change and these were the results:

Keep asking questions! That’s how we learn.
Your ammonia looks good to me.

Nitrates of 20ppm is not to bad, IMO. If you want to cut that 20ppm in half, then do a 50% water change.
How much water are you changing normally?

I use the suggested BRS 16HD Prime @ 25% for my tank.

Might be too much light. Did you use the acclimating mode when adding those coral?

How deep is your tank?

 

[kiran]

Keep asking questions! That’s how we learn.
Your ammonia looks good to me.

Nitrates of 20ppm is not to bad, IMO. If you want to cut that 20ppm in half, then do a 50% water change.
How much water are you changing normally?

Might be too much light. Did you use the acclimating mode when adding those coral?

How deep is your tank?

I do about 20-30% changes every 4-7 days.

It's around 9-10" deep. The light is positioned about 10 inches above the water.

The settings that I'm using were tested on a 10" deep tank in the video.

I only acclimated them for about 7 days. Started at 50% intensity for the acclimation starting point.

 

[Aqua Man]

I do about 20-30% changes every 4-7 days.

It's around 9-10" deep. The light is positioned about 10 inches above the water.

The settings that I'm using were tested on a 10" deep tank in the video.

I only acclimated them for about 7 days. Started at 50% intensity for the acclimation starting point.

Was doing water changes like that last year and stripped my tank and wound up with a mild case of Dinos. Be careful, you don’t have fish right now adding ammonia.

My 22 long is the same, 19” from light to sand bed.

I only acclimated them for about 7 days. Started at 50% intensity for the acclimation starting point.

50% of 25% ? I’m new to these fancy leds! Been running T5s on a different tank for years.

I am running a Prime on the 22 long at one end though. I made up my own settings.

This is the max/peak I run and corals are growing. With so many variables, just keep everything stable. Testing parameters is good, keep a journal. Watch for trends. Try not to over correct if anything is slightly off. Test kits are not perfect.

In my journal I especially note any major changes made. Like light settings or intensity changes. Coral and fish additions. What I’m dosing and how much. The only water parameter I test frequently is ALK.

Your coral will tell you when they are not happy and being new reefer it’s hard to know when that is!

Here’s a pic of the tank with the Prime.

Started this tank 1/1/2020

 

[kiran]

Thanks for the reply!

Here's a pic of a my spectrum. It peaks at around 42%

I didn't know about the dinos with having too clean of a tank. I'll try and do less frequent water changes then. The only thing I'm concerned about with the slower water changes is that my nitrates will spike up even more if I don't.

 

[Aqua Man]

The only thing I'm concerned about with the slower water changes is that my nitrates will spike up even more if I don't.

How’s the coral looking ?

Nitrates come from 2 places. Fish excrete ammonia through their gills and Bacteria turn that to nitrite and then nitrate.

Second is food that settles or gets caught in mechanical filters and starts to break down, also by bacteria.

 

[Idech]

From your video I noticed there is no water agitation at the surface (hard to tell though).

If that’s the case, you should aim a powerhead at the surface, and also aim the outlets of the return pump better. Water agitation is important and it might help with some of your problems.

 

[kiran]

How’s the coral looking ?

Nitrates come from 2 places. Fish excrete ammonia through their gills and Bacteria turn that to nitrite and then nitrate.

Second is food that settles or gets caught in mechanical filters and starts to break down, also by bacteria.

Sadly I think my Hammer perished as well as my Star Light Cloves. I just got back into town today and haven't had a chance to do any water changes for about a week or do any testing.

While I was gone my dad had some electrical work done and I didn't have my generator setup. The power was off in the tank for a few hours everyday for at least 3 days. I think the fluctuations in temperature and flow ended up killing them.

I'm going to be doing a full parameter testing first thing tomorrow morning and a 25% water change and I'll update this thread after.

Another thing is my Zoas seem like they're stretching out A LOT. By stretching out I mean their stocks are looking very long and I'm not sure if this is normal. I'm not sure if it's lighting or flow. I'll post some pictures and a video tomorrow morning as well.