Hi all,
I'm struggling with a low PH, high nitrates, nuisance algae, cyano (I think), bubble algae and fish loss. In short my tank is a mess!. I've been trying over the last month to figure out what's going on and have invested some money into testing equipment and other equipment.
I added an Apex with Trident to help me with tank measurements and future automation. Prior to this the tank was set up for a year and half. I did little testing as I hate it but was doing water changes about every two weeks. I would change out 10 gallons. During this time I'd suck out the detritus that accumulated in the back filter sections and blowing off the rockwork.
After setting up the Apex PH was measuring 7.6 up to 7.7 through out the day. My Alk measurements started off at 8.25dkh. By the end of the week this number dropped to 7.9 ish. A 25% water change brought the Ph up to 7.7-7.8 and Alk to 8.4. By the end of the week I noticed the PH and Alk dropping off again. I suspected this as anytime I performed a water change, the corals perked up.
Things I've tested and learned over the last month since the Apex was setup.
PH avg is 7.7 Salt 32.8ppm, temp 77.5, orp 310, alk avg 8.1, CA avg 450, MG avg 1350. I've purchased a C02 handheld meter to measure the amount of C02 in the room. I found it averaging 800ppm. I hooked up a tube to the skimmer and vented to the window. PH increased aprox but never got above 7.9 with alk avg of 8.1. Opening a window isn't an option this time of the year as it's COLD outside. I purchased a C02 scrubber and plumbed to the skimmer intake. PH went up .3 to about 7.9 with the alk at 7.9. I assume if I can get the alk up to 8.5 ish the PH would also go up too. The thing I've noticed is the CA and MG numbers drop very little in comparison to the ALK. I started trying to raise the alk via dosing. I purchased fluval alk supplement from the local fish store. I started off with a 10ml dose as instructions stated 10ml per 13 gallons. This shot my alk up from 7.9 to 8.5 overnight. A little faster then I wanted. The alk dropped back to 8.2 within a day and a half. I added .25ml twice a day with the alk still dropping. Moved up to .5ml twice per day. Still drops. Moved up to 1ml still drops. Currently I'm trying to find the magic addition number that will keep my tank closer to 8.5. During all of this CA never dropped. It actually maintained or increased slightly. Odd as I was only dosing Alk.
I've tried to reposition the power head to add extra flow. This power head seems to be to direct and powerful for my tank as the corals close up and sand bed moves. I tried turning off the power head over the last couple weeks. The cyano (red stuff on the sand I think is cyano) never increased or decreased. However all corals opened more fully and show less signs of stress. I've also added a Santa Monica algae scrubber in the second chamber and moved the skimmer to the third chamber. Awaiting growth in the scrubber. Apparently this can take extra time if the tank has an algae problem. Pretty sure I qualify for this!
Other than algae overtaking my tank, corals have showed decent growth and polyp extension. Decent colors as well. Being the tank seemed to be doing ok other then this aspect the wife and I though adding some fish would be a good idea. We added 4 very small chromis, 1 very small royal gramma, 1 very small fire fish. All fish were slowly drip acclimated for two hours and added into a dark tank where they were allowed to hide in the dark for 12 hours. By the next morning the lights turned back on and I found all new fish swimming openly. All fish in the tank were eating well for the first two days. I had noticed one chromis had a red spot on it's belly just behind it's fins. I suspected it was bruised or something of the like from rough handling. Two days later this fish disappeared and hasn't been seen in days. three days later another chromis dropped. I found this one and removed. Two days later the royal gramma was found dead. I tested for ammonia and found none via API tests. Regardless I performed a 25% water change. I've lost no further fish. I've done some reading in the past week. It seems as though some fish can be affected by high nitrate levels.
I tested my nitrate levels with API. Shows 0-.5. Seems low considering the amount of algae in the tank. I used a Hanna ultra low tester and came up with a reading of 0.88. Obviously this is to high and I plan to perform a water change when finished here. I also plan to remove the ceramic filter rings from the filter box. Reading has told me this can be a source of nitrates if not maintained well.
Tank equipment overview: Fluval M60 34 gallon, 25lbs dry rock now live after 1.5 years, 3" find sand bed. Light is AI 26HD. It hangs over water aprox 13". Lights ramp up and down. Light on at 6:30 and off at 7:30. Running I think at 35% From 11:30-5. Need to get light connected back to current WIFI. Been hesitant as corals are growing well. I can't retain the current lighting spectrum as old WIFI router is long gone. Didn't know this would be a problem. Rock work is open to allow water flow. Return pump is Mighty Jet 8502 set to 1.3. Should be aprox 281GPH. Extra flow comes from Ice cap gyre 1K. Currently turned off as corals seem more open and happy. Skimmer is Tunze DOC 9004 DC plumbed to a C02 scrubber. Before scrubber skimmer was aprox 60%. After scrubber it's now running at 100% due to restriction of scrubber. Added in last 10 days a Santa Monica drop 1.4 algae scrubber. This is running currently 22 hours per day. Mechanical filtration is via all in one media holder. 1st level filter floss changed every 3rd day or so. 2nd level is chemipure. 3rd level has aprox 2 cups of ceramic rings. I plan to remove these with next water change.
Live stock include 1 med sized Bangui cardinal that is 1.2 years in my tank. 2 small chromis, 1 small firefish added in last two weeks. 1 med fire shrimp. 1.2 years in my tank and thriving. Molts about every other week. Aprox 15 assorted snails Had upwards of 45 but most died over the last month. 2 non toxic cucumbers. 1 small pep shrimp. He recently took up residence in the back filter area. Aprox. 100+ tiny serpent stars. These found their way into my tank via a coral. I inspected carefully for pests but clearly missed these. I've added algae barn pods several times however I don't ever see any on the glass.
I apologize for the length of this and applaud anyone who made it to this point. Currently I'm not trying to fix everything at once. I think starting with low ph and alk first makes sense. Can nitrates be consuming alk? I don't feed heavily. Only what fish consume in first 30 seconds or so. This is flake. The cardinal only eats mysis. Again only what is eaten. The cubes are shaved off with an xacto blade. I drop in the froze slivers. Feeding is flake or pellets in the morning. Frozen at night. so two feedings per day.
I'm struggling with a low PH, high nitrates, nuisance algae, cyano (I think), bubble algae and fish loss. In short my tank is a mess!. I've been trying over the last month to figure out what's going on and have invested some money into testing equipment and other equipment.
I added an Apex with Trident to help me with tank measurements and future automation. Prior to this the tank was set up for a year and half. I did little testing as I hate it but was doing water changes about every two weeks. I would change out 10 gallons. During this time I'd suck out the detritus that accumulated in the back filter sections and blowing off the rockwork.
After setting up the Apex PH was measuring 7.6 up to 7.7 through out the day. My Alk measurements started off at 8.25dkh. By the end of the week this number dropped to 7.9 ish. A 25% water change brought the Ph up to 7.7-7.8 and Alk to 8.4. By the end of the week I noticed the PH and Alk dropping off again. I suspected this as anytime I performed a water change, the corals perked up.
Things I've tested and learned over the last month since the Apex was setup.
PH avg is 7.7 Salt 32.8ppm, temp 77.5, orp 310, alk avg 8.1, CA avg 450, MG avg 1350. I've purchased a C02 handheld meter to measure the amount of C02 in the room. I found it averaging 800ppm. I hooked up a tube to the skimmer and vented to the window. PH increased aprox but never got above 7.9 with alk avg of 8.1. Opening a window isn't an option this time of the year as it's COLD outside. I purchased a C02 scrubber and plumbed to the skimmer intake. PH went up .3 to about 7.9 with the alk at 7.9. I assume if I can get the alk up to 8.5 ish the PH would also go up too. The thing I've noticed is the CA and MG numbers drop very little in comparison to the ALK. I started trying to raise the alk via dosing. I purchased fluval alk supplement from the local fish store. I started off with a 10ml dose as instructions stated 10ml per 13 gallons. This shot my alk up from 7.9 to 8.5 overnight. A little faster then I wanted. The alk dropped back to 8.2 within a day and a half. I added .25ml twice a day with the alk still dropping. Moved up to .5ml twice per day. Still drops. Moved up to 1ml still drops. Currently I'm trying to find the magic addition number that will keep my tank closer to 8.5. During all of this CA never dropped. It actually maintained or increased slightly. Odd as I was only dosing Alk.
I've tried to reposition the power head to add extra flow. This power head seems to be to direct and powerful for my tank as the corals close up and sand bed moves. I tried turning off the power head over the last couple weeks. The cyano (red stuff on the sand I think is cyano) never increased or decreased. However all corals opened more fully and show less signs of stress. I've also added a Santa Monica algae scrubber in the second chamber and moved the skimmer to the third chamber. Awaiting growth in the scrubber. Apparently this can take extra time if the tank has an algae problem. Pretty sure I qualify for this!
Other than algae overtaking my tank, corals have showed decent growth and polyp extension. Decent colors as well. Being the tank seemed to be doing ok other then this aspect the wife and I though adding some fish would be a good idea. We added 4 very small chromis, 1 very small royal gramma, 1 very small fire fish. All fish were slowly drip acclimated for two hours and added into a dark tank where they were allowed to hide in the dark for 12 hours. By the next morning the lights turned back on and I found all new fish swimming openly. All fish in the tank were eating well for the first two days. I had noticed one chromis had a red spot on it's belly just behind it's fins. I suspected it was bruised or something of the like from rough handling. Two days later this fish disappeared and hasn't been seen in days. three days later another chromis dropped. I found this one and removed. Two days later the royal gramma was found dead. I tested for ammonia and found none via API tests. Regardless I performed a 25% water change. I've lost no further fish. I've done some reading in the past week. It seems as though some fish can be affected by high nitrate levels.
I tested my nitrate levels with API. Shows 0-.5. Seems low considering the amount of algae in the tank. I used a Hanna ultra low tester and came up with a reading of 0.88. Obviously this is to high and I plan to perform a water change when finished here. I also plan to remove the ceramic filter rings from the filter box. Reading has told me this can be a source of nitrates if not maintained well.
Tank equipment overview: Fluval M60 34 gallon, 25lbs dry rock now live after 1.5 years, 3" find sand bed. Light is AI 26HD. It hangs over water aprox 13". Lights ramp up and down. Light on at 6:30 and off at 7:30. Running I think at 35% From 11:30-5. Need to get light connected back to current WIFI. Been hesitant as corals are growing well. I can't retain the current lighting spectrum as old WIFI router is long gone. Didn't know this would be a problem. Rock work is open to allow water flow. Return pump is Mighty Jet 8502 set to 1.3. Should be aprox 281GPH. Extra flow comes from Ice cap gyre 1K. Currently turned off as corals seem more open and happy. Skimmer is Tunze DOC 9004 DC plumbed to a C02 scrubber. Before scrubber skimmer was aprox 60%. After scrubber it's now running at 100% due to restriction of scrubber. Added in last 10 days a Santa Monica drop 1.4 algae scrubber. This is running currently 22 hours per day. Mechanical filtration is via all in one media holder. 1st level filter floss changed every 3rd day or so. 2nd level is chemipure. 3rd level has aprox 2 cups of ceramic rings. I plan to remove these with next water change.
Live stock include 1 med sized Bangui cardinal that is 1.2 years in my tank. 2 small chromis, 1 small firefish added in last two weeks. 1 med fire shrimp. 1.2 years in my tank and thriving. Molts about every other week. Aprox 15 assorted snails Had upwards of 45 but most died over the last month. 2 non toxic cucumbers. 1 small pep shrimp. He recently took up residence in the back filter area. Aprox. 100+ tiny serpent stars. These found their way into my tank via a coral. I inspected carefully for pests but clearly missed these. I've added algae barn pods several times however I don't ever see any on the glass.
I apologize for the length of this and applaud anyone who made it to this point. Currently I'm not trying to fix everything at once. I think starting with low ph and alk first makes sense. Can nitrates be consuming alk? I don't feed heavily. Only what fish consume in first 30 seconds or so. This is flake. The cardinal only eats mysis. Again only what is eaten. The cubes are shaved off with an xacto blade. I drop in the froze slivers. Feeding is flake or pellets in the morning. Frozen at night. so two feedings per day.
