Hi,
I've had a heck of a time recently with my tank and have several things going on, creating an impending crash no doubt. Right now it sort of feels like when you are going down a hill on a bike and your front wheel starts to wobble. You know it's going to end poorly soon...
The latest is that I changed the powerhead placement and ramped up flow considerably and it's thrown my parameters all over the place. I think I must have had some considerable dead spots, and perhaps kicked off a few mini cycles (ammonia will shoot up then dissipate etc). It's been touch and go for almost everything for the past two weeks, but no losses yet that I can tell, although most of my SPSs have started to STN. My fish for the most part remain "ok", although it got dicey with a female Bartlett during one of the spikes. I have Prime and have changed about 40% of my 65 gallon water volume over the course of the past 3-4 days. But the most detrimental to my marital status is the constant ebb and flow of the smell of sulfur, which is the worst after a WC - despite not touching the sand or rocks deliberately. I don't run a DSB and only have about an inch to two inches of sand.
I have a pair of Davinci clowns that have been together for about a year. The female has shown all of the classics - labored breathing near the surface, lying on the bottom, not eating etc. What's more strange to me is that the male has since been relentless, chasing her everywhere, nipping, and not allowing any reprieve. He finds her lying and the bottom and will nose her until she moves to another part of the tank, and this continues.
I put her in a QT on her own to give her some rest. She looks a bit better, but I have no idea if I should be proactive with treatment. No obvious external signs of sickness - just the extreme stressed state per above.
Long story short - what should I do, and I'm asking longer term here. Clearly I have a few things on the edge.
1) In terms of stability, should I increase amount of rock, dose bacteria, or ride it out for a while? I run a skimmer 24/7 + GFO + carbon but I do think my system is under-rocked (going for the minimalist thing).
2) In terms of the clown - be proactive with Paraguard or just let her rest?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long, long post!
Mixed reef, 65 gallon total system. Running for over a year, with generally good results until the last couple of months, when the first H2S smells started. Then aggressive vacuuming made it worse.
PH 7.6 -8.0 (run a refugium light at night but doesn't seem to even out swings)
Temp: between 26.5 - 27.1 celcius
Salinity - 1.026 (RSCP)
Ammonia (currently, though this has varied depending on feeding which seems far too sensitive and can spike to almost 0.8) - 0
Nitrates (currently) - 0
Nitrites (currently) - 0
Phosphates - (been battling as they were super high in order to bring down Alk but currently
- 0.03 (was 0.25 last week)
Alk - 14 (this has been a challenge and a huge issue, reaching 16 and confirmed with two different test kits. Believe it was due to the high phosphates. Stopped dosing kalk as a result over a month ago but hasn't really budged. Phosphates have come down within past week so hoping this will kick consumption back in).
Calcium - 380
Mag - 1230
I've had a heck of a time recently with my tank and have several things going on, creating an impending crash no doubt. Right now it sort of feels like when you are going down a hill on a bike and your front wheel starts to wobble. You know it's going to end poorly soon...
The latest is that I changed the powerhead placement and ramped up flow considerably and it's thrown my parameters all over the place. I think I must have had some considerable dead spots, and perhaps kicked off a few mini cycles (ammonia will shoot up then dissipate etc). It's been touch and go for almost everything for the past two weeks, but no losses yet that I can tell, although most of my SPSs have started to STN. My fish for the most part remain "ok", although it got dicey with a female Bartlett during one of the spikes. I have Prime and have changed about 40% of my 65 gallon water volume over the course of the past 3-4 days. But the most detrimental to my marital status is the constant ebb and flow of the smell of sulfur, which is the worst after a WC - despite not touching the sand or rocks deliberately. I don't run a DSB and only have about an inch to two inches of sand.
I have a pair of Davinci clowns that have been together for about a year. The female has shown all of the classics - labored breathing near the surface, lying on the bottom, not eating etc. What's more strange to me is that the male has since been relentless, chasing her everywhere, nipping, and not allowing any reprieve. He finds her lying and the bottom and will nose her until she moves to another part of the tank, and this continues.
I put her in a QT on her own to give her some rest. She looks a bit better, but I have no idea if I should be proactive with treatment. No obvious external signs of sickness - just the extreme stressed state per above.
Long story short - what should I do, and I'm asking longer term here. Clearly I have a few things on the edge.
1) In terms of stability, should I increase amount of rock, dose bacteria, or ride it out for a while? I run a skimmer 24/7 + GFO + carbon but I do think my system is under-rocked (going for the minimalist thing).
2) In terms of the clown - be proactive with Paraguard or just let her rest?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the long, long post!
Mixed reef, 65 gallon total system. Running for over a year, with generally good results until the last couple of months, when the first H2S smells started. Then aggressive vacuuming made it worse.
PH 7.6 -8.0 (run a refugium light at night but doesn't seem to even out swings)
Temp: between 26.5 - 27.1 celcius
Salinity - 1.026 (RSCP)
Ammonia (currently, though this has varied depending on feeding which seems far too sensitive and can spike to almost 0.8) - 0
Nitrates (currently) - 0
Nitrites (currently) - 0
Phosphates - (been battling as they were super high in order to bring down Alk but currently
- 0.03 (was 0.25 last week)Alk - 14 (this has been a challenge and a huge issue, reaching 16 and confirmed with two different test kits. Believe it was due to the high phosphates. Stopped dosing kalk as a result over a month ago but hasn't really budged. Phosphates have come down within past week so hoping this will kick consumption back in).
Calcium - 380
Mag - 1230
