- Joined
- Apr 20, 2019
- Messages
- 205
- Reaction score
- 68
Hello, I am not actually "new" to the hobby but this is the second time I am actually starting a new reef tank from zero. I used dry rock and a few pieces of live rock to cycle my tank and a bunch of bio media. I also added a bottle of microbacter7 after 2 months of cycling. At around this time my ammonia dropped to 0 (I did not measure my nitrites) and after waiting for another month and seeing that my nitrates would not go any higher I did a 100% water change to have a totally clean water before introducing fish (so that I avoid some algae issues). The thing is that I used UNCURED dry rock in my setup as I considered that after 3+ months of cycling it would not leach any more stuff in the water. That's what I thought until I measured my nitrates one day after doing the 100% water change and they were at around 30ppm (I used RO/DI water which measured 0ppm of nitrates for the water change). Despite that, my ammonia kept beeing at 0ppm so I added 6 nassarius snails 1 hermit 2 turbos and 1 clown gobby. A week's time later, since everything was alive and moving I decided to add a 6 spot goby and a mespillia globulus (sea urchin). The gobby was the most extremely stressed fish I had ever seen and died just a day and a half after introducing it, along with one of the turbo snails (a bad sign). During all this time my ammonia kept measuring 0ppm so I supposed that the gobby could have jumped hit it's head on the light and died since it was so stressed (I found it in a part of my sump at the back of the tank). 10 days later.. since everything kept staying alive I added 1 blood shrimp 1 royal gramma and diamond watchman goby. The thing that caught me off guard was that just after 1 hour of introducing them the royal gramma had already claimed a cave as its own, chasing the shrimp away and the shrimp was already eating! 2 Days later I found the shrimp eating the dead gramma... I was concerned that my bacteria would not be able to process the new bio load but I suppose that if that was the case the shrimp would go first or at least the sea urchin would lose some of its spikes! This thing has driven me crazy.. I keep measuring 0 ammonia, my nitrates are increasing at a rate of 5ppm-10ppm daily and I keep losing fish in just a few hours after introducing! I am running a skimmer which from not pulling any gunk in just a day after introducing, the new fish filled half the cup!
I am keep doing water changes to keep my nitrates low but I just can't keep up! They are not high enough to be the culprit here (right now at around 30ppm) but I also cannot understand why am I losing some fish or some invertebrates and not all of them! How come that the sea urchin lives with ease even though the fish tank is fairly new and has no algae to be found but some hardy fish keep dying in such a short amount of time! Could this be my nitrites?? I highly doubt it! I started cycling on early Octomber and it now is February! The dry rock? Before introducing the fish I scrapped them with a tooth brush and did another 70% water change... My alkalinity, phosphates, calcium, magnesium, pH are all where they should be..
I am keep doing water changes to keep my nitrates low but I just can't keep up! They are not high enough to be the culprit here (right now at around 30ppm) but I also cannot understand why am I losing some fish or some invertebrates and not all of them! How come that the sea urchin lives with ease even though the fish tank is fairly new and has no algae to be found but some hardy fish keep dying in such a short amount of time! Could this be my nitrites?? I highly doubt it! I started cycling on early Octomber and it now is February! The dry rock? Before introducing the fish I scrapped them with a tooth brush and did another 70% water change... My alkalinity, phosphates, calcium, magnesium, pH are all where they should be..