Started to Feel Defeated

[Scott.h]

Just to add to what's said, you need more water in your sump for the skimmer to work better. Second, you don't want to stir too much junk up at once, but at the same time you need to get after it. Move stuff around to clean. Do some big water changes, even a few days apart. Let your salt mix for a few days before doing the big water changes too, no matter the brand. Big water changes are caustic, even if it mixes clear in 5 minutes. Small water changes, no big deal, big water changes this is important. Personally I'd get a bigger sump. You need a little more room for a fuge section, and you won't be able to get anything more in that thing. Fuges aren't that expensive. I've built mine myself. If you are carrying water from the fish store, that sucks. Depending on your input tds you could get a decent ro/di unit new with filters for $180 bucks. The incoming water from where ever you are getting it might be contaminated too. Test the new water just to see. If your new water contains N and P water changes won't get you anywhere.

Probably the best investments I've made have been in home RO units, and oversized fuges plumbed to the basement. With a big enough fuge you can pretty much stock whatever you want. Referring to your future build.

 

[fishyman19]

First off I just want to thank everyone for the help, my local forum has been pretty useless in helping.

USMC First thanks for your service! It's cool that you can run a tank and stay crazy busy with what you do. I will plan on doing a 30 gallon water change every Friday or Saturday for the next 3 weeks. Right now I only 20 gallons in jugs but I'm sure I can find another couple 5 gallon jugs. Then I'll do the 10 gallon changes from now on. So I'll update that as the weeks go. I do plan on getting an RODI unit sometime soon. My wife is even on board with it, because sometimes she has to go down and get water for me when I'm gone and she's not a fan haha.

DMan thanks for the article I will spend some time looking it over.

Scott, I had a ATO set up on my tank but it failed last week and I've been a bit lazy in making sure the water level is always where it needs to be so my skimmer will work. I will be checking it on a daily basis now. The fish store isn't too far away and I'm really good friends with the owner so it's nice to go down and chat with him every now and then so I don't mind carrying the water. Plus its a great arm workout lol. I had to buy the 90 I have now because my 56 gallon burst a seal, the 90 with stand sump and tank plus other parts that ended up not working was only $400 so I jumped on it. It's been a good tank but it's also been in dire need of an upgrade. If I get this new tank it will take a while to get set up because I want it to be done the right way. So I'll be spending the time.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

You're welcome and thank you. I'm out of the Marine Corps. Did 10 hard years from 2002 - 2012. There's no way i would be able to maintain a tank if I was still in.

 

[fishyman19]

You are welcome, I have a few buddies that try and keep a tank and a career in the military but most of the time they end up selling stuff. So it's got to be nice to settle down and enjoy the hobby.

I'll definitely keep everyone updated on the process of the tank water changes and such. Hopefully this helps to stop coral from dying on me.

 

[fishyman19]

So I just got done with a 20 gallon water change. Didn't have time to get another couple jugs unfortunately. I was thinking I could do a 20 gallon change on Friday and do a 10 gallon change on Saturday? Would that work ok?

I also added a couple sand sifting stars and a tiger conch to help with the sand. Combed some of the sand bed as well.

Either way here's a start of a hopefully successful road to helping my tank get back on track. Anything else I should be doing or should I just keep at it?

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

A bigger water change up front would be ideal but knock it out however you can. Keep chipping away consistently.

As far as adding a sand sifting star, I think one would be enough. They can cover a 90 gallon pretty quickly. Tiger conch I have no ideal about.

 

[fishyman19]

Quick update for you all looking! After 2 weeks of 30 gallon water changes I haven't really noticed a dip in Nitrates. My guess is because they were just that high to start with. Some of the remaining happy corals were looking a little ticked the last couple days so I did a water test and my Nitrates are still reading over 100, but my mag had dropped from 1450 to 1020, and my calcium dropped from 450-390. Not sure why but I've been dosing them back up to normal levels. Trying to maintain the ALK at 9 for now. Seem to be doing ok there. I've lost a couple more of the SPS that were already sad, but the ones that were surviving through this seem to still be doing so. Not seeing any growth from them but they are holding their color and have pretty good polyp extension. So here's to hoping things are going on the right track!

 

[Water Dog]

Clearly, you're nitrate levels have gotten out of hand and are waaay through the roof! If at all possible, try to do a 50% water change in one shot, not in stages. That will automatically halve whatever your nitrate levels are at. I know the LFS guy is your friend, but do you have your own handheld TDS meter to verify that you are in fact getting 0 TDS water?

 

[fishyman19]

Yeah I've been thinking of doing that, but I don't have the jugs to do a 45 gallon water change. I'll probably just keep doing the 30 gallon water changes for the time being till I see it start to drop. I actually went down after I started this thread with a TDS meter and had him test his RO water and it is testing at 0 TDS. I think I just let things go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too long without doing anything about it. So I'll just clinch up for the time being till I get it back on track lol.

 

[Jeff Hall]

IMO...Water changes will work short term but you need to upgrade the filtration, personally I would add a refugium/cheato reactor/algae scrubber as these will keep nitrates in check long term. You could also use some form of carbon dosing (Vodka/vinegar/bio-pellets).

 

[fishyman19]

Carbon was added last weekend, I can't do the other things cause the sump I have doesn't have room. How would one go about doing a chaeto reactor? I could probably do that. I do plan on doing these things when I get a new tank though. So don't lose faith in me haha I've had a few issues through the life of this tank but this has been the worst so far. Guess we all must go through it though. Good learning process I guess.

 

[spiraling]

Carbon was added last weekend, I can't do the other things cause the sump I have doesn't have room. How would one go about doing a chaeto reactor? I could probably do that. I do plan on doing these things when I get a new tank though. So don't lose faith in me haha I've had a few issues through the life of this tank but this has been the worst so far. Guess we all must go through it though. Good learning process I guess.

black activated carbon is different than carbon dosing. dosing involves adding an organic carbon source (vodka, vinegar, nopox) daily which then feeds bacteria that also consume nitrate, and to some degree phosphate. if can be a good way to keep your nitrates down, but with numbers like that I would be inclined to do daily 30 gal changes until you see them fall.