Test results are in and its not looking good! Any advice?

[W1ngz]

We have a backlog of unanswered threads. They normally don't get so long. I suspect some of it started when the site got revamped. I'm at the end and working my way forward. Hopefully someone will see yours soon. You can always reply to your thread and it will move it to the most recent list.

Gonna try and get those cleaned up a little bit:

Unanswered threads

Not sure if it's something you'd want to do, but would it be feasible to exclude the vendor and buy/sell sections from the unanswered threads list? It might be easier for folks to find passed-over questions and people who need help if it focused more on user threads than the other stuff.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Dude, you haven't even had your tank for a full month yet according to the estimated time line of your post. I wish I were able to figure out everything so fast like you have. No wonder your tank is so beautiful and you have only shown success in this thread!

I don't actually think my tank is beautiful, though I admit the algae is quite colorful. Unfortunately the red algae also murdering my coral! The tank is about 1.5 months old right now and I think the reason for success when everyone preached guaranteed fail was the organics of it. I didn't go with synthetics, I used NSW. I used prime to get rid of the amonia and used bacteria from a fresh water tank. I also killed about 20 shrimp in the first 2-3 days I had this tank which I fed to my turtles, they loved it! After the last had died I found one hiding in the sand a few days later so my ammonia loads should have been ultra-high at the time, but water changes with NSW and prime after each water change made the impossible possible. I also started the tank with live sand which I eventually removed because it was filled with detritus. So if you think about it, dead shrimp from a river which flows to the ocean, sand from the ocean, water from the ocean. The only thing about this tank that was different than the ocean is the glass!

 

[Bleigh]

Gonna try and get those cleaned up a little bit:

Unanswered threads

Not sure if it's something you'd want to do, but would it be feasible to exclude the vendor and buy/sell sections from the unanswered threads list? It might be easier for folks to find passed-over questions and people who need help if it focused more on user threads than the other stuff.

www.reef2reef.com

Lol... Me and @Hemmdog have been trying. lol. We knocked out about 7 pages or so, so far. All the help we can get is appreciated.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Also, i have to ask, why are you cycling your resoivoir tank? What is your reasoning there, I have a feeling people stopped arguing with you about it because you are so close minded, but I would love to know your reasoning.

I don't want this one to slip through because its Genius if I say so myself, though I consider myself sub-genius. The ocean water is going to have some ammonia and contaminants that I don't really want in my tank. So I dump it in this reservoir and it sits. The bacteria break down the ammonia, nitrites, and maybe even some nitrate. When I pull water from the reservoir, I try to take it from the center. If you know chemistry than you'll know that most contaminants would either sink to the bottom of rise to the top because they won't have the same density as the NSW. If the reservoir gets too many contaminants, sure the center would be pure contamination, but I'll need to dump it all long before that happens. Maybe once a year, I haven't calculated that out yet. What I do know is that the math works out. By the time the water is added to the tank its far safer to use than unprocessed NSW! Like it or not, it works, PROVEN!

Yes, this was a shamless plug for Discordianism & The Church of the SubGenius , sad that I even have to say that but I'm certainly not in my own group!

 

[Bryson.bobby]

Reservoir tank? Is that an ato reservoir?

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Reservoir tank? Is that an ato reservoir?

Not yet! It will be some day. The big plans is to use some automation to both draw the water in, and also drain some out for a constant cycle. Maintaining salinity in this heat (keeping it from going too high) is going to be the challenge.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

I tried too, just don't know anything about that type of algae haha, hope it all works out

Thank you very much for even trying! If there is ever anything you need help with and think I might be of help tag me I’ll help however I can

 

[MnFish1]

I don't want this one to slip through because its Genius if I say so myself, though I consider myself sub-genius. The ocean water is going to have some ammonia and contaminants that I don't really want in my tank. So I dump it in this reservoir and it sits. The bacteria break down the ammonia, nitrites, and maybe even some nitrate. When I pull water from the reservoir, I try to take it from the center. If you know chemistry than you'll know that most contaminants would either sink to the bottom of rise to the top because they won't have the same density as the NSW. If the reservoir gets too many contaminants, sure the center would be pure contamination, but I'll need to dump it all long before that happens. Maybe once a year, I haven't calculated that out yet. What I do know is that the math works out. By the time the water is added to the tank its far safer to use than unprocessed NSW! Like it or not, it works, PROVEN!

Yes, this was a shamless plug for Discordianism & The Church of the SubGenius , sad that I even have to say that but I'm certainly not in my own group!

This is wrong. There is no reason to cycle a reservoir. Most people have a tank with enough bacteria present to handle some dead phytoplankton. I know chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology and a couple other things - and this is not correct. (I will rephrase - it won't hurt - but it is not necessary - and is not applicable to 99.999999999999999999999999 percent of reefers). I left out 100% because there is one that thinks its beneficial. There are MULTIPLE threads of people using Natural sea water - they dont cycle their reservoir - so I consider this as UNPROVEN.

 

[MnFish1]

The plugs are on top of this light which is my big problem with that, plus I don't want to interfere with the cooling fans. If I can improve the ventilation and make holes for the plugs a few inches may be doable. An access panel would be awesome but I would have to call back the carpenter for that.

Here is a suggestion going forward - and understand - you might not have a lot of selection to choose from where you are at - but - You should only buy the equipment that works for your application - If this light doesnt work for you - because of plugs, etc etc - don't buy it.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

The new light has caused a big problem. It is apparently killing the brown algae and has caused an ammonia spike. I added some more quick start bacteria and have been trying to find a level for the lighting that the Torch coral are OK with. I could be wrong but I suspect the blue light is acting like a UV sterilizer and has just wiped out pathogens leading to a ammonia spike. Nothing visible is dead other than some algae. The tube worms, star fish and clown fish are all still alive. With the high ammonia level its hard to differentiate if the Torch is responding to the lighting or the ammonia. The ammonia level seems to be dropping fast so maybe this is a massive kill-off of pathogens and the bacteria is doing its job of converting the ammonia. I honestly don't know. I ran the light for a few hours at 15%, and am now doing pure blue at about 30% and monitoring ammonia.

May I point out that it was previously suggested that I upgrade my lighting, now that I have upgraded it the results are bad. My point here is that I am taking some of the advice I get here, but be reasonable I can't just magically manifest equipment in a matter of minutes just because someone suggests it!

(edit) I changed things around a bit and the strongest/healthiest torch appears to have turned greenish in color. I was running at less than 1W per gallon florescent prior to this so maybe this is the corals actual color, I don't know. It didn't turn white which is what usually happens before they die. One of them also ejected a thick brown "pellet" into the water. I've seen them eject strings of waste before but never a pellet. There is literally nothing I can do at this point so I'll just let nature take its course. Live and let die!

(edit) This is like a bad episode of countdown to disaster. The tank is due a 10% water change so that is what I am doing now, but a cockroach decided to die in the reservoir. Now I have to test its levels before I use it! *GRR*. Test came back negative for Amonia, but still. Nature deserves a big kick in her (explicative deleted)

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Crisis averted. Ammonia is back down to its trace reading 0.25 ppm, and Nitrite is at zero. A 10% water change from the reservoir, along with the dosing of quick start (bacteria) has brought the stats back into control. Salinity has risen back up to 1.024 thanks to the hot weather. The high temperature of this tank accelerates things which helps correct problems but I suspect problems (spikes) are also happening more quickly due to the heat also.

(edit) as they say necessity is the mother of invention. I was able to raise the light about 2 inches. It can't move any more than it is now as the power cords are already touching the top.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Here is a better picture of the current situation. There's no more room!

 

[LOVEROCK]

I don't actually think my tank is beautiful, though I admit the algae is quite colorful. Unfortunately the red algae also murdering my coral! The tank is about 1.5 months old right now and I think the reason for success when everyone preached guaranteed fail was the organics of it. I didn't go with synthetics, I used NSW. I used prime to get rid of the amonia and used bacteria from a fresh water tank. I also killed about 20 shrimp in the first 2-3 days I had this tank which I fed to my turtles, they loved it! After the last had died I found one hiding in the sand a few days later so my ammonia loads should have been ultra-high at the time, but water changes with NSW and prime after each water change made the impossible possible. I also started the tank with live sand which I eventually removed because it was filled with detritus. So if you think about it, dead shrimp from a river which flows to the ocean, sand from the ocean, water from the ocean. The only thing about this tank that was different than the ocean is the glass!

You seem to know what cha doing , why bother with this forum ?

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

You seem to know what cha doing , why bother with this forum ?

There were a few nice people I met here but you are right. Its not worth it! Nearly every advice I received lead to another dead coral. I think they do it intentionally!

 

[Cell]

There were a few nice people I met here but you are right. Its not worth it! Nearly every advice I received lead to another dead coral. I think they do it intentionally!

Yeah sure, its everyone else's fault. This thread should be locked up and thrown out. It's about the worst thing going on R2R right now.

 

[NewbieReefer11]

I don't actually think my tank is beautiful, though I admit the algae is quite colorful. Unfortunately the red algae also murdering my coral! The tank is about 1.5 months old right now and I think the reason for success when everyone preached guaranteed fail was the organics of it. I didn't go with synthetics, I used NSW. I used prime to get rid of the amonia and used bacteria from a fresh water tank. I also killed about 20 shrimp in the first 2-3 days I had this tank which I fed to my turtles, they loved it! After the last had died I found one hiding in the sand a few days later so my ammonia loads should have been ultra-high at the time, but water changes with NSW and prime after each water change made the impossible possible. I also started the tank with live sand which I eventually removed because it was filled with detritus. So if you think about it, dead shrimp from a river which flows to the ocean, sand from the ocean, water from the ocean. The only thing about this tank that was different than the ocean is the glass!

First of all why did you put 20 shrimp in there? What type of shrimp were they. And how did they die.
Not even regarding the fact that you added freshwater bacteria. (freshwater and saltwater bacteria are not the same unless I am mistaken.
My start to the hobby wasn't fantastic either but from listening to what people said and spending countless ours on this forum and YouTube I slowly learner what to do and what not to do.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

First of all why did you put 20 shrimp in there? What type of shrimp were they. And how did they die.
Not even regarding the fact that you added freshwater bacteria. (freshwater and saltwater bacteria are not the same unless I am mistaken.
My start to the hobby wasn't fantastic either but from listening to what people said and spending countless ours on this forum and YouTube I slowly learner what to do and what not to do.

I live in a fishing village so this was the regular shrimp they sell at the market. I wanted to use them to test that the salt water tank was "livable" for fish. I later found out that this breed of shrimp can't really survive in captivity and need river water, not salt water. I wasn't really doing it to cycle the tank but their deaths certainly would have spiked the ammonia levels really high. You are right that most bacteria from freshwater won't survive in saltwater, and vice-versa, but some strains can. I'm less than a mile from the ocean, and less than 2 meters above sea level so the bacteria from the ocean is almost certainly intermingling with the ground water from our well. Back to the bacteria issue, I also used live sand with detritus, and re-used the filter from my previous freshwater tank.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. I would NEVER have done it this way with the knowledge I have now. I would have dosed bacteria from day one. The quick start bacteria doesn't specifically say if its for freshwater or saltwater so I'm not sure how it is any different than using freshwater filters in a saltwater tank, but I trust it more than the wild bacteria I used, especially if you aren't using NSW. With the knowledge I have now I would have only used 1 shrimp, already dead to cycle the tank.

As for the advice I've received

Increase salinity to 1.024 - Killed 1 Torch coral
Increase salinity to 1.024 - Killed Star Coral (Red Algae also a factor)
Add better lighting - All 3 remaining torch coral are completely stressed
Red algae isn't a problem - Killed 1 Torch Coral

This is every death in my tank so far.

I need to clairify that 1.024 salinity wasn't the actual problem, but the I was told to do a 10% water change with 1.030 salinity water. I thought it would take multiple water changes, but no, first water change and I was at 1.024. The sudden shock caused stress and deaths.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Dude I am South African I have a home in the U.K. and I currently work in China.

Well, you now know how dangerous the U.S. can be

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

It looks like things have improved a lot! The torches are now recovering. 90% of the red algae which was attacking the coral has been killed by the new light. Most of the brown algae has also been killed, not a big loss. There is still a reasonable amount of green/hair algae but I have no problem with that. Apparently the micro-ecosystem just takes time to adjust to the new lighting.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

So I have ordered a full set of Salifert test kits and have new numbers. My Phosphate and Nitrate are really high which seems odd because I did a 20% water change last week. Could this be from over-feeding the corals?

API

PH: 7.6
PH High: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 80

Salifert

PH: 8.15
Nitrate: 87.5
Phosphate: 2
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1395
Alkalinity: 8

You will notice that I'm farming algae, this is intentional as I'm hoping this will reduce the nitrate levels but so far there hasn't been any noticeable effect. I'm still waiting for the equipment to build a sump, apparently they labeled the bulkheads as fragile and they're being sent by boat which is why its taking over 5 weeks to deliver.