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I need some help

mori30

mori30

I know i have to be doing something wrong with my reef/fish tank.
let me explain why i think so.


i Only use RO\DI water for top offs and water change. i feed my fish once a day every other day and the amount its about a pinch of pebble food,
i got 8 fish and 2-3 corals, (mostly leather,shrooms)
i do water changes every sunday(like a ritual) lately i been doing 30g water changes, my tank its 115H tank with a 36gal sump my skimmer has been dead for the past 3-5 months and even before that
I cant keep a coral to save my life, and some fishes, I don't know what is it that im doing wrong, and i dont know of course what to do in order to fix it. my no2/3/4 are all pretty high witch i dont understand why.

any suggestions?
i will answer any question ya might have.
thanks
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
Need more info.

What are your water parameters? How big and what kind of fish do you have? What are you using for circulation?

There could be too many things to guess.

Sunny
 
Last edited:
hcker99

hcker99

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What's the TDS/Phosphate reading coming out of your RO? When was the last time the filters were changed? How old is the tank? Do you run any carbon/gfo? What food are you feeding? What fish? How big are they? What's wrong with your skimmer? What kind of lighting? When were the bulbs changed?

I can go on and on but it's best if you can tell us everything you know about your tank including when these issues started.
 
mori30

mori30

ok let me answer those Q

1- i havent done the water test this week yet, but the last time i did they were all bad special no3
2-2x moroon clown/solar wrasse/yellow watchman/black blenie/3xdansels
3-the biggest its about 4 inches the smallest its about 1 inch
4-the reading out of my Ro\DI its 0
5-the air pump on my skimmer die (c-skimmer 1800)
6-i use a sicce 5.0 as main pump/ 2x korely 1050
7-lights are 2 x 250watts HQI with 2 x 96watts ateni the main lights were changed about 6 months ago
8- i got 2x socks on my sump witch i change every 3-5 days
9-i do have a bag of carbon in it
10- the tank its a lil over a year
11-food is spectrum marine formula
12- i have cheato in the sump. it hasnt die per say but it hasnt grown either, i also HAD/have 4 mangrove in there as well at one point even bloomed, no anymore
13- total ammount of water its 151 gallons
14- water temp at a 76-77 ALWAYS (chiller pluss heaters)

any more Q i will answer of course.
 
hcker99

hcker99

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What test kit are you using? Do a full work up and tell us the results (Ammonia, Nitrate, Phosphate, Mag, Alk, etc...)
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
You said all tests were bad and NO3 was specially bad. Well that is a problem. You need to get the parameters in order.

What were exact test reading. Do the test again and post the readings.

Also like hcker stated, which test kits do you use and how old are they.
 
reefsandrotts

reefsandrotts

NJRC Member
How long are you leaving the carbon in your socks?
Its only good for a few days till it leaches everything back into the system,I dont run carbon or gac on my system
 
Hotdogg

Hotdogg

Water changes are to remove dirt, leftover food and detritus from your system...if your phosphate is high, you may not be getting the crud out. Change your socks every day, blow your rocks and vacuum your substrate. If your RODI is coming out zero tds, then it is in your tank. You are doing large water changes, you just might not be getting out the crud.
 
Coolaid

Coolaid

I really would recommend getting a skimmer going on that tank too. Maybe look into adding a phosban reactor and running GFO as well to bring the phosphates in check. Siphon out the tank taking special care to clean out any dead spots that may have built up, if you notice an area of large buildup of crap, then think about a way to add flow to that area as well.
 
mori30

mori30

ok sorry guys with the holidays and new years i been busy, so let me answer to all the Q.

im using API testing and i still haven't done a recent test , cause i know more or less its going to be bad.

salinity its .28 and im using a defra thing, what ever its called. that its calibrated

I do have my skimmer, but its been broken for the past 5 months im waiting to see if they gonna replace the part i need or if im gonna have to sell it and try to buy a new one somehow,

I do squirt the rocks and most areas with a turkey baster before i do water changes.

as ya can see by my answers, as far as i know im doing mostly if not all that i should be doing. and yet i still having issues, it just seem crazy,, smh,
 
hcker99

hcker99

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Try a different test kit or bring your water to an LFS or local reefer and have them test. I'm really not a fan of those API test kits. You want to test the fresh water out of your RO, your salt water mixed, and your current tank water.
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

mori30 said:
ok sorry guys with the holidays and new years i been busy, so let me answer to all the Q.

im using API testing and i still haven't done a recent test , cause i know more or less its going to be bad.

salinity its .28 and im using a defra thing, what ever its called. that its calibrated

I do have my skimmer, but its been broken for the past 5 months im waiting to see if they gonna replace the part i need or if im gonna have to sell it and try to buy a new one somehow,

I do squirt the rocks and most areas with a turkey baster before i do water changes.

as ya can see by my answers, as far as i know im doing mostly if not all that i should be doing. and yet i still having issues, it just seem crazy,, smh,
Click to expand...

So, one step at a time.
First, the SG is a bit high. .026 is about right for a reef tank. Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer? When was the last time you calibrated it and how did you calibrate it? The reason I ask is because over time, they start to give false readings unless they are calibrated routinely. When our SG gets out of wack, our other parameters follow suit. .028 alone should not kill anything, but I would really like to know where your dKh is.

Second, the skimmer. Not running a skimmer is likely a big part of this problem. Even with water changes, trying to keep coral without a skimmer can be very tough. We keep coral in our 12g, which does not have a skimmer, but the tank has tiny fish, and only LPS. That said, have you tested your make up water for phosphates? For nitrates?

I know you said the TDS on the RO/DI was zero, but have you used a handheld TDS to verify that you are getting a correct reading from the inline TDS meter?

Keeping fish when nitrates and phosphates are high is very tough. Keeping coral when they are high are nearly impossible. Squirting the rocks with a baster is good, but it seems like your current problem is identifying the source of the problems.
What tests, exactly did you do?
What were the readings?
How old are your test kits?
As Sunny asked, how is your water movement?
When you set the tank up, did you use new live rock? What about new live sand?
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
I am sorry to say, but you don't seem to be taking/making any serious efforts to save your live stock. You have been given a lot of advice in this thread and your responses have been delayed and not very helpful. Do you realize that each day you are making things worse for yourself? A week ago you said you tested weeks ago and your parameters were bad. Now you are saying you don't want to retest because you know it will be bad.

Honestly, what is it that you want us to help you with? The bare minimum you can do it, try and get some basics rights.

People here are trying to help you and almost everyone is asking for your parameter readings. So far all you have done is, negate that.

Sorry for being hard on you but I am not very convinced that you want to save your tank.

The least you can do is, put in a serious effort to change things around. Then it happens or not it is your luck but at least you tried.

Sunny
 
mori30

mori30

Sorry but I been busy and haven't had the chance to get back to you guys I just replaced my skimmer recently, and boy was it needed.

The test where done and saved to my pc. But the. I had issue with the pc and had to reinstalled so lost that. I would do a test right now but I'm o. The end of the water change. I do them on Sundays. So I want to wait till Sunday before I do a test. Otherwise I believe it's not gonna be as accurate

So ya understand. My skimmer die and the one of my korali 1400 die as well but I gotten them Both replaced/fixed now

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1364009713.738128.jpg

This is my tank. At the time I was asking for help

Like I say I will test on this Sunday and post the results even with pictures. Of the tubes.
 
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