4 year old tank

[burns]

I have a 250 gallon tank with a few Tangs some Clown fish and some others. I have a spike in Ammonia and I'm trying to figure out what to do. The Ammonia level is 0.25 Nitrate 10ppm , PH 8.4, water temp 83 Phosphate 0, Nitrite 0. I also do a 30% water change once a month. I also have a good protien skimmer 834w lighting system and wet dry system.

 

[ndepratt]

has anything different happened lately? anything die? have you stirred any of the substrate or any of that?

temp is really high, btw, you should bring it down to more like 78-80 max

 

[Bifferwine]

What kind of invertebrates do you have in the tank? How much do you feed and how often (and what kind of foods)? What kind of water do you use (tap or RODI)?

 

[burns]

I just discoverd 2 weeks ago that I had a Gorilla crab and while I was away on vacation it ate a flame angel, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp,and was in the process of killing my larger angel also my air conditioner went out so the water temp hit 93. funny how it always happens when your not home. But it's now down to 82, I do not have a chiller ,should I? Also I do use a RO system. I feed once a day flake food and once a week silversides to my carpet anemone and hermit crabs. And I vacuum the bottom when I do water changes. I would like to start collecting corals but I want everything correct first. Also I have about 200lb of live rock.

 

[winyfrog]

That was your problem, most invert will die in those temps and fish stress as well which can cause death. Thats probably why your crab was eating them.

a chiller is a good idea if you can't keep your water temps down.

The key to keeping coral successfully is to keep everything as stable as possible, temp, salinity, of course water quality.

 

[yote]

+1 Winy

 

[ndepratt]

ouch.... sorry to hear about your tank troubles.

 

[burns]

Thanks for the help. I'll try to post some pics later