Q: What causes 20ppm nitrate spike & foul skimmer smell?

[JAG107]

A: Dead ribbon eel that I didn't notice was expired for 3 days! :pooh:Found the skeleton behind all the rockwork last night. Did a 10% water change immediately (all I had mixed and ready) & another today. All the corals and fish are healthy though, I'll keep my fingers crossed. Man that thing got cleaned up fast! nothing but bones left. I had him for 7 months, I'm guessing it died from malnutrition. :death:

 

[RyanG]

Yep thatll do it for sure. Get the water change stuff around.

 

[Rcpilot]

I'd have just left him in there and watched the water. A 100g tank with a good crew of crabs and cleaners should eat that up in a few days. Skimmer will take out the rest of it. 10ppm nitrates for a week or two? Big deal. Corals need nitrates to grow anyways. Your refugium or DSB will process 10ppm out of the water in time. Cheato and corals both use nitrates as food. Thats why we use cheato. BECAUSE it eats nitrates. So does the zoathelle algae in all photosynthetic corals. Just not 50ppm. 10ppm? Fine.

That skeleton would have been a nice calcium boost for the tank. :mrgreen:

 

[yote]

Hate to hear about your eel.
It dont take long for dead and dieing critters to get cleaned up in a tank.

 

[JAG107]

No, I left him in, didn't feel like breaking the tank down :)
Chaeto needed a snack I suppose, all levels are coming back down just fine.

 

[sicklids]

haha! in my fresh water tanks i always went and looked for "floaters"! in my SW tank, there is no such thing as a "floater", they get eaten before they get the chance to float! it truly is a different world with just a little salt in the water!! haha!!!