Water Test Readings

[Justinb2188]

Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrate - 15
Nitrite - 0.05
pH - 8
Alkalinity - 3.3

This is under the red sea marine lab test kit...Did 25% water change yesterday with instant ocean reef crystals reef salt with tap water and Api stress coat+

I added the Dr.G's Nitrate remover whole bag in the sump removed that today i have 2 fish dead now blue hippo in tank for 3 months and a mandarin goby 3 months dead withing2 weeks after Dr.G's which was a month ago. Ive been adding live rock just finished that off yestuday. I also have a bad algae problem green mixed with red and almost black algae with long strands looking like hair. So if there is any help i can get so i dont loose everything i also just added some coral dont wanna loose that

 

[little_fish]

Im having a hard time understand exactly what you did when, but clearly you have an issue.

I would suspect that between the tap water and adding the live rock you had quite a bit of die off and that is causing the mini cycle. I also dont think adding the stress coat helped anything.

And you have algae problems because they feeding off the nitrates in the tap water plus what the fish produce in waste.

There really isnt anything you can do but stop using tap water immediately and keep doing water changes until the mini cycle is over

 

[Justinb2188]

ya i use the stress coat in the tap water to take out all the bad stuff in tap water but maybe i should start using RO water then?

 

[little_fish]

Ya, you should not being using tap water. The stress coat only adds chemicals to your water that IMO dont need to be there, and it only takes care of the chlorine, not the nitrates, copper and other nasty stuff found in tap water.

Switching to RO/DI will help your algae problems.

Also, after you have cycled your tank, you really should only add dry rock. Add live is really problematic because its going to be exposed to air and there is going to be some die off which translates to more ammonia than the living bacteria can handle which why you see the cycle.

 

[Justinb2188]

ok well im done adding live rock i have about 70 pounds now in my 75 gallon tank i also heard something not moving the sand around as it will release toxins

 

[little_fish]

Yep, detritus settles down into the sand and when you stir it up it can cause a mini cycle.

 

[Justinb2188]

damn well my fucking clown fish all he does is get low to the sand and shake his ass and stir up all kinds of shit

 

[little_fish]

well, stirring up little bits of it a time is good actually. Most people stir up a small section of their sand every water change so the whole thing doesnt become packed with gunk.

 

[Justinb2188]

ya he does the entire back of the tank so all the sand is in front of the live rock lol

 

[little_fish]

What a good fish, he works for his food.

 

[Justinb2188]

he doesnt eat any of it he just stirs it up i was gonna try and get his some kind of coral so he could shake on that instead of the sand

 

[Smitty]

+1 little fish...stop using tap water and start using r/o water. Your tank is just going thru another cycle.

 

[Justinb2188]

ok ya ill get some of that i just did the water change yestuday should i wait a week

 

[little_fish]

no, you need to do a water change every day until the ammonia and nitrites are gone. And this is why your coral is all shriveled up. And the clown shouldnt be eating any of it.

 

[Justinb2188]

so how much a day like 5 gallons everyday

 

[little_fish]

i would try and do 10 or 15 every day. but its really really really important to use RO/DI or distilled water.

 

[Justinb2188]

what about letting the water sit out for 24 hours

 

[little_fish]

I dont know what you mean by that, but the newly made water should circulate for 24ish hours before being used. So go to walmart and get all the water you need, and make up saltwater to do a water change for tomorrow afternoon. Then when you do your water change you can suck up all the algae you can, and then when youre done make up the water for the next's day water change. Do this until your levels are reading zero.

 

[Justinb2188]

oh ok i got ya just skimming across the sand bed

 

[Justinb2188]

what water can i get from walmart?