Water levels out of wack! After first full tank siphon

[reefjunkie167]

Hey guys what's going on I decided last week to siphon out all of the sand in my tank it was the first time I ever siphoned the sand my water became very cloudy and I kept on siphoning the tank I had the water pumped into the sock in my sump the next day i made a 50 gallon water change on my Hundred ten gallon setup I had my salinity at 1026 I was told to drop it down 1023 which I did and all my levels spiked I have done 4, 30 gallon water changes in the past week and my nitrates don't seem to go down sump is very clean and the skimmer is working perfectly however I did add a new wavemaker and I have it at a low setting my WellsOphelia and Trachyfelia will not open and my candy canes seem to be having a color change. my nitrates won't drop they have been at 25 for the past week and kh at 12 I am trying to make as many water changes as possible to get the water levels back to normal but nothing seems to be working two of my fish died and another fish has a swollen eye not sure if that has anything to do with the water or just got bacteria in it. Im using red seal coral pro salt. And water is at 1.023
kh 9.9 (3.5)
Po4 .25
No3 50
Mg 1200
Ca 440
Tds-ro-water is 1
This tank has been running for about 3 years and crashed once

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[b-ridge]

First could you please learn how to use periods. Makes it very hard to understand what your trying to say. Your fish swollen eye sounds like a bacteria infection. Possibly popeye. Easily treated with prazipro. To me sounds like your doing too much too often if I?m understanding what your saying. Not letting your system get a chance to rest and settle

 

[rsinanan415]

Why did you siphon the sand (removal or cleaning), and do a 50% water change back to back? Sounds like a lot of stress for your fish and coral

 

[reefjunkie167]

First could you please learn how to use periods. Makes it very hard to understand what your trying to say. Your fish swollen eye sounds like a bacteria infection. Possibly popeye. Easily treated with prazipro. To me sounds like your doing too much too often if I?m understanding what your saying. Not letting your system get a chance to rest and settle

Hey guys, what's going on. I decided last week to siphon out all of the sand in my tank, it was the first time I ever siphoned the sand. My water became very cloudy as I siphoned the tank. I had the water pumped into a sock in my sump. the next day i made a 50 gallon water change because of a massive NO3 spike. i have a 110 gallon tank including my sump. I kept my salinity at 1.026 I was advised to drop it down 1023, which was suppose to balance my water levels after the spike. I have done 4, 30 gallon water changes in the past week and my nitrates don't seem to go down the sump is clean and the skimmer is working perfectly however I did add a new wave maker and keep it at a low setting. my WellsOphelia and Trachyfelia will not open and my candy canes seem to be having a color change. my nitrates won't drop they have been at 25 for the past week and kh at 12 I am trying to make as many water changes as possible to get the water levels back to normal but nothing seems to be working two of my fish died and another fish has a swollen eye. (not sure if that has anything to do with the water levels) or it has bacteria in it. Im using red seal coral pro salt. And water is at 1.023

 

[reefjunkie167]

Why did you siphon the sand (removal or cleaning), and do a 50% water change back to back? Sounds like a lot of stress for your fish and coral

I was cleaning. It looked very dirty.

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[reefiness]

25 no3 isnt the worst thing that can happen to your tank. The drop frok 1.026 to 1.023 is something i would worry mich more about. Who advised you to drop your salinity? For a reef tank 1.026 is perfect. 1.023 is low. Your 12 alk is because youre using a reed mix which usually have elevated elements ti help account for coral consumption. If youre doing so many water changes you need to be using a basic salt or something that is balanced to around 7-8. Red sea pro mixes as high as 14 ive heard.

About the whole cause to begin with... there are 2 different thoughts on keeping sand sand beds... one is keep them clean and vacuumed, the other is leave them alone and let anaerobic bacteria populate it. If you havent toucjed your sand for hears now all of a sudden vaccumed it you just initiated a mini cycle. If you wanted to clean your sand bed you needed to do it in steps and over an extended period. Such as vacuuming 10% of your sandbed each week with your water changes.

And just to clarify, as you vacuumed the sand you just ran it through a dilter sock then back into the tank? Did someone advise you to do that, because that is the worst possible way to do it.

 

[reefjunkie167]

Hey, yes i saw it on youtube where yoybwhere able to siphon your water for couple of hours at a time.

25 no3 isnt the worst thing that can happen to your tank. The drop frok 1.026 to 1.023 is something i would worry mich more about. Who advised you to drop your salinity? For a reef tank 1.026 is perfect. 1.023 is low. Your 12 alk is because youre using a reed mix which usually have elevated elements ti help account for coral consumption. If youre doing so many water changes you need to be using a basic salt or something that is balanced to around 7-8. Red sea pro mixes as high as 14 ive heard.

About the whole cause to begin with... there are 2 different thoughts on keeping sand sand beds... one is keep them clean and vacuumed, the other is leave them alone and let anaerobic bacteria populate it. If you havent toucjed your sand for hears now all of a sudden vaccumed it you just initiated a mini cycle. If you wanted to clean your sand bed you needed to do it in steps and over an extended period. Such as vacuuming 10% of your sandbed each week with your water changes.

And just to clarify, as you vacuumed the sand you just ran it through a dilter sock then back into the tank? Did someone advise you to do that, because that is the worst possible way to do it.

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[reefiness]

Hey, yes i saw it on youtube where yoybwhere able to siphon your water for couple of hours at a time.

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That works for things like trying to siphon out cyano bacteria or something like that. When vacuuming your sand bed you should not be putting that water back into your tank.

What are your nh4 and no2 levels?

I would suggest you get bittled bacteria and dose it for a new tank.