Tank Smell/Crash???

[jamesonwhiskey]

Ammonia was still at 1.0 this morning so I did a 50% water change... I put in Instant Ocean BIO-Spora as well after the change. Also put in the new LED light from Wingo and it looks great.

My live rock had a lot of die off on them so I shook them around before draining out the 25 gallons to get rid of what I could.

Not as many fish died as I thought they were just hiding behind rocks. A couple of polyps opened up so far, let's see how it looks in the morning.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

For anyone still following, my params as of last night.

Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Natrate 5-10
PH 8.28
KH 12
Mag 1365
Calc 460

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

How is the the live stock?

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Corals are not great, they haven't opened in over a week but they haven't died completely yet.

Lost most of my snails which I plan to start re-adding as soon my ammonia is back to 0.

I definitely lost 1 Cleaner Shrimp, the other might be hiding behind the rocks.

I lost a Flameback Angel, Chromis and Gold Head Sleeper Goby.

All my rocks are on the bottom from when I did the 50% water change... figured I would leave them since I got the stronger light now and I might need another big water change.

I like the LED light a lot... one feature I wish it had is to be dimmable, or to have an option to turn on/off only 5 or 6 blue LEDs to use as moon lights... right now it's sitting on top of the glass canopy, not sure if I should hang it above or not though.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Ammonia is back down to 0, Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are at about 20. Going to do a water change tonight...

 

[mbg75]

You would be better off without the glass cover.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

You would be better off without the glass cover.

what's your reasoning behind?

 

[aznmajik]

Allows for better oxygen exchange, and prevents heat buildup.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

Allows for better oxygen exchange, and prevents heat buildup.

temperature is ok for me with my chiller....

The back corner of my tank is uncovered so between that and the overflow, sump overflow, protein skimmer I'm ok on oxygen exchange... I asked about this before on here and generally no one thought it was a problem.

I had way too much evaporation without the cover on causing my salinity to swing a lot...

 

[aznmajik]

I don't think salinity swings too much with evaporation. My 15g nano looses almost a liter of water a day, which I top off nightly. I believe livestock are much more forgiving for salinity swings.

Also, it just looks better

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

I did another small change and Nitrates are down to 10... Ammonia and Nitrites are both 0. The problem I have now is that there is a ton a detritus in my tank on the rocks, on the damaged corals, etc... I'm guessing because so many snails have died. I tried stirring it up while vacuuming the sand to see if it would filter down the sump but it all settled back down. What's the best solution... start building my clean up crew again and let them take care of it?

Corals still not open except for one of them too.

 

[James]

best solution if you have a lot of detritus is to create a siphon (with whatever you use for water changes) into a filter sock in your sump and then just suck it all out.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

best solution if you have a lot of detritus is to create a siphon (with whatever you use for water changes) into a filter sock in your sump and then just suck it all out.

I'll give it a try with my sand cleaner... was also thinking of putting the live rock in a bucket of water and shaking it off.