HELP!!!!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

BenPadelski

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
107
Nitrites are at 7ppm and Nitrates are at 160ppm. Take has been established for a month now and I have a maroon clown, a banggai cardinal, a red firefish and a blue/green chromis. What can I do to bring those levels down?!? Also I just did a 10 gallon water change.
 
What is your ammonia result? How big a tank (depending on tank size, your bioload might be too high)? Do you have live rock and sand? Did the rock cure prior to adding the livestock?

In an emergency, you can try to use SeaChem Prime to drop the levels, or drop in a Purigen bag in your filter/sump.
 
What is your ammonia result? How big a tank (depending on tank size, your bioload might be too high)? Do you have live rock and sand? Did the rock cure prior to adding the livestock?

In an emergency, you can try to use SeaChem Prime to drop the levels, or drop in a Purigen bag in your filter/sump.

0 ppm ammonia, 75 gallon tank, no live rock or sand. It was dead and I cycled my tank with Dr Tims One and Only.
 
change 50% of water daily it will come down thats bout all you can do. make sure to add water treatment each time to give fish little relief. you'll probably be doing wc for bout 10 days.
 
While you were cycling the tank (which I assume you did for a month), did you provide an ammonia source for your bacteria (either household ammonia, fish flakes, or a raw cocktail shrimp)? If not, your bacteria died and had nothing to live on; though you should have ammo in your tank now if that were the case.

If your rock was dead (ie, dry), you let it cycle for a month, right? If no rock at all...what are you using for biological filtration? A canister or HOB filter?

I would get canister (or 2 100mL bags) of Purigen and a bottle of Prime. Dose the Prime based on instructions and drop the Purigen into a high flow area. That will get your immediate problem solved. After that, it sounds like you definitely need to get some good bio filtration going.
 
I dont have the time or money to use that much water at a time. I dont have an ro unit cuz I have a ****** well. 38 gallons of water a day for 10 days is 380 gallons. Thats ridiculous.
 
Are you using tap water vs RODI for the tank? What are the baseline readings on your well water for nitrite, nitrate, etc? If you have farming nearby, they may be high due to fertilizers, etc.

You can use an RO unit, but get a booster pump if your pressure is low.
 
While you were cycling the tank (which I assume you did for a month), did you provide an ammonia source for your bacteria (either household ammonia, fish flakes, or a raw cocktail shrimp)? If not, your bacteria died and had nothing to live on; though you should have ammo in your tank now if that were the case.

If your rock was dead (ie, dry), you let it cycle for a month, right? If no rock at all...what are you using for biological filtration? A canister or HOB filter?

I would get canister (or 2 100mL bags) of Purigen and a bottle of Prime. Dose the Prime based on instructions and drop the Purigen into a high flow area. That will get your immediate problem solved. After that, it sounds like you definitely need to get some good bio filtration going.

I added the dr tims and didnt put a fish in till 5 days later. Thats the problem I think. And no not for a month. Dr tims cycles the tank in 48 hrs or less. But no I dont have ammonia. And I have an ecosystems sump. With 80 lb of rock in the display tank.
 
I dont have the time or money to use that much water at a time. I dont have an ro unit cuz I have a ****** well. 38 gallons of water a day for 10 days is 380 gallons. Thats ridiculous.

Also, yes, it's a lot, but it will ensure that your fish survive with no long term ill effects. I had to do this for my freshwater 56 gallon tank to get some parameters that had gone out of whack. It sucked, but my fish look great and have survived.
 
I added the dr tims and didnt put a fish in till 5 days later. Thats the problem I think. And no not for a month. Dr tims cycles the tank in 48 hrs or less. But no I dont have ammonia. And I have an ecosystems sump. With 80 lb of rock in the display tank.

If your rock was dead, you need to cycle for much longer than 5 days. I had dead (BRS dry) rock, used BioSpira, and am still waiting at least 5 weeks before I add any livestock.

Without an ammonia source, your bacteria most likely died on the vine.
 
Are you using tap water vs RODI for the tank? What are the baseline readings on your well water for nitrite, nitrate, etc? If you have farming nearby, they may be high due to fertilizers, etc.

You can use an RO unit, but get a booster pump if your pressure is low.

I am using rodi water. I dont use tap water. And my well is shallow. Its not the pressure im worried about. Im worried about it draining the well.
 
If your rock was dead, you need to cycle for much longer than 5 days. I had dead (BRS dry) rock, used BioSpira, and am still waiting at least 5 weeks before I add any livestock.

Without an ammonia source, your bacteria most likely died on the vine.

Watch mrsaltwatertanks episode on dr tims bacteria. You can add fish immediately.
 
Dr tims cycles the tank in 48 hrs or less.

To quote another AA user, saltwater tanks are like car races: the faster you go, the harder you crash. "Instant" cycling products do add bacteria, but I wouldn't stake the lives of my livestock, my money, or the time spent fixing things, on an "instant" product.
 
To quote another AA user, saltwater tanks are like car races: the faster you go, the harder you crash. "Instant" cycling products do add bacteria, but I wouldn't stake the lives of my livestock, my money, or the time spent fixing things, on an "instant" product.

I gotcha. So you recommend adding bacteria now or what?
 
I would do a 50% change, dose Prime, run Purigen, and I suppose BioSpira wouldn't hurt. Your livestock are putting out enough waste to provide them with a food source, but it's gonna be a tough run for you without daily changes. (The livestock are putting out more waste than the bacteria can run through the nitrogen cycle, so you're going to wind up in the same situation in another couple of days)
 
I've said over and over again, Dr Tim's and other instant cycle additives don't work. They add bacteria to the water column which consume enough ammonia to fake you into thinking you've accomplished a cycle. Meanwhile NO bacteria actually get established on your rocks or sand bed to create a truly established BB colony. End result is you've been suckered into adding fish into a tank with very little bacteria resulting into the start of the true cycle.
 
I've said over and over again, Dr Tim's and other instant cycle additives don't work. They add bacteria to the water column which consume enough ammonia to fake you into thinking you've accomplished a cycle. Meanwhile NO bacteria actually get established on your rocks or sand bed to create a truly established BB colony. End result is you've been suckered into adding fish into a tank with very little bacteria resulting into the start of the true cycle.

+1

Imagine swimming in your septic tank or your town's intake pool at the sewage treatment plant. That's what these fish are going though right now.
 
For info on how to cure your rock, which will also be the start of your cycle, BRS has a great video:
Curing Live Rock For Saltwater Aquariums - YouTube

There is also a good article here on using a cocktail shrimp to ensure a food source for your bacteria during the cure and cycle. If you can't or don't want to do that, household ammonia dosed to 4ppm daily will do the same.
 
Back
Top Bottom