so many problems help

[jester]

ok my nitrites were at 2 so i did a water change and cleaned all the decorations in the tank I took 12g of water out of the 60g tank I listened to the lfs and cleaned the decorations with bleach washed them off real good this was yesterday my nitrites are still at 2 and like 4 of my snail are dead and my hermits are eating them what should i do to fix water thanks jester and are the snails dying from cleaning with bleach I washed them off real good but i dont know why they are dying

 

[sw8]

how old is the tank? It seems severly overstocked

 

[BONESTOCK]

6 fish doesn't seem overstocked....

the tang and butterfly seem to be the ones that would require alot of space...but the other guys are fairly small.

 

[jester]

it is about 8 months the only fish in there now are the tang 3inches midas blenny 3 inches and a neon golby 2inches the butterfly died avout a month agoi was never able to get him to eat other than that i have 4 shrimp a camel 2 coral bander they are big about 4 inches each and a pepermint also 15 snails and about 12 hemits

 

[HoopsGuru]

Seems like you either don't have enough biomaterial to handle the bioload of the tank (bacteria need surface areas to colonize), or most likely you disrupted or killed off bacteria and your tank is recycling. Did you clean the bioballs? Medicate the tank?

 

[Sam]

Also did you soak the bleached items in a solution contained a chlorine/chloramine remover? If not, you may have added some bleach into the tank.
Also, I think because you sanitized so much of your media and changed so much of your water, you may have removed significant amounts of you de-nitrifying bacteria colony. As Hoops said above, your tank may now be recycling. HTH

 

[HoopsGuru]

I believe though that the nitrites were at 2 before he did anything....although it would be possibly important to know if you did anything similar recently before noticing the nitrite levels.

 

[jester]

I did not clean the biomedia but i did not use a declorinatior after i washed with bleach i just washed off with water and no i did not do anything to the tank before the nitrites were at 2 they have been at 2 for like a month and a half i cant get them down I dont know what else to do would adding more bio balls help I am worried

 

[Sam]

First off, I would use another brand of test kit, just to be sure that you are not getting a false reading. If this confirms the nitrites, then the only thing you need to do is to cycle the tank. This will allow the relevant bacteria to grow and will quickly reduce your nitrites to zero. At this point any chlorine from your scrub down is no longer there, so just keep that for future. I say again though that I think you probably demolished your bacteria population with the sanitizing. HTH

 

[jester]

what do i have gto do to recycle the tank can i leave the fish in there

 

[pecan2phat]

Try this, 10% water change for 10 days to lower nitite levels and use a nitrifier additive such as Cycle from your LFS or Petco. Just make sure that the 6g of make up water is the correct salinity, well dissolved and close to tank temperature.

 

[Sam]

IMHO, The cycel product, while it may be useful in a FW tank, has no place nor effect in a SW tank. Only ways you should consider is with either LR or the shrimp method. 8)

 

[jester]

can i just leave it alone and test it everyday to make sure it does not go over 2 will it fix itself or just continue to rise i dont want to take the fish and shrimp out if i dont have to i only have a 20 gallon tank to put them in that water is perfect also what if i took the water out of that atnk and put it in the main tank would that help? it is my qt tank but i have it running all the time with one damsel in it

 

[Sam]

Would recommend that you transfer your fish for now to the QT and just change water every other day to keep water quality high. Use the shrimp method to cycle your main tank and test for and be sure you monitor ammonia and nitrites to start with. As the ammonia spike winds down, you should see the nitrite spike.
As the nitrite spike winds down, start testing for nitrates. This should start to increase. When ammonia and nitrites are 0, do the water change and then transfer your fish back. If you want to leave them in and take you chances, that of course is a risk you have to decide if you want to take. HTH

 

[jester]

I took all my fish out and put them in the 20g qt because one of my mated banded coral shrimp died man im pissed they were hard as hell to find they are about 4inches each or were I left my snails and hermit crabs in there should i move them as well or can they make it? and one damsel i put it the main cause he attacks my other fish will the tank cycle with the one damsel in there or should i use the shrimp also right ow my ammonia is at 2 and my nitrites are at 2 let me know what i should do and i will start today thanks i dont want to lose anything else

 

[Sam]

I would not put the damsel in the main tank. You may want to try the following so that you take the edge off of the aggression:

Place the damsel in an breeding container (just make sure you have good water circulation). Rearrange the stuff you have in the 20G. Leave the damsel in the container for a couple of days then release. This should help. I would also remove all your inverts. They are expecially susceptible to water quality issues. Once everything is out. Start your cycle (keep lights off or you will have an unhold algae bloom). Sorry to hear about the loss of the coral banded. I know how it hurts to lose anything. Good luck. Let us know how you make out. Glad to help in anyway we can.

 

[HoopsGuru]

The sanitizing event still doesn't explain why the tank has been lingering at 2ppm of nitrites both before and after the cleaning. Something occurred before that has hindered the cycle from completing, or there is not enough biomedia available for the livestock you have. Have you noticed any jump in ammonia during this time period? If not, then your tank is not completely recycling. IMO, there is still a missing "x" factor involved that may or may not rectify itself by trying to cycle over again.

 

[jester]

yes my nitrite have been at 2 for about 2 months then last week my ammonia jumpped to 2 after i cycled the tank for 2and a half months everything was at 0 then a couple months later this happend I dont know if this makes a diffrence but my biomedia is the stringy stuff not the balls are the balls better? also i know my protein skimmer was not pulling barley anything out I thought maybee it was evaporating but then i noticed the damn fell down to a low level I will take all inverts today thanks

 

[jester]

also should i add some live rock i have ben thinking about doing that i read it makes a huge diffrence thanks once again for your help and simpathy

 

[Sam]

LR would definitely help and yes I think the bio-balls would help. However you will see opinions here that say that if you have enough LR, you do not need the bio-balls as this will lead to a higher nitrate level than without it. I myself use both LR and bio-balls and my nitrate levels hover around 10-15 ppm. So its up to you how you want to proceed with this. However from what you have said so far, you do need to start the cycle and at least zero out your ammonia and nitrites. Also remember to cross check with another test kit to be sure you are not getting erroneous results from the one you are using now. HTH