Anenome Died -Spike in Nitrates/Trates- What to do?

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bootz

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
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My condy anemone recently died. I wasn't able to get it out in time, so it caused spike in my nitrates (20ppm) and nitrites (1.0ppm). I want to save the fish (clownfish, dottyback and a flame angelfish). I've done about a 10% water change, removed all the visible pieces from the tank, and i am doing another water change. Is there anything I should or should not be doing?
 
I would do another water change as soon as possible to be safe. taking out 3g probably wasnt enough to get all the toxins out of the tank.

Good luck!
 
Just be cautious when doing the water changes not to stress your fish out. Carey is right though 3 g is not enough. I would go 5g but not anymore than that.
 
So far i changed 4g of water and still a trace amount of nitrite (.50) . I was also concerned about stressing my fish out and i was gonna let it sit for a little hopefully it drops to 0.
 
If it doesnt I recommend cleaning your live sand just enough to stir it up just incase it settled in your sand then let it clear up and you will have a spike but do another water change. Two days later do another. I've heard this works and some people don't recommend it but in this case it would probably help.
 
I still had a Nitrite reading when i woke up this morning i actually have a 10lb bag of LS would it be ok to mix some of that into my sand bed so i have more good bacteria in the tank?
 
My answer would be yes I doubt it would hurt anything and it may help. Did you test your alk levels?
 
I'm not sure I would be mucking up the sand bed though, specially after the nem did a number on your readings.

water changes will do the trick, just be gentle...lol You need to get rid of those nitrites before they do any damage.
 
Yeah water changes are the best way to reduce anything bad. Water changes are practically the cure-all :D
 
I have been doing some water changes today but so far not much success. I decided to try to get a little more bacteria via Stability Tank Stabilization by seachem i just put a little in( a cap full) and my nitrite is down not a significant amount( about .25ppm) but the fish look good and are swimming around in a normal fashion + i decided to skip today's feeding to help stabilize the tank.
 
Same thing happened to me. I had a long tentacle anenome. I got hungry and ate my seahare. Needless to say I lost both animals and my nitrate levels went threw the roof. I changed about 30 percent water and cleaned my sand at the same time. I have had no problem since.
 
i cleaned the sand out,did about a 30% water change and added some bacteria to the mix. All is ok now parameters are back to normal but i am going to monitor my tank for 2 more weeks before i think its ok. Meanwhile i just started a 5gallon nano reef..
 
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