Weird levels

[pzunker]

Hi- I came home today to a huge green algae outbreak and very sickly looking green bubble tip anemones. They are alive but pretty withered and have some dark spots on them. (Maybe algae?) One looks better than the other. Anyhow, I took my levels right away and my pH was 8.4, Ammonia was .25, Nitrite was 0 but my Nitrate was spiked up to 40ppm. Thats never been that high. My salinity was a bit high at .026 as well. I added fresh RO water, some Prime nitrate detoxifier, and some AquaVitro Fuel. The fish are all happy as can be, so Im a little stumped. I cleaned the glass and stirred the sand bed a bit so the algea is better now. Any thoughts?

 

[obscurereef]

pH and salinity are fine. Just don't raise it anymore. Don't remember if I asked you this before, but did you cycle and did the ammonia get up to 4ppm or higher to have a strong enough cycle/enough bacteria to support what you put in there?

 

[pzunker]

Ya- the tank had a nice cycle. Its 2+ months old now. Everything thats in there has been there for a while and been just fine. But then all of a sudden the really high Nitrate level today.

 

[pzunker]

Very strange, but the anemonies look much better already an its only been an hour.

 

[obscurereef]

Why did you add the anemones so soon?

 

[pzunker]

It was about 5-6 weeks from the beginning. Got a little antsy I guess. But they have been doing fine; even growing a bit. They have already perked up quite a bit tonight though.

 

[Beengirl]

Those anemones look quite bleached. The one seems almost transparent. How long have you had them? What kind of lights do you have?

 

[pzunker]

One has only been about 2 weeks. The other, over a month. I've got a twin T5 set up, with one sun and one flora bulb. I don't believe they are UHO bulbs though.

 

[pzunker]

As I think about it, Ive been leaving my flora bulb off to help slow down an algae outbreak. I bet thats why the amenonies look like they do.

 

[Sniperhank]

Well, the nems are bleached because of lack of light. A 2 bulb t5ho isn't enough for a nem. The bulbs you are describing sound more like bulbs for freshwater, more importanly sound more like a freshwater planted tank...this might be helping to fuel the growth of your algae.

What are your nitrate levels? When was your last water change?

 

[pzunker]

Last water change a week ago. All levels within normal range except nitrates. They were 40ppm the other day but they were at 0 up till then

 

[pzunker]

Not sure what you mean by freshwater anted tank...

 

[Sniperhank]

The bulbs we use come at different spectrums to provide the growth needed. Corals use specific spectrums, which is why you'll see bulbs in the 10k-20k range. Algae will increase growth when these bulbs age, as the color spectrum changes with time. I'm not sure what freshwater uses anymore in terms of spectrum.

What kind of T5 unit are you using? Did you get your bulbs from Petco?

 

[pzunker]

Its a SWtank...

 

[Kio707]

Your lights are not enough to sustain life for a nem... The reason he said ur lights sound like a freshwater set up is because they are not high output and the brand. U would need at least a 6-8 t5 HO bulb set to sustain a nem.

 

[pzunker]

Any suggestion on a good light set up? When you say "6", do you mean 6 bulbs or......?

 

[Kio707]

Any suggestion on a good light set up? When you say "6", do you mean 6 bulbs or......?

Yes, 6 to 8 bulbs... I have taotronics LEDs on my 180g... Look at this on eBay:

TaoTronics 120W Aquarium Coral Reef Tank White Blue LED Grow Light- White

http://bit.ly/RAnsjV

 

[Reeffanman]

And u have 3 of these? How do u like them?

 

[Kio707]

And u have 3 of these? How do u like them?

I love them. U can see the results in my thread.. Kio 3.0