30g question

So i have had my 30g tank for over a year now, and currently I have three clowns, a choc chip star fish, a blenny and some cleaner shrimp.

I noticed that for the last week my starfish hasnt been eating, and just stays immobile but will lift an arm every so often, I tried to feed again last night and he didnt take it, I did a 25% water change and this is what my readings came up with

Nitrites 1.0
chlorine 0
alkalinity 300
pH 8.4-8.8
Nitrate 160-200

I am tryin to figure out how i can lower the pH without raising the alkalinity, I have a new bucket of water mixing right now but that probably wont be ready for a week or so, so im worried that since its not cycled it will just add to the fire

 

what test kits are you using txmudnhunt
that alkalinity reading looks a bit off to me
and that nitrate level needs attention

Nitrite should not be present in a system thats 1 year old, maybe a recent fish death? which has created additional bioload the bacteria cant keep up with

whats your filtration system? Im going to guess at an external cannister filter
if so what have you got in there?

tell us as many details as you can about your set up/ equipment/ maintainance routine
and Im sure we can offer advice on how to get those numbers back in order

Steve

 

Its just the simple hob filter, I havent had a death in my tank at all though, I know my starfish is sick but i moved him into a qt tank alone. Ive been reading that if your pH is high its going to cause your alkalinity to be off as well, the only piece of live rock in there is the rock the blenny lives in, and the rest of the fish are all healthy and active and eating as normal. the star fish however isnt looking all that great, I bought him fully grown and he has been fine since up til recently.

im using both the quick dip strips and the red sea test kits. Plus i went to the LFS and had them test my water just to re verify, it was worse yesterday, but when i did the water change it lowered the levels a little bit.

I am going to do another change today maybe do more than just 25% to see if that helps even things out, the tanks been so stable and everything was great i test my water everytime i change water. I am at a loss on what to do with the star fish, i thought about taking him to the LFS for them to look at and see what they think. I keep the temp on the tank consistant i invested in a good heater to make sure because its been unusually cold the last few months here at night down in the fourties and the tank sits near the windows so i didnt want to have my fish die from extreme temp changes.

I dunno, im just really at a loss right now, I have my 55g tank cycling and am going to continue to let it do so for the next month or more until it stays stable for a few weeks before I move my clowns and shrimp and blenny into it.

 

I have a few ideas, first your nitrate level, second your nitrate level and third your nitrate level. If that level is correct, 160-200ppm, that is off the charts. Doing water changes will only mildly dilute the nitrates, but you obviously have an underlying problem. Starfish are relatively sensitive to high levels of nitrates, and yours are very high. It sounds like you don't have enough rock in the tank, you said there's only the one piece? Porous rock provides a home for de-nitrifying bacteria. They will not only get rid of your nitrites, but also the anaerobic ones will use the nitrates as food, lowering those levels. Also, what source water are you using? If you're using tap water, then every time you do a water change you can just be adding more nitrates into the tank. You may notice a drop in nitrates when you do a water change, but adding water with 20ppm nitrates will still lower it when your levels are that high.

As for you PH and Alk, all Alkalinity measures is your water's ability to resist a PH swing (H+ and OH- ions) The higher the Alk, the more bicarbonates and the more OH- ions which will counter the acid ions (H+) thus raising your PH. If you want to lower your PH just don't add a source of bicarbonates (Alk supplements, water changes etc). This will lower you Alk too as there will be more H+ ions and will result in a lower PH which is more acidic.

 

Ok, so if i went out and bought live rock for my tank, which i was waiting to do because i am putting together the 55 and 90 gallon tanks and wanted to do a bulk order, it would bring down whats causing my problem?

If i wanted to get the problem solved for the time being... what do i need to do? I am trying to stay away from chemicals but if thats what I need to do for right now i can roll with the flow. I just dont want it to hurt any of my other fish

 

Well before we can state exactly that that's the problem, we need to know what type of water you are using for you top offs and salt water changes?

 

well water with an r/o system. I treated the water when im mixing the salt in five gallon buckets, right now I have four of them with powerheads running. ( havent tested them yet since I just set them up a few hours ago) since the thirty gallon was such a smaller tank i decided to go with the pre mixed salt water from petco so thats all theyve had in the tank is the boxes of premixed saltwater, but since i got the other two tanks i decided to start mixing my own salt, havent used it yet in the thirty gallon if that makes sense.
When i did my water change yesterday i used the last of the premixed water I had
Mixing my own salt for three different tanks is going to be alot easier than buying 13 dollar box of premixed salt water i just need to figure out what im doing wrong, or if im not treating the water right before i decide to use it for a water change.

I talked to a friend of mine that has quite a few tanks and he suggested I try a nitrate reducer for right now since i dont have the money for the order of live rock

 

Did a test today to see if there were any changes....
nitrates 80-160
hardness 300
nitrites 0-0.5
chlorine 0
alkalinity 180-300
pH 7.8-8.4

Looks like a little bit of a drop in the nitrates

 

Did another test on the tank, this is what we have currently

nitrate 80
nitrite 1.0
hardness 300
chlorine 0
alkalinity 180-300
pH 7.8