Have I killed my rock

I have a 125ltr Jewel tank. I have had this tank going about 1 year. I have got 22kilos of live rock. In the past I used a v2 protein skimmer and the filters built into the tank.

All was fine but suddenly got a mad bout of hair algea. I tested my water and found my posphate and nitrate were through the roof. This admittedly was through bad husbandry and not enough water changes. I have managed to get the poshate levels down to 0. But my Nitrate is still too high.

I explained in my LFS the problem and they told me my water flow also was not good enough. I have now spent lots of money on a water jet. I have taken out the sponges of the filter to let the skimmer and rock work alone. using the Berlin method. I have also removed all of the substrate .

I have done a 90% water change as my Nitrate was over 100ppm. I now have it down to 40ppm but just cant get it any lower. I was wondering if I have killed my live rock off by the high levels and lack of movement and poor stacking in the past. It still looks ok but cant see any critters on it anymore like there used to be.

 

I dont think it is possible to "Kill" Rock.

I would start by looking for a dead fish hiding somwhere in your rocks or anything dying or decaying.

I would move the rock around and physically look and stir up as much waste material as I could and do a 40% water change with RO/DI and test the water before you put any salt to it.

You most likly killed the bacteria but you can get them back

I would start testing all parameters and see if you get spikes anywhere else.

Ammonia and Nitrites are the big ones. If you do just let them all fall to 0 then do another water change about 20% and you should be fine.

I think you have somthing decaying in the tank that is rather large.

 

your rocks maybe leaching it into the water.

is your rock particularly dirty?
you could try something called cooking your rocks
wait! don't turn the oven on yet!
really what it mean is to put the rock in a tub of heated saltwater, with a powerhead, cover it so no light gets in. this will take a while about a month maybe longer depending on the rocks condition. every week or to you will take the rocks out and swish them in a bucket of saltwater to remove the stuff on them. you will then clean out the tub and fill it with new saltwater and put rocks back in. do this until stuff stops falling off.

what this is supposed to do is force the bacteria to use the excess nutrients that have built up in the rocks over the years. now be careful when you do the rinsing because the rocks will be alot sharper(more porous so better in way). and it is important to replace the water in the tub because alot of nitrates and phosphates will be in it.

when you done you should have fresh and new rock. i have done this myself and can say it works. i have seen this recommended a number of times when their is a phosphate problem that has built up in the rocks from neglect. you may want to do this in pieces if you have animals in the tank.
for tubs just use a rubbermaid.

some people argue whether this whole process is necessary or not. i think its not necessary if you are very good with your husbandry in the first place. but for people like you and me who let it slip every now and again it helps.

 

I took all my rock out and scrubbed it to remove the hair algea. I then removed all of the substrate. I think that stiring that up caused the huge increase in nitrate. My nitrite and amonia are both at 0. I have more recently completed a 90% water change but still shows the nitrate at 40ppm with all fish accounted for.

How do I get the bacteria back? I dont think I have the space to cook the rocks but thank you for that one.

 

Hve you tested the water BEFORE adding it to your tank? What is the total livestock you have in there?

 

I have always used RO bought from my LFS pre mixed. I have tested it and its nitratas are about 20ppm. I was hoping that good skimming would clear this.
I have about 100 litres with two clowns one cardinal, one fox face and one algea blennie.

 

have you thought about adding a sand bed filter. to get anaerobic filtration.

 

No I havn't I took all my sand out to try to keep it as clean as possible.