My Situation (LONG)

First of all I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Larry D and I am new to the site and to fish.  Mind you this is a long read because this is basically the story of my last 8 months with my uhm reef setup.

It all started back in January of this year when one day my girl and myself went to Petco for some cat food.  When we were there I had this great idea that I wanted a fish tank but ofcourse I did not want to spend alot of $$.  We browsed the fish section and I was not impressed with any of the fresh water fish.  The salt water fish just stood out much more to me and I decided thats the route I wanted to go not knowing anything about salt water setups.

I walked out of Petco that day purchasing a 10 gallon "Tropical Fish" starter setup.  It included a 10 gallon tank, hood and light., a Whisper power filter and a small heater.  I purchased 2 boxes of 5 gallon Real Ocean Water as I did not want to chance mixing the salt water myself.

I brought it all home and put it together that night, filled it up and brought it up to temperature.  The next day I did a salt level reading with my hydrometer (needle based plastic case) and everything was great.  I went to the store and we bought a couple fish.

Over the next couple months I managed to have about 5 fish in the tank losing a few here and there but over all I had a pretty good success for what I was running.   The fish we bought and are still alive are...

Percula Clown
Tomoto Clown
Black/White Striped Damsel
Yellow Tail Blue Damsel
Scooter Blenny

The fish/inverts I bought and lost are...

2 Miniature Puffers
Green Chromis
Domino Damsel
2 Peppermint Shrimp
Many Snails/Crabs
Small Anenome

Over the months I had the tank I added about 10lbs of live rock and I stopped checking the water becase the fish we were sticking with were doing fine.

Here's a pic of the old tank.

http://www.newcelica.org/temp/fishtank10gal.jpg

Ok, so to the point we go.  I know now that running a 10 gallon salt water tank was not a smart idea but it was a starter tank and it lasted me for about 8 months before I could manage to purchase what I have now which is a 30 gallon Oceanic tank.

I recently got my new tank about Id say a month ago.  When I filled it I used about 8 gallons of my old tank water, 10 gallons of boxed Ocean Water and the rest was tap water. (SMACK MYSELF NOW).  I went out and bought some more life rock so I have about 20lbs in there now and I also went and bought a couple more fish.  Now in the tank I have the following.

Percula Clown
Tomoto Clown
Black/White Striped Damsel
Yellow Tail Blue Damsel
Scooter Blenny
Black Top Damsel
Yellow Tang
Firefish

 

Now onto my problems and questions. The other day I added a Peppermint shrimp and it died literally within 30 seconds of putting him in the tank. This is not the first time that has happened but it made no sense to me as the rest of my fish are doing fine and still are. I decided it was time to do a water test.

I have the Red Sea Marine Lab and I tested everything out. Everything came back perfectly fine so I took a water sample to the local pet store and they tested everything out and found very different results. Everything came back fine except my nitrates, they are off the scale. When I say off the scale I mean more then 160ppm.

I'm not sure why my test came back so different so I bought their test kit and tried it again at home and found the same results they had with a nitrate level of 160+ ppm. I read the note card on indications of high nitrate levels and it all makes sense to me now. It mentioned blue/green algae which I have and has always been a nuissance. It mentions how inverts are incredible sensitive to high nitrate levels which makes sense to me why I cant seem to keep them alive. So with all of this in mind I decided it was time for a water change to try and bring the level down.

I emptied out about 50% of the tank water and refilled it with R/O water. I let everything settle and did a test again the next day only to find nitrate levels still off the scale.

I've come to the conlusion of a couple things.

1) Filling the tank and doing water changes with tap water was a bad idea as Ive since tested the tap water and the nitrates in the tap water are high.

2) My tank is overstocked but I like all my fish and I have to find a way to be able to maintain this many fish in my 30 gallon tank.

This is what I've decided to do and this is what I want your opinion on.

I am going to do a complete water that is 100% water change. It will consist of 10 gallons or Boxed Real Ocean Water, 10 gallons of Pre Mixed Salt Added to R/O water, and 10 gallons to R/O water.

I am thinking about taking all of the crushed coral out of the bottom of the tank and rinsing it off outside to remove all the crap and food that is basically just sitting on the surface. I have been told by some people its a good idea and by others that its a bad idea. Whats the truth here?

I am going to add a protein skimmer to the tank as it seems like a good solution or help anyhow for my tank being overstocked. It should help me remove nitrites before they turn into nitrates. I'm thinking about purchasing the AquaC Remora, will this work good for my application?

For now on I intend on using the R/O water for water changes and not tap water.

Ok, thats basically it. If you guys could let me know your thoughts and opinions I'd really appreciate it. Any help would be great. BTW I'm looking to do this soon as I have everything I need now ready to go.

 

Hi Larry, Please read the fallowing ( Three Steps To setting up a salt water Aquarium ) I think it will help you a lot and I think it will answer a lot of your questions ............ John

http://www.3reef.com/step1.shtml

http://www.3reef.com/step2.shtml

http://www.3reef.com/step3.shtml

 

Welcome Larry

As John suggested above, read the 3 steps.

I think that you may have come to an end point though with your tank and that you may have to start again :-(

John

 

I did read through them last night though I do not understand how that is a solution to my problem?

What can I do to maintain a tank of 30 gallons with 8 fish? I want to add the skimmer but will it help enough to keep the nitrates down due to fish waste? I believe the nitrates are really high right now due to no skimmer and use of tap water.

 

The high Nitrates are certainly a result of poor filtration. The problem is a lot of the waste that has not been removed is probably now stuck in your sand bed and is quietly rotting away. That may be the reason that after you changed some water the Nitrates quickly returned. If your tap water also contains Nitrates that is also the cause of the problem.

No amount of skimming will now reduce the current Nitrate levels but it will certanly help to stop more Nitrates from being produced.

Also make sure that any mechanical filtration you are using is cleaned regularly as that can also be a source as the trapped particles decay

If you are going to over stock, I would also suggest that you run carbon in your filtration, but again you will need to change that frequently

John

 

Ok so let me get this straight. Your saying that alot of the nitrates are probably embedded in the coral? So should I just change out the coral then? If so should I do sand or stick with the crushed coral?

Also your saying I am supposed to clean the filter? Does that mean like rinse out the bio wheel? I know I NEVER cleaned out my whisper power filter. I thought you were supposed to let all the stuff grow on it?

 

What I am saying is that it is possibly one of the reasons and it just seems logical to me

By cleaning the filter, I meant the whisper filter which I assumed was a hang on the back type that has a removable sponge, It's this sponge you need to clean.

John

 

The whisper filter is gone now, it was the filter I used on my 10 gallon tank, now with the 30 gallon I have an emporer 180 bio wheel type.

 

Does the bio wheel have any removable filters or pre filters ?

John