Tank is a disasterous death trap...sigh

i would get id of the filter its just a nitrate factory and replace it with either a small skimmer or do tiny water changes every other day and add another smal powerhead. i have a 55g tank i use to have a filter and i had a huge GHA problem because of nitrates. i removed the filter and added a skimmer and algae problem is almost cleared up now i can actually keepa CuC alive for more than 2 weeks

 

i tend to agree with you about the filter... it is noisy and a pain in the rear to clean... been thinking about replacing it

 

It sounds like you are doing everything wrong. That filter system is not good for a saltwater tank. A protein skimmer is a must for a salt water tank. With your setup it probably worked for a while and crashed when your water quality degraded. You need better filtration, protein skimmer. When something goes bad don't make so many drastic changes like huge water changes, removing rock and cleaning filters all at once. Good luck with it.

 

I'm going to have to argue about a protein skimmer is a must, even more so with his tank being only 16G. I'd even go so far to say that if you're doing water changes bi weekly, there isn't any reason why you couldn't keep things alive, nitrate problem not withstanding.

I'd get some live rock (even base rock thats "live") into your system and some macro algae. Let it sit for two weeks, check your system. As pointed out above, nitrates of 15 or so isn't bad at all. Sure we'd love it to be 0, but 15 is fine for 99% of everything in your tank.

Are you getting any brown stuff (looks like brownish fuzz) growing on things? Those are diatoms - that happens once your ammonia/nitrite cycle is finished. If you're pulling things out all the time, it is entirely possible that your tank has never fully cycled. Don't worry about nitrates, worry about ammonia and nitrite instead.

Good luck

 

Everything eh? filter cleaning bad ??? first I heard of that...lol

A skimmer is not a must... i have a tank that is the exact same size and has fish in it that have been there for over a year now and I have never ran a skimmer on it... It has a HOB filter

I agree the water change wasn't the right thing to do but I can't undo that now.

 

well, like I said... a CUC is a must so Nitrates are a concern... i wont keep fish with out a CUC

 

Disclaimer

If anyone of you guys who are posting here and aren't getting answers to the questions you asked... I don't mean to slight you, just that the answer is in the post and it is getting tiresome answering the same question over and over. Please read thoroughly before flaming me for not giving you enough info.

v/r

 

pave, it sounds like you have tried allot of things but i think i can help clear some things up as i see allot of ideas being thrown at you but some not very clear.

So we know that ammonia is prossesed by bacteria and converted to nitRITE (N02) the nitRITE is then converted by bacteria to a relitivley harmless nitRATE (N03)

The amonia that eventually becomes the nitRATES that you are seeing comes from decaying biological matter...excess food, dead fish or critters, dead plants, ect in order to eventually raise the nitRATE level in the tank something that was once living had to of dies be it plant or animal.

You mentioned in the beginning that the first "alarm" was when some of your snails had died. I am 100% certain they did not die because of raised nitRATE levels. However the death of the snails could have very well STARTED the rais in nitRATEs as when they were decomposing and creating amonia which became comverted to the hight nitRATE levels.

if you have a dead snail stuck inside a LR crevice somewhere it is probably the cause of the continued higher nitRATES

The good news however is that even with the extra bioload of amonia your bacteria is perfoming well and converting the bad stuff into the least harmful stuff it can.

Your cheato in the bio area of the pump..if alive and thriving will help to eliminate the nitRATEs over time as well.


If you did a 99.9% water change and the nitrATES went back up to 20ppm then something is still decomposing in the tank somewhere. dead bacteria in the filter, something hidden and dead inside a live rock somewhere maybe.


you might try removing all of the live rock and placing it in a container with a power head for a few days. and do a water change at the same time to see if the levels rise again. If they rise again then its nothing in your live rock.

Basically right now you only have 3 places that the amonia can be coming from, your sand, your rock and your filter...isolating each one and with water changes and monitoring of the nitRATES you can determine which one is causing the spike and correct it.


hope this helps a little.

-Bill

 

as far as your CUC...nitRATES should not effect them until much higher then 20ppm. your PH levels are alway important as if it is to acidic (lower PH) it can cause allot of problems with inverts.

the main problem associated with higher levels of nitRATES is damage to your fishes respitory system.

 

That is a good idea...may try it when I have some time... just leaving the tank be for now as I have other issues to contend with not related.