Water Quality and Chemistry Issues

Hey guys,

The other day my xenia died. And it has been playing absolute havoc with my water quality issues. Before my water quality was stable and it definately is not now.

My current paramaters:
Ammonia: 0.2
Nitrate: 0.1
pH: 7.6
Phos: 0.25
Calcium: 400-440
Temp: 26 degrees celcius

The biggest issue i am getting is pH, it is continuously in flux. Last night it was 7.4, this morning it was 8.6 and now its 7.6. I have heard this is linked to ALK (Which I cant test for yet, but I bought Red Sea tester and dosing stuff today online - I also bought the same for magnesium).

So it seems like it has caused a mini cycle also, but my fish are going well and in combat to this I have started dosing SeaChem Stability to try and minimise the cycles effects.

My corals are starting to not look good.

My kenya tree has been abit shriveled:
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w402/Ryan_Duchatel/2012-08-19162207.jpg

My toadstool has sort of shut up shop:
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w402/Ryan_Duchatel/2012-08-19162200.jpg

My torch is still going well:
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w402/Ryan_Duchatel/2012-08-19162153.jpg

My hammer is closed abit, but it is because I moved him to a new spot, but he also hasnt been as out as he usually is:
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w402/Ryan_Duchatel/2012-08-19162234.jpg

All these issues have come up after the zenia died.

I am at a loss to what to do, I put abit of shell grit in the tank, which raises and maintains pH (used very successfully in my FW set ups), but its still fluxing.

Will most of my issues go away when my refugium gets a hold on everything and my testing and dosing agents for alk and mg come?

Any advice is appreciated.

Ryan.

 

You should be better off once you can diagnose all of your parameter issues and correct them. In the mean time try doing a 25% water change to transport out some of the ammonia and nitrite.

 

Great, ill definately do that. It should take a few days for the tester to arrive online so would it be best to do some regular water changes? Like maybe 25% tomorrow and 10% every 1 - 2 days until the testing kits arrive? Or once nitrates and ammonia dissipate?

 

One of the big unknowns right now is the quality of the water you are using to top-off and/or make new saltwater with. I believe you are using tap water, and so there could be a number of chemicals & contaminants that you would have no idea would be in there without testing for each one. This could be a large part of the reason why your xenia and other corals are dying. Any way you can either get a RO/DI system for your house, or pick up RO/DI water to use for new saltwater and top off?

 

I would immediately lock up that ammonia, do water changes, and as the others said make sure your new water is "clean". It more than likely isn't so take a different approach. If you cannot buy RO/DI water then use distilled. It's not as pure as RO/DI but it's still pretty clean. The pH could be swinging because of the ammonia.

 

Awesome. I have actually just got access to some RO/DI water from the University I work at. So I will be using it from now on. And everytime I do a water change and top off I will use that and eventually those problems should dissipate?

I also just added another powerhead and my kenyatree has already shown huge improvement, but the toadstool and hammer are still abit worse for ware.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

toadstools seem to be very tempermental, mine will close up every now and then for seemingly no reason. The rest of my euphyllia, hammer, torch, frog all were very tempermental when they were smaller, less so as they've got bigger, but still a bit touchy. And I'd let that kenya tree die, PITA to get rid of after they start budding, trust me

 

Excellent news on the U's water Ryan!

Adding the powerhead was a great move on your part. 8) By any chance do you have some Amquel or something similar? If you do it would be a good idea to lock up the ammonia as it will give some immediate relief to your animals. And then do a water change and get rid of some of that bad stuff.

There's a complicated relationship between ammonia and pH. I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain in great detail, but here's a smidge of information. When pH rises so does the effect of the ammonia that's in the water. When the pH drops the "dangerousness" of the ammonia drops as well. (I don't think dangerousness is a word). When you had die off it started to become ammonia. As your pH normally rose it affected the toxicity of the ammonia which probably killed more bacteria. With more dying bacteria you got more ammonia, the pH was effected which stressed and killed more bacteria, and around and around it goes. Even in the oceans pH is never constant but there is not even enough ammonia to show up on a test kit, meaning that there are no adverse effects of mild pH swings.

I believe 2n10 mentioned your other parameters which also is very important. Understanding the relationships between pH, KH or GH, calcium, magnesium and alkalinity can be a daunting task. However, alkalinity and pH are closely connected and influence each other so maybe you could read up on that when you get some time.

 

I have API's ammolock? Which I just dosed abit as you suggested. I will be getting water tomorrow so the tank will have to wait off until then. But then I will do a 25% water change.

That definately makes sense though. My testing kits and dosing agents for cal, alk and mg will be arriving soon so will put up some parameter readings as soon as they come in.

Thanks for the advice

 

You're welcome. I'm not a fan of dosing things like that but sometimes a situation demands it. That's good that you're getting your test kits because you need to know what those levels are. It's very possible you alkalinity is off and is messing with your pH.

A 25% water change is a good amount. I know you know this, but please remember to aerate your water really well (this will drive off the CO2 and increase the pH), and make sure the temps, salinity levels, and pH match as closely as you can get them. Any sudden shocks from new water could be devastating because your animals have already been under a great deal of stress.