Tank Crashing?

[ThatsNoMoon]

Hello all I just woke up to find all my snails at the top of the tank if not above the water level.

The Coraline all over my tank is turning white around the edges. the fish seem ok but are all sleeping as the lights are off. This is all overnight

I did a quick water change to see if it helps the issue, I'm going to be doing a full blast of water tests now but does anyone know what could cause this overnight? No changes to the tank at all except I have been running phosbond in a reactor and have done a water change this week.

As the lights are off I'm not sure how the corals are but I don't have high hopes.

 

[SPR1968]

We might need a picture of the tank and a full set of water parameters to see if we can help.

I know you mention phosband but has anything else changed in the system

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

Hello all I just woke up to find all my snails at the top of the tank if not above the water level.

The Coraline all over my tank is turning white around the edges. the fish seem ok but are all sleeping as the lights are off. This is all overnight

I did a quick water change to see if it helps the issue, I'm going to be doing a full blast of water tests now but does anyone know what could cause this overnight? No changes to the tank at all except I have been running phosbond in a reactor and have done a water change this week.

As the lights are off I'm not sure how the corals are but I don't have high hopes.

Need to see you’re numbers. Interested to know where your phos is.

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

Need to see you’re numbers. Interested to know where your phos is.

We might need a picture of the tank and a full set of water parameters to see if we can help.

I know you mention phosband but has anything else changed in the system

ok so i usually aim for a stable 8 dkh alk but these are the readings (i have done 2 water changes this week)

Alk: 5.4
ph:8
ca:440
phosphate ulr (hanna): 0.13
phosphate salifert: undetectable (weird the hanna is so different)
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0.25
nitrate: between 0 and 1


I don't know if my ammonia test is dodgy or not but I know for sure that's not good at all. I threw in some Fluval cycle and have more coming today but I have no clue why my alk is so low too

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

ok so i usually aim for a stable 8 dkh alk but these are the readings (i have done 2 water changes this week)

Alk: 5.4
ph:8
ca:440
phosphate ulr (hanna): 0.13
phosphate salifert: undetectable (weird the hanna is so different)
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0.25
nitrate: between 0 and 1


I don't know if my ammonia test is dodgy or not but I know for sure that's not good at all. I threw in some Fluval cycle and have more coming today but I have no clue why my alk is so low too

Out of interest, what’s your salinity? Do you run an ATO?

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

ok so i usually aim for a stable 8 dkh alk but these are the readings (i have done 2 water changes this week)

Alk: 5.4
ph:8
ca:440
phosphate ulr (hanna): 0.13
phosphate salifert: undetectable (weird the hanna is so different)
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0.25
nitrate: between 0 and 1


I don't know if my ammonia test is dodgy or not but I know for sure that's not good at all. I threw in some Fluval cycle and have more coming today but I have no clue why my alk is so low too

Also.. do your alk test again. What are you testing with?

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

ok so i usually aim for a stable 8 dkh alk but these are the readings (i have done 2 water changes this week)

Alk: 5.4
ph:8
ca:440
phosphate ulr (hanna): 0.13
phosphate salifert: undetectable (weird the hanna is so different)
nitrite: 0
ammonia: 0.25
nitrate: between 0 and 1


I don't know if my ammonia test is dodgy or not but I know for sure that's not good at all. I threw in some Fluval cycle and have more coming today but I have no clue why my alk is so low too

GFO causes calcium carbonate precipitation in some tanks, or so I’ve heard. I don’t use it.
I’d pull your phos media right away. Do a large WC. 50% maybe. Test again. You need to get your alk back up and something is upsetting it.

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

Also.. do your alk test again. What are you testing with?

just redone now, Alk 5.5

Hanna checker

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

GFO causes calcium carbonate precipitation in some tanks, or so I’ve heard. I don’t use it.
I’d pull your phos media right away. Do a large WC. 50% maybe. Test again. You need to get your alk back up and something is upsetting it.

I have some coral pro salt which is usually around 12dkh. Maybe I can mix some into my normal red sea salt to raise the Alk?

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

just redone now, Alk 5.5

Hanna checker

Yea pull your phos media and get as much water out as you can readily mix up to replace. Large WC should help bring your alk back up a touch.
Considering you changed out 10% before the test you’d have to assume it was lower than 5.5 before the wc.

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

I have some coral pro salt which is usually around 12dkh. Maybe I can mix some into my normal red sea salt to raise the Alk?

I’d do a WC with that if it was me. Maybe do 20% now, 20% later. Monitor as you go. Prevent any big shock in temp changes etc.
Get mixing!!
Where are you based? Might be able to help out with RO if you’re struggling.
Always happens on a Sunday

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

I’d do a WC with that if it was me. Maybe do 20% now, 20% later. Monitor as you go. Prevent any big shock in temp changes etc.
Get mixing!!
Where are you based? Might be able to help out with RO if you’re struggling.
Always happens on a Sunday

yep always a Sunday lol. I have 25 litres of RO for a 250ltr tank. My LFS is super close so I'm not too worried about getting my hands on some water. They open at 11 so I'll probably pop down to grab some RO or premix. If they have any NSW I'll probably grab some of that.


Is the alk drop my why ammonia is detectable?

 

[ReefPig_UK]

yep always a Sunday lol. I have 25 litres of RO for a 250ltr tank. My LFS is super close so I'm not too worried about getting my hands on some water. They open at 11 so I'll probably pop down to grab some RO or premix. If they have any NSW I'll probably grab some of that.


Is the alk drop my why ammonia is detectable?

Ammonia is likely detectable as something has died.

It also depends on what test kit you’re using, if it’s API and you can’t see anything dead, just ignore it for now.

I agree with the other guys though, just do a water change.

Did you change out phosphate media yesterday by any chance?

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

Ammonia is likely detectable as something has died.

It also depends on what test kit you’re using, if it’s API and you can’t see anything dead, just ignore it for now.

I agree with the other guys though, just do a water change.

Did you change out phosphate media yesterday by any chance?

Yep doing a WC with coral pro salt. Should bring up the levels a fair amount. ideally, I'd want to avoid an ALK swing but it's so low I don't have much choice. Just letting it finishing up mixing

It's an API test yes

I changed it out about 4 days ago

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

Yep doing a WC with coral pro salt. Should bring up the levels a fair amount. ideally, I'd want to avoid an ALK swing but it's so low I don't have much choice. Just letting it finishing up mixing

It's an API test yes

I changed it out about 4 days ago

Change out as much as you can. A swing in the right direction is better than a real low count.
Honestly, I’ll stay clear of the phos media for a little while. Deal with some algae if needs be..

 

[Deep]

It just sounds like you are doing or planning on too many changes based off on very little. Would be good if you get your ammonia tested with a different kit or by the lfs before you do anything,
For your alk are you dosing something ? Your build thread suggests you were at 10 dkh end of nov and were dosing all for reef. And now your Alk is 5 ? If you are dosing something I would gradually up that instead of doing water changes with a high alk salt.

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

It just sounds like you are doing or planning on too many changes based off on very little. Would be good if you get your ammonia tested with a different kit or by the lfs before you do anything,
For your alk are you dosing something ? Your build thread suggests you were at 10 dkh end of nov and were dosing all for reef. And now your Alk is 5 ? If you are dosing something I would gradually up that instead of doing water changes with a high alk salt.

I have been doing quite a few water changes tbh. I've been trying to do 2 water changes a week recently to fix a water quality issue I had.

For the month of December, I had my ALK solid at 8 dosing AFR but in Feb I had loads of polyp bailout. Turns out I had quite a lot of rust in my tank water so I had to stop dosing and started doing a lot of water changes with a new RODI unit to get rid of all the messed up water. (I need to update my build thread haha)

I was thinking that doing 2 water changes a week would give me a chance to get my tank chemistry really rock solid and allow the corals to recover with fresh trace elements constantly added and once everything looked happy I would go back to all for reef

 

[ThatsNoMoon]

I think my biggest mistake has been not checking my levels often. I thought if I did regular water changes then my levels would not change much. I believe running phosbond and not doing regular checks let my alk slip down so now that I've stopped the reactor things should start to level back out

 

[SPR1968]

If you have an alkalinity element to raise it, why don’t you just add some. Something like Red Sea Foundation B and bring the alkalinity up to 7-8 dKH or get something from the LFS

If your trying to keep it at 10 for whatever reason get it back up there over a day or so

As far as the ammonia is concerned just check the test and make sure nothings died to cause it

Doing large water changes is just going to upset the water parameters even more unless there is good reason to do them.

All you have to do to maintain a reef tank is keep the parameters stable and at the correct levels, thats it.

 

[ReefdudeAdam]

If you have an alkalinity element to raise it, why don’t you just add some. Something like Red Sea Foundation B and bring the alkalinity up to 7-8 dKH or get something from the LFS

If your trying to keep it at 10 for whatever reason get it back up there over a day or so

As far as the ammonia is concerned just check the test and make sure nothings died to cause it

Doing large water changes is just going to upset the water parameters even more unless there is good reason to do them.

All you have to do to maintain a reef tank is keep the parameters stable and at the correct levels, thats it.

Water changes upsetting water parameters..? How so?