:( think tank in danger of crashing

cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
heya guys

ok, so i'm 3 hours away from my house & tank, trying to study for classes and stuff, and my mom just called and told me that the trates & trites are ungodly high, and getting higher.
we had a problem around the 2 week of march, the trates were high one day,higher the next, then the next they were back to "normal". (i'll give the "normal" readings in minute). the trites & ammonia also went up slightly. it wasn't that much, but now i'm stressing.
usual readings (i'm not able to look at the book, just going off my mom):
ammonia: 0 (usual)
trites: around 100 (? not even sure our little chart goes that high, usually .1,
so her saying it's really dark color is not good)
trates: above 50, might be the one around 100 (usually 5, we've never been
able to get it below that, and lfs said long as we did frequent water
changes & mointer closely we shouldnt have big problems)
my mom is setting up a 16 gal water change (sorry, its 75 gallon tank, 2 years old this month) & her & my dad are going to change it tonight. i'm going home friday, but hopefully we wil have it fixed by then. we are going to our "l"fs saturday to take a sample of water to make sure our test kit aint messed up, even tho the test drops are pretty new.
i posted a message when this first happened, and over 30 people read it, but no one responded, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help this time
 
veni vidi vici

veni vidi vici

Active Member
what do you have in the tank? I would do a bigger water change than 20% maybe 50%. and then a few smaller ones as needed. Just my 2 cents.Untill you can get home a figure out whats going on.
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
knew i forgot something!
Fish:
2 clarkii clowns
yt
3 yellow wrasee
1 chromis
1 6 line wrasse
1 maroon clown
coral:
trumpets
anenome
buttons
zoas
xenia
leather tree
doughnut coral
2 clams
inverts:
the usual.. shrimp, crabs, snails, hermits
 
mx#28

mx#28

Active Member
Nitrite at 100 ppm ??!!
I would absolutely take a sample to a good LFS and have them test it. Does anything look stressed or are you just going by the test numbers?
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
dont remember how much ls, but bout 60 or 70 lbs of lr
the blue pad (sorry, cant remember name), carbon, phosguard, bioballs, skimmer..
i can't say the fish look stressed since i'm not home, but my mom says that they dont look stressed. mainly looking at sunshine (yt) cause he usually shows stress signs quicker than other fish, but said he looked fine too
they ended up doing a 30 gal change
also, my dad has a thingy that makes water for the tank, filters out the stuff in it, and is worried that it might be causing?
 
veni vidi vici

veni vidi vici

Active Member
Originally Posted by cocoboy821
http:///forum/post/2547595
dont remember how much ls, but bout 60 or 70 lbs of lr
the blue pad (sorry, cant remember name), carbon, phosguard, bioballs, skimmer..
i can't say the fish look stressed since i'm not home, but my mom says that they dont look stressed. mainly looking at sunshine (yt) cause he usually shows stress signs quicker than other fish, but said he looked fine too
they ended up doing a 30 gal change
also, my dad has a thingy that makes water for the tank, filters out the stuff in it, and is worried that it might be causing?
Do a search here on bio-balls .I ve never used them ,but i hear alot of talk of them being nitrate factorys.It might not be a bad idea to change out the filter pad every now and then,If your not doing so.
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
i'll definately check out bout the bio-balls!
thanks for the answer guys.. and yes, we clean our pads atleast twice if not three times a week, pretty much when ever they start gettin dirty, and replace them bout every other water change
 
reefforbrains

reefforbrains

Active Member
Poking or changing the rockwork "looking" for something wrong can also create an issue in itself.
Rockwork that is out of flow and half buried into the sand (depending on how thick the sandbed) can disturb portions of the substrate that are active septic tanks within your tanks system. Disturbing them can kick toxin into your water column creating spikes.
Just a thought but make sure when speaking to someone from remote that they know not to dump water in too quick during a change that it would disturb the substrate if its a deeper bed. Not to just go flipping over rocks looking for things such as a dead snail or ect.
That is the usual ghost crash that people can experience when they leave friends to take care of a tank. They tend to want to suprise you with thier helpfulness and "clean" the tank. Ouch....
-RFB
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
thanks for the responds guys :) definately giving some ideas on how we can fix this.. i wish i could have my tank with me, but dorm rooms are little too small already lol
rents have done a pretty good job, and dad has actually figured out a way to connect the water we putting in to the tank like a hose so it doesn't disturb anything, so rather careful there
 
cleve_seahorse

cleve_seahorse

Member
I would think that with readings that high everything would be dead already....Maybe you should get your parents easier to use tests ? Us old folks you know
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
I hope everything returns back to normal soon. Yes tell your Mom to make a larger water change than just 16g, I'd aim closer to 50%.
 
cocoboy821

cocoboy821

Member
:) wow, leave my dorm for few hours and come back to lots of help, thanks!
Cleve_seahorse: my mom would love you for that, and she'd tried the strip test, but they were "harder" for her (think it was cause i couldn't tell her what to do, and she's worse than my dad bout reading directions unless it's got to do with cooking) lol plus our tests now are like our pool test kit, so it's "not as confusing' to her
whatever floats her boat since she's taking care of the tank now
tvan, i was planning to go home friday & travel to where the most knowledge able store is (which they're pretty accurate, so we deal with the couple hours to get there) but the weather is suppose to be "severe" so i prolly can't go home. hoping my parents will still be able to travel to the store & get back safely
spiderwoman, they did, luckly, and did around 50% change, 30 gallons. my mom tested today & said everything is back to normal but the trates, which is 20-50 range
fishy7, i'm not sure, but the replacement tests my dad buys get used up within 2 months of buying them
amazing, nothing seems to have been harmed by this jump. the yt is the most "sensitive" fish we've noticed and they've watched him closely and said he's being his normal self, so hopefully all is well & we can get it lower very soon
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
Originally Posted by FISHY7
http:///forum/post/2548115
what is the expire date on your test kit?
yeah, I would go get a diff test kit or take a sample to the LFS to verify.
Seems wierd to be going up and up and then all of a sudden normal again.
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
That is great to hear on the normal levels. Have them keep an eye on everything very closely just in case the levels skyrocket again. If they do, then I'd look around for a dead fish or snails that is hidden under the rocks. Did you mention what type of substrate you have? If you have crushed corals, that could be the culprit.
 
E

emeralcrab

Guest
JMO but I wouldn't be changing out the pads in your filters so much either. Beneficial bactria grow in them. I just rinse them out in salt water when needed and put back in. When I do feel like I need to change one, I don't change them all at once. If you do you are removing all your helpful bacteria.
Good luck.
 
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