HELP!!HELP!!!Please!! everything is out of spec!!

[mommafishinmd]

I have had my tank for 2 months all was good until I did a 40% water change.I think this may be the problem but dont' understand why.I tested the day after the change and all was good accept ALK which was high but I was told it would go down.My star is losing its legs in small pieces every time it moves,my frog spawn will not open and neither will my zoo's.The test gave the following........
nitrite 0.5
ammonia 0.25
nitrate 100 high/20 low
ph 8.6

 

[darknes]

Your nitrates are pretty high. The pH is getting towards the high-end as well.
Do you have readings for phosphate and salinity?

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by MommaFishinMD
I have had my tank for 2 months all was good until I did a 40% water change.I think this may be the problem but dont' understand why.I tested the day after the change and all was good accept ALK which was high but I was told it would go down.My star is losing its legs in small pieces every time it moves,my frog spawn will not open and neither will my zoo's.The test gave the following........
nitrite 0.5
ammonia 0.25
nitrate 100 high/20 low
ph 8.6

What were trates and Ammonia right after the water change?. Are you adding Calcium or Kalk? Did you over do that and spike the Ph. Do you do anything that has sent it into another mini cycle? What size tank, LR, ect....
Need more info.
Mc

 

[mommafishinmd]

Originally Posted by Darknes
Your nitrates are pretty high. The pH is getting towards the high-end as well.
Do you have readings for phosphate and salinity?

PO is 0.1
salinity is1.019 I am working on getting it up to 1.022

 

[flcandy]

Do you mean 1.019? 1.119 is VERY high.

 

[mommafishinmd]

Originally Posted by grumpygils
What were trates and Ammonia right after the water change?. Are you adding Calcium or Kalk? Did you over do that and spike the Ph. Do you do anything that has sent it into another mini cycle? What size tank, LR, ect....
Need more info.
Mc
After the water change the specs were as follows....
82 temp
ph 8.4
nitrate 10-50
nitrite 0.1
alk high 2.9-3.6
phosphate 0.2
ammonia 0.25
The calcium was at 180 mg/L I have been working it,it is now at 360 mg/l
I have been adding b-ionic liquid calcium buffer
The tank is 37 gallon has about 40lbs of live rock,live sand

 

[mommafishinmd]

Originally Posted by FlCandy
Do you mean 1.019? 1.119 is VERY high.

oops!!yeah sorry I'm a noob to salt

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by MommaFishinMD
After the water change the specs were as follows....
82 temp
ph 8.4
nitrate 10-50
nitrite 0.1
alk high 2.9-3.6
phosphate 0.2
ammonia 0.25
The calcium was at 180 mg/L I have been working it,it is now at 360 mg/l
I have been adding b-ionic liquid calcium buffer
The tank is 37 gallon has about 40lbs of live rock,live sand
I believe your Ph is spiking becasue of too much Ca too fast. Also, you should have no ammonia. It is going through a mini cycle or something died and has spiked the ammonia. You should keep your trates below 20 if possible. All of these quick changes have caused your corals to clam up and are stressed. In the future, do max 20% water changes. Lots of little ones are much better than 1 big one. You are going to be forced to ride this out, but atleast your parameters are coming in line now. Few other things:
Add Ca in the dark (helps ph stability).
Never add two types of tank additives with in 30 minutes of each other.
Don't over dose to play catch up!
Salinity should be 1.25-1.26. I assume the other post was a typo?
Buffer your top off water way before adding to DT. ~24 hrs.
When mixing water for water changes. Stir with PH for atleast 3 hours. I prefer one day.
Good Luck!
Mc

 

[scotty37]

Are you using RO water for your changes? I have heard that fresh RO water can be rough on your PH levels because its far from average after being treated.

 

[mommafishinmd]

I have an RO but have not installed it yet I have been using tap water conditioned with aqua plus tap conditioner.How do I get my PH back down to 8.2?

 

[mommafishinmd]

update: I did another test today
PH 8.4-8.6
NITRITE >1.00
ALK HIGH
AMMONIA 0.25
As you can see everything has gotten worse accept the ph which has fallen but barely.I am debating on selling the fish before they all kick the bucket.The frogspawn is dying and the zoo's are all still closed.I also think my blue legs are eating my turbo,I am seeing less of them every few days.Or are they eating the remains of the snail that are dying from the water conditions?

 

[jamparty]

your nitrites are way too high...
save what you can.
nitrites should never even go above .1
and in perfect water conditions shouldn't even be detectable.
nitrites of 1 is bad news...

 

[sh00tist]

Its your water source for sure. never use tap no matter what other chemicals they say will 'conditon' your water,chemicals equal death. Walmart sells RO water for 29 cents a gallon til you get the RO going. And why such a huge water change if everything was going good? Slow is the key word huge abrupt changes of any sort always equal death. I change 2 gallons every other day,have it down to a routine and it takes very little time,plus I can miss a day here and there and not feel guilty. Hope you can mangae to save something/anything. if you have a good LFS they will have saltwater allready made up,maybe a little pricey but if you hope to save anyone I would pick up some today and start changing the water out 15% a day til your results improve. one more thing you said you were using B-ionic calcium buffer? Are you using both parts? A and B? always in equal amounts,only using the calcium part will make your ph spike for sure,hope this helps.

 

[stdreb27]

Do a big water change with RO water, I know with my tap water, I had soo much ammonia, trites and trates, it would screw up my water every time. If you buy good salt, usually that will buffer the ro water, another thing that I think helps is using argonite as substrate, it buffers your water too. I never have to worry about my ph with the stuff.

 

[gypsana]

Out of curiosity, how long did you cycle your tank before adding critters? And what is your stock list?