Help!!! I think my boyfriend might have done somthing really bad to our tank!!!!!

[owlett]

AAGGGHHHH!!!
Alright the other night I found out that my boyfriend had been attempting to feed the fish in our 29 g a couple days ago (he has virtually no experiance whatsoever) Apparently he dumped in an entire cube of brine shrimp for one, one inch six line wrasse and neon goby. He let the cube dissolve and then tried to scoop out the shrimp that were just getting blown around (needless to say, there is till shrimp all over the tank!!!) Then this morning he tried to feed the goby some little pellets since shrimp were too big (I bought the pellets, he fed them) Most were not eaten and sank to the bottom (hermit crab food now I suppose)
Well, now were are getting that light tan diatom algae on the glass again (it had recently gone away for over two weeks)
Today he thought we needed live rock and added another 17 pounds of the stuff. I haven't tested the water yet but I am ready for the worst. . .should I be worried, has he just killed my tank?????
The rock was supposedly pretty cured, he claims it smelled pretty good not stinky at all. Will that help to balance this over feeding problem???

 

[ntvflgirl]

Calm down, first, test your water, and get back to us...second, cut off your boyfriend's hand, and put it in the tank for the hermits...lol. Just kidding. Let us know your water parameters, and then we can help.

 

[owlett]

Right, will take. . . big. . . DEEP. . . breaths. . . . . . . . *gasp!*. . . *gasp!*
I'll test the water tonight, the tank is at his house (that's how he managed to get away with throwing so much food in there) I'll bust the door down and get back to you guys

 

[bdhough]

Your rock may not harm anything youll just have to wait and see in the next week or so. Then again it is 17 lbs.....
As far as the food goes just don't feed your fish the next day or two. They may eat the left overs off the rock. I know my chromises used to eat the mysid shrimp that got left over on the rock.
Just and idea....

 

[ntvflgirl]

BREATHE, GIRL, BREATHE!!! If it's diatoms, then they will probably go away. You may get away with a good water change...say, 25 %. I'm prayin' for ya, girl!! The worst would probably be another cycle.

 

[owlett]

my trouble making man doesn't get home until later tonight . So I can't test the water until maybe a few hours from now.
When you say another cycle, does that mean my fish will die?

 

[ntvflgirl]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves...If you have plenty of hermits, and detrius eaters, then you may have no problem at all. What kind of fish do you have, and how long has your tank been set up?

 

[owlett]

I have about six hermit crabs and one snail and one tiny neon wrasse now (the six line was taken back to the lfs today since he was trying to scare away the goby) the tank has been set up now for about two months

 

[owlett]

yes, the live sand and the live rock are the main source of filtration so far, I should have a mechanical filter by eith tommorow or monday.
there is about 40 pound live sand and about 33 pounds of live rock currently.
I just tested the water and as of now the water is
ammonia .25
nitrites 0
nitrates 5
ph 8.3

 

[ntvflgirl]

It doesn't sound too bad. It does look like you might get a "mini-cycle" out of it. But there is no telling if it's from over feeding or from the new lr. I'm going to leave this to someone more qualified than me, but if I were you, I guess I would go ahead with a water change, and get that new filtration on there asap. Let us know how it turns out, though.

 

[newreefers]

The amonia sounds a litte high, try a water change to bring it down. I am always adding more rock to an established tank, and use cured rock and never have a cycle happen. Your algae outbreak might be from so much food in the tank. Once your feeding gets back on track the algae should go away. Try testing for phosphates, if these are high there is your algae problem. Over feeding can cause a jump in phos. If so, you can use phosguard to remove it from the tank. After your tank and your vital signs are back to normal, I would say it's time for a tank lesson for the boyfriend. I have been there with you. My husband has done some baaaad things to my tanks also. He is now learning though, so there is hope.

 

[broomer5]

Occassional overfeeding normally does not mess my tank up too bad - it's the continuous overfeeding that leads to long term problems.
Anytime you add a lot of live rock to an up and running tank - be it cured or not so cured - you run the risk of getting some ammonia.
17 pounds is a pretty good hit for a 29 gallon tank.
A combination of overfeeding AND adding a lot of live rock within the same timeframe ~ would most certainly drive up the ammonia/nitrite ~ no doubt about it.
Any reading of ammonia is potentially lethal for the fish/inverts at your pH of 8.3.
Ammonia NH3 is toxic anywhere above .2 mg/L and higher at this 8.3 pH level.
At lower pH around 8.0 and lower - this ammonia NH3 is also accompanied by NH4+, which is the ionized form of ammonia called ammonium.
Ammonium ions are non-toxic.
Both the ammonia NH3 and the ammonium NH4+ are basically in balance in most every case at these lower pH levels - but it depends on the total concentration of these ions, the actual pH level and the temperature.
Don't do anything to raise the pH. Higher pH makes the ammonia more toxic - don't do anything that would raise the pH up over 8.3 ~~~ INCLUDING~~~ a water change with recently mixed saltwater. Newly mixed saltwater almost ALWAYS has a higher pH than 8.2/8.3. This could be a bad thing for the fish/inverts - and allow the existing ammonia to go more toxic !!!!
It's like this ......
If the tankwater is at pH 8.3, and you have .50 mg/L of ammonia showing up THEN you do even a 50% water change with new saltwater that has ZERO ammonia BUT HAS A HIGH pH ~~ you'll still be left with .25 mg/L of ammonia present after the water change - and the tankwater's pH may rise up higher than 8.3.
The water change would only remove HALF of the ammonia - but if the pH rises - the other HALF remaining would become EVEN MORE LETHAL if indeed the pH does go up.
Don't add ANY buffers or alkalinity builders while this ammonia is present either. Doing so can drive the pH up even higher - making the exisiting ammonia/ammonium to shift more over to the toxic ammonia NH3 state.
If your ammonia does get higher - and you opt to do the water change - please make sure to aerate the new mixed saltwater for several hours first - and test it's pH.
If the ammonia get's up higher around .5 mg/L ~ you may also want to remove the neon to another tank or even a bucket of saltwater - until things stablize in your 29. Up to you.
Good luck owlett - hope everyone comes out of this okay - including your boyfriend. He's gunna get a whip'n ~ I can see it already.

 

[bdhough]

Ever thought of becoming a teacher broomer?

I remember your recent treatis on Alk/Cal/and that other one......

 

[broomer5]

Not really bdhough
Although I do have a great respect for anyone in the "teaching" profession, I'm content doing what I do.
Thanks bdhough - that was a nice complement
Anxious to hear how your situation has developed owlett !
( not the @$$ whoop'n - the tank/fish situation )

 

[itchy]

My husband is not allowed to do anything other than look at the tank. No paw prints other than mine of someone gets a whoopin.........
You may look..but you may not ever touch..lmao
I wanna teach him how to do things but he doesn't wanna learn because if something shall happen its not his fault and I can't blame him. I guess I can understand that because everything in the house that goes wrong is someone elses fault not mine.

 

[ntvflgirl]

2 things...
Broomer...in case you didn't read it in the other post, you're my hero
Itchy, it's exactly the same thing at my house. Hubby said, "Wouldn't it be fun to have a sw tank?" "Okay", I said, "but it will be YOUR baby, not mine." Do you ever see anyone named Chuck on here? Nor will you. He's not allowed to touch "our" (my) tank either. He provides the $$$$$, I provide the little know how that I have. Works for me
Owlette, anxious to see how things are turning out for you.

 

[dindi]

I agree..kick him...what no..put him in the tank. Now.. you will be ok.... make sure you check your water parameters to make sure all is good. My boyfriend WILL NOT TOUCH ANY of my TANKS...very smart guy

 

[owlett]

ha ha ha ntvflgirl! That's exactly how it is with our tank! He provides the $$$$ pretty much and I build it (well, okay, to make him feel like he had a part in it I let him arange the live rock but that's pretty much it.) He likes to pretend he knows what he is talking about but in reality he knows just enough to tell me that the fish in the tank are living in saltwater and that's about it! lol
okay, it's a good thing broomer told me not to do a water change, I was about to do it. The ammonia is actually pretty stable, which was really interesting, I was expecting the ammonia to just soar and then all of my other things jump wildly out of control. I tested the water last night and the ammonia is hovering just a little BELOW .25 ( I'm not sure what numbers exactly since I'm running off a color chart of yellow to green. Actually it's about the color of this smiley ) maybe a little tiny bit lighter.) All the rest of the water was okay, we just have ammonia.
I got a mechanical filter last night (the stupid skilter I was crying about not long ago). boy that thing can't protien skim worth crap!!!!! All the tank inhabatants are doing ok. I threw in just few tiny pellets of food so the goby didn't starve to death and the hermits I think ate whatever the goby didn't. I hope I haven't just made a bad mistake by feeding him when I have ammonia in my tank!
thanks for all of your help guys! Oj yeah, does protien skimming get rid of phosphates? i recently read some box of zeolite and that removes ammonia and phsphates should I use that? What do you guys think?