I need answers

[sage]

I have some questions about my tank :nitrate = 0.00phos = 0.00ca = 375kh = 8.00ammonia = 0.20 problem ?mag = 1200 app. " hard test " i thinkph veries from 8.00 to 8.5 at night mostly 8.35First i have alot of hair algae that developed. I have changed my lights stopped feeding my fish,shortened my light cycle,bought algae eating fish (bleenie,sally light foot 2 now,purple tang had yellow one wasn't working so i gave it away) with no help . I am getting the fealing the hair algae is causing my ammonia to go up by attacking my live rock (poss blocking light ) another thing I am having trouble loosing inverts not anything else I have 5 tridacnid clams ,sps coral,carnation coral,seabea anemonia,bubble coral,frogspawn,pulsing exenia doing to well, mushrooms,pollips, brains. and there all doing well but my feather dusters and snails that i have had forever (app. 2 years)are dieing my huge conch :sad

any idea's ????? next my seahorses where mateing now the pouch is turning dark does anyone know if this is normal. next does anyone know of a way to get the amonia out of my tank safely i have been changeing the water but without finding the source im am just chaseing a real problem. I have one clown, 2 damsels becuase i can't catch the mean basterds,one purple tang,one blennie,manderian dragonete,200 galons ,lots of crabs and snails and brittle stars 2 urchins sea cucs

 

[aztec reef]

what type of water are you using ? how old is the tank? how big is the tank?
are the seahorses in this same tank also?

 

[sage]

no sea horses are in the same water but not the same tank .my tank is about 2 years old my fuge is about 1.5 years old all together they are about 240 gallons

 

[sage]

and i use ro. di. water from a culligan filter and have changed the filters

 

[aztec reef]

keep doing water changes, don't let your ammonia go past that. how long has ammonia been that high? Are your test kits any good? It looks like your lacking on cleaning crew..if you have a lot of hair algea, if possible you can take the liverock out and scrub/pull off the hair algea off rock and give it a good wash in a salt bucket.

 

[aztec reef]

how's your salinity, are you measuring it with refractometer or Hydrometer?

 

[sage]

i measure my salt with a refractometer it is 1.025

 

[sage]

my ammonia has been high for about 3 weeks before this it was 0 i use a refrctometer my salt is 1.025 the jump in ammonia is what concerns me could it be the mud in my fuge? is old there is no safe way to remove amm. besides water changes? is the amm. my loss of inverts thats what i expect.?

 

[autofreak44]

its possible that your ammo is reading just a bit off. i know that sometimes my kit will be just a little off, and some people have kits that read a constant 0.25. try testing your ammonia kit on some fresh ro/di water and see if it reads 0 or 0.20. if it reads 0 then your tank probably has ammonia and if it reads 0.20 it could just be the testing kit. there are 2 ways to get rid of ammonia: naturaly through the nitrogen cycle or by water changes. also the mud in your fuge may not be mud but a giant pile of fish crap so i would try to get it out
good luck hope you solve your tank problems

 

[sage]

thanks i will test that is it poss for my hair algae to hurt my live rock? like make my tank do a miny cycle

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by sage
thanks i will test that is it poss for my hair algae to hurt my live rock? like make my tank do a miny cycle
No you'll be okay. API test kits almost always read 0.25 for ammonia.

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by sage
my ammonia has been high for about 3 weeks before this it was 0 i use a refrctometer my salt is 1.025 the jump in ammonia is what concerns me could it be the mud in my fuge? is old there is no safe way to remove amm. besides water changes?
yes there's another way, it's called "Amquel plus" is good for emergencys, but also keep up with water changes and good flow..

 

[aztec reef]

earlybird has a good point here: all of this could be the test kits, in that case i would just forget the Amquel.. :happyfish

 

[sage]

I tested my ro. water and it also reads 0.20 so that would meen my test kit isn't working right. what is killing my inverts? my high ph sometimes is my kh to low letting my ph fluctuate to much or is it normal ?doesn't seem like it used to move so much or go so high 8.50 right after the lights turn off.