IM NEW and in NEED of HELP

[glennludemanii]

I have a small 17 gallon tank, aquaclear 30 filter, 270 gph powerhead, 20 lbs of live rock, coralife 50/50 26 watt light, xenia coral, a pink tip anenome, and some hermits... it has been running for about 6 weeks now and i recently added clowns after geting rid of my damsels, and now the clowns arent doing to good. for the life of me i cant get the nitrates down. I have tried water changes and less feeding. What do i do!!! everything else is flourishing except the clowns. Please help me!!!

 

[mcbdz]

Welcome to the boards.
You may get more help on the nano forume. You tank size is most of you proclem. It is very difficult to maintain these small tanks as a newbie. Remeber the bigger the more room for error. In reverse you have way less room. Your bio load for such a small new tank could be your issue. What substraite? What type water do you use? tap or ro/di?

 

[glennludemanii]

i used tap... i should have used ro... but i let it cycle for a while... and i am using aragonite... my ammonia isnt an issue... it is at 0 and my ph is 8.2, but the nitrate is between 40-80, is there any chemical treatments i can add to the water to fix this problem, water changes arent working either...

 

[patandlace]

In addition to the questions above, how high are the nitrates? How often are you feeding and how much? How often do you do water changes and how much?

 

[glennludemanii]

nitrates are between 40 and 80. im useing the API saltwater master test kit. i do 20 % every two weeks.

 

[rgf1046]

I maintained a 12gallon nano for a couple years and water changes are vital with tanks of that size. I would do several water changes in the next couple weeks and see what that does to your readings.

 

[spanko]

Chemical treatments are just that, treatments not the solution to your problem.
I would guess that the filter media may be in need of changing or at the very least rinsing.
I would guess that you are overfeeding the tank.
I would guess that tap water is causing part of your problem. Start using RODI or distilled.
With only 6 weeks under your belt with the tank I would guess you are seeing some cycle spikes still even though you are not catching them.
IMO you probably don't have enough light for the anemone long term. 2 fish in this tank may be pushing the limit depending on how big they are.
The above are just some general ovservations on my part and you can take them for what they are worth as I am just trying to help.
If this were my tank I would take the anemone back to the LFS, if the clowns are larger than 2 inches I would also take them back. Then I would do some cleaning of the rockwork by tanking a turkey baster and blowing the heck out of it which sould dislodge a lot of detritus for removal by your filte and by the water change I would also do of about 20 - 30% with quality water. After the tank cleared up I would do some extreme maintenance on the filter, cleaning the body and replacing the media.
Then I would let this tank sit for a couple of more weeks with weekly water changes of 10% and weekly filter media replacement, all the while monitoring my nitrates. This should help to bring them down.
During that time I would also think about my long term goals for the tank as far as what critters I want to keep and what those critters really need for a home.
Just my $0.02.

 

[glennludemanii]

are the nitrate levels gonna kill my fish... i mean i have already decreased ( half a cube with phytofeast every other day) my feeding.. my only other option is to do lots of water changes.

 

[mcbdz]

They will kill your anenome and any corals and put stress on your fish. Reduce feeding every 3 day if you keep them. I'd follow the above advice though. For that size and age of tank 2 was too much.