need some help, opinions, thoughts whatever is good lol...

cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
ok where to start my tank has been up since january-ish 2011...pretty sure i've made most of the major mistakes already (i hope) killed so fish some have lived name of the game at rookie state i guess...pictures below are what i have at this point. ive been reading on here for a few days learned some stuff about others in same situation but mine might be little diffrent from there's...what is going on is im having spike in nitrate upto 80ppm here in the past month...it has come out of the no where...for the first 6 months it never went above 40ppm right before a wc...all the sudden boom 80ppm...done wc to lower nitrate several times at least once a week since the spiking all the way down to almost 0ppm but mainly 20ppm then few days right back up....now in saying that i know i need a protein skimmer which at this time i cant afford due to lay off but i picked up some kent's nitrogen sponge which hasnt really kicked in yet only been wet for 3/4 days...my last wc i did rinse about 1/3 of bio balls in declor. water...also we have good city water here and others with sw tanks well est. use it too...cant afford ro water either lol...so here's what i got and we can go from there lol..
tank stats:
55 gal.
escops cs100 (sump?)
2- 750 gph kor. jets
60-70 lbs. live rock
t-5 light (2 bulbs)
30lbs live sand
30lbs of that black rock stuff lol
fish stats:
4 green cromy's (what i like to call them)
1 flame hawk
1 fire dartfish
1 oscel. clown.
water test:
1.021 salt
8.0 ph
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
80 nitrate
pic#1

pic#2

pic#3

pic#4

pic#5 WHAT IS THE LITTLE ORANGE/RED THING

pic#6

pic#7 feather dusters im assuming

pic#8 more feather dusters im assuming and what are those clear tub looking things that has brances clear tubes coming off them...
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
ok where to start my tank has been up since january-ish 2011...pretty sure i've made most of the major mistakes already (i hope) killed so fish some have lived name of the game at rookie state i guess...pictures below are what i have at this point. ive been reading on here for a few days learned some stuff about others in same situation but mine might be little diffrent from there's...what is going on is im having spike in nitrate upto 80ppm here in the past month...it has come out of the no where...for the first 6 months it never went above 40ppm right before a wc...all the sudden boom 80ppm...done wc to lower nitrate several times at least once a week since the spiking all the way down to almost 0ppm but mainly 20ppm then few days right back up....now in saying that i know i need a protein skimmer which at this time i cant afford due to lay off but i picked up some kent's nitrogen sponge which hasnt really kicked in yet only been wet for 3/4 days...my last wc i did rinse about 1/3 of bio balls in declor. water...also we have good city water here and others with sw tanks well est. use it too...cant afford ro water either lol...so here's what i got and we can go from there lol..
tank stats:
55 gal.
escops cs100 (sump?)
2- 750 gph kor. jets
60-70 lbs. live rock
t-5 light (2 bulbs)
30lbs live sand
30lbs of that black rock stuff lol
fish stats:
4 green cromy's (what i like to call them)
1 flame hawk
1 fire dartfish
1 oscel. clown.
water test:
1.021 salt
8.0 ph
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
80 nitrate



any idea what this orange/red thing is???

feather dusters??? what's the clear tube stuff???

 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
okay so reading only a lil bit here and not looking at ur pics...im gonna say ur main prob is u killer all ur beneficial bacteria when u rinsed ur bioballs in the FW! U are supposed to be rinsing it off in ur old water from ur w/c!
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
i didnt rinse off all of them just 1/3 of them and did it after my problem started not before so that didnt cause my issue...how do i get my pics to work on here?
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
just click the lil insert image thing next to the video! U should get a browse option or url option after that!
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
ok sorry for the double post trying to learn this forum thing on here too but think i got it lol thx to ^^^^
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
ok so nitrate on my red sea test kit read almost to the max so i did a wc took out around 15 gal. added 20 gal. of fresh water (water was kinda low to start) tested new water test was 0ish nitrate before added to tank...rinsed another 1/3 of bio balls in old water...replaced some of my old dry filter...added some seachem prime for shits and giggles says it helps with nitrate so i guess we'll see in a few days when it's back upto 80ppm nitrate here lately...anyways two of my green chromis are starting to look like they're kissing anyone know what they are really doing????
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
roughly 5 hours since water change red sea says near 0ppm nitrates and api says 40ppm nitrates...should have seachem kit on friday to compare three diffrent test which one to believe?
 
saltwaterdud3

saltwaterdud3

Member
What's your salinity? Do you have a hydrometer? It's supposed to be around 1.024 to 1.026.
What do you use for top off water? Are you using dechlorinated tap water or are you buying or making your own RO/DI water? If your using tap, your most likely adding nitrate and phosphate to the tank every time you top it off or do a water change.
If you take out 15 gallons of saltwater, you put in 15 gallons of saltwater and make sure you have the same salinity. You don't take out 15g of saltwater and then add 20g of freshwater - that will decrease your salinity - kill beneficial bacteria and then you will see an ammonia and nitrate spike for sure.
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaltwaterDud3 http:///forum/thread/387060/need-some-help-opinions-thoughts-whatever-is-good-lol#post_3403329
What's your salinity? Do you have a hydrometer? It's supposed to be around 1.024 to 1.026.
What do you use for top off water? Are you using dechlorinated tap water or are you buying or making your own RO/DI water? If your using tap, your most likely adding nitrate and phosphate to the tank every time you top it off or do a water change.
If you take out 15 gallons of saltwater, you put in 15 gallons of saltwater and make sure you have the same salinity. You don't take out 15g of saltwater and then add 20g of freshwater - that will decrease your salinity - kill beneficial bacteria and then you will see an ammonia and nitrate spike for sure.
at this point its fish only till i get everything for reefs so my salt is 1.021 with a meter and has been for months...i dechlorinate my tap water (my tap water only had 0.025ppm nitrate in it per treatment center) ive always have used tap water for the 7 months its been up and just here in the past month my nitrate been funny....and i put back 20g of saltwater never add stright freshwater
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
i tested the new saltwater before i put it in the tank and it read zero...plus tap water here isnt allowed to read over .05ppm for nitrate...im not saying your wrong but in my case i dont see the tap water doing this to my tank since it was fine the first 5 months the tank was up and running is all im saying
 
cubnb79

cubnb79

Member
so i've been reading on *** forum and it was kinda dated but would like updated info on what i've read on controlling nitrate with my w/d sump...from what i've read i need to slowly replace bioballs with live rock in the sump (question is does the sump need seperate lighting??? sump doesnt fit inside stand so it's behind it out in the open) also was saying to have 4-6 in bed of sand...i have partial covered hood b/c of cat....so thinking im not getting full nitrogen evaporation from tank??? note i still dont have skimmer but was thinking of getting cheap skimmer till i can afford a good one...note i know most of you dont agree with that...but i got to do what i got to do with what i have to work with...i want to start working with reefs to more visual effects but im thinking the tank isnt ready after 7months...now with the info from you guys i have plenty feather dusters kicking it and a few sponges im thinking something is going right...any info is thanked...
Please do not post links to other forums. Thanks
 
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