anthony812
Member
ammojnia is toxic to the fish and you should be at 0 nitrates should be at 5 or 0 for corals but i think 20 is a little high do a water change about 10 percent
Not a good night!
- Thread starter monica
- Start date
byrself
Member
right, but the ammonia and nitrates can be coming in with the tap water, so doing a water change with the same water will not change much, cause you may be adding it back in. also, relax on adding any supplements for a few days if you are adding them. til your water gets chemically right, nothing else is gonna work imo.
B
b.b.bigbrother
Guest
I've run into problems and I finally just stop and let tank do its thing could be prolonging cycles from changing to dsb and adding lr thats what happend to me and i stopped adding anything water change in a month and I also was using tap and got water purifier things are getting better and brown algae dissapeared.
memnoch
Member
I agree with the copper being a likely culprit. Since you are using tap water i would suspect this as your source of copper. Most homes are plumbed with copper since the 1970s. My dad was a plumber, he comes in handy with this hobby <img src="graemlins//silly.gif" border="0" alt="[silly]" />
monica
Member
Thank you so much everyone!!! I am going to go tonight and have my water tested for copper. (and buy a test) I also will test it for phosphates. I will also see if my tests are right! It is so great to have help when I didn't think I was going to be able to keep this up! I do not want to stop when I have so much invested in this tank! I do not trust totally the lfs so it is great to have lots of other advice! I will let you know what happens!!!
anthony812
Member
good luck 
monica
Member
I just thought I would let you all know. I did the tests on the pure water from Wegmans and there is no question that my test is working. Which means my ammo is up and today it was even higher after I did a water change the day before yesturday. I did another water change just now and blew all the sand off the rocks. Now I have the brown algue growing on my sand! I'm going to the fish store now to get more tests.
monica
Member
I also put much brighter new lights on. Should I wait for that or should the lights be on now to help the lr? I would guess I need them now. The ammo problem is constant. Also, some of my lr is under the sand. Is that okay? When I put it in someone said to have some under the sand. That won't cause a problem, will it? jThanks!!!
sgt__york
Member
sounds like you are getting a lot of good and experienced advice here. Ammonia is definately something to stay on - find the cause - and don't stop till ya get it to 0. I think they are onto something w/the Copper as well (key being how fast it's killing inversts/snails).
I think everyone is agreeing that your primary key is the water source. Stay on the water changes - and since you have this problem, i would go get the R/O - D/I water from the LFS. Do a test on the incoming water as well for ammonia, copper and phosphates - to make sure they are not selling crap. If it's good, do the water changes - 20-25% a day for a 3-4 days.
Regarding the LIGHTING - you want to "REDUCE" your lighting - as it helps the sino and algae grow. I blieve i read before you may want to reduce it to only 4 hrs a day. ONCE you have the brown algae taken care of then begin to increase it's duration 1hr a day until you get it back to 8hrs a day.
I believe there is a chemical out there to also help fight that brown algae. i'm not sure if it's chemi-clean or not - ask your LFS or hopefully some of the more experienced hobbiest will help regarding what chemicals are best to use.
Also another note regarding your water source for the future - find a way to STOP using pure tap water. If you do not want to purchase an R/O filter - there is another option. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals make a Tap WAter Purifier that sells for about $22 or so per cartridge that makes about 80-120 gal of water (depending upon the heaviness of ur tap water). It doesn't have the runoff that the R/O does, so it makes it much faster. It is basically D/I water (deionized). An R/O filter system or a D/I system will be far greater than using Tap Water (and chemical neutralizers) alone.
Wishing you the best of luck. Hang in there, and don't get discouraged. Sounds like you have a lot of ppl here root'n for ya - who have been where you are.
I think everyone is agreeing that your primary key is the water source. Stay on the water changes - and since you have this problem, i would go get the R/O - D/I water from the LFS. Do a test on the incoming water as well for ammonia, copper and phosphates - to make sure they are not selling crap. If it's good, do the water changes - 20-25% a day for a 3-4 days.
Regarding the LIGHTING - you want to "REDUCE" your lighting - as it helps the sino and algae grow. I blieve i read before you may want to reduce it to only 4 hrs a day. ONCE you have the brown algae taken care of then begin to increase it's duration 1hr a day until you get it back to 8hrs a day.
I believe there is a chemical out there to also help fight that brown algae. i'm not sure if it's chemi-clean or not - ask your LFS or hopefully some of the more experienced hobbiest will help regarding what chemicals are best to use.
Also another note regarding your water source for the future - find a way to STOP using pure tap water. If you do not want to purchase an R/O filter - there is another option. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals make a Tap WAter Purifier that sells for about $22 or so per cartridge that makes about 80-120 gal of water (depending upon the heaviness of ur tap water). It doesn't have the runoff that the R/O does, so it makes it much faster. It is basically D/I water (deionized). An R/O filter system or a D/I system will be far greater than using Tap Water (and chemical neutralizers) alone.
Wishing you the best of luck. Hang in there, and don't get discouraged. Sounds like you have a lot of ppl here root'n for ya - who have been where you are.
