Sad corals

[paty]

Hello. I need help with my salt water tank. About 3 weeks ago I replaced the filter with a bigger filter and also installed a chiller. The chiller is a JBJ Attica titanium chiller. 1/10HP , and the filter is a Marine land canister filter C-530. Since the new filter and chiller were replaced and installed, my corals are retracting, my fan and coco worm do not want to come out, my snails are drowning / dying . The trumpet corals are not as supple. Seems the corals and snails are affected but my fish are fine. I also have an Octopus brand protein skimmer, uv sterilizer, 1 power head, aqua illumination Al hydra LED lights, my critters are: 1 Brain coral,2 trumpet coral, mushrooms, starburst polyp, Zoanthus, montipora, feather duster, coco tube worm ( which all these are affected ) and Also have 1 Rose bulb anemone, 1banded coral shrimp, 1chromis, 1Hawkfish, 2clown fish,1 kole yellow eye tang ,several snails and crabs as my cleaners . The tank is a 60 gal tank with about 50lb of live rock . I checked the water and everything in normal except for the ammonia which is 0.25. And is a 4yr old established tank that has been very healthy until now. Is there a solution to my sad corals? Please help

 

[trigger40]

if i were to gess it would be your filter being so new ther is no bacteria colanized. that also might explane your ammonia ,and i have never herd of a chiller on a reef tank.

 

[paty]

The weather is hot where I live so is less expensive to get a chiller than to keep my air conditioner on to keep my tank cool. Now for the probable increase in ammonia. Should I just do water changes or is there another solution?

 

[trigger40]

if you have high ammonia you should always do a water change. and if the bacteria hasent died in your old filter try runing both until your new filter has become mature. another thing you could do is put macro alge in your tank it will help keep the tank more stable and dont feed your fish a lot(just enough to get by) untill you get it under control. test your water 2 or 3 times a day and do a water chane of what ever you fell comfterbl with. i would do a minimum of 20% water change if ammonia levels get threatning IMO. let us know how things turn out. good luck

 

[beaslbob]

ammonia of .25 ppm is not your problem if you have a problem.
That is almost the "noise" area of the api test kit.
I always test at that level yet had fish and soft corals live for years.
my .02

 

[flower]

Hi,

Welcome to the site....what temp is your chiller set on? Corals generally like it hot, I ran my reef at 82 degrees. Corals and inverts respond negatively to high nitrates, fish don't care. I agree with beaslbob, .25 isn't an issue, but it does show you have a low count on the good bacteria level. If it doesn't climb any higher you should be fine. I use the strip test for ammonia ONLY...any reading means do a water change. A 10% change is enough if you stay on top of it. I check am and pm.