tank help....

fishfatty

fishfatty

Active Member
for the last week or so i have noticed my tank going down hill. None of the corals are fully open, and my colt looks like its half dead. all my levels are normal... but the PC bulbs are 10 months old. I havent changed the water in about 3 months due to the water costing so much. I bought an RO unit, wanting to do a major water change, but my dad hasnt connected it up yet. Do you think doing a major water chage will help with my tank? What about replacing the bulbs? Any help is appreciated...im kinda desperate. thanks!
 
litlepig11

litlepig11

Member
hi im new to so you might get different opions. i would change the bulbs right away, i would also do several SMALL water chages. i stoped useing ro water because it was to much, havent had any problems, i would base that discion on your beging water quality. change 20% of your tanks water and try half ro half decloried tap. do 20% every week keep your salinty even and you should even back out
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
When you say your levels are normal, what are they??? Have you changed anything out of the ordinary as far as schedule or maintenance, or chemical use?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Well I just went back and read your post, and I think part of the issue is water change!!!! What about your skimmer?
 
lilcreep

lilcreep

Member
i agree with puffer, you NEED to do some water changes for those corals. They need the nutrients in the water. if you aren't doing changes, then they use up all of those nutrients. It would be like if someone put you in a room with a months supply of food, but left you in there for 3 months. You would start to shrivle too. Also those bulbs need replacing. I noticed my PC's were getting dimmer and they have been used about a year. I decided to just ditch the whole PC unit and bought a t5 set for not too much more than it would have cost me to replace the bulbs on my PC fixture. But definately do some water changes and quick.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Water changes are a must. since your saying you cant do them. I reccommend running carbon to absorb excess chemicals. hows your temperature is your heater acting up? after three months with no water changes your tank is probably very depleted on trace elements that your corals need. you probably wont be able to improve the conditions much with out several small to medium water changes. if you go too big you could shock the heck out of everything and make the situation worse. I use city water on my reef tank (I know bad me) and dont have a problem. I reccomend amquell plus for the city water for chlorine cloramines and pheremone nutrilization amquell plus is the only water conditioner I know of that nutralizes pheremones if you have well water use Aqua plus because it nuetralizes most heavy metals.
 
kmc

kmc

Member
Have you checked your local Super Wal Mart to see if they sell the Culligan r/o water. You pay for the container once and refills are like 30 cents a gallon.
 
jimreemts

jimreemts

Member
How can anyone say RO water is expensive? This is what you need to to, Like KMC said, get your self five 5 gallon bucketts from the local hardware store. Go down to your nearest supermarket, someone in your town will have a water machine out front. pay the 30cents per gallon and have some happy fish.
Most of these machines now uses. stage one carbon filter, UV light, RO, another carbon filter and a final stage of UV. You cant beat it.
 
kmc

kmc

Member
Originally Posted by FishFatty
guys- i said right after i mentioned it being expensive- that i just bought an RO unit..
you also said it wasn't hooked up yet and I think the universal theme here is that you need to do a water change sooner than later.
 
puffer32

puffer32

Active Member
And if you wait till it is hooked up, it may be to late. Go to walmart and get 10 gal of RO, only cost you less then 4.00. Have you done that yet?
 
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