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rto 29
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This is going to be a little bit a a lenthy post, but I feel like you would need all the backround to make some kind of educated guess as to what the hell is going on with my tanks.
We started keeping marine fish about a year ago, when we came across a sale at the LFS. We got a 75G fo. It was running on a Fluval 404, ls, and cc for a substrate. We added 75 LBS of live rock, and a prism skimmer. After the six week cycle process we started adding fish which now include a yellow tang a foxface a flame angel and a fairy wrasse, and then the obigatory assorted damsels. This tank has never been any trouble at all, and we have never had any loses or water quality issues.
So then we decided that we were ok at this and so we started keeping a reef. This time in a 60 G hex tank with 75 lbs of live rock. We were told a wet dry filter is the only filter that would do so we added a cpr with a protein skimmer built in. This tank has a ls substrate. We also are using just the standard flourecent fixture with two full spectrum tubes and one actinic blue tube. We were told this would be ok as long as we stuck to only very specific soft corals. We just got the first couple in there when the seem split and spit water all over out livingroom. We replaced the tank and had went through another cycle and replaced the coral. Everything was going good and one morning we woke up and all the fish were dead including a powder brown surgeon a manderin a sandsifter and a bicolor blennie,the water quality had trace amounts of nitrite and the amonia level was spiked I had been changing the water regularly and had been using jungle lab test strips which were indicating 0 amonia constantly... The reef is still recovering from that issue and I'm still trying to figure out what went on there....
Seven weeks ago we set up a 110 gallon agressive tank, it is a tall tank and was set up with two fluval 404's, and a prism skimmer. I went with the fluvals because I felt I had better luck with water quality in the 75g. This tank also has a sand bed, just arogonite not ls. We cycled the tank for 6 weeks with 10 damsels, we watched the cycle progress and a week ago everythings had been zero for a week so we added a h tusk and a bananna wrasse. They have been doing well for a week, eating well and behaving well. I started to notice a rise in ammonia and nitrite, so I changed 10 g on tuesday, and 15 gallons on friday. Yesterday the ammonia was .5, and nitirite was .2 so I did a 25g water change. When I change the water I always mix to proper salinity, and add some stess coat, and then let it sit for at least an hour. Lst night we went to sleep and everything was fine. This morning at 0800 we woke up and everything dead the h tusk the damsels, and the bananna wrasse looks like he's fading fast. I'm an hour away for the lfs and they dont even open for three hours and by then I think he'll be gone.
I feed just the right amount, I do my water changes, and I don't think I rush things, I test all the time SO WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?????
The water also looks very cloudy this morning...
Is it my equipment, did we rush things????
My latest theory is that something must be wrong with the tap water I'm using for my water changes. I know we have a lot of sulfer in out water supply and I was wondering if that could be the cause.....
Anybody with any advice please help, I'll do whatever we have to do to avoid this kind of thing in the future. I just dont know what is causing my water quality to just go out of whack at the drop of a hat, and why would I have two nights when everything was fine, and then the next day everything dead....
Someone please help, we're getting very discouraged.....
We started keeping marine fish about a year ago, when we came across a sale at the LFS. We got a 75G fo. It was running on a Fluval 404, ls, and cc for a substrate. We added 75 LBS of live rock, and a prism skimmer. After the six week cycle process we started adding fish which now include a yellow tang a foxface a flame angel and a fairy wrasse, and then the obigatory assorted damsels. This tank has never been any trouble at all, and we have never had any loses or water quality issues.
So then we decided that we were ok at this and so we started keeping a reef. This time in a 60 G hex tank with 75 lbs of live rock. We were told a wet dry filter is the only filter that would do so we added a cpr with a protein skimmer built in. This tank has a ls substrate. We also are using just the standard flourecent fixture with two full spectrum tubes and one actinic blue tube. We were told this would be ok as long as we stuck to only very specific soft corals. We just got the first couple in there when the seem split and spit water all over out livingroom. We replaced the tank and had went through another cycle and replaced the coral. Everything was going good and one morning we woke up and all the fish were dead including a powder brown surgeon a manderin a sandsifter and a bicolor blennie,the water quality had trace amounts of nitrite and the amonia level was spiked I had been changing the water regularly and had been using jungle lab test strips which were indicating 0 amonia constantly... The reef is still recovering from that issue and I'm still trying to figure out what went on there....
Seven weeks ago we set up a 110 gallon agressive tank, it is a tall tank and was set up with two fluval 404's, and a prism skimmer. I went with the fluvals because I felt I had better luck with water quality in the 75g. This tank also has a sand bed, just arogonite not ls. We cycled the tank for 6 weeks with 10 damsels, we watched the cycle progress and a week ago everythings had been zero for a week so we added a h tusk and a bananna wrasse. They have been doing well for a week, eating well and behaving well. I started to notice a rise in ammonia and nitrite, so I changed 10 g on tuesday, and 15 gallons on friday. Yesterday the ammonia was .5, and nitirite was .2 so I did a 25g water change. When I change the water I always mix to proper salinity, and add some stess coat, and then let it sit for at least an hour. Lst night we went to sleep and everything was fine. This morning at 0800 we woke up and everything dead the h tusk the damsels, and the bananna wrasse looks like he's fading fast. I'm an hour away for the lfs and they dont even open for three hours and by then I think he'll be gone.
I feed just the right amount, I do my water changes, and I don't think I rush things, I test all the time SO WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?????
The water also looks very cloudy this morning...
Is it my equipment, did we rush things????
My latest theory is that something must be wrong with the tap water I'm using for my water changes. I know we have a lot of sulfer in out water supply and I was wondering if that could be the cause.....
Anybody with any advice please help, I'll do whatever we have to do to avoid this kind of thing in the future. I just dont know what is causing my water quality to just go out of whack at the drop of a hat, and why would I have two nights when everything was fine, and then the next day everything dead....
Someone please help, we're getting very discouraged.....
