Help! I'm having my first reefing crisis :-(
My scooter dragonet was looking under the weather this week (see earlier post). I had had him 14 months and he was always fat and healthy, even eating frozen food. Well today I took him out the tank into a hospital tank as he was on his last legs and being pestered, sadly he did not make it :-(. However, since then I have retested my tank and my parameters are all over the place!
I test my tank every Wednesday night, covering Nitrate, Ammonia, Alkalinity, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity and Calcium. I test Nitrite, Copper, Magnesium every month, and PH a few times a week. I keep all my figures on a graph and for 16 months everything has been stable apart from Nitrate going up to 5-10 over the last 6 months just before a WC. This was stable at 10 last week.
Well, my PH took a huge dip a few nights ago (between 7.5 and 7.75 according to the kit but couldn't verify as my PH meter is broken and replacement not due another week). I Then tested today after the scooter death, and found the PH was still low, but this time Ammonia was up between 0.75 and 1, and the Nitrate was a huge 60-80!! I have done a 25% water change and brought these figures down to 0.25 Ammonia and 10-15 Nitrate. The PH is back up at 8 (although was 8.2 before).
I have absolutely no idea what is going on. My tank is a 200litre established tank over a year and a half. The newest addition was a Mandarin a back at the start of the year and he was the first in 6 months. I have 6 small fish, corals and the usual shrimp and crabs. My water change routine is religiously change out 10-15% per week. I dose Calc and Alk once weekly (2 days apart), the sump light cycle alternates with the tank, and I dose copepods once per week for the mandarin. The scooter was alive when I removed him so he has not started to decay.
Has anybody got any suggestions over what could have caused such a spike so suddenly? I have not disturbed any rocks or the sandbed, as I'm moving house next month so tried to keep them as stress free as possible. Will the rest of the tank follow suit or can i do anything to stop it?
Any advice is really welcome.
My scooter dragonet was looking under the weather this week (see earlier post). I had had him 14 months and he was always fat and healthy, even eating frozen food. Well today I took him out the tank into a hospital tank as he was on his last legs and being pestered, sadly he did not make it :-(. However, since then I have retested my tank and my parameters are all over the place!
I test my tank every Wednesday night, covering Nitrate, Ammonia, Alkalinity, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity and Calcium. I test Nitrite, Copper, Magnesium every month, and PH a few times a week. I keep all my figures on a graph and for 16 months everything has been stable apart from Nitrate going up to 5-10 over the last 6 months just before a WC. This was stable at 10 last week.
Well, my PH took a huge dip a few nights ago (between 7.5 and 7.75 according to the kit but couldn't verify as my PH meter is broken and replacement not due another week). I Then tested today after the scooter death, and found the PH was still low, but this time Ammonia was up between 0.75 and 1, and the Nitrate was a huge 60-80!! I have done a 25% water change and brought these figures down to 0.25 Ammonia and 10-15 Nitrate. The PH is back up at 8 (although was 8.2 before).
I have absolutely no idea what is going on. My tank is a 200litre established tank over a year and a half. The newest addition was a Mandarin a back at the start of the year and he was the first in 6 months. I have 6 small fish, corals and the usual shrimp and crabs. My water change routine is religiously change out 10-15% per week. I dose Calc and Alk once weekly (2 days apart), the sump light cycle alternates with the tank, and I dose copepods once per week for the mandarin. The scooter was alive when I removed him so he has not started to decay.
Has anybody got any suggestions over what could have caused such a spike so suddenly? I have not disturbed any rocks or the sandbed, as I'm moving house next month so tried to keep them as stress free as possible. Will the rest of the tank follow suit or can i do anything to stop it?
Any advice is really welcome.
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