Hi all,
I am very new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. I have a 2 week old tank that i cycled almost immediately (within a few days after setting up). I tested the numbers and had a small spike in ammonia, then nitrites and finally nitrates (very low). I stocked it with some fish (a few damsels and clowns and one watchman goby) along with a cleanup crew.
I had a serpent starfish for a few days and it died almost immediately. After we realize it was dead, we removed it. Ever since that my ammonia has gone up and stayed up. For 2 days it was 2.0 and now for the last 4 days it has been 4.0! Nitrites are only .25 and nitrates are about 5. Though i have a hard time telling because the color on the nitrate chart never matches up to my test tube.
These numbers has been steady. I have done 2 10 gallon water changes in the past 7 days. I have been adding Smart Start every two days along with AmQuil for the ammonia. I lost a fish a week ago before the ammonia was even as bad as it is now. I am just at a loss. I need help!
What should i do?
Here are the specs:
Got the 38 gallon tank in a marine land kit with a biowheel HOB filter (penguin 200 i believe). I used fine white live sand and originally had 25 lbs live rock with 10 lbs of dry rock. A week later I added another 10 lbs of live rock.
I used Smart Start to cycle on day 1. It worked. I did witness a cycle after a few days.
Temp has been a steady 76.5 (after my water change yesterday it went up to 76.9, but it is back to normal now).
pH has been 8.0 - but one day for some reason it was 7.8.
I have been topping off about every two days with fresh water that i got for this purpose from my LFS.
Readings have been stead like this for the past 5 days with the exception of last night and I will explain that below:
Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 5
The only time the ammonia has gone down at all was yesterday about 4 hours after my water change. It was between 2-3 (not quite 4). I was hopeful that I would wake up and it would be better today, but it crept right back up to 4 by this morning.
I do not know my salinity, but like i said, i am using Red Sea water from my LFS and topping off only with freshwater form them as well. I can't imagine there is an issue with that?
I understand adding the fish could have spurred another cycle, or possibly the ammonia from the starfish dying. I just want to know why, with everything I'm doing to get it over with, is the second cycle not going through the phases like I'm told it should have by now? Just a solid 7 days of ammonia. 5 of them being at a 4.0.
I know there is debate over whether water changes delays the cycle, but for the sake of my fish i felt it necessary to do a few in the past week. 10 gallons changed out yesterday and 10 gallons about 5 days before that.
Again, I've been adding smart start and amquil. Even adding Prime every few days to help (though i don't know if that would do anything?). My LFS has a puzzled look on their faces as to why I am still getting such a high ammonia reading.
My fish are noticeably stressed. On damsel has what looks like a sore or burn possibly on his face. It is reddish in color and it almost looked like he scraped against a rock very hard but i doubt its that. Its probably a disease of some sort?
Also, so you know, I have been experiencing the diatom bloom for about 5 days as well. Everything is brown. Its very ugly, as expected. As of yesterday I cut the lights to calm the fish down and maybe calm the algae down as well. There is plenty of ambient light so they aren't swimming around in the dark.
PLEAES help. I am not one of those people who would cycle with fish and I'm so disappointed that i tried to do the right thing and these little guys are counting on me to take care of them and they are sick. I would love some tips.
Thanks
Emma
I am very new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. I have a 2 week old tank that i cycled almost immediately (within a few days after setting up). I tested the numbers and had a small spike in ammonia, then nitrites and finally nitrates (very low). I stocked it with some fish (a few damsels and clowns and one watchman goby) along with a cleanup crew.
I had a serpent starfish for a few days and it died almost immediately. After we realize it was dead, we removed it. Ever since that my ammonia has gone up and stayed up. For 2 days it was 2.0 and now for the last 4 days it has been 4.0! Nitrites are only .25 and nitrates are about 5. Though i have a hard time telling because the color on the nitrate chart never matches up to my test tube.
These numbers has been steady. I have done 2 10 gallon water changes in the past 7 days. I have been adding Smart Start every two days along with AmQuil for the ammonia. I lost a fish a week ago before the ammonia was even as bad as it is now. I am just at a loss. I need help!
What should i do?
Here are the specs:
Got the 38 gallon tank in a marine land kit with a biowheel HOB filter (penguin 200 i believe). I used fine white live sand and originally had 25 lbs live rock with 10 lbs of dry rock. A week later I added another 10 lbs of live rock.
I used Smart Start to cycle on day 1. It worked. I did witness a cycle after a few days.
Temp has been a steady 76.5 (after my water change yesterday it went up to 76.9, but it is back to normal now).
pH has been 8.0 - but one day for some reason it was 7.8.
I have been topping off about every two days with fresh water that i got for this purpose from my LFS.
Readings have been stead like this for the past 5 days with the exception of last night and I will explain that below:
Ammonia - 4.0
Nitrite - .25
Nitrate - 5
The only time the ammonia has gone down at all was yesterday about 4 hours after my water change. It was between 2-3 (not quite 4). I was hopeful that I would wake up and it would be better today, but it crept right back up to 4 by this morning.
I do not know my salinity, but like i said, i am using Red Sea water from my LFS and topping off only with freshwater form them as well. I can't imagine there is an issue with that?
I understand adding the fish could have spurred another cycle, or possibly the ammonia from the starfish dying. I just want to know why, with everything I'm doing to get it over with, is the second cycle not going through the phases like I'm told it should have by now? Just a solid 7 days of ammonia. 5 of them being at a 4.0.
I know there is debate over whether water changes delays the cycle, but for the sake of my fish i felt it necessary to do a few in the past week. 10 gallons changed out yesterday and 10 gallons about 5 days before that.
Again, I've been adding smart start and amquil. Even adding Prime every few days to help (though i don't know if that would do anything?). My LFS has a puzzled look on their faces as to why I am still getting such a high ammonia reading.
My fish are noticeably stressed. On damsel has what looks like a sore or burn possibly on his face. It is reddish in color and it almost looked like he scraped against a rock very hard but i doubt its that. Its probably a disease of some sort?
Also, so you know, I have been experiencing the diatom bloom for about 5 days as well. Everything is brown. Its very ugly, as expected. As of yesterday I cut the lights to calm the fish down and maybe calm the algae down as well. There is plenty of ambient light so they aren't swimming around in the dark.
PLEAES help. I am not one of those people who would cycle with fish and I'm so disappointed that i tried to do the right thing and these little guys are counting on me to take care of them and they are sick. I would love some tips.
Thanks
Emma
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