fyrfytr
Active Member
Back in December/January I set up my first saltwater tank after spending a few months trolling the boards here and other places. 36gal bowfront with rock and sand that came from 2 seperate local reeefers (sand was free, rock sold for $1/ lb) who were gettig out of the saltwater hobby. Long and short, after putting some fish in the tank I thought I was doing well. Happened across a sale being done by a board sponseror and I picked up some sand and rubble very cheap. Thought this would be a good addition to my tank and would help me become more reef ready since I should get some good coraline alge build up. Silly me, didn't take into account the spikes...had what I thought was a small nitrogen spike and a corrosponding nitrate spike and lost my fish...the snails and peperment shrimp survived though, so I guess it was enough of an amonia spike to do my lil friends in.
FASTFORWARD
I re-cycled the tank. Got me a new friend for it (p.russelli lionfish) about 4 weeks ago and things have been great. He has been a pain to try and stick train so we have gone with rosie reds while we also work on stick training. Tuesday my wife commented that he looked more red then normal, which is true he was more reddish but he was breathing fine and acting fine. Wednesday he was yet more red, did not want to eat, and seemed to be breathing different like it was more deeper. I did a water check and the amonia was up to about .25 (where it had been hovering at 0 or just slightly above) and the nitrates were very high (if i recal, 15ish where they had been down to almost 0). Worried more about the amonia I went up to the store and got some amonia lock in order to try and get it safer (was close to bed time for me and I was to my exhaustion point) for him and then work on things in the morning when I got home. When I got up about 4 hours later he was on his side on the bottom breathing very hard. I quickly got a dinner plate and somewhat securely divided my 10gal tank that I have been using to QT my wifes impulse puffer purchase (now allowing me to set up a 55gal tank for one of the two of them) and put him into the tank. When my wife went to bed a few hours ago she said he was still alive, upright, but breathing hard still.
Over the last 3 weeks I have done nothing different to the tank other then instead of droping Spectrum into the tank for the sanils and shrimp I started dropping krill (not the actual krill, but the prepared in a can bites). My wife is convinced that since the last spike happened about the same time that there is something in the rock/sand that is slowly leeching out...but wouldnt it leech out over time and I would see a spike coming? I tested a few days ago and saw no increase in amonia and a little in the nitrates, but I was starting to get some alge growth on my rocks so I attribited it to that and the biological filter starting.
*side note, wife googled the red coloring. The coloring comes from the increased nitrates, so water change is in hand for me, athough we still are not sure on the cause of all of this.
FASTFORWARD
I re-cycled the tank. Got me a new friend for it (p.russelli lionfish) about 4 weeks ago and things have been great. He has been a pain to try and stick train so we have gone with rosie reds while we also work on stick training. Tuesday my wife commented that he looked more red then normal, which is true he was more reddish but he was breathing fine and acting fine. Wednesday he was yet more red, did not want to eat, and seemed to be breathing different like it was more deeper. I did a water check and the amonia was up to about .25 (where it had been hovering at 0 or just slightly above) and the nitrates were very high (if i recal, 15ish where they had been down to almost 0). Worried more about the amonia I went up to the store and got some amonia lock in order to try and get it safer (was close to bed time for me and I was to my exhaustion point) for him and then work on things in the morning when I got home. When I got up about 4 hours later he was on his side on the bottom breathing very hard. I quickly got a dinner plate and somewhat securely divided my 10gal tank that I have been using to QT my wifes impulse puffer purchase (now allowing me to set up a 55gal tank for one of the two of them) and put him into the tank. When my wife went to bed a few hours ago she said he was still alive, upright, but breathing hard still.
Over the last 3 weeks I have done nothing different to the tank other then instead of droping Spectrum into the tank for the sanils and shrimp I started dropping krill (not the actual krill, but the prepared in a can bites). My wife is convinced that since the last spike happened about the same time that there is something in the rock/sand that is slowly leeching out...but wouldnt it leech out over time and I would see a spike coming? I tested a few days ago and saw no increase in amonia and a little in the nitrates, but I was starting to get some alge growth on my rocks so I attribited it to that and the biological filter starting.
*side note, wife googled the red coloring. The coloring comes from the increased nitrates, so water change is in hand for me, athough we still are not sure on the cause of all of this.
