Beyond frustrated.

[thatone08]

I am beyond frustrated. Every fish I have put into my tank has died. My corals were thriving, with new growth. My fastest growing coral a pink and yellow caephastrea. Has slowed, starting to loose the pink of the encrusting body. And algae is taking over. My nitrates are astronomical, atleast 50, based on the red sea but probably higher. My ammonia is 2.0 on the Red Sea, maybe higher.
I was at a loss, I do water changes weekly some times twice a week. Todays the day I tested the water I get from the LFS. 1.0 ammonia in the rodi. Awesome. So every time Ive been topping off, I’ve been adding ammonia, which is leading to higher nitrates and algae that I can’t get under control. I have stopped buying fish from them due to short life span after getting home. Thought it was disease but now I’m guessing it’s high ammonia in their tanks. No longer buy coral from there due to the amount t of visible aiptasia in the displays.

I thought I was just not cut out for this, and that it is beyond difficult to try and get into this hobby. I’ve followed advice from people who have been in this a long time, and who are always willing to help here. Now I am square one with trying to get this under control. And the prime I ordered can’t come fast enough to be able to use it to make some of this water usable. Going to get distilled water today, it’s better than what I’ve been putting in here.

Any recommendations for online fish. Once I get this under co tell. I would like to see what it’s like to have a fish for more than a month.

End rant.

 

[Reefing102]

Wait so your RODI from the LFS already has Ammonia at 1.0 ppm? Are they aware of this issue?

I do wish you luck with getting everything corrected. I can only suggest water changes and if you don’t want it to cycle out, perhaps dosing microbacter in addition to prime. The way I understand it, and I may be wrong, is prime only bonds the ammonia to be removed with water changes. Again I may very well be wrong.

Have you thought about getting your own RODI?

 

[thatone08]

Wait so your RODI from the LFS already has Ammonia at 1.0 ppm? Are they aware of this issue?

I do wish you luck with getting everything corrected. I can only suggest water changes and if you don’t want it to cycle out, perhaps dosing microbacter in addition to prime. The way I understand it, and I may be wrong, is prime only bonds the ammonia to be removed with water changes. Again I may very well be wrong.

Have you thought about getting your own RODI?

I will be contacting them.

Im not exactly sure how prime works I will need to look into that.

yes I will be buying one next weekend to avoid all of this.

 

[ying yang]

Hi sorry to hear about your constant troubles with your reef tank.
Good thing you found out the amnonia is high on the rodi from lfs ( aslong your test kits in date and giving accurate readings) .
I not got any recommendations to buying your livestock as guess you in america.but my personal opinion is i dont want to buy online as rather the lfs get them in and in their tanks at least 5 days so i ring up and ask when next due in and go the day before.reason being some fish or corals dont ship well or get stressed and stop eating or whatever reason so if they die after getting shipped to lfs then they die in lfs care and less hassle for me and they only in bag from lfs to my home for 15- 45 minutes and i can inspect them at the lfs for any dieseses showing.
I have serious mis- trust issues regarding other people doing things for me,its not that anything bad has happenned to me,its just i know im very particular and like to cross all my t's and dot all my i's and others can get busy or forget, so because off this i decided to buy my own rodi unit which i didn't think was expensive and alot say after about a year you got your money back as membranes last few years and sediment and carbon block literally few pounds to buy and i just changed mine at 6 month mark the other day,and di resin not that much,so maybe buy your own rodi unit and make your own water then if water not perfect,you only got yourself to blame.and i find very simple of plug in unit and turn 9n water then flush for 10 minutes then put tubing in container and set alarm for 1 and bit hours then add to another container and add salt ready for wc next day.
So not defending lfs as whatever they sell should be good but if a busy lfs and multiple people buying rodi water regulary and rodi unit going on and off ( if not getting from storage) it may make filters last less time and more people involved at lfs and not organised properley. One worker could think another worker checking water pressure to indicate when sediment and carbon block need changing or one of them could go to do it then get called off for customer and forget all about.
I know this no excuse as should have a proper system in place for everything to run smoothly.
But i would inform lfs off your findings so hopefully they solve problem so other reefers dont have same problem.
Not sure why amnonia is 1 ppm from lfs rodi water? Maybe because carbon block needs changing and chlorine or chloramines getting through system and amnonia shows from this ?
And well done for not giving up and wish you best off luck with getting rodi from another lfs or buying your own unit,whichever you decide and hope you get your tank back on track and start to get enjoyment from your tank.

Also i dont want be bearer of more bad news but couple experienced people on r2r doing experiments on seachem prime to find out if prime actually gets rid or detoxifies free amnonia.so maybe have read of that.here is their thread and i think dan p got another thread also with seneye results.just food for thought and more information we got in our armour then better it is imo

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would suggest a time out, stop buying LFS water and stop buying fishes to die, save the money until you have enough for a cheap rodi system. It will save you money in the long run and its the only way to be sure of your water quality. Get your tank in order, get those rocks out scrub them like crazy, then start buying 1-2 fish at a time, wait 3-4 weeks, then 1-2 more, give your tank time to catch up to each addition of bioload. Also read some more published articles, opinions are good but if you ask 50 people you get 51 opinions, published articles give you proven facts. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

 

[ying yang]

I would suggest a time out, stop buying LFS water and stop buying fishes to die, save the money until you have enough for a cheap rodi system. It will save you money in the long run and its the only way to be sure of your water quality. Get your tank in order, get those rocks out scrub them like crazy, then start buying 1-2 fish at a time, wait 3-4 weeks, then 1-2 more, give your tank time to catch up to each addition of bioload. Also read some more published articles, opinions are good but if you ask 50 people you get 51 opinions, published articles give you proven facts. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

This is a great idea and you say your fishes probably dying from amnonia poisoning but if there is chance its from diesese then letting tank go fallow so the parasites die without any fish in tank be great idea.
But im sure you know signs off amnonia poisoning with burnt gills and gasping for breathe and etc etc so this probably why you say fish died from amnonia.but then again if you have enough rocks and surface area in your cycled tank then would off thought 10% wc once a week with 1ppm amnonia your bio filter would off been able to convert that quite quick as i know whilst cycling my tank and to see if cycle complete ( amnonia- nitrite) i added 2ppm amnonian chloride and took less than 24 hours to convert it and amnonia poisoning takes few days to have affects i believe unless really high but im waffling on off subject now lol.
Goodluck getting your tank back in order

 

[Doctorgori]

ammonia in RODI doesn’t sound right

 

[thatone08]

Hi sorry to hear about your constant troubles with your reef tank.
Good thing you found out the amnonia is high on the rodi from lfs ( aslong your test kits in date and giving accurate readings) .
I not got any recommendations to buying your livestock as guess you in america.but my personal opinion is i dont want to buy online as rather the lfs get them in and in their tanks at least 5 days so i ring up and ask when next due in and go the day before.reason being some fish or corals dont ship well or get stressed and stop eating or whatever reason so if they die after getting shipped to lfs then they die in lfs care and less hassle for me and they only in bag from lfs to my home for 15- 45 minutes and i can inspect them at the lfs for any dieseses showing.
I have serious mis- trust issues regarding other people doing things for me,its not that anything bad has happenned to me,its just i know im very particular and like to cross all my t's and dot all my i's and others can get busy or forget, so because off this i decided to buy my own rodi unit which i didn't think was expensive and alot say after about a year you got your money back as membranes last few years and sediment and carbon block literally few pounds to buy and i just changed mine at 6 month mark the other day,and di resin not that much,so maybe buy your own rodi unit and make your own water then if water not perfect,you only got yourself to blame.and i find very simple of plug in unit and turn 9n water then flush for 10 minutes then put tubing in container and set alarm for 1 and bit hours then add to another container and add salt ready for wc next day.
So not defending lfs as whatever they sell should be good but if a busy lfs and multiple people buying rodi water regulary and rodi unit going on and off ( if not getting from storage) it may make filters last less time and more people involved at lfs and not organised properley. One worker could think another worker checking water pressure to indicate when sediment and carbon block need changing or one of them could go to do it then get called off for customer and forget all about.
I know this no excuse as should have a proper system in place for everything to run smoothly.
But i would inform lfs off your findings so hopefully they solve problem so other reefers dont have same problem.
Not sure why amnonia is 1 ppm from lfs rodi water? Maybe because carbon block needs changing and chlorine or chloramines getting through system and amnonia shows from this ?
And well done for not giving up and wish you best off luck with getting rodi from another lfs or buying your own unit,whichever you decide and hope you get your tank back on track and start to get enjoyment from your tank.

Also i dont want be bearer of more bad news but couple experienced people on r2r doing experiments on seachem prime to find out if prime actually gets rid or detoxifies free amnonia.so maybe have read of that.here is their thread and i think dan p got another thread also with seneye results.just food for thought and more information we got in our armour then better it is imo

Does Prime actually "Detoxify" free ammonia, NH3?

This started when @Dan_P was looking at measuring NH3 with seneye and was curious about performance near zero NH3. I suggested trying Prime to artificially zero out the NH3 sensor, and the results were weird... so I checked with my seachem kit. Prime by Seachem is commonly used to treat tap...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks. I will look into that study on prime.

I would suggest a time out, stop buying LFS water and stop buying fishes to die, save the money until you have enough for a cheap rodi system. It will save you money in the long run and its the only way to be sure of your water quality. Get your tank in order, get those rocks out scrub them like crazy, then start buying 1-2 fish at a time, wait 3-4 weeks, then 1-2 more, give your tank time to catch up to each addition of bioload. Also read some more published articles, opinions are good but if you ask 50 people you get 51 opinions, published articles give you proven facts. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

I agree. To be clear, the fish would not go into this tank. It would go into my 20 gallon Red Sea. Which is cycled. And will be doing a water change on it next week after I buy an rodi system.

nothing else will be added to this tank that has the issue, until the ammonia is showing 0 for a a couple weeks and the algae is under control.

 

[thatone08]

This is a great idea and you say your fishes probably dying from amnonia poisoning but if there is chance its from diesese then letting tank go fallow so the parasites die without any fish in tank be great idea.
But im sure you know signs off amnonia poisoning with burnt gills and gasping for breathe and etc etc so this probably why you say fish died from amnonia.but then again if you have enough rocks and surface area in your cycled tank then would off thought 10% wc once a week with 1ppm amnonia your bio filter would off been able to convert that quite quick as i know whilst cycling my tank and to see if cycle complete ( amnonia- nitrite) i added 2ppm amnonian chloride and took less than 24 hours to convert it and amnonia poisoning takes few days to have affects i believe unless really high but im waffling on off subject now lol.
Goodluck getting your tank back in order

I agree. And it has been fallow for 45 days but will continue not to add anything for quite a while longer.

 

[thatone08]

ammonia in RODI doesn’t sound right

Doesn’t to me either. But I thought no way my water had that much in it. And I tested twice. And this was 2 days after a water change. In which I added rodi since i wanted to lower the salinity a bit more. Then I tested the rodi and it has ammonia for sure. Not sure how but it’s there. Tested for nitrates to see if maybe it was water from there system, no nitrates or nitrate, only ammonia.

 

[Tamberav]

Buy a RODI instead of more fishes. Numerous posts over the years of people having problems with LFS water. Obviously not every LFS but you are trusting someone else and they simply won’t put as much care into it as you.

Seen people lose corals because the LFS water was a bad batch from something rusting in it. Just never know. Too many hands in the pot at a LFS.

 

[ying yang]

Doesn’t to me either. But I thought no way my water had that much in it. And I tested twice. And this was 2 days after a water change. In which I added rodi since i wanted to lower the salinity a bit more. Then I tested the rodi and it has ammonia for sure. Not sure how but it’s there. Tested for nitrates to see if maybe it was water from there system, no nitrates or nitrate, only ammonia.

In my first post above i was thinking how could amnonia get into your water from the lfs and was thinking possible from the chlorine/chloramines in your tap water and thought one your filters letting it through.here a link saying just that and randy in 2nd post says also about if di resin is depleted then it starts leaching all the bad stuff back out and then this reminded me of a brs video i watched saying exactly this and something like amnonia is the most or something so will be at top off the di resin when it removes it and when di resin depleted and needs changing then amnonia one of first things to start getting released back out off the di resin.
More info on a brs video if anyone interested and wants to watch/ learn

 

[LeftyReefer]

I made it about 10 months in this hobby before I started quarantining all my new livestock. Before that, I was buying LFS fish that I thought were healthy, but you just never know what a fish might have/bring in... lost a few fish and learned my lesson the hard way. Luckily I was able to save most of my fish and have since QT'd them and all the rest of my new fish. Much much better results since.

I also just recently bought a RO/DI. wish I had done it sooner. Its so much better than relying on crap LFS water. I've yet to find an LFS providing 0 TDS water anyway.

 

[ying yang]

Mistake number 7 at 5.40 minutes @thatone08

 

[Doctorgori]

have you tested your tap. I get that chloramines, nitrates, iron et is in tap but without testing your municipal supply you don’t know it’s actually bad.

having to use RO waters likley but not. a certainty

 

[thatone08]

I made it about 10 months in this hobby before I started quarantining all my new livestock. Before that, I was buying LFS fish that I thought were healthy, but you just never know what a fish might have/bring in... lost a few fish and learned my lesson the hard way. Luckily I was able to save most of my fish and have since QT'd them and all the rest of my new fish. Much much better results since.

I also just recently bought a RO/DI. wish I had done it sooner. Its so much better than relying on crap LFS water. I've yet to find an LFS providing 0 TDS water anyway.

100% with you. I have medications coming in from BRS that I got for quarantining, have a tank just for quarantining. Yes

have you tested your tap. I get that chloramines, nitrates, iron et is in tap but without testing your municipal supply you don’t know it’s actually bad.

having to use RO waters likley but not. a certainty

i have well water so haven’t even bothered testing.

 

[Doctorgori]

well water? we assume it’s flammable here in Ohio

 

[thatone08]

well water? we assume it’s flammable here in Ohio

lol

 

[LuizW13]

As others have suggested, buy an rodi water filter, it really is worth it. Good luck.