Coral help

[lindseyjo11]

We are pretty new to saltwater tanks and have had our up and running for a few months now. We bought some frogspawn a few weeks ago and was doing great, so we decided to purchase a trachyphyllia piece of coral. We noticed our nitrates were around 20, but everything else tested out fine. Our LFS said Amquel plus ammonia detoxifier would help, and that we were not in a dangerous area yet. What we didn't realize is that it also reduces oxygen. We added an air pump to the tank to get oxygen in it and we have our skimmer on as well when we noticed our yellow tang seemed to be having trouble breathing. All the fish ended up fine, but our two corals now aren't doing well. The frogspawn won't come out and the trachyphyllia isn't looking well. I'm wondering if someone could point me in the direction of what to do or if it's too late.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

I'm curious as to what "fine" means? knowing the exact water parameters would be very helpful.

 

[lindseyjo11]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Calcium 360
Kh 11 dKH
phosphate .25
Ph 8.0
We regularly do water changes, we did about a 25% water change a few days ago.

 

[tomtom2245]

With a new tank I would shy away from using any chemicals or additives to control your levels. It needs time to break itself in and establish its own equilibrium. As far as the corals, the frogspawn may just need time. Some are prone to stay closed up for weeks/months even after something irritates them only to open up one day. I can't speak for the trach as I have never had one.

 

[tomtom2245]

With a new tank I would shy away from using any chemicals or additives to control your levels. It needs time to break itself in and establish its own equilibrium. As far as the corals, the frogspawn may just need time. Some are prone to stay closed up for weeks/months even after something irritates them only to open up one day. I can't speak for the trach as I have never had one.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Trachys are really for more established systems. more of an advanced coral compared to others. your nitrates aren't crazy but I'd still get them down maybe around 10ppm. a larger water change should do the trick. the po4 is pretty high. water change would also help but watch your feeding. you could be feeding too much. do you have an rodi system?

 

[lindseyjo11]

Hopefully it opens back up, it was doing great a few days ago.
I don't have a rodi system, but I have checked the nitrates in the water before adding it to the tank to see if that was the cause, but they were 0.
Could the cause of this be from dosing it or are my levels just too far off? It's just hard to imagine everything would be fine and then not fine soon after adding that stuff to it.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Water we use should be made with an rodi system. the water should also read at 0 total dissolved solvents (tds). "dirty" water could contribute to a lot of quality issues. so that's why I asked. start with bad water and it's an uphill battle. so you need to be careful where you get your water from.

I've never used that stuff as I stay away from products like that as they're almost always a waste of money, but store will sell it to you because they want to make money.

Where them details at!?

Hopefully it opens back up, it was doing great a few days ago.
I don't have a rodi system, but I have checked the nitrates in the water before adding it to the tank to see if that was the cause, but they were 0.
Could the cause of this be from dosing it or are my levels just too far off? It's just hard to imagine everything would be fine and then not fine soon after adding that stuff to it.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

I would stop using that product, do the water changes as I recommended earlier and question your source of water. how many fish do you have? what do you feed them? and how often?

 

[lindseyjo11]

We have a small one, but no where near big enough for a water change, so maybe we will have to look into one for the future. I guess I just figured we had good water since we have always successfully kept freshwater tanks, and haven't had any problems with our saltwater fish until we dosed it.
Thanks for your help! Hopefully our corals will make it through whatever caused this.

 

[lindseyjo11]

I would stop using that product, do the water changes as I recommended earlier and question your source of water. how many fish do you have? what do you feed them? and how often?

We only have four fish as of right now, plus a shrimp, snails, and some hermit crabs. Our tank is 130 gallons. We have some omega one frozen foods we feed every other day.