Corals and fish are dying

[Imee1976]

Hello, I have a 35 gallon tanks with a sump, skimmer, gfo reactor (2 months old) and a turf scrubber. The tanks 7 months old. I have had my shrimp of 3 months die with 4 Pajama cardinals die. i started adding in corals 4 months in and not one has done well. I run AI HD 16 lighting with the intensity at 50%, I downloaded a profile off one of the recommendations on this forum. My tanks 20 inches by 26 inches. I have an AI Nero and a gyro for flow. I run the temp at 78-79 degrees and the salinity is at 1.026. I have an ato. my phosphorus was hi, around .25 and thought that was my GHA problem so I got a gfo reactor And turf scrubber. My GHA is still getting worse and now I have a lot of red diatoms. My phosphorus is 0.1 now and my ammonia nitrite and nitrates are zero or close to it depending on how you perceive the color. pH is 8.2. I have two clown fish that have been with my since I cycled and they are doing fine or at least I think. My fire fish is also doing good. I do have 10 snails that and 2 hermits. Any help would be appreciate. I tried to think of any info I good give.

 

[Crustaceon]

You’re doing way too much. In reality, all you have to do is get an old toothbrush, some forceps and manually remove that GHA. It might take weeks of it coming back and you removing it, but that’s how you fix it. Not running gfo and not running an ats. There are side effects to those methods as you’re experiencing now. And personally, I don’t run that stuff. It’s just too much trouble and is completely unnecessary. Trust me, I’ve been in your shoes here. The first step is manually getting that algae out, which includes doing a small water change with a siphon hose (1 gallon) to suck out some of the loose algae. The second step is gradually increasing your nitrates. After you do your water change, dose a little nitrate solution to bring the tank up to around 4ppm. I use seachem’s product (not sponsored but if you guys want me to be $$$). Do this daily for a few weeks. You can also dose a little beneficial bacteria while you’re at it, which will help with your sand issue. Expect the water to cloud up a little, but it’ll clear up on its own after a few days. Lastly, don’t fret over phosphates. .25ppm isn’t terrible and a few water changes will drastically lower that. I personally keep mine at .08ppm.

 

[Imee1976]

Thanks Custaceon, i Do 5 gallon water changes weekly and try and remove as much GHA as possible by hand. Would the low nitrates be causing my fish issues? Also I do have an anenome, could he be stinging my fish Hence the clown fish seem to be immune? ill pick some nitrate solution up tonight.
thanks

 

[Attreui]

Agree, start with water changes. Sounds like the tank is still going through some new tank stuff. If you have GHA its probably eating the Nitrates before you can measure them. Its also possible you had some aggression, that is a small tank for a pair of clowns and 3 cardinals and firefish. That's a lot of free swimming fish for 20". Clowns get very nasty when others get close to their spot. Look for some more sedate fish. Just slow down. 7 months is a short amount of time. I would take the GFO and Turf scrubber out for now. Elevated Nitrates wont kill fish. Once you get everything settled if you still have Phosphate issues you can go back to the gfo if you need to. You will get it. Just take it slow and don't add anymore fish for right now.

 

[Attreui]

Thanks Custaceon, i Do 5 gallon water changes weekly and try and remove as much GHA as possible by hand. Would the low nitrates be causing my fish issues? Also I do have an anenome, could he be stinging my fish Hence the clown fish seem to be immune? ill pick some nitrate solution up tonight.
thanks

I would not add any additives at the moment.

 

[Imee1976]

Ok I never thought of my clowns being aggressive, they seem fine with the other fish but cardinals were smaller and my fire fish is bigger so that could be it.

 

[Crustaceon]

Thanks Custaceon, i Do 5 gallon water changes weekly and try and remove as much GHA as possible by hand. Would the low nitrates be causing my fish issues? Also I do have an anenome, could he be stinging my fish Hence the clown fish seem to be immune? ill pick some nitrate solution up tonight.
thanks

The low nitrates can cause a die-off of bacteria which can cause a temporary ammonia spike, which you might not have a chance to catch on a test kit before the remaining bacteria utilize it. You could also see a sharp drop in ph from an event like this too. This is a pretty stressful thing for fish to go through.

 

[Imee1976]

Interesting, should I try some adding nitrate solution or is there something else I can do?

 

[Crustaceon]

I would not add any additives at the moment.

True to an extent as things dying off will release nitrate on their own. This may not be enough to bring nitrate levels back in check over the next few weeks which is why I recommend dosing a supplement. I suspect after the first dose, nitrates will immediately bottom out again due to the likely bacteria bloom. This will stall out the bloom. While it’s a problem that will resolve itself over the course of a few months as things break down, a little bit of nitrate dosing will drastically speed up that process.

 

[Crustaceon]

Interesting, should I try some adding nitrate solution or is there something else I can do?

First and foremost, remove the algae religiously and test nitrates daily. If you don’t see an increase in nitrates within a week, I would personally dose enough by directions to raise levels to 4ppm. Retest nitrates 24 hours later. That’ll give you a better picture of which direction to go. If it’s still 4ppm, don’t dose. If it’s zero, dose.

 

[vetteguy53081]

WTer changes weekly- are you using RODI water or tap water from faucet?
GhA- reduce white light intensity and dose liquid vibrant at 80% of recommended.
For pho’s/nitrate, add a pouch of chemipure elite which will lower and keep it in check and extend water changes to bi-weekly

 

[SaltISlife]

And this ladies and gentleman is why i dont ever mention getting fancy equipment. Or chase numbers. But ehen i do mention my 135g tank uses tap water and hang on backs. And t5s. And has no sump or skimmer.

But has 20 fish. With 4 tangs. And 100+ corals i get attacked on this forum.


I will tell you right now. Your nitrates are too low. Hair algae can be combated with thr proper clean up crew. Hair algae is also a more common thing in newer tanks. Once it gets older it does go away. But when i had it i combated it with sea urchins. Turbo snails. Tooth brush. And getting a foxface and tangs.

Now i cant even keep hair algae if i wanted.

 

[Imee1976]

I use RO water, I’d love to get tangs and file fish but my tanks too small. I’ll test nitrates and reduce the white light. I do have a urchin and he is very active but does seem to be helping the GHA.