Help, its going out of controll.

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Im abit hesitant to use distilled :p, will it be ok to use natural spring water with 0 nitrites ?
I dont think i am expirienced enough to use distilled properly
 
Im abit hesitant to use distilled :p, will it be ok to use natural spring water with 0 nitrites ?
Why hesistant? distilled == rodi water. Can you use spring water, maybe you should get a TDS meter and check it and see. Ideally reef tanks like 0 TDS, in reality probably sub 20 is ok.
 
Three weeks is not even close to often enough to clean a filter for a saltwater tank, anything that may catch excess food or physical waste needs to be cleaned as often as daily(bio media should be left be)

freshwater is like keeping ants
Saltwater is like keeping ants under a magnifying glass.

Slowing down should also be taken seriously until you find the source of this issue and resolve it.
Ok il try doing that, i am also considering building an additional Sump, i have the tools to make a DIY to assist my canister.
How do i slow down? Im not planning on adding anything other than 3 turbo snails
 
Why hesistant? distilled == rodi water. Can you use spring water, maybe you should get a TDS meter and check it and see. Ideally reef tanks like 0 TDS, in reality probably sub 20 is ok.
Ok i think you are right. Il research it abit to make sure everything goes right thanks!!
 
I dont think i am expirienced enough to use distilled properly
Distilled water is literally just water that has been heated until it's steam and cooled back into liquid. This separates out the non-H20 molecules and kills bacteria present in the fluid. It's cleaner than spring water and most places that sell Spring water also sell distilled. The difference between distilled and RODI water is the method to achieve it. RODI is through reverse osmosis separation and de-ionization charges. Distilled achieves the identical effect through heat/energy use. RODI is cheaper that's why people use it (and people unfamiliar with the differences).
 
Distilled water is literally just water that has been heated until it's steam and cooled back into liquid. This separates out the non-H20 molecules. It's cleaner than spring water and most places that sell Spring water also sell distilled. The difference between distilled and RODI water is the method to achieve it. RODI is through reverse osmosis separation and de-ionization charges. Distilled achieves the identical effect through heat/energy use. RODI is cheaper that's why people use it (and people unfamiliar with the differences).
The only reason i was hesitant was that i have read that it removesl minerals and ions which are beneficial or even vital to the coral/fish health. how do i prevent that? Do u have any product recomendation? Or should they be fine
 
The only reason i was hesitant was that i have read that it removesl minerals and ions which are beneficial or even vital to the coral/fish health. how do i prevent that? Do u have any product recomendation? Or should they be fine

Those “minerals” are feeding the diatoms and bad algae , if you keep using tap and conditioner you could keep the ugly stage going indefinitely
 
The only reason i was hesitant was that i have read that it removesl minerals and ions which are beneficial or even vital to the coral/fish health. how do i prevent that? Do u have any product recomendation? Or should they be fine
Yes it does, and that's desired. Salt mixes are designed to provide those minerals coral need in the correct ratio. Once your reef is successful you may find that the salt mix is preventing further growth at which point we add alkalinty and calcium/magnesium supplements. Basically we want to add only the fuel the coral needs to thrive, while preventing excessive algae growth.
 
Yes it does, and that's desired. Salt mixes are designed to provide those minerals coral need in the correct ratio. Once your reef is successful you may find that the salt mix is preventing further growth at which point we add alkalinty and calcium/magnesium supplements.
You are right i did not think of that. I think my salt will provide all of those
image.jpg
 
Yes it does, and that's desired. Salt mixes are designed to provide those minerals coral need in the correct ratio. Once your reef is successful you may find that the salt mix is preventing further growth at which point we add alkalinty and calcium/magnesium supplements. Basically we want to add only the fuel the coral needs to thrive, while preventing excessive algae growth.
I will try buying some more salt to do a complete water change with some bottled distilled waterThanks alot you have helped me alot!!!
 
Lots of advice and potential problems here. First: triage order of priorities:

Ammonia: I noticed you do not have a very sizable amount of rock in the tank. You might want to add some additional dry rock (be careful about adding live rock at this point) to give greater surface area.

RO/DI water: You will save yourself many headaches if you can find yourself a basic RO/DI (4 stage) filter and put it in parallel to your laundry tap (or just periodically remove the hose from the laundry machine and attach the filter to that outlet). Remember you have to have an outlet for the "dirty" runoff water, either into the washing machine itself or into your effluent drain. (The "dirty" water isn't really dirty for use in washing clothes, it is just concentrated tap water).

Nitrite (NO2): At those levels, do not worry at all! In a freshwater tank I would say otherwise, but those low levels of nitrite will not be a problem for marine creatures. Eventually you will see the nitrite come down as the bacterial colonies get a foot hold, but there is no reason to try to manage that level. (Old school guidance would have told you otherwise, but studies a good decade or so back show that there are minimal to no effects at low concentrations, only when they get on the order of 100ppm or so). Read here to verify: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

Right now I would be less worried about nitrate and phosphate then getting your biological filtration stabilized. If you never added bottled bacteria it may not be a bad idea to add a bottle of Fritzyme TurboStart 900. There are others (Tims, etc), but that is the most recent one I had success with. But regards nutrient control in the short term since you have a small tank (15 US gallons, I myself have a 14 gallon cube), you could do well once you have a good water source (DI filter) to do weekly very sizable water changes for a bit. I do 80% changes weekly, enough such that there is only an inch or two in the tank to allow the clownfish to stay upright! Now only do this if you have the confidence to match the salinity and temperature very closely to that of the tank's. I use a metric scale to measure my salt to the exact gram (then verify with the refractometer once mixed) and I use an identical heater to what is in the tank set to the same temperature. It will never be EXACTLY the same, but it should be pretty close. You may want to start with smaller changes until you are confident with your process, say 25% to start, then 50, then whatever you are comfortable with and which don't show stress on the inhabitants. One of the local fish dealers here has a 7.5 gallon nano for which he takes the level all the way down until the hose looses suction, and the tank looks great! (Mind you he is using repurposed water from the shop's other coral tank systems to refill). Also, if you start doing such large changes, do yourself a favor and never rush the mixing.....allow the new water to sit overnight each and every time.

One thing that large level a water change allows you to do is to rely less on testing and manual tweaking (two part dosing, etc) to maintain suitable Alk/Ca/Mg levels. Once again, these (Alk/Ca/Mg) should be secondary to the ammonia, but given the choice of doing a one hour water change per week versus spending that time testing, calculating dosing levels, etc, I would choose the changes. If your tank was 600 liters, that would be a different story of course. A few other tricks: feed less! Let me say it again: feed MUCH less (for now)! Your fish will survive on two to three very small feedings a week, and for now that would be a good idea until the tank matures. On the day you are going to do a water change, that is the day to feed your corals and give your fish a slightly (slightly) larger feeding, then do the water change within a few hours afterwards to capture all the leftovers. Also, before you siphon out the tank's water, really stir things up either with a turkey baster or simply using a powerhead and blasting the rock (and stirring up the sand to release detritus into the water column). You can cover the inlet of the powerhead slightly with your palm to control the outflow blast/rate.

One other thing, you should elevate the skimmer up a bit higher in the tank to skim a bit "drier", as right now it looks excessively wet. It takes tiny adjustments and then waiting a day to see how it responds (you can never judge right away). No problem if you take it too high and have a thick sludge at the end of the day, but a coffee or lighter tea colored skimming is what you should aim for.

Hope this helps a bit.
 
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I kept freshwater before, never had a problem with tapwater in freshwater. What is ur advice ur telling me to quit ?
No I am not telling you to quit but If I am being honest I would suggest that if you bought the Livestock from a LFS you should return it and get credit. Then get yourself an RODI system and start changing out the water to get rid of all the Tap water chemicals. Then let the tank finish cycling and after that give it a month or two before you add just a couple of very hardy fish. As this process is going you should be reading up on everything involved in keeping a reef tank including which test kits you should buy and how to properly use them and what parameters your water and light need to be kept at as well as learning about the common forms of Algae and how to deal with it. You also need knowledge on how to look for parasites and other pests.

You can skip all of that and spend a wad load of cash on new fish and corals every few weeks. You can skip some of it and have a good looking tank that will eventually gets a massive outbreak of Aiptasia and parasites OR you can spend a lot of time reading and watching videos from trusted sources and researching all the main topics and at that point you do have a good chance of having long term tank success.
 
No I am not telling you to quit but If I am being honest I would suggest that if you bought the Livestock from a LFS you should return it and get credit. Then get yourself an RODI system and start changing out the water to get rid of all the Tap water chemicals. Then let the tank finish cycling and after that give it a month or two before you add just a couple of very hardy fish. As this process is going you should be reading up on everything involved in keeping a reef tank including which test kits you should buy and how to properly use them and what parameters your water and light need to be kept at as well as learning about the common forms of Algae and how to deal with it. You also need knowledge on how to look for parasites and other pests.

You can skip all of that and spend a wad load of cash on new fish and corals every few weeks. You can skip some of it and have a good looking tank that will eventually gets a massive outbreak of Aiptasia and parasites OR you can spend a lot of time reading and watching videos from trusted sources and researching all the main topics and at that point you do have a good chance of having long term tank success.

im sorry but that is not an option, i get really attached to my animals :p i wont just pass them back and get a new pair after some while, ill do everything it takes to fix this problem instead.
 
im sorry but that is not an option, i get really attached to my animals :p i wont just pass them back and get a new pair after some while, ill do everything it takes to fix this problem instead.

Your tank does have two months of development under its belt, and clownfish are tough customers. No need to really return anything right now, as they will probably be alright. (In decades past I used clowns instead of damsels to cycle aquariums before the fish-less approaches became common place). If you can afford and follow some of the advice that would be great, but I would certainly give this tank a chance to settle/equilibrate before adding anything new or making any significant changes (additional rock, DI filter, bottled bacteria aside).
 
Lots of advice and potential problems here. First: triage order of priorities:

Ammonia: I noticed you do not have a very sizable amount of rock in the tank. You might want to add some additional dry rock (be careful about adding live rock at this point) to give greater surface area.

RO/DI water: You will save yourself many headaches if you can find yourself a basic RO/DI (4 stage) filter and put it in parallel to your laundry tap (or just periodically remove the hose from the laundry machine and attach the filter to that outlet). Remember you have to have an outlet for the "dirty" runoff water, either into the washing machine itself or into your effluent drain. (The "dirty" water isn't really dirty for use in washing clothes, it is just concentrated tap water).

Nitrite (NO2): At those levels, do not worry at all! In a freshwater tank I would say otherwise, but those low levels of nitrite will not be a problem for marine creatures. Eventually you will see the nitrite come down as the bacterial colonies get a foot hold, but there is no reason to try to manage that level. (Old school guidance would have told you otherwise, but studies a good decade or so back show that there are minimal to no effects at low concentrations, only when they get on the order of 100ppm or so). Read here to verify: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

Right now I would be less worried about nitrate and phosphate then getting your biological filtration stabilized. If you never added bottled bacteria it may not be a bad idea to add a bottle of Fritzyme TurboStart 900. There are others (Tims, etc), but that is the most recent one I had success with. But regards nutrient control in the short term since you have a small tank (15 US gallons, I myself have a 14 gallon cube), you could do well once you have a good water source (DI filter) to do weekly very sizable water changes for a bit. I do 80% changes weekly, enough such that there is only an inch or two in the tank to allow the clownfish to stay upright! Now only do this if you have the confidence to match the salinity and temperature very closely to that of the tank's. I use a metric scale to measure my salt to the exact gram (then verify with the refractometer once mixed) and I use an identical heater to what is in the tank set to the same temperature. It will never be EXACTLY the same, but it should be pretty close. You may want to start with smaller changes until you are confident with your process, say 25% to start, then 50, then whatever you are comfortable with and which don't show stress on the inhabitants. One of the local fish dealers here has a 7.5 gallon nano for which he takes the level all the way down until the hose looses suction, and the tank looks great! (Mind you he is using repurposed water from the shop's other coral tank systems to refill). Also, if you start doing such large changes, do yourself a favor and never rush the mixing.....allow the new water to sit overnight each and every time.

One thing that large level a water change allows you to do is to rely less on testing and manual tweaking (two part dosing, etc) to maintain suitable Alk/Ca/Mg levels. Once again, these (Alk/Ca/Mg) should be secondary to the ammonia, but given the choice of doing a one hour water change per week versus spending that time testing, calculating dosing levels, etc, I would choose the changes. If your tank was 600 liters, that would be a different story of course. A few other tricks: feed less! Let me say it again: feed MUCH less (for now)! Your fish will survive on two to three very small feedings a week, and for now that would be a good idea until the tank matures. On the day you are going to do a water change, that is the day to feed your corals and give your fish a slightly (slightly) larger feeding, then do the water change within a few hours afterwards to capture all the leftovers. Also, before you siphon out the tank's water, really stir things up either with a turkey baster or simply using a powerhead and blasting the rock (and stirring up the sand to release detritus into the water column). You can cover the inlet of the powerhead slightly with your palm to control the outflow blast/rate.

One other thing, you should elevate the skimmer up a bit higher in the tank to skim a bit "drier", as right now it looks excessively wet. It takes tiny adjustments and then waiting a day to see how it responds (you can never judge right away). No problem if you take it too high and have a thick sludge at the end of the day, but a coffee or lighter tea colored skimming is what you should aim for.

Hope this helps a bit.

Honestly this has helped and informed me alot, i thought that with nitrite 1pp i would have lost my fish, i will make all your advices into practice just a few things:

I actually did order the following things a few days ago:

1) Tropic marine -nitribiotic containing live nitrifying bacteria. Fritz’ isnt an option since i live in the UK and due to the weather conditions during transport most of the bottles have been reported in amazon to contain dead bacteria.

2) I ordered an additional 6pounds to add up to my 5 pounds of rock, from CribSea, it is artificial will bacteria spores.

3) Turbo snails for a better CUC.

I will buy a reverse osmosis machine, but for the time being, willbottled narural spring water be an improvement to my current tap water?. I will also elevate the skimmer you are right i kept changing the dirty water 2 times a day which isnt normal. I will stop panicking about the nitrites and let the bacteria grow more. My canister filter is only 1 week old so in a matter of weeks i think the bacteria will build sufficiently enough To controll the situation. MY biggest mistake tbh was relying in a 60L rater HOB filter to do the filtration of a 60L marine. I should have bought the canister sooner!
Thanks alot!!!
 
Prime is different than bottled bacteria. If you can get the latter there in London, that would definitely help speed things up a little bit. Don't expect overnight results necessarily as many vendors and hobbyists promise....it simply doesn't always work that way.
 
Prime is different than bottled bacteria. If you can get the latter there in London, that would definitely help speed things up a little abit. Don't expect overnight results necessarily as many vendors and hobbyists promise....it simply doesn't always work that way.
Yes i know its different, i am Slightly experienced to the hobby from freshwater. Prime is very temporary. I bought the following which i think is the best option in the uk. Do you think its a good replacement to Fritz’s? Also do you think i should buy live sand instead??
88EBE0FF-953B-44EC-A7AF-D1E5C6E81F29.png
 
Honestly this has helped and informed me alot, i thought that with nitrite 1pp i would have lost my fish, i will make all your advices into practice just a few things:

I actually did order the following things a few days ago:

1) Tropic marine -nitribiotic containing live nitrifying bacteria. Fritz’ isnt an option since i live in the UK and due to the weather conditions during transport most of the bottles have been reported in amazon to contain dead bacteria.

2) I ordered an additional 6pounds to add up to my 5 pounds of rock, from CribSea, it is artificial will bacteria spores.

3) Turbo snails for a better CUC.

I will buy a reverse osmosis machine, but for the time being, willbottled narural spring water be an improvement to my current tap water?. I will also elevate the skimmer you are right i kept changing the dirty water 2 times a day which isnt normal. I will stop panicking about the nitrites and let the bacteria grow more. My canister filter is only 1 week old so in a matter of weeks i think the bacteria will build sufficiently enough To controll the situation. MY biggest mistake tbh was relying in a 60L rater HOB filter to do the filtration of a 60L marine. I should have bought the canister sooner!
Thanks alot!!!

Ideally you want most if not all of the biological filtration occurring in the tank itself on the surface area of the sand and rock. You want to be able to clean out the media in any filter very regularly to keep the detritus and **** that builds up from breaking down into ammonia (and thus Nitrate). I only have an AquaClear hang on back filter on my cube (and an internal Tunze skimmer), and I try to rinse the sponge daily to keep the **** out of the tank. While the skimmer separates most of the skimmate from the water column, once yours is calibrated and broken in you will see a thick film form on the inside of the cylinder that is in contact with the water column, hence why daily fast wiping of that.

When my 6 foot, 125 USG tank developed a slow leak, I took its livestock (mainly large fish) out and put them into large plastic bins having only live rock, heaters, and a single powerhead. They lived successfully like that for more than half a year while I rebuilt the tank. As one visitor pointed out to me, I was successfully raising a mid sized queen Angel in a garbage (rubbish) bin! :). (That is the proof that while mechanical filtration is good at maintaining low NO3, it is not necessary to keep fish). You could completely take your canister and HOB filter off, put in a couple powerheads and you would be OK. (I'm NOT saying to do that, but you get the point).
 
Yes natural spring water will be a definite upgrade to tap water. A good skimmer will help a lot also. The canister filter should not be the prime/only filtration on the tank. I would do a 75% water change using the spring water. This will help and be the fastest. Then I would slow down and watch the tank and let it settle. I would plan on 20% water changes every 10-14 days or so. This will help get the tank in balance by physically removing the crap from the tank. And the wait for a few months you can add the new rock as this will help biologically. Thai should get you back on track. Again I cannot say patience is so important here in this hobby.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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