Help! Tank crashing!!

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

Hello,
I'm a new member but have been stalking forums for over a year. I thought I could do this, then I realized I had to do some hard work. That's good though. Learned some hard lessons very quickly and very costly. I have a 55 gallon reef tank. Its has been up for 9 months. I started with a 29g and upgraded after a tank crash ( over population). Since then I have been going strong. Until now.
Problem is ammonia is at a 3/4.0 and climbing and ph is at a 7.4 and dropping!
I know, water change. Done that 3 times in the last 6 days. The rest is good. I check it every 3 weeks.
Parameters
12/02/19. 12/27 12/28. 12/31
Ph-8.2. 8.0. 8.0. 7.0
Ammonia-.15ish. .25. .50. 3/4.0
NO2-0. .25. .0. .0
NO3-.7ish. 5. .0. .0
Ca 2+- 480. 520. 500. 480
DkH- 143.2. 143.2. 143.2. 214.8
PO4 - .05. 0. 0. 0
List of fish I did have
Lawnmower blenny, scooter blenny, 3 skunk clowns, 2 purcula clowns, 1 mono, 1 humu humu trigger, 1 domino damsel, 1 yellow shrimp gobi, 1 melanarus wrasse, about 20 hermit crabs, 4 emerald crabs, 4 large turbo snails, 2 small urchins,1 pistol shrimp, 1 carpet anemone and 2 large bubbletip anemones. Corals are 1 hammer,1 torch,1 duncan, 1 frogspawn, 1 colt leather, 1 mushroom leather, 5 small kenya trees, 4 richardia mushrooms, 1 acro, 1 maze brain, 7 various zoas and 1 pulsating xenia. The corals, crabs and shrimp and 1 urchin are fine and all I have left are 1 percula, 1 humu, 1 shrimp gobi and 1 carpet anemone. All the corals are fine. The bubbletips were a Christmas present put on on 12/19. A few days later my tank started crashing. I also got a new canister filter I installed on the 26th for a 100g tank. Before it was 2 hob filters used for about 75g combined. My protein skimmer is cheap and little but never fails to skim I just have to empty it daily. I have officially changed more water than the tank and filter combine now hold. Please help. And yes I know the humu humu and mono need bigger tanks. They are babies and i had to foster them for now.
I did have a massive out break of long hair green algea and was dosing Red Sea's NO3PO4-X less than recommended dosage.

brandon429 · Dec 31, 2019

don't worry about ammonia test readings, there is nothing to keep your ammonia at toxic lethal levels sustained, we can find things interfering/causing misreadings for that part easily.

*all you have to do is verify you don't have a dead fish in the mix anywhere. lemme know if all your fish are accounted for. in no way does your tank have that much real free ammonia it would be opaque cloudy with all dead inhabitants.

is it true that only your test kits shows concern, but nothing in the actual tank

brandon429 · Dec 31, 2019

yep, its a zero ammonia system. the clown would be swimming at the top panting, and the lysmata shrimp would be the first to die if you had true .5 ammonia sustained past one hour.

knowing its a zero ammonia system with a classic api misread, whats the issue

going forward, the only time you need to test for ammonia is if you cannot locate a fish.

ammonia is 100% consequential and never a test-only event when its real. it will wreck your tank

***in no way do you have a fish bioload that outpaces your bacteria, or surface area, your ammonia is a false reading as the tank itself has open corals respiring fish and clear water, all impossible characters in even 2.0 real free ammonia sustained.

we're about to have a lengthy discussion about whats causing ammonia even though you have zero free ammonia, Ill leave you with: this tank has no free ammonia six reasons or better have been listed.

google false api ammonia reading, see the various additives like Prime that cause false readings. you have no free ammonia.

if you have a missing fish, then you have some tiny bit of ammonia but anything approaching 1 ppm sustained will begin a loss cascade. Ill predict by the open corals, fish swimming down low indicating zero gill stress, and lysmata that you aren't missing any animals either. you don't need to purchase anything, as zero things are wrong requiring a purchase. promise before you buy stuff you'll at least google api false ammonia readings, check out the one million search returns

never base any aquarium action on api ammonia. buy seneye or don't measure ammonia, for this very reason.

moz71 · Dec 31, 2019

I’m wondering if by changing out the filters you lost all the beneficial bacteria in the filter foam etc and now the new filter is trying to build it up. But just accumulating all the gunk causing build up in ammonia

Redfoxtang · Dec 31, 2019

Welcome to R2R!! Would just dose some more bacteria and keep on moving along!! Remember to keep it slow and steady!

Bentley007 · Dec 31, 2019

Rule out testing error. How could you show zero nitrite and nitrate with a functioning biofilter with true ammonia readings that high - though that ammonia trend (if real) makes me raise an eyebrow... i'd look for a dead fish.

lilgrounchuck · Dec 31, 2019

Did you have all of those fish in there at the same time? We’re they all added at the same time? That seems like a lot of fish to have at once in a 55. Were they eating ok? We’re they fighting? Maybe some of the losses were stress related due to the close quarters over the last 9 months. They may not have been aggressive when you first got them, but they can become more territorial and aggressive as they get older.

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

brandon429 said:
don't worry about ammonia test readings, there is nothing to keep your ammonia at toxic lethal levels sustained, we can find things interfering/causing misreadings for that part easily.

*all you have to do is verify you don't have a dead fish in the mix anywhere. lemme know if all your fish are accounted for. in no way does your tank have that much real free ammonia it would be opaque cloudy with all dead inhabitants.

is it true that only your test kits shows concern, but nothing in the actual tank

It is true the water is crystal clear. I took the whole tank part to find any and all dead fish. Even sifted the sand some. I did find a couple bristle worms by accident and the couple fish I have seem to be breathing harder than normal. But they are swimming around.

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

brandon429 said:
yep, its a zero ammonia system. the clown would be swimming at the top panting, and the lysmata shrimp would be the first to die if you had true .5 ammonia sustained past one hour.

knowing its a zero ammonia system with a classic api misread, whats the issue

going forward, the only time you need to test for ammonia is if you cannot locate a fish.

ammonia is 100% consequential and never a test-only event when its real. it will wreck your tank

***in no way do you have a fish bioload that outpaces your bacteria, or surface area, your ammonia is a false reading as the tank itself has open corals respiring fish and clear water, all impossible characters in even 2.0 real free ammonia sustained.

we're about to have a lengthy discussion about whats causing ammonia even though you have zero free ammonia, Ill leave you with: this tank has no free ammonia six reasons or better have been listed.

google false api ammonia reading, see the various additives like Prime that cause false readings. you have no free ammonia.

if you have a missing fish, then you have some tiny bit of ammonia but anything approaching 1 ppm sustained will begin a loss cascade. Ill predict by the open corals, fish swimming down low indicating zero gill stress, and lysmata that you aren't missing any animals either. you don't need to purchase anything, as zero things are wrong requiring a purchase. promise before you buy stuff you'll at least google api false ammonia readings, check out the one million search returns

never base any aquarium action on api ammonia. buy seneye or don't measure ammonia, for this very reason.

Thank you. I will google it and wait.

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

Bentley007 said:
Rule out testing error. How could you show zero nitrite and nitrate with a functioning biofilter with true ammonia readings that high - though that ammonia trend (if real) makes me raise an eyebrow... i'd look for a dead fish.

I did tank the tank apart because my fish were dying and stressing after I change over to the canister filter. Got out all the dead fish. I really liked them too. And I did all the test 2 times each time over the last couple days rinsing the containers with distilled water to make sure there was no/little cross overs because I couldn't believe it was that high. I put 1 of my old hob filters in while waiting for the new one to "work" not sure what else to do.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 31, 2019

What is salinity (salt) level?

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

lilgrounchuck said:
Did you have all of those fish in there at the same time? We’re they all added at the same time? That seems like a lot of fish to have at once in a 55. Were they eating ok? We’re they fighting? Maybe some of the losses were stress related due to the close quarters over the last 9 months. They may not have been aggressive when you first got them, but they can become more territorial and aggressive as they get older.

No they were added a little at a time but the newest fish was added about 3 months ago. It may have been the bubbletip anemones, being they were added on the 19th of December. My first fish disappeared on the 25th. The next day the anemones were wilting and fish were dying. I took out everything I could find dead. Put the nems on a quarenteen tank changed water. The next day more dying, nems way beyond what I could save. I was changing water every 2 days by this point. The 30th took out all the rock sifted sand small water change cleaned remaining L.H. algea off the rocks, cleaned glass real good. Through all this the corals, invertebrates and carpet anemone were fine. Just the fish and btas dying. Now I just have the 3 fish left.. still worried though because the shrimp gobi is actually going to the top of my tank. It's never done that before.

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

vetteguy53081 said:
What is salinity (salt) level?

Steady at 1.025/1.024

lilgrounchuck · Dec 31, 2019

Mena said:
No they were added a little at a time but the newest fish was added about 3 months ago. It may have been the bubbletip anemones, being they were added on the 19th of December. My first fish disappeared on the 25th. The next day the anemones were wilting and fish were dying. I took out everything I could find dead. Put the nems on a quarenteen tank changed water. The next day more dying, nems way beyond what I could save. I was changing water every 2 days by this point. The 30th took out all the rock sifted sand small water change cleaned remaining L.H. algea off the rocks, cleaned glass real good. Through all this the corals, invertebrates and carpet anemone were fine. Just the fish and btas dying. Now I just have the 3 fish left.. still worried though because the shrimp gobi is actually going to the top of my tank. It's never done that before.

All of that scrubbing may have been detrimental. When you pulled everything out did you clean it in tank water or freshwater? If you pulled everything out and scrubbed it down with fresh you could have purged a lot of your biological filter which resulted in another cycle starting and causing more die off.

mayday0237 · Dec 31, 2019

Mena said:
Hello,
I'm a new member but have been stalking forums for over a year. I thought I could do this, then I realized I had to do some hard work. That's good though. Learned some hard lessons very quickly and very costly. I have a 55 gallon reef tank. Its has been up for 9 months. I started with a 29g and upgraded after a tank crash ( over population). Since then I have been going strong. Until now.
Problem is ammonia is at a 3/4.0 and climbing and ph is at a 7.4 and dropping!
I know, water change. Done that 3 times in the last 6 days. The rest is good. I check it every 3 weeks.
Parameters
12/02/19. 12/27 12/28. 12/31
Ph-8.2. 8.0. 8.0. 7.0
Ammonia-.15ish. .25. .50. 3/4.0
NO2-0. .25. .0. .0
NO3-.7ish. 5. .0. .0
Ca 2+- 480. 520. 500. 480
DkH- 143.2. 143.2. 143.2. 214.8
PO4 - .05. 0. 0. 0
List of fish I did have
Lawnmower blenny, scooter blenny, 3 skunk clowns, 2 purcula clowns, 1 mono, 1 humu humu trigger, 1 domino damsel, 1 yellow shrimp gobi, 1 melanarus wrasse, about 20 hermit crabs, 4 emerald crabs, 4 large turbo snails, 2 small urchins,1 pistol shrimp, 1 carpet anemone and 2 large bubbletip anemones. Corals are 1 hammer,1 torch,1 duncan, 1 frogspawn, 1 colt leather, 1 mushroom leather, 5 small kenya trees, 4 richardia mushrooms, 1 acro, 1 maze brain, 7 various zoas and 1 pulsating xenia. The corals, crabs and shrimp and 1 urchin are fine and all I have left are 1 percula, 1 humu, 1 shrimp gobi and 1 carpet anemone. All the corals are fine. The bubbletips were a Christmas present put on on 12/19. A few days later my tank started crashing. I also got a new canister filter I installed on the 26th for a 100g tank. Before it was 2 hob filters used for about 75g combined. My protein skimmer is cheap and little but never fails to skim I just have to empty it daily. I have officially changed more water than the tank and filter combine now hold. Please help. And yes I know the humu humu and mono need bigger tanks. They are babies and i had to foster them for now.
I did have a massive out break of long hair green algea and was dosing Red Sea's NO3PO4-X less than recommended dosage.

I would add bacteria Seed or Dr. Ts. Stop adding prime....stop dosing for algae if you haven't already done so. Do not move or touch any sand or rocks.. if you still have the old media from the hob put it in your canister. you most likely depleted your beneficial bacteria that keep your bioload stable. Add some air stones to up the oxygen in the water. Don't feed anyone and add some buffer. This is one rodeo I have been on and it sucks...the hardest thing is to do nothing and be patient. Small water changes if the fish are stressing, but nothing big. The hair algae absorb nitrate and phosphate as food. When you eliminate them it leaves a void in the ecosystem. Cleaning everything also removes things that live on ammonia, nitrate, etc.
Carbon will help remove ammonia and nitrate...

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

lilgrounchuck said:
All of that scrubbing may have been detrimental. When you pulled everything out did you clean it in tank water or freshwater? If you pulled everything out and scrubbed it down with fresh you could have purged a lot of your biological filter which resulted in another cycle starting and causing more die off.

I did it in tank water. I made that mistake of freshwater about 8 months ago and sent my tank into a new cycle. Do you think that's what's going on now with the new filter?

Mena · Dec 31, 2019

mayday0237 said:
I would add bacteria Seed or Dr. Ts. Stop adding prime....stop dosing for algae if you haven't already done so. Do not move or touch any sand or rocks.. if you still have the old media from the hob put it in your canister. you most likely depleted your beneficial bacteria that keep your bioload stable. Add some air stones to up the oxygen in the water. Don't feed anyone and add some buffer. This is one rodeo I have been on and it sucks...the hardest thing is to do nothing and be patient. Small water changes if the fish are stressing, but nothing big. The hair algae absorb nitrate and phosphate as food. When you eliminate them it leaves a void in the ecosystem. Cleaning everything also removes things that live on ammonia, nitrate, etc.
Carbon will help remove ammonia and nitrate...

Thank you for the details. Which buffer should I use?