HELP

[motomac3]

Hello, new to the site and new to saltwater aquariums......I purchased ready to go saltwater, live rock, and live sand and set up my new fluval evo 13.5 on my desk.......its been going for a few weeks and recently added zoanthids and fish (2 small clowns, 2 small fancy clowns and a royal gramma). almost overnight 2 days ago my nitrites went through the roof.....on test strips it was at 10 or higher......I immediately did a 25% water change with ready made saltwater and added seachem prime and stability.....it helped but not enough.....I did another 25% water change yesterday and added prime and stability again.....my plan is to add stability daily for a week.......just checked this am......here is what I have..... temp is 80.2, salinity is 1.023, ph 8.0, nitirates 20ppm, nitrites 2.0ppm, ammonia 0 .....do I continue on with water changes or ??? any advice appreciated.....I have about 20 zoanthids and $175 worth of fish I dont want to lose( I should add only my clownfish seem affected by this, they are definitely stressed).......I have only fed once a day and a small amount when I did.....I dont think food is the problem. but using ocean nutrition prime reef flakes (protein)

 

[AshwinRavi]

I don't have much experience with salt water, but from my experience with fresh water, I would say you added too many fish at once, more than your bacteria could handle, I know I have been guilty of this before. I would say keep at the water change, every other day and hopefully, your bacteria will catch up to the load. Getting a small clean up crew could help, but I am not too sure of this idea. Good luck!!

 

[Jayman]

Realy lot of problems.
Salinity to low should be at 1.025
Temp to high should be at 78
And way to many fish for a 13 gallon tank two clowns max in my opinion.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Definitely too much too fast and IMO too much for that tank ever. I would see if you can take some of the fish back. Assuming the 13.5 is the amount of water the tank holds then you will be limited to at most 2 small fish for that tank. Depending on the type of clowns a pair of clowns could easily be too much if they are maroon or some of the other large clowns.
Ideally you would return most of the fish, and add some bottled bacteria to give yours a boost.
Was this tank cycled? If so what did you add as an ammonia source to get it going? I would not add a clean up crew at this point. Maybe later when the tank has stabilized.

 

[CodyRVA]

You jumped the gun on fish. Even if you didn't add them all in the same day, your system is very very young and likely isn't handling the bio load well. That being said, a 13.5 G system is entirely too small for a royal gramma, IMO they require 30G minimum.

You should be testing 0 for nitrite. You either didn't let the system cycle or its out of wack from adding so many fish so quickly; could also be a testing error.

Salinity is a bit low, but I know fellow reefers who run 1.023. Try to bring it up some, but stability is more important.

Temp is a bit on the high side, but not a key factor in your current issues.

Ultimately, i'm not for certain you should have any fish in the tank right now. When the time comes, I would only keep 1 pair of the clowns and absolutely remove the royal gramma. Maybe consider adding a goby or some other nano equivalent later.

 

[motomac3]

thanks for the replies.....I used water that had already been cycled and was fish ready as well as live rock and live sand to speed up the process....went almost 3 weeks before adding fish......I know the tank is too small to keep all of the fish permanently.......I have a local guy that takes care of tanks as his business and he said if I wanted to get more fish that I would keep then when they started getting bigger he could re home them or swap bigger fish for smaller etc. I will be honest I am a very impatient person and had a week moment at the pet store when I went to get 2 clowns and had to have 1 that they had there but needed to stick with pairs so ended up with 4 instead of 2.....I only plan on keeping one pair of clowns in the end.

 

[CodyRVA]

thanks for the replies.....I used water that had already been cycled and wash fish ready as well as live rock and live sand to speed up the process....went almost 3 weeks before adding fish......I know the tank is too small to keep all of the fish permanently.......I have a local guy that takes care of tanks as his business and he said if I wanted to get more fish that I would keep then when they started getting bigger he could re home them or swap bigger fish for smaller etc. I will be honest I am a very impatient person and had a week moment at the pet store when I went to get 2 clowns and had to have 1 that they had there but needed to stick with pairs so ended up with 4 instead of 2.....I only plan on keeping one pair of clowns in the end.

You absolutely need to learn patience in this hobby or it's going to turn into a nightmare fast.

Water does not cycle, your biological media does... rock, sand, substate, etc. You can buy live rock, bottles of bacteria, etc., but you still need to let the tank cycle properly. Think of it this way; at the end of the day the only thing that really suffers is your live stock. You're doing a dis-service to your critters.

IMO anyone who suggests housing a fish until it gets too big then relocating it isn't worth their salt. This is a poor approach to fish husbandry, but that's just my .02.

 

[WesleyC]

yea, like others have said, your tank is not cycled. If you see nitrites is not zero, your tank is not ready. The nitrifying bacteria in your live rocks will convert ammonia to nitrite, and then convert nitrite to nitrate. Buying water is not going to help that.

Besides the issues you are talking about, you cannot have more than 2 clown fish in there. The rest will get bully to death, literally.

Salinity 1.023 is perfectly fine. Consistency is the key.

 

[motomac3]

I just did another 20% or so water change......and reset my thermometer to 79 ish deg......will see what happens for a few min and retest everything.....and see what that did for me......I may try and rehome 2 of the clowns asap to help

 

[motomac3]

I have done freshwater tanks for years.......so I guess what I am not understanding is why the spike now and why so high......I was under the impression if i get ready made fish safe water and use live rock and live sand that it creates the cycle way faster (waited 3 weeks before fish)......I checked the parameters every few days or so but was busy with nascar race in town last week......Everything was fine up until I added the 4 clowns.....day and a half later all hell breaks loose.

 

[CodyRVA]

I have done freshwater tanks for years.......so I guess what I am not understanding is why the spike now and why so high......I was under the impression if i get ready made fish safe water and use live rock and live sand that it creates the cycle way faster (waited 3 weeks before fish)......I checked the parameters every few days or so but was busy with nascar race in town last week......Everything was fine up until I added the 4 clowns.....day and a half later all hell breaks loose.

Did you feed the tank at all before you got the fish?

 

[motomac3]

ok.......temps are currently 78.4, nitrite down to around .5ppm, ammonia is still around 0, nitrates around 20ppm, and ph is around 8.1......didnt check salinity

 

[motomac3]

Did you feed the tank at all before you got the fish?

feed it what? I was under the understanding buying the live rock and sand had the bacteria and stuff needed in it already? is that what you are reffering to?

 

[WesleyC]

The amount of nitrifying bacteria in your live rock depends on your bio load. When you feed your tank, even when it's empty, it increase the bio load of the system. Some people like to throw in a piece of raw shrimp in there to kick start the bio load. So, the amount of the bacteria grow accordingly, and have the capability to convert your ammonia and nitrite to nitrate.

When you adding 4+ fish all at the same time in such small tank, there is no way the bacteria can catch up with the bio load.

One more point is that even when you buy live sand and live rocks, something still die during transit. It's just a matter of how much. When things in there die, they pollute the water as well.

 

[lickyricky]

Realy lot of problems.
Salinity to low should be at 1.025
Temp to high should be at 78
And way to many fish for a 13 gallon tank two clowns max in my opinion.

I don't agree with the temp assessment. I read a study that said the average temperature of reefs is 81-82 so not sure how 80 is "too high"

 

[WesleyC]

Yea, as long as it's a consistent temperature, 80 is not too high at all. To improve growth, I used to set my growth tanks to 82F. I'm not recommending people doing it, but just saying 80 is certainly not too high, as long as it is not a big temperature swing.

 

[motomac3]

im at 79.5 degrees now

 

[CodyRVA]

feed it what? I was under the understanding buying the live rock and sand had the bacteria and stuff needed in it already? is that what you are reffering to?

Yes, buying live substrate does have the beneficial bacteria needed, but that bacteria needs a food source like anything else. So, if you setup your system with live substrate, but don't feed the tank an ammonia source (food), your bacteria will die off. When fish excrete waste into the water they are supplying that ammonia source for the bacteria. When you setup your system there was no ammonia source, you had the bacteria, but you weren't feeding them anything. Then you added a bunch of fish to a system that's been depleting in beneficial bacteria for weeks.

 

[motomac3]

Yes, buying live substrate does have the beneficial bacteria needed, but that bacteria needs a food source like anything else. So, if you setup your system with live substrate, but don't feed the tank an ammonia source (food), your bacteria will die off. When fish excrete waste into the water they are supplying that ammonia source for the bacteria. When you setup your system there was no ammonia source, you had the bacteria, but you weren't feeding them anything. Then you added a bunch of fish to a system that's been depleting in beneficial bacteria for weeks.

ah hah.....thanks best help yet as to what has happened......so next question.....is there anything I can buy to add to the tank that will help right this? or is the water changes and prime and stability I am doing now going to be enough? once water is back under control are there any recommendations as to what should or could be added to tank to keep things "happy"

 

[Daddy-o]

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