I this Leather Coral Dead ?

[saltyfilmfolks]

Your going to hate this.
Biggest probs. Conflicting info.

Here's the thing on bottled water. We don't know what is put back into it after it's filtered. Or what is being use to filter it and how.
I've seen tanks on tap water that are great. And tanks on bottled water that are great. Then thers ones that aren't.
My tap water kills goldfish

That there makes troubleshooting impossible.

On ph. No water changes ph really to any significant amount. Also don't buffer. There's easy easy ways to fix it better. Kalkwasser in the ato is one. Mrs wages pickling lime is kalk wassser. It's cheap and easy. But Sos regular kalk really.
If your in the 8 with ph your actually good.

It's quite possible the animals including the coral were not healthy to begin with. So there's luck for ya.

But the repeated ammonia is stumping me.
A new test kit maybe? Or ammonia alert badge as they maybe a bit cheaper.

Def look into a more potent bacteria like dr Tims one and only.

I'm not sure what an ammonia pad is. But I do think just granular activated carbon in a bag would be cheaper in the long run.

I honestly don't know If soaking in the bleach had any effect. It could have but your numbers showed ammonia then dropped.
Btw. Thers no reason to bleach a rock really and if one does its best to let it sit in the sun to break down the bleach.

:mad: I know right?

 

[madweazl]

Distilled is always better than not when it comes to water for your tank.

You mentioned letting it sit after you cycled it with a piece of shrimp; did you continue to add a food source (e.g. the pieces of shrimp) after you initially observed the ammonia and nitrates drop to zero? If not, the bacteria may have starved and your cycle began once again once you added the fish (new fuel source for the bacteria).

 

[William Norman]

Thank you... The more it thought about what could have changed, the more I think it was the switch to spring water. My LFS told me it was better for top offs due to PH. But that was around the time I was asking for help on the Tang the sold me. I going to find another LFS that sells RO/DI. I have about another month before I can by the RO/DI unit. It kills me how much wrong info on got from the LFS. I think they are use to huge tanks that they service themselves. Such a frustrating start to the hobby.

 

[madweazl]

Thank you... The more it thought about what could have changed, the more I think it was the switch to spring water. My LFS told me it was better for top offs due to PH. But that was around the time I was asking for help on the Tang the sold me. I going to find another LFS that sells RO/DI. I have about another month before I can by the RO/DI unit. It kills me how much wrong info on got from the LFS. I think they are use to huge tanks that they service themselves. Such a frustrating start to the hobby.

Totally my opinion but I believe the chances of the top off water causing the issue to be slim to none.

 

[themcnertney]

Just slow down a bit and relax. Fixing this will take some time so be patient.
I would start by getting an RO/DI. Do small frequent water changes every other day until your ammonia levels decrease. Dont add anything. Get your water quality on track before you jump into medicating your fish. Buy a skimmer, a hang on back skimmer will work. I think you may have too many fish in your 50 gallon (esp with that tang).

 

[madweazl]

Just slow down a bit and relax. Fixing this will take some time so be patient.
I would start by getting an RO/DI. Do small frequent water changes every other day until your ammonia levels decrease. Dont add anything. Get your water quality on track before you jump into medicating your fish. Buy a skimmer, a hang on back skimmer will work. I think you may have too many fish in your 50 gallon (esp with that tang).

There is no need to buy a skimmer; this is an optional piece of equipment and will do nothing to correct the issue at hand. Three to four fish isn't too many for a 50g tank. Correcting water quality is going to take longer than the fish will survive in that environment if infected so a hospital tank at this point isn't a bad idea. As others have mentioned, a bacteria (Dr Tims) will likely be highly beneficial going forward.

 

[themcnertney]

There is no need to buy a skimmer; this is an optional piece of equipment and will do nothing to correct the issue at hand. Three to four fish isn't too many for a 50g tank. Correcting water quality is going to take longer than the fish will survive in that environment if infected so a hospital tank at this point isn't a bad idea. As others have mentioned, a bacteria (Dr Tims) will likely be highly beneficial going forward.

I'm just stating if this were my tank, those are the order of operation I would use to start to correct some on the issues. To each its own.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Totally my opinion but I believe the chances of the top off water causing the issue to be slim to none.

I can attest to bad water probs. In top off.
I used natural ocean seawater for my "mix" and was sold bad water for the ato.
No bueno.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank you... The more it thought about what could have changed, the more I think it was the switch to spring water. My LFS told me it was better for top offs due to PH. But that was around the time I was asking for help on the Tang the sold me. I going to find another LFS that sells RO/DI. I have about another month before I can by the RO/DI unit. It kills me how much wrong info on got from the LFS. I think they are use to huge tanks that they service themselves. Such a frustrating start to the hobby.

Hang in there. We have all hit bumps in the road. Been given bad advice and made mistakes. It's the learning curve.

 

[madweazl]

I can attest to bad water probs. In top off.
I used natural ocean seawater for my "mix" and was sold bad water for the ato.
No bueno.

Sure wish I still had access to NSW.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Sure wish I still had access to NSW.

The switch to mixed has been interesting. There seems to be very subtle differences. I might switch back to see if they were real differences.
I kinda got paranoid this year. We had a lot of rain and several spills across the border. The use the same water at scrips research and birch aquarium. BUt I never got a 100% answer in what they do in storms.

 

[madweazl]

I usually waited 3-4 days after a storm and never had issues. Think it was SDreefs that had a thread that was regularly updated regarding the water conditions.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ah , you used to live down here in SD?

 

[William Norman]

So I found a local store that has NSW from offshore here in Southern Fl. I tested it prior to use and show Ph 8.4, 0/0/0 - Did a 3 gallon water change last night with it. I did a test this morning and my ammonia is still high at .75 or so. My KH is 14. My Ph is 8.2. I guess I will stop dosing my ph buffer for a few days. I am going to bring him my water this weekend. Nitrates and Nitrites still at 0.

 

[alexiowa]

I know this isn't going to solve anything but that hob filter is not going to be able to handle a reef tank. It sounds like you're going the cheaper route which I did at first too. I have a small hob in my basement that was used for over a month on my 55 gallon. I'd look into a decent sized canister filter where you will have far more room to run carbon and it will pick up a lot more waste especially since you don't have a skimmer. I know we don't need skimmers but since you're new to this you will overfeed the tank. It's almost too easy to do and tempting since these little buggers are always so hungry. Just hoping this will help a little bit and also keep reading about other peoples mistakes. We've all made plenty of them. Mine if finally hair algae free again(minus a few wisps).

 

[William Norman]

Here is the update. My leather now seems to be moving forward. Using NSW and RO has brought all my numbers back 0. Nothing else was changed other than time.

Thank you for all the help.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Great to hear William! Thanks for the update!

 

[Hosscooper]

In the words of dory " just keep swimming " my 50 gal has a hob filter live rock and 2 power heads too. Been going for a year now. Finally doing good. I am sparring in a lot of things due to my limitations but slow and easy will get you there. Btw I do a 10 gal water change every 2 weeks and use ro from my lfs. Hang in there!

 

[KeMiKiLL]

My tanked cycled 2 months ago. Everything was fine till 2 weeks ago. I had a tang die that appears to have had ich. I am planning on moving the fish to a hospital tank this weekend. I can not figure out what caused the spike because I was at triple zeros for weeks also verified by my LFS. I am feeding my 3 fish 8 pellet's in morning, a third of a cube of frozen mysis shrimp, and a whole piece of regular shrimp or muscle that I remove what is left after 5 minutes in evening.

Frustrated!

You cycled a 50 gallon in 4 weeks without live rock? My 32 gallon has been cycling for 2 months and it's not done. I don't think you are either.