Need advice getting chemicals in balance

[MamaP]

I know this is going to be long, but I want to give as full a picture as possible for help. Ok, so confession, I've been really bad about testing and staying on a regular water change schedule for a long while. I'm trying to get back to my regular water changes (doing one later today), and I know changing the water and cleaning the filter will help some with my test results from yesterday, however, I need advice on certain aspects of how to get the chemical balance right and address the issues I'm having.

My results from yesterday's tests:
SG: (Hannah) 1.024 (I make my SW at 1.025)
pH: (Salifert) 7.7
dKH: (Hannah) 9.3
Phosphates: (Salifert) (too high for Hannah ULP) 1
Nitrites: (Salifert) 0
Ammonia: (Salifert) between 0 and <.15
Calcium: (Hannah) 467
Nitrates: (Salifert) 100

I have a 75g (2 years old) with several fish, a mushroom, a small halimedes, CUC - a few various snails (getting more this week), and a few hermits. Lost a hermit, my cleaner shrimp, and pretty sure my pistol shrimp this week (and possibly my porcelain crab, unless he's hiding to molt, but totally been MIA a couple weeks). I recently discovered a colony of feather dusters and I have a couple sponges that have popped up. I've been battling some GHA and I get "regular?" algae on the glass and fixtures that I clean off every couple weeks. I have a good growth of hard algae on the rocks and fixtures and some, but not a lot, corralline algae.

My setup is nothing fancy. I'm running a Fluval FX4 with the standard stock media and standard Fluval SW LED bar. Cut back on blues to try to kill GHA, so running all below 50%. 1 Ice Cap 4X gyre (getting a second this week) and 2 Hydor Koralias for flow. No dosing of anything.

I know I feed heavy (I change it up for them between LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, thawed frozen cube mixture of mysis, brine, and spirulina mixed with a few drops of Selcon, and occasionally flakes or pellets, and periodic sheets of nori, but I never see food lying around. I know my pH needs to come up, and my phosphates, ammonia, and definitely nitrates need to come down. I'm not sure why my calcium is high, because I thought halimeda absorbs it. I'm also adding a Shaving Bush this week. My thought is to out-compete the bad algae with good algae, since I don't have a sump.

I'm over-due by a week for my water change, and like I said, I'm doing it today and I know that will help some, but I'm not sure how to get everything back in check and balanced. Should I treat with something? Start dosing something? Am I doing something wrong? It was so stable for so long I had quit testing but then I got off schedule with water changes. The CUC deaths this week could be coincidence or various reasons, but it was enough to make me test, and I'm glad I did! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dan_P]

I know this is going to be long, but I want to give as full a picture as possible for help. Ok, so confession, I've been really bad about testing and staying on a regular water change schedule for a long while. I'm trying to get back to my regular water changes (doing one later today), and I know changing the water and cleaning the filter will help some with my test results from yesterday, however, I need advice on certain aspects of how to get the chemical balance right and address the issues I'm having.

My results from yesterday's tests:
SG: (Hannah) 1.024 (I make my SW at 1.025)
pH: (Salifert) 7.7
dKH: (Hannah) 9.3
Phosphates: (Salifert) (too high for Hannah ULP) 1
Nitrites: (Salifert) 0
Ammonia: (Salifert) between 0 and <.15
Calcium: (Hannah) 467
Nitrates: (Salifert) 100

I have a 75g (2 years old) with several fish, a mushroom, a small halimedes, CUC - a few various snails (getting more this week), and a few hermits. Lost a hermit, my cleaner shrimp, and pretty sure my pistol shrimp this week (and possibly my porcelain crab, unless he's hiding to molt, but totally been MIA a couple weeks). I recently discovered a colony of feather dusters and I have a couple sponges that have popped up. I've been battling some GHA and I get "regular?" algae on the glass and fixtures that I clean off every couple weeks. I have a good growth of hard algae on the rocks and fixtures and some, but not a lot, corralline algae.

My setup is nothing fancy. I'm running a Fluval FX4 with the standard stock media and standard Fluval SW LED bar. Cut back on blues to try to kill GHA, so running all below 50%. 1 Ice Cap 4X gyre (getting a second this week) and 2 Hydor Koralias for flow. No dosing of anything.

I know I feed heavy (I change it up for them between LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, thawed frozen cube mixture of mysis, brine, and spirulina mixed with a few drops of Selcon, and occasionally flakes or pellets, and periodic sheets of nori, but I never see food lying around. I know my pH needs to come up, and my phosphates, ammonia, and definitely nitrates need to come down. I'm not sure why my calcium is high, because I thought halimeda absorbs it. I'm also adding a Shaving Bush this week. My thought is to out-compete the bad algae with good algae, since I don't have a sump.

I'm over-due by a week for my water change, and like I said, I'm doing it today and I know that will help some, but I'm not sure how to get everything back in check and balanced. Should I treat with something? Start dosing something? Am I doing something wrong? It was so stable for so long I had quit testing but then I got off schedule with water changes. The CUC deaths this week could be coincidence or various reasons, but it was enough to make me test, and I'm glad I did! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I suppose the shrimp and crab could have starved to death. I am not sure that 100 ppm NO3 is lethal. I would not add anything to the aquarium until you sort out the water quality issues. The shaving brush is not likely to out compete any nuisance algae.

You will need to dilute the tank water with freshly prepared saltwater to accurately measure the nitrate and phosphate. Also, measure the freshly prepared saltwater to make sure its NO3 and PO4 levels are very low or 0.

I would not start dosing immediately. Get back to a routine of water changes and testing while you collect further information on NO3 control. There does not seem to be an emergency.

 

[MamaP]

Thank you for responding. Pretty sure the cleaner shrimp and hermit died of old age (had them a long while), and pretty sure the pistol probably starved unfortunately, as he never paired with my YWG. Plan on testing again like 24 hours after water change and will monitor levels. Just was wondering if there was anything (other than water change schedule) I should change.

 

[Captiv8]

What supplements have you been using to establish and maintain important ionic levels?

 

[MamaP]

What supplements have you been using to establish and maintain important ionic levels?

No supplements. I use Tropic Marin Classic salt and RODI. The TMC has trace elements, good dKH, and holds well, so haven't been dosing anything additional.

 

[WVNed]

I would do a 50% water change and then do another one after skipping a day.
Make sure you heat it to tank temperature.
Nitrates go down in proportion to the amount of water you change so that should make them go from 100 to 50 and then down to 25 or close.

When was the cannister cleaned? Anything organic it sucks up will turn into nitrates. Run the coarsest sponges you can get for it and use biomedia and some carbon.

 

[MamaP]

Thank you for responding. It was cleaned about 5 weeks ago. Doing that today with the water change.

I was on a very strict schedule of doing ~20% water changes every other week and cleaning the filter and media every other water change, but let life events get in the way and got off track. I guess this is what happens when you do that.

 

[Captiv8]

If you have a means of confirming the values that you posted, either by having a LFS test it with their kits or by another aquarist, it might be useful. Dramatically changing the values in a system through a massive water change can sometimes have undesirable impacts on residents who have become accustomed to existing values.