recess62
Well-Known Member
There is so much to learn in this hobby. So here is my story. I have a Biocube 29. The tank had been doing well but I had noticed that my coral colors were gradually fading. I had had some tank instability in the past month so I thought is might be that. Once I got my parameters stabilized I continued to see poor color and over the last week my Zoas were not opening up. Long story short is that I thought the tank was starving cause my nitrates were zero. So I fed a lot to try to increase nitrates. However the nitrates never increased. Well that got me thinking that something was amiss. That something was me not doing the nitrate test correctly. Once done correctly my nitrates read >160 on API with similar reading on the selfert. Well then I made a big first mistake. I panicked.
I went to the net and googled how to decrease nitrates and came across information about amquel. I also posted my problem here on the Chen forum. I was in a rush To"save" my tank. Well I happened to have a bottle and dosed the tank with amquel. I set up an airsstone to be sure I had adequate oxygenation. I got many good replies to my post on the Chem forum and began aggressive water changes. One reply was particularly poignant. Someone said they never pour stuff into their tank. Oops too late
Needless to say my desire to emergently save my tank and dosing the amquel was a big mistake. Within hours my orp dropped to 200. I increased airation and continued to with the water changes. However as the corals started to die from hypoxia it was very difficult to increase the orp. The tank was oxygen depleted for around 24 hours. My fish and inverts faired well by my softies took a big hit
Lessons learned
If a test does not make sense then it is probably wrong. Verify your test results. Use your brain.
Patience
Don't pour anything into your tank based on what you google
Patience
Listen to advise here
Patience
Patience
And patience
This post is not meant to garner sympathy. I hope other newbies may learn something
Thanks to all who responded to my question of the Chem forum
I went to the net and googled how to decrease nitrates and came across information about amquel. I also posted my problem here on the Chen forum. I was in a rush To"save" my tank. Well I happened to have a bottle and dosed the tank with amquel. I set up an airsstone to be sure I had adequate oxygenation. I got many good replies to my post on the Chem forum and began aggressive water changes. One reply was particularly poignant. Someone said they never pour stuff into their tank. Oops too late
Needless to say my desire to emergently save my tank and dosing the amquel was a big mistake. Within hours my orp dropped to 200. I increased airation and continued to with the water changes. However as the corals started to die from hypoxia it was very difficult to increase the orp. The tank was oxygen depleted for around 24 hours. My fish and inverts faired well by my softies took a big hit
Lessons learned
If a test does not make sense then it is probably wrong. Verify your test results. Use your brain.
Patience
Don't pour anything into your tank based on what you google
Patience
Listen to advise here
Patience
Patience
And patience
This post is not meant to garner sympathy. I hope other newbies may learn something
Thanks to all who responded to my question of the Chem forum
