Not gonna give up

Lavey29 · Mar 20, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
I seen something about the ro water. That would be of great help as well

Yea that's where I found elevated silica levels.

dirty_south87 · Mar 20, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Yea that's where I found elevated silica levels.

Oh wow. I am new to all of this, so if you don’t mind me asking what does silica affect on the water?

Lavey29 · Mar 20, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
Oh wow. I am new to all of this, so if you don’t mind me asking what does silica affect on the water?

Well it is needed in the tank in lower levels but to much causes diatoms. When your tank is new diatoms bloom and consume the silicate in your sand. After a few weeks the silicate is used up and diatioms go away. If you don't have a good DI filter on your RODI system silicate can get through. So my ATO reservoir had some silicate in it and I was getting light dusting of diatoms. I switched to a better filter and eliminated the silicate from my RODI water.

Sebastiancrab · Mar 20, 2023

Have you considered running some Poly Filter? It will pull a lot of problem items out of the water.

Poly Filter Aquarium Filter

The POLY-FILTER is for filtering and purifying both fresh and salt water aquariums. It is a formulation of a special patented material bonded to a synthetic matrix. By means of a unique proprietary process, the POLY-FILTER is made impervious to salt and is also organic loving to certain...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

dirty_south87 · Mar 20, 2023

Sebastiancrab said:
Have you considered running some Poly Filter? It will pull a lot of problem items out of the water.

Poly Filter Aquarium Filter

The POLY-FILTER is for filtering and purifying both fresh and salt water aquariums. It is a formulation of a special patented material bonded to a synthetic matrix. By means of a unique proprietary process, the POLY-FILTER is made impervious to salt and is also organic loving to certain...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I used something made from them that works for ammonia and nitrates. They didn’t work to well in my system

Sebastiancrab · Mar 20, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
I used something made from them that works for ammonia and nitrates. They didn’t work to well in my system

I have used it a lot and it works very well for me. See the description online for what it all does. It won't hurt to use it for sure since you don't know the entirety of what you are dealing with.

dirty_south87 · Mar 20, 2023

Sebastiancrab said:
I have used it a lot and it works very well for me. See the description online for what it all does. It won't hurt to use it for sure since you don't know the entirety of what you are dealing with.

I’ll look more into it

bakbay · Mar 20, 2023

Apologies if I've missed something obvious but what's the issue? What are your parameters? Each tank is different so I would be cautious from "talking to another experienced reefer"... or from another guy (like me) on R2R. If I were you, I would assess my tank's situation, form hypothesis on what's causing the said behavior(s), research and slowly correct the situation. Otherwise, I'll end up at the same place a year later -- sounds like a total waste of time (and money). My 2c

vetteguy53081 · Mar 20, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
Is there a certain brand to look into or does any of them work good?

Use ICP test : https://www.icp-analysis.com/

I sent one last week and had result in 3 days

dirty_south87 · Mar 20, 2023

bakbay said:
Apologies if I've missed something obvious but what's the issue? What are your parameters? Each tank is different so I would be cautious from "talking to another experienced reefer"... or from another guy (like me) on R2R. If I were you, I would assess my tank's situation, form hypothesis on what's causing the said behavior(s), research and slowly correct the situation. Otherwise, I'll end up at the same place a year later -- sounds like a total waste of time (and money). My 2c

I’ve been fighting ammonia and high nitrates for almost a month. No fish had died or any of my cleaning crew. Ive done water changes, added chemicals but to no avail. Test were done with Red Sea, Hanna checkers, and a spin test at the lfs. I’ve even went as far as using a different water source to mix with and even bought already mixed at 2 different lfs. neither levels has went low enough to consider a dent made. I was told that the sand I used might be holding more in it and releasing it as I do water changes, and another possibility of cleaning chemicals my wife was using may have made its way into my tank.

k2- · Mar 21, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
Over the next few months I’m gonna update and replace any thing that will make things better in my system. I hate having to dose a lot in my water, the fewer the better I believe.

You night want to believe fewer dosing the better but you need to replenish what corals take away from water mix - so trace and alk/ca and mg - how you do it is upto you but they must be replenished either by dosing or water changes

bakbay · Mar 21, 2023

dirty_south87 said:
I’ve been fighting ammonia and high nitrates for almost a month. No fish had died or any of my cleaning crew. Ive done water changes, added chemicals but to no avail. Test were done with Red Sea, Hanna checkers, and a spin test at the lfs. I’ve even went as far as using a different water source to mix with and even bought already mixed at 2 different lfs. neither levels has went low enough to consider a dent made. I was told that the sand I used might be holding more in it and releasing it as I do water changes, and another possibility of cleaning chemicals my wife was using may have made its way into my tank.

What is considered “high” here? What are your parameters and how are you testing? I suspect your test kits might be suspects. How old is the tank again?

Mine
NO3: 28
PO4: 0.2
pH: 8.0 - 8.2
Alk: 8.0 - 8.5
Ca: 400
Mg: 1350

I don’t care about “high” nitrates. My corals are growing like weeds — just keep Alk stable.
Oh, I don’t change my water for years…

dirty_south87 · Mar 21, 2023

k2- said:
You night want to believe fewer dosing the better but you need to replenish what corals take away from water mix - so trace and alk/ca and mg - how you do it is upto you but they must be replenished either by dosing or water changes

That much I understand, I just don’t want to be adding 50 different things in the water to keep everything in normal range

dirty_south87 · Mar 21, 2023

bakbay said:
What is considered “high” here? What are your parameters and how are you testing? I suspect your test kits might be suspects. How old is the tank again?

Mine
NO3: 28
PO4: 0.2
pH: 8.0 - 8.2
Alk: 8.0 - 8.5
Ca: 400
Mg: 1350

I don’t care about “high” nitrates. My corals are growing like weeds — just keep Alk stable.
Oh, I don’t change my water for years…

There were 3 different test kits used. 2 were mine and the third was the lfs. All three were within a number or two from each other if not the same number. My ammonia is over 0.20 and nitrates are around 50. I don’t remember the other test results off the top of my head but I know they were within range based off of information gathered here and some online research to back up what I have learned. The tank itself is a few years old. Rocks are Atleast 1 year old

dirty_south87 · Mar 22, 2023

I may have figured out what was going on with my system. About 2 months ago I lost a dart fish goby, I looked all around the rocks and stuff and never found the body. Well today I decided to remove the canopy to look around my tank again today to see if maybe there is something I had missed. I found the goby’s body in one of the overflow box and it was looking pretty nasty. I have came to the conclusion that was the source of my issue and quite possibly a build up under the sand where I was not able to reach and it had released a little. Made my decision to break down the tank and give it a cleaning due to the goby wasting away in the overflow. Over the next few days I’ll start getting the tank back up and running and recycled.