Phyto-feed nitrite spike?

[perfectyler]

So my tank has been up and running for a few months now, all coral,fish,clams etc. Have been happy and water has been exceptional. Last night I noticed a major spike in nitrite levels (0.0 jumped up to 0.75) only change made was I started dosing with phyto-feast per instructions on the bottle. Can overdosing have caused my spike? Also my corals have retracted and not came out since the spike. And clams have started to expell a mucus type substance. Attempting to do a 50% water change ASAP. What else can I do to help my tank and if not the phyto-feast what could have caused the sudden spike?

 

[bushdoc]

It is not common to test Nitrites in saltwater aquarium as they have not been associated with harming effect on fish. Clearly your system is not mature enough yet to accommodate access nutrients. I would decrease phyto dosing.
Just curious, though, what do you want to achieve by adding phyto? Very few corals digest phytoplankton, so clearly your most noticeable effect will be increased nutrients. Did you check phosphates?

 

[perfectyler]

So when I initially set up my tank and purchased my live rock I was sold a really cool piece that was said to be a dead coral. About 2 weeks ago I found out it infact was not dead and not a coral. It's actually a spiny oyster (I found this out when it opened up and started filtering water). Not knowing anything about it or what to do for it I went to me lfs and asked for care advice and that was what was recommended. I also have a couple clams and corals that would also benefit from the phyto-feast so I didn't see an issue. But for no reason what so ever my tank took a giant spike and that was the only change I've made recently

 

[bushdoc]

Clams benefit more from good light than phytoplankton, and as I mentioned very few corals are even able to digest phyto. Oyster perhaps.

 

[perfectyler]

Good to know I will stop dosing ASAP. Now with my corals is there anything I can do other than a water change to help them. They retracted yesterday and haven't came back out since which was what initially alerted me to something being wrong. Or is this just common for them?

 

[Kasrift]

So my tank has been up and running for a few months now, all coral,fish,clams etc. Have been happy and water has been exceptional. Last night I noticed a major spike in nitrite levels (0.0 jumped up to 0.75) only change made was I started dosing with phyto-feast per instructions on the bottle. Can overdosing have caused my spike? Also my corals have retracted and not came out since the spike. And clams have started to expell a mucus type substance. Attempting to do a 50% water change ASAP. What else can I do to help my tank and if not the phyto-feast what could have caused the sudden spike?

Not sure what else could cause it other than something dying off. Phyto-feast is live phytoplankton but you need to shake it at least daily and ideally more than once a day. I culture my own phyto and when I bottle and refrigerate it, I place it on the refrigerator door so it at least gets moved opening the door. However, whenever I do open the fridge I will try and remember to shake the bottle.

That being said, I culture two types of phyto and do blend some bottles for feeding. For whatever reason, blends tend to have die off quicker. I think this is true of phyto-feast and some could be dead when you purchase it if the LFS or wherever didn't shake it.

 

[Kasrift]

Good to know I will stop dosing ASAP. Now with my corals is there anything I can do other than a water change to help them. They retracted yesterday and haven't came back out since which was what initially alerted me to something being wrong. Or is this just common for them?

I'd do a water change and test all parameters. This looks closed up due to things crawling on it though. Maybe the cleaner shrimp or snail just climbed through.

 

[perfectyler]

Just wanted to give a little update the tank and all of its occupants are doing good. We've had 0 casualties. I did find the root of my problem and it wasn't the phyto-feast. I'm still pretty green when it comes to the whole reefing thing and unbeknownst to me I created an accidental poisoning. I had a frag of palys sitting on the bottom of my tank because I hadn't found them a permanent home yet. Well the night before the crash I actually picked the frag up and moved onto my rockwork for a more permanent home. This ticked them off and they released a toxin into my tank making all my other corals hide to avoid dying from the pollutants and causing the spike (According to the lfs that sold me them). Had I known that these palys were this toxic and this temperamental I probably wouldn't have purchased them. But now that they are where they will stay and I am more aware of them we will try to avoid this issue from ever happening again in the future. Thank you everyone for the input and help provided.

 

[Kasrift]

Just wanted to give a little update the tank and all of its occupants are doing good. We've had 0 casualties. I did find the root of my problem and it wasn't the phyto-feast. I'm still pretty green when it comes to the whole reefing thing and unbeknownst to me I created an accidental poisoning. I had a frag of palys sitting on the bottom of my tank because I hadn't found them a permanent home yet. Well the night before the crash I actually picked the frag up and moved onto my rockwork for a more permanent home. This ticked them off and they released a toxin into my tank making all my other corals hide to avoid dying from the pollutants and causing the spike (According to the lfs that sold me them). Had I known that these palys were this toxic and this temperamental I probably wouldn't have purchased them. But now that they are where they will stay and I am more aware of them we will try to avoid this issue from ever happening again in the future. Thank you everyone for the input and help provided.

Yeah... Those types of palythoa are ones I'd avoid.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So my tank has been up and running for a few months now, all coral,fish,clams etc. Have been happy and water has been exceptional. Last night I noticed a major spike in nitrite levels (0.0 jumped up to 0.75) only change made was I started dosing with phyto-feast per instructions on the bottle. Can overdosing have caused my spike? Also my corals have retracted and not came out since the spike. And clams have started to expell a mucus type substance. Attempting to do a 50% water change ASAP. What else can I do to help my tank and if not the phyto-feast what could have caused the sudden spike?

There is little point measuring Nitrite in a saltwater tank.

Nitrite is harmless at any level you are likely to see and any change in Corals behaviour is not related.

 

[perfectyler]

There is little point measuring Nitrite in a saltwater tank.

Nitrite is harmless at any level you are likely to see and any change in Corals behaviour is not related.

By what I have been informed nitrite spikes although might not kill your corals can definitely upset them and they will close until the water parameters clear up. That being said in this instance it was a palytoxin that was released into the water that upset my entire tank.

 

[gbroadbridge]

By what I have been informed nitrite spikes although might not kill your corals can definitely upset them and they will close until the water parameters clear up. That being said in this instance it was a palytoxin that was released into the water that upset my entire tank.

Well, I don't know who told you that about Nitrite but it is incorrect.

Why do you believe it was a palytoxin that caused an issue with coral?
I

 

[perfectyler]

Well, I don't know who told you that about Nitrite but it is incorrect.

Why do you believe it was a palytoxin that caused an issue with coral?
I

I had just moved and ticked off one of my paly frags and it was puking up brown slime. At the time I didn't know about palys and zoas being toxic. But once I was in contact with the guy at the lfs wear I punched the frag he informed me that that is in fact quite common with the type of palys I purchased

 

[saltyhog]

Agree, there is zero reason to test Nitrite after cycling the tank. I would be surprised if simply moving/handling a paly frag would cause what you saw. LFS are unfortunately very often a poor source of information.

 

[perfectyler]

Agree, there is zero reason to test Nitrite after cycling the tank. I would be surprised if simply moving/handling a paly frag would cause what you saw. LFS are unfortunately very often a poor source of information.

Well it seems like everybody has a difference in opinions I quite personally don't know what to think except for the fact that I know that I moved a polyfrag the night before everything went into hibernation mode if you will and after waiting a couple days everything came right back out my water took a spike in nitrites only not ammonia or anything else and after a couple days and a water change my nitrite settled back to zero. And once that happened coincidentally all my corals came back out. That being said I would have a hard time not believing my lfs when he claimed responsibility for what happened since he blamed it on a frag that he had sold me and said he has experienced the same thing with this type of paly

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Well it seems like everybody has a difference in opinions I quite personally don't know what to think except for the fact that I know that I moved a polyfrag the night before everything went into hibernation mode if you will and after waiting a couple days everything came right back out my water took a spike in nitrites only not ammonia or anything else and after a couple days and a water change my nitrite settled back to zero. And once that happened coincidentally all my corals came back out. That being said I would have a hard time not believing my lfs when he claimed responsibility for what happened since he blamed it on a frag that he had sold me and said he has experienced the same thing with this type of paly

There may be a difference of opinion (mostly by folks from the freshwater hobby where nitrite is a concern), but the facts are that there is lots of evidence that nitrite is a nonissue in seawater, and no evidence that levels anyone ever gets in an operating tank are harmful.

I discuss nitrite in detail and show quite a bit of data (all that was available at the time of writing) here:

Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you have a picture of this oyster?

Most things called spiny oysters in this hobby are not photosynthetic.

 

[perfectyler]

My profile pic is of my oyster but here is another. And just to clarify it is not the barnacle that is stuck to the oyster. And through research I have found its actually a type of scallop but still identified as an oyster.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I expect it is nonphotosynthetic and needs to be fed. What does it look like when open?

 

[19Mateo83]

I have those same palys and have had no issue with them poisoning the tank when they are moved. I have even fragged them before and put them directly back in the tank. I would worry more about the toxin poisoning yourself than the tank. Wear gloves when handling them and thoroughly wash your hands after… and don’t eat them or boil them…. Very bad..