Tank crash help?

Koa · May 3, 2017

Today i woke up and saw this yesterday it looked fine, But i woke up with my zoanthid dead dried out the only thing i did diffrently is add purigen to my filter media instead of the old carbon bag i was using my water is super cloudly and i have a green/ditritus algae outbreak that started a few days ago.
My water parameters
Should i do a water change?
Ph 7.8
Ammonia 0.50
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 0.25
Copper 0
Carbonate hardness 260
Temp 79

Mike&Terry · May 3, 2017

A 50% water change and dose Seachem Prime to reduce the ammonia ASAP. If you don't have Seachem Prime, PetSmart carries it.

How long has the tank been running? Did you cycle it before adding livestock?

Koa · May 3, 2017

Tanks been up for 3 months, cycled for a month and a half before adding livestock already doses seachem prime this morning.
I'll do a 50% water change if it doesnt clear up in the morning

glb · May 3, 2017

It's possible the carbon had a ton of beneficial bacteria and when you removed it, that caused the ammonia spike. Definitely neutralize the ammonia with Prime and do a water change. The algae might be from the high phosphates. What other filtration do you have?

Mike&Terry · May 3, 2017

glb said:
It's possible the carbon had a ton of beneficial bacteria and when you removed it, that caused the ammonia spike. Definitely neutralize the ammonia with Prime and do a water change. The algae might be from the high phosphates. What other filtration do you have?

Agree.

Koa · May 3, 2017

Just did a 30% water change and added a bag of carbon to my filter. Hopefully i can bounce back from this

Koa · May 3, 2017

Added 2 caps of prime 1 cap of stability almost out of prime fish seem to be doing fine they each ate all my inverts are moving around my clowns do look in shock from the water change

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2017

Koa said:
Added 2 caps of prime 1 cap of stability almost out of prime fish seem to be doing fine they each ate all my inverts are moving around my clowns do look in shock from the water change

Are you on rodi water? At three months that tank should be farther along.
Fwiw chloramines are common in tapwater. basicly its bleach and kills the bacteria that eats ammonia.

Koa · May 3, 2017

I use distilted water, Probably going to be investing in a RO unit soon

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2017

Koa said:
I use distilted water, Probably going to be investing in a RO unit soon

yea SOME distilled seems ok but its hit and miss from what I've seen here. Yours exhibits all the signs of bad water unfortunately.
Do you have a Local fish store?

RyanCSGO · May 3, 2017

+1 on the distilled. i was told to only use "green capped" bottled water if i was in a pinch, and even then shouldn't be done regularly.

beaslbob · May 3, 2017

IMHO with no other algae like macros in the system you're gonna get this algae.

A warning on seachem prime is that although it locks up the ammonia the tank will still test positive for ammonia with most test kits like the api kit.

The danger is you treat the ammonia, still test positive, add more prime and so on.

Prime also reduces the oxygen in the tank so fish can suffocate and in the process display the same symptoms as ammonia.

I would add macro algae like chaeto which will consume the ammonia directly, plus phosphates, plus co2 and return oxygen and fish food. You may need to partition the tank to keep the livestock away from the macros.

If you must use prime I recommend you only treat the tank for the free ammonia. the seachem ammo dot only reacts to the free ammonia. Or you could use the seachem multitest ammonia kit which measures the dangerous free and the total (free and locked) ammonia. I could very well be you ammonia is totally locked up and no more prime is needed.

my .02

Koa · May 3, 2017

I have no sump for cheato,

Koa · May 3, 2017

This is the only day my tank has been like this I had a small detritus bloom in the past but nothing like this, eversince i added seachem purigen my zoa died and i got cloudy water.

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2017

Koa said:
This is the only day my tank has been like this I had a small detritus bloom in the past but nothing like this, eversince i added seachem purigen my zoa died and i got cloudy water.

possibly a bacterial bloom. also possible it stripped the PO4 out of the system.

Koa · May 3, 2017

I'll try to get a rodi system in a week or so, Will a 3 stage filtration work?

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2017

Get the best you can for the money you have. I picked up a used brs 75 gpd 6 stage for $75 and replaced the filters. ($80?) maybe less.
it makes 5 gal in about 90 min.