Wait out the wave or am I missing something?

[ErinD]

Hi Everyone,
Here's the stats:

45 gallon marineland
Octo HOB Skimmer
Canister filter
Likely still in cycle (4 weeks old)
Dead rock and live sand to start with nitrifying bacteria
Hit a brown algae bloom last week, manually cleaned and continued to perform 15% water changes

livestock:
2 nano perculas, 1 pj cardinal, 1 orange spotted goby (who just died last night)
1 frag of war coral
1 frag of tricolor
1 pulsing xenia
5 blue legs
3 narcissus snails
2 turbos

PH: 8
Ammonia: .5ppm
Nitrite: 2ppm
Nitrate: 30ppm
Phostphate: .25

Dosing: 2ml NOPOX at beginning of brown algae bloom (day 5 of dosing).

Set up RO/DI last night. Did 10% water change (2 days early) with RO/DI water (4.5 gallons) dosed at that time.

Goby died 5 hours later. Xenia looks terrible, war coral and tricolor are "fine". Clowns and PJ are eating and fine.

Eat schedule, once per day, frozen brine shrimp, 2 bites per livestock.

Live stock into tank: 2 clowns, week 2, goby and pj week 3.

Hypothesis #1 I got cocky with the perfect numbers I had an added my second round of fish too soon causing something to spike.
Hypothesis #2 I haven't seen my narcissus snails recently (very small) and they may have died causing a decomp spike
Hypothesis #3 I was so worried about over feeding that I starved my goby

Options: Do I keep keeping on with standard testing and water changes WITH the dosing or stop dosing and just let nature take its course? or is there another option I'm missing.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water changes can now be every 2-3 weeks and test water 3-4 weeks UNLESS you see an issue causing concern
Feed sparingly the first 2-3 months
If in doubt with ammonia and other results, take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test for you and to compare results with yours.

 

[BeejReef]

#reefsquad

If you're confident that you have .5 ammonia, I'd tend towards going into steady aggressive water change mode and worry about nothing else until that is under control.

 

[ErinD]

#reefsquad

If you're confident that you have .5 ammonia, I'd tend towards going into steady aggressive water change mode and worry about nothing else until that is under control.

Ammonia has tested .5 for 3 days solid (started higher previous to that and came down). "Aggressive" meaning weekly or more than once a week? Should I continue to dose NOPOX?

 

[BeejReef]

Ammonia has tested .5 for 3 days solid (started higher previous to that and came down). "Aggressive" meaning weekly or more than once a week? Should I continue to dose NOPOX?

I flew the reefsquad flag cuz I'm not a veteran and am confident you'll soon get more informed advise. Dead fish and ammonia is a real big red flag though. By aggressive, I mean like 30-50% today and the same tomorrow or the day after until ammonia is near undetectable. Hold off until you get a second opinion, but do start mixing and warming saltwater if you don't have any on hand.

 

[ErinD]

I flew the reefsquad flag cuz I'm not a veteran and am confident you'll soon get more informed advise. Dead fish and ammonia is a real big red flag though. By aggressive, I mean like 30-50% today and the same tomorrow or the day after until ammonia is near undetectable. Hold off until you get a second opinion, but do start mixing and warming saltwater if you don't have any on hand.

Ok, will do, thank you.

 

[kireek]

Even a small amoun of Ammonia will be detrimental to the livestock. The Nitrite should be zero. It would seem that your aquarium has not been fully cycled . Definitely change some water and add some activated carbon to get the ammonia levels down.

 

[ErinD]

Even a small amoun of Ammonia will be detrimental to the livestock. The Nitrite should be zero. It would seem that your aquarium has not been fully cycled . Definitely change some water and add some activated carbon to get the ammonia levels down.

Thank you - how much water would you recommend?

 

[ErinD]

Thank you - how much water would you recommend?

Also, I thought carbon doesn't remove ammonia, am I wrong?

 

[MTBake]

How long has this tank been setup? How was it cycled?

 

[ErinD]

How long has this tank been setup? How was it cycled?

Tank is between week 4 and 5 right now, cycled with Tim's nitrifying bacteria.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Everytime you add or remove something in a new tank you run the risk of a mini- cycle. Wait.

 

[ErinD]

Everytime you add or remove something in a new tank you run the risk of a mini- cycle. Wait.

So keep trucking along? Should I continue to dose?

 

[ReefGeezer]

So keep trucking along? Should I continue to dose?

No. The process encouraged by the nopox competes with the cycling process. Maybe cut it in half for a week, then stop altogether. Don't add anything until ammonia & nitrate are 0. Then do a water change.

 

[ErinD]

No. The process encouraged by the nopox competes with the cycling process. Maybe cut it in half for a week, then stop altogether. Don't add anything until ammonia & nitrate are 0. Then do a water change.

Got it - continue with my weekly water changes at 10-15% though, correct? (Sorry, not trying to be difficult)

 

[ReefGeezer]

Got it - continue with my weekly water changes at 10-15% though, correct? (Sorry, not trying to be difficult)

You are between a rock & a hard place. The fish & corals will benefit from water changes, but they will probably prolong the cycle. Personally, I would ride it out without water changes and hope for the best.

 

[BeejReef]

Glad you got some more voices involved.

Those are really interesting hypothesis you put forward. That's one of the more interesting (and frustrating) parts of reefing. Sometimes you can reverse engineer and figure out what happened. Sometimes you can't. Very often, it doesn't matter if you can or cannot. Doesn't matter if your shot hooked into the rough cuz u didn't keep your head down or cuz your backswing came around your body. You still have to play it where it lays and look forward.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll get it in the groove real soon.

 

[ErinD]

Glad you got some more voices involved.

Those are really interesting hypothesis you put forward. That's one of the more interesting (and frustrating) parts of reefing. Sometimes you can reverse engineer and figure out what happened. Sometimes you can't. Very often, it doesn't matter if you can or cannot. Doesn't matter if your shot hooked into the rough cuz u didn't keep your head down or cuz your backswing came around your body. You still have to play it where it lays and look forward.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll get it in the groove real soon.

100% agreed. I think in this case, I watched my feet, not the ball and maybe should have spent more time at the driving range. I'm going to watch for distress, but hold on water changes for now. If I sense distress, I'll dive in and do a more aggressive water change.

 

[kireek]

Also, I thought carbon doesn't remove ammonia, am I wrong?

Correct.It will help with dissolved solids ( which create ammonia) in the water and be of benefit at this time. Whatever you do , keep up with the water test.I would change a good 25 percent if I was concerned about ammonia. Please keep us posted on your journey!

 

[ErinD]

Hi Everyone,
Nearly a week later (tomorrow is a week). Here's what I've changed:
Stopped dosing NOPOX.
Continued to do small (10-15%) water changes with RO/DI water (did not start tank with RO/DI), but transitioned in the last week.
Added activated carbon
Dialed in protein skimmer (skimate was tea colored before, now dark).
Upgraded test kit. (was using API, now using Red Sea).

Results:
Ammonia - between 0 and .2 daily. (reduction from .5)
Nitrite - 1ppm (reduction from 2ppm)
Nitrate - fairly unchanged. (still around 20ppm) - likely showing high because of presence of nitrites.

Hypothesis:
Tank never completed cycle using Dr. Tim's or recycled with addition of livestock. Currently nearing end of current ammonia cycling (ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate).

Current action plan:
Adding 1 moderate piece of live rock shipped from Gulf Live Rock this week
Continuing standard 10-15% water changes.
Switching to Reef Crystals from standard instant ocean.
Still no dose.
No livestock changes.

Anything anyone would change or add?