Old Tank Syndrome?

[tomek77pl]

Hi Reefers,


Reef tank is approaching a year but recently ran into a problem. I Usually test Alk,Cal & Mag 1-2 times a month, and judge my phospahtes levels by algae. Last week I came home to a dead fish, and pissed off corals. Did 4 10 Gallon water changes in case some toxin got into the water, but the issue was still there. I finally decided to double check my test kits with a store and my ammonia came in a 1ish, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate were 0 ( all API tsts). I was told that my tank is cycling again, so this leads me to my question. What should I do? there are no fish in the tank, just 2 shrimps, crabs, urchin and clean up crew. Some corals look ok, but I definitely lost some colors in the acros ,but My refugium is growing cheato like crazy. Should I preform more water changes or wait out until the cycle is over? The real kicker is that I leave for vacation in 4 days ( gone for a month). Should I give away the inverts and hope the corals make it through?


78 degrees
Alk - 9 dkh
Cal - 445
Mag -1400
1.026

 

[goatous]

Sorry about your loss.
You ammonia result doesn't make sense, to me, if nitrite and nitrate are 0 your ammonia should be 0.
Faded acro may just be a matter of insufficient nutrients.

 

[tomek77pl]

Sorry about your loss.
You ammonia result doesn't make sense, to me, if nitrite and nitrate are 0 your ammonia should be 0.
Faded acro may just be a matter of insufficient nutrients.

Thanks. I did feed alot and did water changes, but it looks like it has caught up. My refugium was thriving and there was no algae in the tank so I kept on feeding. From what I was told, the Ammonia spike is the beginning of the cycle, since there is no bacteria to convert it into nitrite & nitrate.

 

[labas39]

Why would your tank start to cycle again? If you haven't added a large amount of dry rock or added sand, at least some things I can think of, I don't see why it would recycle.

 

[goatous]

I wouldn't think you could get rid of all the bacteria unless you are doing 100% water changes with no rock and sand to harbor some of the bacteria...

 

[tomek77pl]

Why would your tank start to cycle again? If you haven't added a large amount of dry rock or added sand, at least some things I can think of, I don't see why it would recycle.

Nothing was added(60lbs of LR and about 70 gallons total volume), the only thing that I can think of is heavy feeding. I'm Just curious if I should be doing big water changes before my trip or let the tank ride it out.

 

[labas39]

Well, other than time and money, water changes typically don't hurt.

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

 

[tinman]

1st guess - stores ammonia test kit is broke

2nd guess

its not a cycle .. it probably is the spike from the dead fish ( curious what fish is it and how big is it ) and then some other dead stuff .. you will be amazed how much ammonia a big dead turbo snail can cause ..

you are not seeing the nitrite because amonia is being processed and nitrate is being processed in a whiff .. if its the begining of the cycle you would see ammonia levels increasing more than that .. do a big water change like 50% and you should be good ..


about corals still not looking good .. sometimes corals take months to get back to their original shape when hit with ammonia spike ..

 

[tomek77pl]

I will test my parameters again Saturday and perform a 15-20 gallon water change before leaving on vacation. I lost a blenny first, then a yellow kole tang couple days later. Both half eaten bodies were taken out. The reason for my concern is that I have never seen such negative impact on corals after a fish death, but it could be possible when combined with heavy feeding.

1st guess - stores ammonia test kit is broke

2nd guess

its not a cycle .. it probably is the spike from the dead fish ( curious what fish is it and how big is it ) and then some other dead stuff .. you will be amazed how much ammonia a big dead turbo snail can cause ..

you are not seeing the nitrite because amonia is being processed and nitrate is being processed in a whiff .. if its the begining of the cycle you would see ammonia levels increasing more than that .. do a big water change like 50% and you should be good ..


about corals still not looking good .. sometimes corals take months to get back to their original shape when hit with ammonia spike ..

 

[conchman]

Outside of everything here I would try and look for an outside contamination source. My wife thinks I am dopey, I keep everything away from the tank, wipe down the hose for makeup water etc. Just a thought...