starting over

[weizer896]

Well, I don't know exactly what happened but my tank went to s :o t.
So I decided to start over.I put all of my corals in my husbands tank along with my purple lobster. One good thing,nothing died :roll
My pH was real low...about 7.8, my amonia was at .5, nitrites about .5, nitrates were about 40. I have no clue why. I didn't have any fish. Did 20% water changes every two weeks. All my corals were healthy and opening up good. No algea outbreaks either. About the only thing that was good was the calcium. So I decided to go and buy more sand to make a 5in sandbed and started over. All my live rock is in my husbands fuge so it wouldn't die.I am recycling it for 8weeks. When I set it up,everything was established so I'm at a loss as to what went wrong.
Any advice and suggestions would be a great help.

Anita

[GaryP]

The deeper sand bed will certainly help the nitrates.

The real question in my mind is where is the ammonia and nitrites coming from. How long has the tank been set up? The pH being low is probably due to low alkalinity. Remember that pH varies during the day. It will be higher in the AM then in the PM. Are you feeding anything?

[brieman]

Thats whats getting to me, test kit was getting old so I got a new test kit. Still getting the same readings. Tested my tank with both kits and everything checked out ok. So I think I cancelled out the test kit.

[GaryP]

Anytime you have high nitrogen readings it can only mean one of two things.

1. More waste is being produced then the system is capable of processing. This is usually in the form of something dying off or to much food.

2. There is some problem with the bacterial waste processing system. For example, lacking an efficient dsb to process nitrates or a build up of detritus.

It all comes down to how much is being fed to the bacteria, how many bacteria are present to process the waste, and how much waste is being removed by other methods such as skimming or carbon, and whether there are correct conditions for the bacteria to metabolize the waste in the most efficient way. For bacteria processing ammonia and nitrite that usually involves sufficient oxygen levels. For bacteria processing nitrate that means an anoxic (low oxygen) DSB.

[weizer896]

The only thing I was feeding are the corals with phytoplankton and zooplankton. Every now and then I would give my sun corals some brine.

[NaCl_H2O]

The only thing I was feeding are the corals with phytoplankton and zooplankton.
That stuff can foul a tank quickly if the filtration system (bacteria) isn't up to snuff. Was this in the 24g nano?

[hobogato]

yeay, in my 240, i only add one capfull a day, and my skimmer goes crazy for a while.

[weizer896]

Yes. I spot feed my sun corals and seasquirt.

[C.Mydas]

sun corals will eat brine and should be taken out of the tank since its a nano to feed them. Your invert food is definately not a good idea in a tank that small. If you want to do that then pack the tank right before your water change and ONLY then. Then do a large water change..to remove the plankton.

Deep sand beds ARE NOT GOOD in nanos..they lack the surface area to create the filtration needed. FinAddicts has been doing numerous nanos for some time and they'll tell you the same thing...they start off good but then go south. Ive had one issue with a pico...and it was b/c the sand bed went 'gross'.. Ive never had an issue with my nanos...I used a shallow sand bed purely for looks and kept it sparkling. Nanos are a lot more work than the bigguns when it comes to water quality...besided the freaky SPS guys stalking around here...lol

Look into one of the nano skimmers newly on the market..that'll help too.

HTH!

[weizer896]

Thanks everyone for the advice.I think after it's through cycling I'm going to take the lid off and use the LA3 with 250w 10k XM bulb that I got from JimD and fut a small fuge on it.Just got to figure out how to do the actinics and moonlights.

[weizer896]

Just wanted to post an update on my tank cycling. It's been cycling for almost two months now and I've got so many pods on my glass that I can barely see through it. I guess this is a good thing. :D
Well, gonna let it cycle for 2 more months and then start stocking. Should be good and ready by then.

[weizer896]

tested everything today and everything is zero execpt for nitrates. time to start the water changes. :D