Holy fluctuation

[secretweapons22]

Well to start off with....

150gal tank
25+ gal wet dry
25+ gal refugium
150lb+ live rock
4-5in sand (120lb+)
Skimmer rated for 220gal


A week or so ago I received a bunch of snails, which I acclimated to the tank, and released them, after a day or so I soon smelled that they had died off. Prior to the addition of the snails water stats were 15ppm Nitrate, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm ammonia, ph 8., temp 78, salinity 1.022.

After I removed the snails that I could find, it read 20ppm Nitrate, 0ppm Nitrite, and .5ppm ammonia, ph 8.2, temp 78, salinity 1.022.

I treated with ammonia lock, and did a 20% water change. Then today (6days later) I checked the water and the stats read 20ppm Nitrate, .50ppm Nitrite, .50ppm ammonia, ph 7.8, temp 78, salinity 1.022.

I hunted around some more, moving all the live rock and found 10 or so dead snails and removed.

I was wondering if the swing in PH was due to starting to use RO water, and if there was anything else I am doing wrong. I have been testing the water everyday and its not a gradual change, its very abrupt.

Lucky for me my fish are quite hardy ( green bird wrasse, Black lion, founder, yellow headed moray).

I am waiting on my RO to make some more water, and I will continue to do water changes. However, is there anything else I can do to speed up the process and get my numbers down to zero?

Yes the tank is fairly new, however, It was all at zero, cept for nitrates at like 15, which is high for a reef, but I am doing a predator tank.

Please let me know what else I can do. Any ideas will help....

Also the snails I received I found out after all this happened had been removed the night or two prior to receiving and had not been kept warm, a cold front moved in that night, so I believe that to be a large factor in the deaths.

[erikharrison]

Did you drip acclimate the snails as well? Your best bet is water changes really. Not sure if the switch could have caused the swing, but I am curious to know. What brand is the skimmer? You have some messy fish, so they are adding to that issue right now, a good skimmer is key here. You should try wet skimming and add some carbon to help absorb the unknowns that may be in the water. What is the temp? Refractometer or hydrometer?

[RayAllen]

When you say Skimmer rated for 220; what skimmer do you have? Many skimmers say they are rated for much higher than they really are.

[secretweapons22]

Yes, I drip acclimated them. I also started the wet skimming this morning, it is a coralife skimmer, not the best in the world. One good thing is that the lion eats the damsels that are also in there, so i dont have to feed him (hes fairly new and a little shy and doesnt want to eat) the eel is eating though, but the sand flounder and damsels (2) and the wrasse seem to eat most of the left overs when there are any. I have Pora filtration pads in the wet/dry. It has carbon in it. I use a hydrometer for salinity, and the temp is a pretty stable 78-79ish, is that too warm?

[secretweapons22]

O and i relize that the skimmer is rate at 220 and my not put out that much, but its only a 150gal tank, but with that much rock and sand, im guessing it only has about 125gal of water with wet dry and refug.

[secretweapons22]

Any thoughts would be much apprciated, thanks to those who posted already.

[Troy Valentine]

It sounds like you have several compounding problems:

You have a tank that has been relatively stable, and the minute something disrupts that stability (ammonia of any level) no matter what you do you must let it work its way through the eco system. This is how a sandbed can act as a double edge sword. On one hand it is great for the reefs buffering capacity, and denitrification. But on the other hand it increased a very delicate bioload that can die off in an instant when introduced to a significant level of ammonia. This is why you are probably seeing the consistant ammonia levels and the increase in nitrite levels. That is just the nitrogen cycle taking its course. Just be patient, and I would continue Wet Skim (if you can) and do water changes to mantain a viable habitat for the rest of your tank mates. HTH

[secretweapons22]

Thanks, will do. Gonna do a water change as soon as my RO puts out enough water, Im on well water and the Nitrates in that are around 40-80 depending on the day, so I dont wanna use any straight water.

[Ping]

I may have missed this?

How old is the sandbed and rock (How long in your system)

What type of sand and what do you have for current. A DSB needs moderate current for advection to occur

[matt]

The ph swing has nothing to do with the R.O. water; did you measure ph at the same time of day each time? There's a normal ph swing from low to high starting in the morning before the lights are on going through the light cycle. This swing can easily go from 7.8 to 8.2 and it happens on natural reefs as well.

Sounds like you have a pretty heavily stocked tank if you have a moray and a lion fish in the same 150 gallons. If it's also new, I think you can expect a few ups and downs.

[secretweapons22]

The sand bed and rock are going on 3 months, new tank. I didnt think that the PH would swing as much with a refuguim with lights on it. And for flow I have 2 mag 12, so I am guessing a minimum of 1800-2000 gal per hr. I dont think that it is all that heavily stocked as of now, they are all relatively small, 5in body on lion and maybe 12 in eel.

[Bill S]

Water changes, water changes, water changes.

How many snails was it? And where did they come from?

[secretweapons22]

Ha, it was about 150 Nassarius Ilyanassa Obsoleta, from a guy i know from the army, his wife was suppose to mail them to me, and unknown to him, she left them out and mailed them to me in a box without any insulation.

[secretweapons22]

Well thanks to all the input, went to the store got some stuff to try to help, and did another 20gal water change, Ill do another when I get enough RO water.

[brewercm]

Well thanks to all the input, went to the store got some stuff to try to help, and did another 20gal water change, Ill do another when I get enough RO water.

Just curious what "stuff" did they sell you to cure all your ills. I'd stick with the water changes and run carbon to help remove as much ammonia as possible. Too many other chemicals being added may do you more harm than good. Hope it clears out soon for you.

[secretweapons22]

Yea, I got carbon and ammonia lock to help the fishes cope while the carbon did its work...

[secretweapons22]

Well, Levels are slowly going down... I talked to the LFS and they said that my sand might be a little to corse and that I should remove most of it and have a one inch or less sand bed, which I did and the next morning all my levels had dropped down to a safe level. I guess the sand was building up and expelling large amounts of bad stuff into the water.