eek, tank actin weird after holey rock was placed in...

[satx-94integraLS]

i took it out, but now some of my zos wont open up. one colony that im fond of, about 1/4th of em are halfway open, the rest are closed up.

on another rock that i glued some zos too, they arent opening now either. they were open about 4 days ago, and it appears that there is something flaking off of one of those zos.

im about to do a water change, 30%

my temp is a steady 77.8

my nitrites are between .2 and .4 on my test kit (fastest, less than 2 month old kit)

my nitrates are between 10 and 20

my pH is still extremely high. my test kit goes to 8.6 and it looks like its a little darker than that. however, other zo's in my tank are opening up just fine. how can i get my pH down w/o doing a 100% water change? my pH out of tap is 8.1 or so.

there is a slight hint of ammonia. my kit reads yellow as no ammonia. the color it is now is a yellow with a slight hint of green in it...

my tank is a 12 gallon eclipse. i removed the bio-wheel about a week ago because nitrate levels were at 20 and wouldnt go lower.

plz help asap!

[hammondegge]

the 30% change with well buffered water should help alot, then continue with smaller changes every 24hrs. if this isnt working ( and it should ) you can use a fresh water product called "ph down" (but very slowly and with caution - it basically adds acidity. i had to do this when i had a snow storm and it was corrected in a few days. dont try to go too fast. g'luck.
your readings may be coming from the sediment that got stirred up while you were working with the stones.

[satx-94integraLS]

i have some pH down, its in a yellow container. am about to do a 50% change since its almost time for my monthly, then 10-15% every 24 hours for a few days.

[hammondegge]

dont change it too fast. the 50% change is the most you will want to do today. then check the ph. that might be enough to get it in the readable range. it may be enough to take it to 8.4

[satx-94integraLS]

well yeah i plan on retesting the water about an hour after its settled. just finished about a 40% change. will test in about an hour... hope that brings the pH down.

[thedude]

Plain distilled vinegar can be added to the tank to take the PH down but do so slowly and make sure to test your alkalinity. You're basically trading alkalinity for a lower PH. Carbon might also be a good idea to make sure the zoa's aren't releasing some kind of toxin into the water column, especially if you recently fragged a colony.

[satx-94integraLS]

the water change helped tremendously. its now readable, and between 8.2 and 8.4


my ammonia is non-existant again, nitrates are at .5 and nitrites are barely reading (slight pink singe, barely noticable)

i dug around and didnt find anything dying... should i rip the tank apart again tomorrow and search for dead stuff?

it should be noted that my black blenny has been picking at a fire and ice colony thats mostly closed up now. should i be concerned? he eats a big piece of krill every day...