Coral and anemone problems

Puffdaddy wrote:Salinity is 1.027 what does it need to be?

This should NEVER be allowed to go over 1026, I would get it down to 1024 until you get rid of the cyano. Only other thing you can do to slow it up is cut back on the lighting, did you post how long you run your lights and what type? How old are the bulbs?

New bulbs two months old. 2 54w white and two actinic t5

Puffdaddy wrote:New bulbs two months old. 2 54w white and two actinic t5

How long do you run the lights per day?

At first when i first got light i was running it from 7:00am to 10:00 pm then for the last month or so i reduced it to 8 hours. 1pm to 9pm. Fixing to add 5 gallons of water but it is 83 degrees do I need to let it cool down first before adding to 76-78 temp in 55gal tank?

Puffdaddy wrote:At first when i first got light i was running it from 7:00am to 10:00 pm then for the last month or so i reduced it to 8 hours. 1pm to 9pm. Fixing to add 5 gallons of water but it is 83 degrees do I need to let it cool down first before adding to 76-78 temp in 55gal tank?

By all means, it needs to be the same temp as tank water and should be same PH too. Are you adding salt water or fresh? You need to bring the salinity down slowly, take out 1/2 gallon or so and add back ro water, do this each day until you get it down, don't do it fast, that does more harm than good. REMEMBER Nothing good ever happens fast in a marine tank, take it slow, the light for 8 hours is ok.

I was going to add fresh

I was going to add 5gal fresh RODI . Tank a little low

Puffdaddy
No insult intended here but it sounds to me like you are really new to saltwater, we were all there at one time or another but I'm gonna make a suggestion to you. You should start reading everything you can find on saltwater reef tanks so you can familiarize yourself with the needs of a marine tank and get up to date on all the terminology used and equipment. Reef tanks are fun and a sight to see if they are ran correctly but all to many times someone will like you did buy a tank from a friend and jump in with both feet and it all gets so frustrating that you end up giving up and selling all your equipment. We can help you out and try to figure out what is going on but without some knowledge of the hobby on your part it will never work. There are numerous sites on the internet devoted to setting up and maintaining a reef tank, please take some time and search them out. Again as I said, we have all been where you are now, it just takes a lot of research and trial and error to make it all work. I have been doing reef tanks for probably close to forty years and I'm still reading articles and learning more every day.

I had a black sea urchin secreting a white substance that just kind of dissapeared into water. A foggy type but he stopped and is back to normal. Abyone know what that could have been?

Could have been sperm, it happens, they just blow it out, looks like smoke.

That must have been what it was

Once you get it on photo bucket, there is an "img" link for each pic. Copy the link and paste it into the post. Should work.

Ok I finally got in a testing kit. Left results at home but phosphate is 0.25 and nitrates very high between 40 and 80 ppm. Calcium, ammonia ( a little off but not bad at all), nitrite 0 and kh were pretty much right on from what testing kit said was normal. What is the next step in controlling these nitrates that will not stress fish too much by procedure just did 5% water change two days ago. Any ideas?

Puffdaddy wrote: ammonia ( a little off but not bad at all),

This is your problem. Your ammonia should be zero. No trace of ammonia should ever be detectable in your tank. Either your tank hasn't fully cycled or your source water contains ammonia. If that's the case then doing water changes could be doing more harm than good. Check your source water for ammonia.

And read this,

http://dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=87868

Get rid of the crushed coral. It's a trap for rotting food and other nasties. The large grain size allows detrius to work its way to the bottom of the tank .

I checked the water and there is ammonia going through the rodi water. Do I need to replace a particular filter or all three?

I checked the water and there is ammonia going through the rodi water. Do I need to replace a particular filter or all three?

You need to add a product called Prime to your RO water. It'll take it out.

Will do. What can I do at this point to lower nitrates safely?

Where do you live? Your water may be treated with chloramines and you need a different membrane for your RO/DI unit made for chloramines. Check with your local water supply and see if they use chlorine or chloramines.

I am on well water

Hold off on any water changes for now because you're just adding more ammonia to the tank and kicking off a cycle with every water change. Get some Prime like Matt mentioned and you'll have to start treating your water with that if you're RO unit won't remove all the ammonia. Once you get Zero ammonia in your source water then you can start doing water changes and I'll bet your nitrates will start to decrease.

Here's a tid bit of info about well water that may help, I personally didn't know that well water is probably a big sorce of nitrates.

Well Water

If your water supply comes from a well and you keep Africans, you may consider yourself fortunate. Not only is water from deep, drilled wells considered by many to be superior in quality, it is likely to have a higher mineral content and consequently test higher for hardness (although many households use a �water softener� to remove dissolved minerals), it may have a higher pH, and there should not be any chlorine or ammonia present.

Wells tap into the groundwater supply, which is naturally filtered through layers of sand and rock and is not polluted as easily as lakes and rivers (particularly in very deep wells). There are however, a few considerations you should be aware of.

Well water may contain nitrate, especially in agricultural areas, due to the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Since nitrate is a natural byproduct of the nitrogen cycle in your aquarium and is typically removed with water changes � you may need to seek other methods to reduce nitrate in your aquarium. The deeper the well, the less likely this is to be a problem.

Well water often contains high concentrations of dissolved gases such as CO2, which lowers pH. If the water is aerated for a few hours before adding it to your aquarium, harmful gases will escape and your fish need not be subjected to temporary pH fluctuation or other stress.

Lastly, there is the concern of shallow wells being polluted or contaminated, often by nearby septic systems. If you question the quality of your well water, it may be worth the minor expense to have a sample professionally analyzed.

I got some prime today, and going to dose my newly made saltwater. Can I put a capful into 55 gal aquarium to help with the ammonia and nitrates that are in the tank? One more question, when I dose the water I just made for tnk will it show zero ammonia after I put prime in?

I got some prime today, and going to dose my newly made saltwater. Can I put a capful into 55 gal aquarium to help with the ammonia and nitrates that are in the tank? One more question, when I dose the water I just made for tnk will it show zero ammonia after I put prime in?