Marine Enthusiast

I think that is spot on. I realized the predator tank was having the same issue almost a week after the first tank so I did not start the same regimen of water changes and the like. When I changed the water today the smell was less than last time so I'm hoping I am on track to stabilize this one. I will check the parameters in a few hours and again tomorrow. Before the change today nitrates were down to 20. The coral tank ph is 8.3 and nitrates did not read at LFS but my test shows 5-10. I will give the phosphate pads a little more time because the nitrate pads seem to help. The reason I started to use ZERO water is my old LFS guy scared me away from tap water. He did not seem receptive to my never-ending questions even though I could not stop spending money in his store as I was upgrading 2 tanks from 55 and 30 to 125s. At one point he said he would have to charge me by the hour to relay all his knowledge. Joking or not that was not funny. He would hand me a pamphlet and say go look it up. Anyway when I bought his filtered water I tested it when I got home and it read 0 TDS. I did not realize the difference in how the water got to 0 TDS by my home filter and thought this was going to save me some trips to his store. My whole family drinks this and we love it so...why not the fish too. When these filters get to the end of the useable service there is an odd taste. Within a day or so of this taste is when the meter will no longer read 0. So lesson learned= Do not use ZERO brand filtered water for fish tank use. I do think it would be interesting if this were scientifically proven. My hope is by the end of this week I can get at least the one tank off the pads and back to just carbon. A normal work week for me is 50-70 hrs and do not have much time or energy to do often water changes which is why I use the carbon. I was told it helps extend the period between a large w/c. Any opinion on that? I hope to make the most of this week of vacation and could use some advice. Again THANK YOU for your interest!

After a couple months of stable parameters I cut back on how often I tested water. I checked ammonia and nitrates weekly and ph and others monthly instead of every other day. The ph had not changed from 8.3 for six months prior to adding this zero water. In three weeks it dropped to seven. Adding water with a ph of less than 5 dropped the tanks ph and as you said started to dissolve the rock and sand. My new LFS says he doesn't test for copper because the tests are too hard to read. Also the "ace in the hole" he had me put in a few weeks ago was chemi-pure he says would have pulled out any copper by now. One thing I just noticed is the coralline algae had started to spread before all this happened. There is none on the spots it was spreading. I have smelled a fresh batch of uncured live rock bad enough to pull my head back an say "EEEWW" my rock had the same death smell but only a hint on a few pieces. I just ran out of ph test but my kh came down slightly from 9 to 8.5 with this last water change. Any time I add any new media I have to keep after the skimmer for about six hours but the phosphate pads so far have failed to bring down the level still at 2. That is the level of my treated tap water so unless I can somehow get this RO/DI you say will work I don't have any other options?

After looking around for copper tests I am now confused. Too much copper is bad but none is bad too? Once I get the coral tank under control I will want to restock. I don't have room for a quarantine and have just trusted my sellers fish are parasite free. So far so good. Do I need to have some level of copper to ensure parasite death? One thing about this hobby is once you learn one thing you are forced to learn more...AWESOME!

BTW Here are some pics of the guys you are helping me save and their #1 fan

I changed over 50% of coral tank water. For the first time in months below 20 nitrate and less than 1 phosphate. All other parameters are normal. I also re-aquascaped expanding live rock as much as possible. I am wondering if more live rock or "seeding" existing rock and sand would help.

I did make sure the water was 0 TDS but I cannot check for copper. I stopped adding the zero water a couple months ago. I was using it only to top off and used LFS saltwater to do w/c. I have since reverted back to treating tap water for all. I stopped trusting the one LFS guy who made me feel like I was always bothering him with my questions and he was the only convenient source of treated water. This picture shows the PH below 5 and is the best test I have. My new not so LFS test had no reading of PH. I'm pretty sure there was die off of L/R. I used to only use carbon in other filters prior to crash. My new LFS showed me these products to help between my very often and sometimes large water changes. My live rock has alot of space between each piece for flow. I have 2 hydor 1050gph plus the HOBs circulating the tank. It is in both tanks the common factor being the zero water. Yesterday I did a 50% w/c in predator tank and several pieces of L/R had a light odor. Today I did a 50% w/c in the coral tank and none had any death smell. Thank you for your interest in my problem. I am getting frustrated with fish store guys who keep telling me their "Ace in the Hole".

I went from a 30g and 55g. I have only put in cured L/R from LFS. These tanks were up with no problems for over 6 months before I changed the type of water I topped off with.

The coral tank has 150g protein skimmer, a fluval fx5 and a couple HOB with nitrate, ammonia and heavy metal filter pads and carbon. that tank has been 8.3 ph 0 nitrite 0 ammonia 9.5 dh The fluctuation has been with Nitrate now down to 30(as high as 200 a couple weeks ago) and phosphate about 1-2 now and as high as 5-10 I maintain 400-500 calcium and 1.023 specific gravity. The predator tank has a UV filter 2 100g skimmers 2 HOB filters with the same media as the other tank. I have been replacing both every 2-3 weeks. The phosphates are higher today at 5 and KH is lower at 9 dh. I have been very careful to not overfeed this tank but those guys can go through some meet.

All parameters have stayed normal(except nitrates) once the PH stabilized. I have only been feeding 5x week to cut back on waste. The L/S tank protein skimmer still gives a dank cup every other day with the bare bottom tank producing a little more than normal. The live sand tank has 2 skunk, 2 peppermint, 1 pistol, 1 fire and 1 coral banded shrimp(all larger than any I have seen in other tanks) 2 7-9in engineer gobys, several urchins and over 15 misc. snails. The only fish survivors are 3in sailfin tang and small clown, chromis and damsel. The bare bottom tank only lost a younger Rabbit and still has 9in Black Volitan, 4.5in Orange Shoulder, 4in Diana's Hog, 6in Silver Squirrel, 5in Picasso Trigger, 5.5in Clown Trigger. There is more light and filtration on the Community tank but less of all algae. The sand bed and glass appear clean while I am scrubbing the Predator tank often.

I have quickly(before I had enough experience) upgraded my tanks to twin 125g. Each has over 100lbs L/R and one has over 100lbs L/S the other bare bottom. I now have a nitrate problem. I have been doing 20-40% water changes, adding nitrate reduction pads for 2 months and now a Instant Ocean natural nitrate reducer liquid. This began several months back when a LFS guy advised me to never use tap water(which is all I ever used since I began my tank journey *treated with Prime or Instant Ocean depending on top-off or water change)due to heavy metals and cloramine. I started topping off with filtered ZERO(no TDS or PH value)water not knowing it needed a buffer added to give the PH a boost. The two tanks quickly crashed over three weeks to just under 7ph and skyrocketed to off the chart over 200 nitrate level. The L/S tank got hit hard with over 5 fish lost, only 1 in the bare bottom tank. It took a couple weeks to stabilize the PH but the nitrates keep spiking. The lowest has been 40 and within a day or two it climbs to over 80. The tank with bare bottom takes longer to rise and does not get as high. All fish and corals seem stable now in both tanks but I feel like my tanks are in some kind of never-ending cycle and I wonder if I need to do something drastic or just keep up water changes until the live rock and sand re-cure?

Will take livestock and rock off your hands, too if tank/stand still available..thanks!

Is the tank and stand sold? Please update. I am interested. Thanks, M.E.

Hey eveyone, I can be around Sunday to break down the tanks. Please let me know ASAP if anyone can help out. We are moving Saturday and getting cable on Sunday, but my wife can handle that. No internet access after 7pm so call my cell if anyone can help out. Thanks! Pete 571-436-6196 P.S. If you have a truck to haul the tanks/buckets this would help alot too

Call me and let me know when you can be here Monday. Cell 571-436-6196 Pete

Hi - new to WAMAS and need a "hands on" volunteer to help me move two saltwater fish tanks from Gaithersburg, MD to Ashburn, VA on Monday the 8th. I was referred by another member "Fins and Feathers" to WAMAS. Is there anyone who can stop by Monday and help me? If so, please respond ASAP. Thanks, Marine Enthusiast

If anyone could show up and help move the fish tanks on Monday morning (Aug 8th)please contact me. I don't think I can do this myself. Any assistance is appreciated! Thanks! M.E.

Hi, new to Wamas and have an emergency and need help. I was referred to WAMAS by a fish store in VA. I need help moving my saltwater fish to Ashburn, VA from Gaithersburg, MD on Monday the 8th. If anyone out there has experience doing this or would like to volunteer please respond ASAP. I thought the task could be accomplished alone, but I need help carrying buckets of water and the tanks to my vehicle. I have two tanks...a 30 gal and 55 gallon. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, M.E.