schnitm
08-31-2009, 10:45 AM
A bit of background...My daughter is disabled and spends a lot of time in her room for treatments and resting. Fish were suggested to us by a friend at church and we started an Oceanic Bio Cube 14 in January. Saltwater, live rock, some soft corals, a clown and a 6 line wrasse. Kept it in her room and she loves it! I had almost killed the whole thing by April, but got serious and have fantastic water parametes now with the help of a small ATS in the back.
Flash forward to today...Our friend is moving to a new house, and her 90 gallon system isn't moving with her. So, last Thursday this moved into my daughter's room:
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/schnitm/IMG_0194.jpg
Took 10 hours to move everything and we're just about to put the fish back in. I decide I'll test the water first. I have never seen a nitrate test change color so fast. By the time I'd finished shaking the vial it had maxed out. After tome RO/DI dillution I finally got a reading along with some others from my Red Sea Marine Lab kit:
Nitrates: 300+
Nitrite: 0.3
Ammonia: 0.25
Phosphate: 5.0
After freaking out and figuring I'd done something wrong and effectively killed my daughter's new aquarium, I decided I'd better test the water the fish were still in. It had come straight from the top of the tank that morning. I got something like:
Nitrates: 400+
Nitrite: 0.4
Ammonia: 0.25
Phosphate: 5.0+
Seems the fish had been living in this and we'd just dilluted it some with the water change from toping off the tank. 3 anemones and a dozen soft corals were living in this too. So, in go the fish.
I'm running around trying to figure out what to do. The protien skimmer is dead and hasn't worked for more than a year (thanks for telling me now!). The LFS store is closed because their moving too. I'd been "priming" an ATS screen in my shop using wastewater from the Bio Cube. It had been going for about 2 weeks and was nicely green but not thick at all yet. What the heck...I slap it in the sump and start it running with 4 CFL floods from WalMart. Then to bed to have nightmares of my daughter waking to a tank full of death.
To my pleasant surprise, the next morning (Friday) everything was alive and, apparently, well! I go to work installing the hood, chiller, etc. By that evening I took another water sample and got:
Nitrates: 200
Nitrite: 0.2+
Ammonia: 0.25-
Phosphate: 5.0-
Everything seemed fine. I'm wondering if I'd messed up the readings on Thursday. Saturday was mostly a day off. The ATS had grown thick already so I scraped it. Just a few measurements:
Nitrates: not done
Nitrite: 0.2
Ammonia: 0.25--
Phosphate: not done
Yesterday night (Sunday) about 36 hours after cleaning the screen it looked like this:
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/schnitm/IMG_0192.jpg
The white piece on the right is an extension I added Saturday. It's starting to grow already. Last night's water parameters:
Nitrates: 15 (I kid you not. 15 Checked this over and over. The 10X dillution I started with showed undetectable. I'd needed a 10X dillution before just to get a reading. Got this 15 on straight tank water.)
Nitrite: 0.2-
Ammonia: trace
Phosphate: 3.0
Thusday night I thought I was in the middle of a slow motion trainwreck, but by today all looks good. Thaks to all who have contributed! You lead me down the right path.
Sorry if that was long for a first post. :oops:
Flash forward to today...Our friend is moving to a new house, and her 90 gallon system isn't moving with her. So, last Thursday this moved into my daughter's room:
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/schnitm/IMG_0194.jpg
Took 10 hours to move everything and we're just about to put the fish back in. I decide I'll test the water first. I have never seen a nitrate test change color so fast. By the time I'd finished shaking the vial it had maxed out. After tome RO/DI dillution I finally got a reading along with some others from my Red Sea Marine Lab kit:
Nitrates: 300+
Nitrite: 0.3
Ammonia: 0.25
Phosphate: 5.0
After freaking out and figuring I'd done something wrong and effectively killed my daughter's new aquarium, I decided I'd better test the water the fish were still in. It had come straight from the top of the tank that morning. I got something like:
Nitrates: 400+
Nitrite: 0.4
Ammonia: 0.25
Phosphate: 5.0+
Seems the fish had been living in this and we'd just dilluted it some with the water change from toping off the tank. 3 anemones and a dozen soft corals were living in this too. So, in go the fish.
I'm running around trying to figure out what to do. The protien skimmer is dead and hasn't worked for more than a year (thanks for telling me now!). The LFS store is closed because their moving too. I'd been "priming" an ATS screen in my shop using wastewater from the Bio Cube. It had been going for about 2 weeks and was nicely green but not thick at all yet. What the heck...I slap it in the sump and start it running with 4 CFL floods from WalMart. Then to bed to have nightmares of my daughter waking to a tank full of death.
To my pleasant surprise, the next morning (Friday) everything was alive and, apparently, well! I go to work installing the hood, chiller, etc. By that evening I took another water sample and got:
Nitrates: 200
Nitrite: 0.2+
Ammonia: 0.25-
Phosphate: 5.0-
Everything seemed fine. I'm wondering if I'd messed up the readings on Thursday. Saturday was mostly a day off. The ATS had grown thick already so I scraped it. Just a few measurements:
Nitrates: not done
Nitrite: 0.2
Ammonia: 0.25--
Phosphate: not done
Yesterday night (Sunday) about 36 hours after cleaning the screen it looked like this:
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/schnitm/IMG_0192.jpg
The white piece on the right is an extension I added Saturday. It's starting to grow already. Last night's water parameters:
Nitrates: 15 (I kid you not. 15 Checked this over and over. The 10X dillution I started with showed undetectable. I'd needed a 10X dillution before just to get a reading. Got this 15 on straight tank water.)
Nitrite: 0.2-
Ammonia: trace
Phosphate: 3.0
Thusday night I thought I was in the middle of a slow motion trainwreck, but by today all looks good. Thaks to all who have contributed! You lead me down the right path.
Sorry if that was long for a first post. :oops: