Reef Discussion

ryan1986

Member
Sep 6, 2014
237
48
Ammonia Spike :(
So 2 weeks ago I removed the black filter pads from rear of my rsm 250, as they keep clogging up (I had to clean every 2 weeks)
I had a tini little ammonia spike but today I woke up to my skimmer going insane, tested water and i have ammonia in the tank (.2) and some nitrite (.02).

WTF can I do to stop it all going bad. I have removed the soft tissue of the hammers that split from the skeleton.

Fish look fine no red on girls, still active.

Do I put filler pads back in, do I leave them out do I do waterchange.????????
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Water change would be a good start. Depending on your fish load, you may need to keep up with that for a bit.
Can't believe that the filter pads would have that much impact unless you have bugger all live rock or your tank hasn't cycled long enough..... or... you have way too much load in your system for the relatively small size of your tank (sorry, haven't been keeping up to see what you have in it). Pads won't doi much beyond detritus collection, and will need regular cleaning anyway. Possibly them being full of crap has had them full of nitrifying bacteria which has been dealing with the ammonia (which really gets back to raising questions about live rock and whether you've adequately cycled your tank for the load you have). Either way, your tank is in a state of cycling.
I'd be looking at how you can reduce your bioload, do just enough water changes to get the ammo and nitrite down, whilst trying to let the system do what it needs to do. You could perhaps look for some nitrifying bacteria (you can buy bottles of the stuff).. perhaps this might help you build up a better bacterial colony faster.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
So had a look at your TJ; though not in any detail.
How much live rock do you have? What fish do you have? I see you have a yellow tang in there; the tang police response of that fish needs 500+L tanks aside, you probably have a bioload issue... too many crappers... not enough medium for nitrifying bacteria (ie live lock). When in doubt, water change until you can solve the problem.
 

ryan1986

Member
Sep 6, 2014
237
48
Tank has approx 20-25kg, of live rock.
I let it cycle with frozen prawns till everything was right,

I only have
1x yellow tang
1x fairy wrasse
2x occ clowns.

Also let tank sit a month or more between each fish addition.
(Will be upgrading to a 5x2x2.5 soonish)

1x crispa anenome
1x red starfish
2x hermit crabs
2x big sand snails
Bunch of small snails

The filter pads I rinsed every second waterchange and I do 50L a week water change.


I think i found problem. So when i pulled pads out i had a small ammonia spike which went away In 2 days, but one of my hammers cracked it bad and started to bleach and fall apart, I did remove the floaters but I kept the main hammer hoping I could save it, well when I pulled it out today with the other 2 it smelt soo bad I threw up, the other 2 didn't smell so I am wondering if it was decaying and pumping ammonia into the tank.


I've talked to the mrs and local aquarium and if tank peramitors get worse I can remove fish and remaining coral and aquarium will baby sit while I clean tank and recycle if needed.

Till then I'm looking into what I can add to aquarium to increase its efficiency but I'll be keeping in mind what I look at will be used on next tank.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Load isn't too bad.. (that yellow tang excepted) - I don't have much more than that in a tank twice your size.
Jump back to the question of how much rock you have - its the real biofilter - if you don't have enough, then you don't have the capacity to deal with your bioload.
You need to get back to the basics of the cycle; your initial cycle was nothing more than you added something that turned into ammo, nitrifying bacteria grew and broke down that ammonia. At the point, your entire colony of nitrifying bacteria is adequate to break down a prawn eventually. Over time the bacteria colony will grow - if the system is maintained, and if you have enough media (ie rock and in your case possibly these filter pads) for it to grow and live in. Usually at the end of the cycle, the system has a limited capacity to handle a bioload. Over time it grows, and you can increase your bioload. Exceed its capacity, then you see things you shouldn't in your water.
A hammer dying shouldn't really do too much to the water parameters if you're removing any decaying matter; your system should have some capacity to deal wtih it. The fact that its dying begs the question of why? Possibly you have another problem that's caused this and you don't know about it. Possibly its just one of those things.

I suspect you're on the right path; that hammer won't be helping your ammo at all - just a little surprised that its enough to really impact your water quality unless there isn't adequate rock in there (or perhaps it just hasn't established well enough)

The smell; there are plenty of corals that even when healthy smell disgusting, so don't let the smell fool you too much. Don't believe me? Go pull a fluffy morph out and breathe deeply :P
 

ryan1986

Member
Sep 6, 2014
237
48
Load isn't too bad.. (that yellow tang excepted) - I don't have much more than that in a tank twice your size.
Jump back to the question of how much rock you have - its the real biofilter - if you don't have enough, then you don't have the capacity to deal with your bioload.
You need to get back to the basics of the cycle; your initial cycle was nothing more than you added something that turned into ammo, nitrifying bacteria grew and broke down that ammonia. At the point, your entire colony of nitrifying bacteria is adequate to break down a prawn eventually. Over time the bacteria colony will grow - if the system is maintained, and if you have enough media (ie rock and in your case possibly these filter pads) for it to grow and live in. Usually at the end of the cycle, the system has a limited capacity to handle a bioload. Over time it grows, and you can increase your bioload. Exceed its capacity, then you see things you shouldn't in your water.
A hammer dying shouldn't really do too much to the water parameters if you're removing any decaying matter; your system should have some capacity to deal wtih it. The fact that its dying begs the question of why? Possibly you have another problem that's caused this and you don't know about it. Possibly its just one of those things.

I suspect you're on the right path; that hammer won't be helping your ammo at all - just a little surprised that its enough to really impact your water quality unless there isn't adequate rock in there (or perhaps it just hasn't established well enough)

The smell; there are plenty of corals that even when healthy smell disgusting, so don't let the smell fool you too much. Don't believe me? Go pull a fluffy morph out and breathe deeply :p
I get you, when adding new fish I did it slowly so yo give bacteria time to catch up but that is it always guesswork on how strong it is, obviously it wasnt as strong as I thought.

I did get told to look into marine pure, to supplement rock, but if tank declines and I'm f ok red to recycle I will change my scape and try adding more rock.