how to stablize tank

[steve b]

I have 55gal saltwater fish only.Set up new jan.3 2003.
Let tank cycle almost 4 weeks. everything was o.k.
Added fish 1 per week for 5 weeks.(damsels,clown,coral beauty angel, yellow tang.)
Things were going good until I did my 1St major water change about 20gal.
The next morning the PH bottemed out and everything was dead.I soon got some PH buffer and hope not to make the same mistake twice.
Added more fish again to replace the lost ones. 1 per week.Did water change last week.
All levels got worse.Nitrates,nitrites,ammonia,PH.
Found out my spring water was the problem.
All the snow and rain made for a bad batch of water.
2nd. mistake not to be made again.
Lost everything but manderine gobby.
bought water did 35 gal change last week.
All levels are high and Ph is a little low.
Any suggestions ?
Here is some tank info
Crushed coral as substrate
50lbs reef rock
UG filter 2 power heads
Sandman 3 ls filter, whisper 3 filter,
Visijet protein skimmer
4 watt U.V. sterilizer
In the process of installing fluval 404 canister

 

[sinasster]

Your manderine goby will soon die too. He eats the little copods that you probabley dont have in your tank.

Get some live rock (unless thats what you call reef rock) it will help stabilize your tank. if tap water is a problem you may consider a reverse osmosis system to help when making your own salt water. Or like most people on the west coast use only catalina water (ocean water) that you can buy from your LFS.

And stay away from the chemicals that "fix" the water. They will only create new problems

 

[toodles]

Agree about the mandarin....is there any way you can take the mandarin back to the store? They have a better chance for survival in tanks that already have a well established copepod population.

Where to start? First off, ditch the UG.....nothing but a detrius trap that will keep your nitrates too high. If it was me, I would get rid of the crushed coral too (been there, done that) and instead get some sand for the bottom. You will want at least 3" of sand for a proper deep sand bed (DSB). The advantage of DSB's are that they will reduce your nitrates, and will provide a home for small critters that will not only help to keep it clean, but some of them will also become food for a mandarin (in the future).
The next thing is that when you do water changes, don't do such large ones.....better to do smaller water changes more frequently than large ones infrequently. Usually I do a weekly change of about 5% to 10%. Rainwater and RO water are both low pH, and buffers are needed to keep it stable, although alot of people use a kalkwater drip to keep the pH stable rather than using chemicals. You might want to do a search at RC for info on this (as I don't use this myself and am not "up" on the latest info.....)
Personally, I'm not a big fan of Sandman filters and with the whisper and canister filter, I don't think you will need it. Make sure that you keep your filter media clean so it doesn't build up nitrates in there either.
Oh yeah, and when you add fish, try and wait 2 weeks between additions, that will give the bacteria time to increase in numbers.
Good luck to you!

 

[bobrob]

The best advice I could give is to get some good water (you know what Im talking about dont ya) and keep changing the water.