Reef Discussion

[jashay]

gday reefers,

well I got me some sera coral food yesterday and last night gave all of my few corals a feed. they all sucked it in well and were looking great.

well, woke up this morning turned on the lights and shat myself! my tank has gone into a cycle and I am not happy!!! after finally getting things on track and starting to rebuild I copped this. did a quick search to find that it turns into nitrate very quickly if un eaten.
I didn't use much either, each coral only got like 1ml each and I thought it wouldnt be a prob as this is way below the dosage rate of the stuff.

all the inhabitants dont seem to stressed although my BTA has sucked right down (dont know bout this coming back it is looking like a drab sack of crap).

I was thinknig doing a larger water change might help, any thoughts? I was going to doing about 30%-50% change, maybe a little to much? I dont think the cycle will last long as, as far as I was concerned the filtration was working very well. but then I dont want huge nitrate readings either, I havent tested it yet but I dont even know if the info I found online was correct as the water is cloudy like it was an ammonia spike?

any ideas?

 

[Synodontis]

Mate, I'd do the test's, do a water change, wait an hour and test again. Good luck with it all, hope it's not to bad after just getting it right again. Dont lose hope!! :)

 

[slin1977]

Prob just a bacteria bloom, nothing to worry over , the bacteria population will stabilise with the addition of these new nutrients, the cloudyness would go away in a few days time.
Possibly check to see if the food needs refrigeration once opening too.

 

[jashay]

Mate, I'd do the test's, do a water change, wait an hour and test again. Good luck with it all, hope it's not to bad after just getting it right again. Dont lose hope!! :)

cheers mate :) yea did a test and overall not to bad, not ideal but not bad bad. but will be doing a 40L water change tomorrow just to be on the safe side and this should definately improve things.
yea it pi$$ed me off after getting things stable and starting to really look good again. what I have got in there dont seem to affected as of yet, and the WC should fix it. I think it did knock off the candy cane I have been trying to rescue though. having a not to healthy coral trying to rejuvenate it and then having a mini cycle happen, I cant see it being happy bout that!

Prob just a bacteria bloom, nothing to worry over , the bacteria population will stabilise with the addition of these new nutrients, the cloudyness would go away in a few days time.
Possibly check to see if the food needs refrigeration once opening too.

yep, definately a bloom, not ideal but in the long run it will also help build up the bio filtration too. I am still gonna do the WC as said above though to be safe ;)
the cloudyness has actually started to clear up since this morning, maybe one third clearer.

and yea, the food does need to be refridgerated after opening, I always keep the liquid additions in the fridge after opening as it is just good practice really but most of them do need to be refridgerated after opening including trace elements, calc/mag/stron etc and most foods. some dont but I am pretty sure it keeps a lot better when chilled.

 

[MTG]

hey jashay, i just think your tank was to unstable for the large amounts of food. give it a few months before you start feeding coral food and adding additives outside the standard range of calc alk and mag

 

[jashay]

:confused:

I didn't think it was a large amount of food?? all up it was only 3-4ml of liquid food if that. the dose was around 15ml to 550l.. anyways!

the good thing is the cloudyness has completely gone this morning, like it never happened. will be doing some tests soon. and the 40L change this arvo :)

 

[Grug]

ive found that lots of small water changes are better than one big one.. doing a big one can throw you further out of whack and then you end up chasing two issues giving two different sets of results.

Just my 2 cents.. :)

 

[jashay]

thanks man :) will have a think bout that. I am actually thinking a bigger change isnt necessary now, It cleared up spot on the next day and I did some tests again last night and things are quite good. will just do a usual water change and it should be back to normal!