RE-Cycle? Lost Maxima

[jmlesq]

A few weeks ago, my maxima clam became very unhappy. About this same time, I started getting a lot of that slimy maroon algae growth over my LR (is that cyano?). Tested the water and it wasn't good: Nitrate is 40 ppm, Nitrite is .15ppm, Ammonia is 35ppm, PH is 8.6, temp is 78, CA is 400, Mg is 1320, and Alk is 13.8. Tank is 90g.

My theory for this is twofold: 1) not enough flow which I've resolved by changing the pump and ordering 2 sea swirls and 2) maybe 2 months ago, I removed some of my live rock, added some more live sand, and reconfigured the remaining live rock (I paid someone to do the initial set up and was not satisfied especially given all the info I've learned). I think that all this change caused my tank to re-cycle.

Unfortunately, woke up this morning to an empty clam shell. Major bummer.

I'm trying to be patient here but my tank is 1 year old and was relatively established until all this happened. Any thoughts on what to do? I'm doing frequent water changes and have increased the flow. Anything else? What do you think of my theories for why this is happening?

I'm a newbie so your collective expertise would be much appreciated!

John

 

[Mogo]

Other than live rock, what other filtration do you have?

 

[jmlesq]

Knew there was going to be info I forgot!

Live Sand. Aqua C Urchin Pro Protein Skimmer in Ecosystem Sump. Skimmer is in last chamber of sump before return and sump has miracle mud and caluerpa in 2nd chamber.

John

 

[Mogo]

Water movement is not the whole problem IMO. Dead clam will increase your ammonia. Have you checked phosphate levels?

 

[jmlesq]

Yeah, I don't believe lack of water movement is the whole problem. I really think the problem is that my tank has re-cycled due to all the change. Does that make sense?

I was having problems before the clam died so I guess they're going to get worse Fortunately, everything else in the tank is doing great.

Phosphate? Yet another thing to test? Why should I test for phosphate?

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[Mogo]

Algae love phosphates. Especially in a new setup, you must test for them as well.

Assuming live rock is an excellent filter:
-how much did you start with?
-how much is in there now?
-can you reintroduce the lr you removed or is it toast?

 

[jmlesq]

I'll test for phosphates -- what is an acceptable range and what should I do if it's too high?

There is about 90lbs of LR in now. I took out about 30 lbs and it's toast.

John

 

[Mogo]

Phosphates should be "undetectable" or at most 0.1 ppm. Looks like you have enough lr if it's in good shape. After a year, it should be apparent.

It sounds to me like high phosphate or dissolved organic compounds. If there are no other inhabitants in there, try reducing the photoperiod to 4 or 5 hours per day. Increasing the flow rate ain't gonna hurt either. Also you might try raising calcium level to at least 450. Most important, make sure your skimmer is working properly. HTH

 

[Expos Forever]

How does LR get "toasted" exactly? Toasted as in garbaged or as in not useful anly longer? Unless it's been dosed with copper it's still "base rock" and would eventually grow bacteria and coralline. The extra rock couldn't hurt if you still have it around.

 

[jmlesq]

Toast as in gone.

 

[kevinpo]

Did you get the ammonia reading before or after the clam death? Unless you killed something recently (or added more food that you usually do) you will not get a ammonia reading. It is certainly not caused by something done a few weeks ago. Ammonia eating bacteria will catch up to the amount present in about 8 days plus or minus a couple so it would have to be something that happened in that time frame.

The quickest way to reduce the readings is to perform a 25-30% water change and retest in 24 hrs. Ammonia and nitrite should be zero. Nitrate of 40 ppm is tolerable for fish but I shoot for 10 ppm or less. If you plan to keep corals then 5 ppm should be the target (clams actually do better with 3-5 ppm nitrate). The cyno bacterium is a separate issue that may or may not be related to your current problems. IMO you should fix the nitrogen problem first then worry about the bacteria (you might just have it disappear on it's own) The nitrates won't.

Regards,
Kevin
PS: If you perform the water change and find the reading still a little high I would wait for 3 days or so before doing another large water change as they also can be stressful on the inhabitants (JMO/IME).

 

[jmlesq]

I got the ammonia before the clam died. Nothing has died that I'm aware of (perhaps some member of my clean-up crew maybe but no fish or corals) but I was feeding more than usual due to a new fish that was getting beat up a bit (I was told to feed more in this case to make everyone else happy and to get the new fish fat).

I've been doing 10% water changes every other day without much success -- I'll try a 25% in a few days (last did 10% yesterday).

Just don't know what happened with the clam. He was doing great for months and then one day started getting harassed by my yellow-eyed tang. The tang stopped harassing him but between that and the water quality problems, I guess the damage was done.

Thanks for all the help. Really appreciate this place.

John

 

[jimbo327]

Well, it's quite simple really, the problem is that you took out some live rock, and then proceeded to add live sand and rearrange your remaining live rock. Your system has gone out of equilibrium.

You took out 25% of your live rock filtration. Then you probably disturbed the sand bed when you rearranged your other live rock. When you add live sand, it's not really "live" until bacteria start growing on it which will take some time. And different types of denitrifying bacteria live in different zones of the sand bed...by adding new sand, you are completely changing the environment necessary for the bacteria to survive. And because of all the recent changes, your ammonia and nitrites with nitrates have skyrocketed because your input into the system has remained the same, while your filtration system has been rendered ineffective until the bacteria re-populate the live rock and sand bed.

My guess is that you are in a middle of a mini-cycle. Cut back on the food dramatically. The problem you are facing now is that you should do some water change, but water change will just prolong the mini-cycle because the bacteria needs ammonia and nitrite and nitrate to complete the nitrogen cycle. But the lesser of two evils is to do water changes until your system becomes stable again.

Good luck.

Jim