Lots of water changes is about the best thing you can do for the moment. Try to keep ammonia under 1 ppm. And make sure that you get rid of anything that looks like it's dying.
Live Rock
- Thread starter as40
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Sorry--that line isn't very specific, is it? Actually, there are some places that cure rock by putting it in a tank, and letting it just sit there for a few weeks. No water changes, no circulating system, nothing. This results in a LOT of die off. Doing the changes and keeping the levels low--below 1 is ideal, but at least within the range of the test--will be enough to prevent massive die off, IME.
(Sigh of relief)
Thank you both very much... That reassures me quite a lot. Oddly enough, I have a large snail that still is alive in the tank, though I've read they don't do well in high ammonia levels. He came with the rock. Must be about 2" in diameter, big round shell. Don't know what kind of snail he is yet. I definately have circulation in the tank as well... And, with 25% water changes daily until it gets under 1ppm, then 10% every day after until it gets under 0.5ppm, should be fine?
Thank you both very much... That reassures me quite a lot. Oddly enough, I have a large snail that still is alive in the tank, though I've read they don't do well in high ammonia levels. He came with the rock. Must be about 2" in diameter, big round shell. Don't know what kind of snail he is yet. I definately have circulation in the tank as well... And, with 25% water changes daily until it gets under 1ppm, then 10% every day after until it gets under 0.5ppm, should be fine?
Well, did another 25% water change last night. My back is tired. Those 5 gallon jugs are the only way to practically transport large amounts of water, but they're heavy, and lifting them to dump the water into the tank is not easy! My tests before the second water change were as follows:
ammonia - between 1 and 2ppm
nitrite - through the roof! the highest that my test registers, 5ppm
The ammonia being down from the 4ppm yesterday reassured me a bit, and I'm sure after the second change, it's down even lower. I know though that the nitrite is not a good thing either though, and I need to work to get that lower.
Tonight when I get home from work I'm going to test again, then do another 25% water change. Hopefully that will be the last 25% change I'll need to do in a row. My protien skimmer, which was breaking in for the last week and a half or so, has finally kicked in and last night was producing its first foam.
BTW, my big snail appears to be "munching" on the live rock. Don't know if it's my imagination, but the area he's been hanging out around seems barer than it did a couple days ago. Do you guys think this may be a problem? Should I bring him into the LFS?
ammonia - between 1 and 2ppm
nitrite - through the roof! the highest that my test registers, 5ppm
The ammonia being down from the 4ppm yesterday reassured me a bit, and I'm sure after the second change, it's down even lower. I know though that the nitrite is not a good thing either though, and I need to work to get that lower.
Tonight when I get home from work I'm going to test again, then do another 25% water change. Hopefully that will be the last 25% change I'll need to do in a row. My protien skimmer, which was breaking in for the last week and a half or so, has finally kicked in and last night was producing its first foam.
BTW, my big snail appears to be "munching" on the live rock. Don't know if it's my imagination, but the area he's been hanging out around seems barer than it did a couple days ago. Do you guys think this may be a problem? Should I bring him into the LFS?
My experience has been that live rock comes in pretty fuzzy, and a lot of that goes away. Are you losing coralline, hair algae or what?
I think fuzzy is an excellent way to describe it. Hard to tell what was under the fuzz; there is a lot of very short, dark, furry hair-like algae covering a lot of the rock. There are pockets of color here and there; where the snail has been hanging out, the rock is just bare and white (nothing left). I only noticed this morning how bare that area looks, so I can't tell you for sure if he was eating more than the fuzz on the rock. I'm just worried that he'll eat to much. Don't want him to strip the rock or anything.
