Dieing Rocks are stablising.

[skozzy]

My poor old Life Rocks that cost me a fortune that quickly started to die
off when I put them in my tank have slowed down their decay rate. I have
kept up the weekly water change and also I have been scrubbing off the dead
stuff, anyhow, my levels of ammonia started to drop last night, this
afternoon it was down again. It started at a reading of 6.1mg/L, now it's
down to 0.1mg/L, the NO2 and NO3 are now off the scale.

The rocks have started to clear up, the white fungus that was taking over
everything has almost completely gone, there is a few small spots, but it's
%95 clear now. There is no more foul small from the tank, the skimmer has
settled down.

Today I recieved a rather large skimmer from AKS to help me along with these
rocks. Well it was ment for my main tank upstairs, but when I had my cabinet
made it was designed with the smaller skimmer in mind. So at the moment it
is installed on the holding tank with the live rocks.

The water is so clear now, last week it was cloudy and foul smelling, today
I can see across the tank length wise and barely smell anything even a inch
from the water.

AND !!!!!!, It seems no all my small live died. Yesturday I found 3 baby sea
apples near each other. AND !!!!!! tonight I found inside a rock (small
hole) a small crab that is looking very healty, and was happly scraping away
at the entrance to his home. AND !!!!!!! I saw a small starfish (only 3 legs
poor fella) moving along the glass. and small clam or oyster is still alive
too.

I had a mud crab in the tank for the week in anticipation that it would eat
away at the dieing corals before they turned into a white fungus mess, looks
like that worked in my favour, he surely did a great job there. Today he was
pulling at the small oyster and I didn't like that, so i chased him around
untill cought and took him for a drive back to the beach where I picked him
up from. It didn't take him long to bury himself in the dirt.

I think that I may have won the battle for now. My fingers are still
crossed. If the water cycles completly and stays that way for a week or two
I will think about getting 1 new rock and maybe some live sand and hope the
life in and on these rocks will spread to my old rocks.

-Andrew

[Marc Levenson]

Andrew, sounds like things are getting back in order.

Your NO2 will spike and suddenly drop to zero, virtually overnight. The NO3
will take more time to come down, but you can dilute them away with consistent
water changes. For now, I wouldn't do any because you don't want to prolong the
cycle whatsoever.

I'd also suggest you stop scrubbing the rock, unless you are doing so in
submerged conditiions. You don't want to continue the cycle of die-off each
time you pull rocks out and expose them to air.

Enjoy your critters, they are fun to watch.

Marc


skozzy wrote:

> My poor old Life Rocks that cost me a fortune that quickly started to die
> off when I put them in my tank have slowed down their decay rate. I have
> kept up the weekly water change and also I have been scrubbing off the dead
> stuff, anyhow, my levels of ammonia started to drop last night, this
> afternoon it was down again. It started at a reading of 6.1mg/L, now it's
> down to 0.1mg/L, the NO2 and NO3 are now off the scale.
>
> The rocks have started to clear up, the white fungus that was taking over
> everything has almost completely gone, there is a few small spots, but it's
> %95 clear now. There is no more foul small from the tank, the skimmer has
> settled down.
>
> Today I recieved a rather large skimmer from AKS to help me along with these
> rocks. Well it was ment for my main tank upstairs, but when I had my cabinet
> made it was designed with the smaller skimmer in mind. So at the moment it
> is installed on the holding tank with the live rocks.
>
> The water is so clear now, last week it was cloudy and foul smelling, today
> I can see across the tank length wise and barely smell anything even a inch
> from the water.
>
> AND !!!!!!, It seems no all my small live died. Yesturday I found 3 baby sea
> apples near each other. AND !!!!!! tonight I found inside a rock (small
> hole) a small crab that is looking very healty, and was happly scraping away
> at the entrance to his home. AND !!!!!!! I saw a small starfish (only 3 legs
> poor fella) moving along the glass. and small clam or oyster is still alive
> too.
>
> I had a mud crab in the tank for the week in anticipation that it would eat
> away at the dieing corals before they turned into a white fungus mess, looks
> like that worked in my favour, he surely did a great job there. Today he was
> pulling at the small oyster and I didn't like that, so i chased him around
> untill cought and took him for a drive back to the beach where I picked him
> up from. It didn't take him long to bury himself in the dirt.
>
> I think that I may have won the battle for now. My fingers are still
> crossed. If the water cycles completly and stays that way for a week or two
> I will think about getting 1 new rock and maybe some live sand and hope the
> life in and on these rocks will spread to my old rocks.
>
> -Andrew

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[skozzy]

> Your NO2 will spike and suddenly drop to zero, virtually overnight. The
NO3
> will take more time to come down, but you can dilute them away with
consistent
> water changes. For now, I wouldn't do any because you don't want to
prolong the
> cycle whatsoever.

Sounds like a good move, currently it has been 5 days since I changed the
water. I was going to do another change in 2 days. Do you think I should
hold off for a few days or a week more, or only change after the NH3 or NO2
or NO3 has dropped ?

> I'd also suggest you stop scrubbing the rock, unless you are doing so in
> submerged conditiions. You don't want to continue the cycle of die-off
each
> time you pull rocks out and expose them to air.

Scrubbing is done in the tank just before the water change., During the
water change I syphon out as much rubbish as I can find, starting at the
bottom of the tank, then over the rocks, once it's all clean I start pouring
in the new water.

-Andrew

[Marc Levenson]

Once a tank is cycled, barring any disasters, you never had to deal with it
again. So all I can say on this matter is 'when I cycled my tanks', I never did
a water change until the first 30 days had elapsed. By then, Ammonia and
Nitrite were 0, and Nitrates were in the 20s or 30s.

It's been a while. :)

Marc

skozzy wrote:

> Sounds like a good move, currently it has been 5 days since I changed the
> water. I was going to do another change in 2 days. Do you think I should
> hold off for a few days or a week more, or only change after the NH3 or NO2
> or NO3 has dropped ?
>

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[CapFusion]

>
> Sounds like a good move, currently it has been 5 days since I changed the
> water. I was going to do another change in 2 days. Do you think I should
> hold off for a few days or a week more, or only change after the NH3 or
NO2
> or NO3 has dropped ?
>
I would keep on changing the water until ANN is non-detectable.


>
> Scrubbing is done in the tank just before the water change., During the
> water change I syphon out as much rubbish as I can find, starting at the
> bottom of the tank, then over the rocks, once it's all clean I start
pouring
> in the new water.

I do not see any problem with this.

CapFusion,...

[skozzy]

Tonight the ammonia levels were very very close to 0, anyhow, I got another
350litres of water that tested perfectly. Tomorrow it's going into the tank,
I have spend the past few days making very sure I have scrubbed any area I
can find that had death on it and also done my best to wash free all or any
sediment that was comming loose from the rocks.

And today the ammonia levels in my main display tank have dropped from the
6.1 reading to around 1.2

Things are finaly starting to work out.


"skozzy" > wrote in message
...
> My poor old Life Rocks that cost me a fortune that quickly started to die
> off when I put them in my tank have slowed down their decay rate. I have
> kept up the weekly water change and also I have been scrubbing off the
dead
> stuff, anyhow, my levels of ammonia started to drop last night, this
> afternoon it was down again. It started at a reading of 6.1mg/L, now it's
> down to 0.1mg/L, the NO2 and NO3 are now off the scale.
>
> The rocks have started to clear up, the white fungus that was taking over
> everything has almost completely gone, there is a few small spots, but
it's
> %95 clear now. There is no more foul small from the tank, the skimmer has
> settled down.
>
> Today I recieved a rather large skimmer from AKS to help me along with
these
> rocks. Well it was ment for my main tank upstairs, but when I had my
cabinet
> made it was designed with the smaller skimmer in mind. So at the moment it
> is installed on the holding tank with the live rocks.
>
> The water is so clear now, last week it was cloudy and foul smelling,
today
> I can see across the tank length wise and barely smell anything even a
inch
> from the water.
>
> AND !!!!!!, It seems no all my small live died. Yesturday I found 3 baby
sea
> apples near each other. AND !!!!!! tonight I found inside a rock (small
> hole) a small crab that is looking very healty, and was happly scraping
away
> at the entrance to his home. AND !!!!!!! I saw a small starfish (only 3
legs
> poor fella) moving along the glass. and small clam or oyster is still
alive
> too.
>
> I had a mud crab in the tank for the week in anticipation that it would
eat
> away at the dieing corals before they turned into a white fungus mess,
looks
> like that worked in my favour, he surely did a great job there. Today he
was
> pulling at the small oyster and I didn't like that, so i chased him around
> untill cought and took him for a drive back to the beach where I picked
him
> up from. It didn't take him long to bury himself in the dirt.
>
> I think that I may have won the battle for now. My fingers are still
> crossed. If the water cycles completly and stays that way for a week or
two
> I will think about getting 1 new rock and maybe some live sand and hope
the
> life in and on these rocks will spread to my old rocks.
>
> -Andrew
>
>
>
>