My Tank Keeps CRASHING!

[bellinayu]

Yeah.. Normally those house brands are the cheapest. eg. NTUC, Giant.

Take note is distilled water or Pure drinking water NOT mineral water that you buy.

If you're doing weekly water change, it will be more cost effective if you invest in a 3-stage DI unit. You can call Gary 92202295 to get a basic water purification unit.

[danial123]

i just changed 20 percent of my water yesterday dechlorinating it with seachem prime, the water is still a little milky but i'm assuming that's just the tank cycling and it'll pass with time. i added in friendly bacteria as well.

some of my zoanthids and green star polyps are starting to open again, during the crash they were completely shut with a layer of brown film on top but the brown film has been more or less shedded. hopefully my corals will make a full recovery.

nitrite=0

nitrates=5

i don't have an ammonia test kit yet gonna get one soon to test it out.

[m12345y]

it helps sometime to get someone else to read your test results, especially colors! reefers tend to conclude torwards better result

[Creetin]

dude, u got to get the basic stuff right.

1) junk the hob filter. go the sump tank way - is cheap nowadays too

2) remove the coral chips - use sand not too deep or sandless

3) get a good skimmer - for eg H&S, aquac, or any of our sponsors should have good skimmers

4) check your salt - your salt mix could be holding the key. dont use red sea or china brands, use better ones

5) water top ups - get an auto top, link to a water reservoir. much more consistent. saves you time and trouble, u only need to top up once a month. remember water top ups only mean you pour in fresh water and not salt water. again, do get a sump so that it can help u measure where to top up till.

6) water top ups - pls dont use diamond filter or your basic tap water. use RO/DI unit. diamond adds stuff to the water which we arent sure about, and basic tap water depending on your area might be hard/soft. with RO/DI, you do not need prime or dechlorinator.

[danial123]

hi guys, its been awhile, and i'd like to report my tank is going great! i think i have pin pointed the problem, and that is i didn't dechlorinate the tap water properly with a water conditioner.

i didn't think that it was that important to add water dechlorinator because my dad keeps a huge 5 feet freshwater tank, and everytime he changes the water, he just connects a hose from the bathroom tap straight into his tank so i didn't think much about water conditioners.

but after talking to him about my puzzling tank crashes, i realised, what i didn't see was that after he puts water in the tank he adds dechlorinator i shuda stayed til the end to watch how he did his water changes in stead of just seeing the beginning.

but anyway a big to everyone.

happy reefing. finally for me.

[iskay]

This forum probably has a combined number of years of reefing experience of more than 100 years. Surely will have some bros who can offer sound advice. Bro FUEL hit the jackpot on the first reply to your thread. Glad that you've solved your problem. Tetra Aquasafe is said to be another pretty good product.

[AloysiusMun]

Tapwater contains a fair bit of Silicates. Could lead to a diatom bloom. Just my 2 cents.