I see the main problem over here:

You are disheartened and panicking. Do a water change on yourself :). A bristle star being sucked up the powerhead and hermits molting should NOT let you down. There are cases where anemones get sucked up in powerhead and the whole tank gets nuked and still people didn't loose hope. Its all about taking up challenges. If something goes wrong, you should become more persistent to solve it than just giving up.

My POV for the high nitrate: the nitrate must have risen initially, the hermits started dying one by one and hence the nitrates just keeps on adding up.

There are loads and loads of great people out here who are willing to help, for example Denny (reefwars). :)

There has to be something weird going on. It just doesn't make sense to me. Can you think of anything outside the norm that could be causing the high nitrates?

Maybe the initial high nitrate started a chain-death of the hermits and their decaying matter is causing the nitrate to be high?

This this may sound patronizing, but it isn't meant to be. We all have moments when we want to quit . . . when it doesn't seem worth the effort . . . and when we'd like to flush everything and smash the tank . . . you get the idea.

The cyano in my main display system makes me want to smash it with a sledgehammer. Badly.

But, I know it will pass. What you're going through will pass as well. We will get it figured out. Don't worry. You have an amazing resource at your fingertips, here.

I'm going to re-read your thread to see if anything jumps out at me.

I cant...i think it's the rock I blow off the crappy suckit up do water changes use ro water..test my new too match tank i fell like im doomed lol....im trying too stay positive its jus this day for my reef tank went bad

well i think the idea of tests being accurate or not is the first thing , if they are accurate then i would be asking how high my amonia got during my cycle.

realistically at this time there shouldnt be any livestock like snails or shrimp, crabs etc. (right after the cycle)

this is the ideal time to do the large water change , like you mentioned earlier 100% is even fine and alot of people do that.


if you experience a rough cycle with high amonia and dont do this it just keeps getting built up.

the daily water changes will in fact bring them down , its just more to me of a time consuming thing and if theres any animals they arnt gonna benefit from the stress and changing conditions.

what happens more often then not is this scenario here where people try to deal with the high nitrates after they have added animals not after the cycle, now it has to be done slower and more work involved as your adding pollution to the tank reguarily.

Nanoreefnewbie, what nitrate test are you using. Also, can you post the rest of your parameters and what tests you're using for them? Honestly, I don't trust your test at this point.

If you did a 50% change, that would have brought your nitrates down to 20ppm. A 25% change the next day would have brought them down to 15ppm. 25% the next day would bring them down to 11.25ppm, then 8.43ppm, then 6.32ppm . . . on day six 4.74ppm. Of course, nitrate would be building at the same time, so it would probably take a week or more to get the nitrates below 5ppm. Only the first water change would have a huge effect on the levels, and the effect becomes less and less with each water change.

Have you recorded your daily nitrate levels? If so, can you share them?

I just read through the whole thread and have a couple questions.

1. Are you using RO/DI water?

2. On page one you said you were using 1lb of live rock and 39 of dead rock. Did you actually do this? If you did then there's no way that your tank would be biologically stable enough yet for any inhabitants. You should've had at the very least half of the rock live rock, especially if its a nano.

This can explain why your nitrates were high and stayed high.

the other thing right now i would be asking myself is if any of my critters are being harmed or in harm right now??

if not then your on the good side of the battle , now time is on your side to start attacking the little things.


post your exact routine including

water parameters(amonia,nitrates,phosphates,salinity,tem p)

pos your equipment and ligts as well.

post what you have in your tank...literally everything that youve added or died.

sand?

this sump you speak of , whats in it and how are you running it??



nitrates are honestly an easy thing to get rid of , just takes some elbow grease and patience:)

What silicone did you use for your sump?