nitrites
 

hey could nitrites at 0.3 be a problem my corals arent opening under the light , they seem to have all closed up ... could this be a cycle? i noticed a lot of them have shed a mucous coating but my water params seem normal otherwise

could a fish death affect this?

NO2 at 0.3 is quite serious. Yes, a large fish dying could produce this. Water change time, I'd say.

how much water change ? 10 gallon tank , and are there any suppliments of chems i can use to combat this without massive water change ?

Ok, bottom line.. chemicals are not something you want to use to reduce something as dangerous as nitrites... they are deadly. A manual water change is necessary. I am sorry, but I am not sure of your tank size... so a 10g water change would be good on a 20g or something... But a 10g on a 100g isn't going to do a whole lot, get it? Need more info!

what other info do u need ? i have a nano reef , 10 gallon with approx 10lbs lr and ls

a 10g tank could tank a 40% change, and then watch it for a day or two. If at that time the NO2 is still there, another 25% would help.

Chemicals are a definite no no

ok then , i know what i have to do then , thanks guys

Hey digitalsteve, I read that you replace your substate awhile ago because the sand was too fine and blew around? If you used a crushed coral type of substate, (red sea marine base) it has been my experience that it traps detrius quite a bit. I had it in for about 6 months before I yanked it out of my 20. I know stores use this because of easy maintainance but they vacumn it regularly. I don't know if you have this substrate, but in a small reef tank even small amounts of detrius rotting down there can cause all sorts of headaches.


EDIT***** Just noticed the date on the substrate change. Sounds like you had a little cycle when you moved everything around. Sorry should have seen the date when I read the post. me bad!!

would high nitrites cause an algae bloom in the tank?