help with test levels

[philzie1173]

i was having problems with my corals not opening, my 2 clams died and my urchin died, my green emeralds craps died and my snails are dying, but fish seem to be doing fine. So I took a water sample to the lfs and they said that the ph was 7.0 and he gave me some sodium carbonate, I also bought a test kit and I added the sodium carbonate slowly for 3 days and have been testing and my test show that the salt level is 1.022, nitrate is 40ppm, nitrite is 0ppm, ph is 8.0 and the ammonia is 0.50. Could this have been the reason that stuff is dying? Should I do a water change. Also another problem I am having is with my protein skimmer. I upgraded my protein skimmer from a 125 to a 250, it is a pro clear aquatics. I first installed it and it was making a lot of foam, but know it barely makes any foam at all. I took it apart and cleaned it very well, but know it is not making very much protein. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[GraviT]

We would really need some info on the setup and age of the system to make a good diagnosis. At a glance, I would say that your ph needs to come up as does your SG, nitrate could go down (though not terribly high ...yet) and the ammonia definitely needs to come down. The trace of ammonia either indicates that there is something dead and decomposing in the tank, or your system is still cycling. If it is still cycling, the clam and corals would have a hard time surviving.

The skimmer not making foam could be caused by a couple of factors, again age of the system will help to determine what the issue could be.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah I agree, how old is the tank?
Have you ever added any copper medication? Inverts don't like that stuff.

[philzie1173]

I had a 75 gallon set up for about 9 months and then i upgraded to a 125 in the beginning of February, it was running great until about a month ago the first clam died and the coral stopped opening so i took water sample to the lfs and the results were about the same as they are now they said that them results were ok and he gave me about $160 worth the stuff to put in there and the stuff is coralife reef stimulator, kent zooplex, kent microvert, kent phytoplex, kent coral accel, marc weiss reef vital dna and phyto food marine phytoplankton. a week later the corals were still not opening the second clam was still not opening so i went back to the lfs and got the same test results which they said was alright so he gave me a big bag and some carbon and a grounding probe to put in the sump and still the same thing was happening I went to a different lfs and he tested the water and he got the same reading and said the ph was high and gave me sodium carbonate and told me to take a gallon of water and put ten teaspoons in and mix and add to the water so i did this for three days and got it up to 8.0, these are the latest reading nitrate 40ppm, nitrite 0ppm, ammonia 0.50ppm they said that this should be ok but everything is the same they came out to look at my tank yesterday and said everything was running fine just not to feed as much and to leave everything alone and i need to put a bigger pump on the protein skimmer that is why it is not working right. going to add some pictures soon

[Birdlady]

Hi Philzie,

What PH are you trying to achieve? I am confused by your post, you said it was too high, but you got it up to 8..?? It should be at least 8, preferably 8.2 or 8.3.

Question is, are your animals dying because of the water condition, or do you have the water condition because some animals have died!?

Do you check calcium, magnesium, or anything else? If so, what are the results. How is the temperature? What is it and is it pretty stable? How many degrees fluctuation during a day.

What kind of lighting do you have for these photosynthetic creatures?

If you go to your profile, under sig. you can add your tank info...size, lighting, filtration, etc. and it will show with each post so we can refer to that info.