Urgent Help with ammonia & nitrate levels

My tank has been up and running for a few months now. everything besides my nitrate levels have been fine for a long time now. my nitrate has been around 5.0 ppm. i did a water change two weeks ago and every since then its been crazy. It jumped to 40ppm. i have since done 3 water changes and it is still around 20ppm. also since last week my ammonia went up to .25. i know that water changes help, but im thinking there must be something else here im missing. right now im doing a 10 to 15 gallon water change weekly. my tank is a 75 gallon. i sometimes think im feeding them to much, but i have a ton of things in my tank eating. list of livestock; 2 clown fish, 4 different damsels, a sailfin tang, rock blenny, and a fire fish gobie, so that's 9 fish. also have a cleaner shrimp around 600 to 700 snails two turbo snails, one big blue starfish, and some crabs. i normally feed one mysis shrimp cube every other day and pellet food randomly. as far a filters go i have a wet dry filter with the bio balls under the thank with a Coralife Super Skimmer rated for a 220 gallon tank. im not sure if i missed any info, but plz help as i have many coral in the tank and most the hard coral aint liking this change. thanks

 

how fast/when did you add all that lifestock? How are the fish/coral doing?

My first instinct is something is dying in the tank. 600-700 snails???? That would be my guess on what is dying. you have WAYYYYYYYY too many snails in the tank. What type of snails?

Honestly the problem lies in the fact that your tank is not mature enough to handle everything you have in that tank, especially if they were added together. Check your snails though, I would guess you have a lot of dead

 

most m snails are fine, they are just the little black nassarius snails. but not that you mention dying, my green goniopora has been slowing dying. think that could have something to do with it?

 

Nassarius dive into the sand bed, so you could have quite a few dead in there that you might not be seeing. Could be the goniopora, but I would look at how heavily stocked your aquarium is. As asked before, was it all added together? It could be that with that much livestock and heavy feeding, your tanks bacteria load just can't handle it or get caught up right now.

also, what equipment are you running? sump/fuge? skimmer? etc...

 

in a 75g tank i would do no more then 15 nassarius snails, esp to start out with. They have starved and are dying in your sand, causing the ammonia to rise up

are you target feeding the gonipora? Those are HARD corals to keep and definately should not be kept by a beginner. I dont think it is causing the situation, i think the ammonia etc is causing it to die. What other coral are you keeping in your system....also what type of lighting do you have?

Please do not take me wrong, I am not trying to be mean or point fingers here, i simply want to help you because I can tell you have SPENT a lot of money on your system/livestock and just trying to keep you from loosing everything

 

well this tank actually started over a year ago with a lot of coral for back then, i have just changed my tank twice. it stated with a 40 gallon tall and stayed that way for about 8 months i had no problems with it and i had 350 snails in that, but do to the heat last year in the place i was staying my tank got way to hot and i had to take what coral i had and fish out and put them in a 10 gallon tank in the bathroom bc it had ac. i went from that to a 30 gallon long, and two months ago i move up to this 75. i let it cycle then moved what i had in plus some more snails. i have got more coral as well since then. i have never had a problem with anything till getting this tank. and ever so my levels aint to high, just high enough that my old hard coral is dying.
anyway my lights are home made. i have a 250 watt mh along with 4 t5s and a led strip. i have two 1600 gph power hears on each side of the tank. the filter is a 10 gallon wet/dry with the bio balls, also i have the Coralife Super Skimmer rated for a 220 gallon tank.
it might be the snails i just have never had a problem b4 for the last year or so. the clown fish are the oldest thing in the tank i have been getting something for the tank about once every two weeks since the start.i do drip acclimation everything into the tank.
and im not gona take anyone wrong just thought i would ask as i have really had no help with my ever i just one day 2 years ago said im gona get one, had one every since. and just doing research online. a friend told me about this cite, fig might as well get all the help i can.

 

I think you have a few problems IMO

Way too many snails as others have said. Reefcleaners.org rec's about 125 assorted snails for a 75g., and it being a new system, not a lot of food for them, so they're prob dying fast.

Second, a wet dri filter with bioballs seems to be a param nightmare unless really methodically cleaned and maintained. I've never had one, but it seems that there is thread after thread stating as much.

Thirdly, way too many fish too soon. It should take MONTHS to get that stock list up. And you have 4 damsels and 2 clowns in a 75 g, depending on the damsels and clowns, that could be a TON of aggression problems and territory issues, and issues for the shy fire fish. Also that sail fin is gonna get WAY to big for that tank.

I'd consider sending the damsels and sailfish back at least, and let your snail population self regulate over a month or so and let the tank stabilize before adding anymore fish.

Good luck

 

like i said in the last message all the fish are from my old tank cept the damsels witch i used to help cycle the 75, so there is no problems there. its a new tank and with 90% old stuff from my last tank. i get that the tank is to new but it cycled b4 i put my old stock in. So im guessing the only problem i really have it way to many snails.
side note i have never used a wet/dry might be a problem never really did any research on them just got it for free so started using it. thanks for all the help.

 

Also if i could get the damsels out i would take them out, but i would have to take my hole tank apart.

 

by adding all those fish that soon, you probably overwhelmed the tank and started a new cycle or new tank syndrome.

Good luck to ya, but I'd really reconsider your stocking list to make the tank easier to maintain in the future.