whats going on?

so i noticed my open brain not opening during the day (trachy).. and then the next day, my finger leather wasnt looking well.. I did a quick PH last night it was at hgih 7 (it was late and i dont remember) anyway, i got home from work and they both looked bad, still alive though.. and my stars are starting to curl at the tips, not good. I did a full battery..

5.25 alkalinity (14.7 DKH)
ph 8.4
calcium 300
no3 20 ppm

(thankfully ammonia and no2 at 0)

whats going on here. i know my calcium is low but it seems lately my ph is swinging like crazy.. my nitrates are always a problem but usually everythings okay at 20ppm or under.. anyone know whats going on and what i can do?

 

You have some serious water quality issues.

That a large bio-load for a 20 gal. tank.

You may need to do some serious water changes, and increase frequency of doing so.

 

yeah but omard, this tank had been running fine for like 9 months with no problems, except the occasional nitrate problems.. i know its a little heavy on the load but im religious with my water changes and cannister cleanings.. i do 15 percent water every other week and clean the filters every week.. i dunno man, i think my calcium is causing but i dunno..

 

Gosh, don't know what to tell you. Things can go sideways pretty quick in a small tank.

Again, I would do a significant water change now, 30-40% - then move up to weekly 25% changes, esp. with what you have in tank.

I don't have a skimmer in my nano, so I do weekly water changes of 30% +

Everything stays nice and normal.

A large water change should get that Ca up and fix PH problem.

 

Well from what I have learned when Ca and Alk are out of whack it can cause PH problems. I also noticed when my nitrates were high it caused my water perameters to go crazy. With the amount of fish you have it's gonna be hard to get those nitrates to stay low. I would highly recommend using the kents nitrate sponge...it really helped me.

 

okay update.. first off thanks so much for you guys' help. ill look into the nitrate sponge.. sounds like good stuff.. well, everything bounced back and is doing very well. corals look great. I just think with that much bioload and such a small tank im always going to be on the brink. Think ill start giving away some fish, one by one and get the bioload under control.. i think my calcium was really low and it was causing some issues.. im upping it slowly and its up to about 370 now, hence the bounceback. Well, on the good side ive got me a little corraline explosion going on, gettin big purple spots everywhere.. ahh the joys and sorrows of nano tanks..