Need help

55 gallon saltwater tank, yellow tang, tomato clown and 5 chromisis fish. auqatech filter(twin), powerhead.

not long ago we lost an anemone.

anyway, this is my wife's tank and it looks like i inherited taking care of it.

lots of algae all over.

i decided to use the 5 tests in one quick dip by Jungle.

it shows my nitrates at 200, nitrites at 10 and alkalinity at 300. ph is ok with the meter.

obviously these other things are bad. honestly i don't know what to do.

are the nitrates from overfeeding? i use frozen raw shrimp to feed at night and 1 cube of marine quizine in the a.m. and always have some sushinori for the tang. how do i fix the nitrites and alkilinity?
thanks...and just barely hanging on to keeping this tank in the house.

any suggestions?

 

I would do water changes every other day of 10-20% but other questions how long has it been set up and also how did the nem die via power head? are you dosing?

 

and what water are you using rodi distilled tap?

 

tap water and a power head that creates small waves on top. probably 500 gallon/h i would think

 

Using tap water and possibly leftovers from the anemone dying could definitely spike nitrates, however I don't know if I would trust those test strips. They are notoriously inaccurate. Pickup the liquid test kits like API/Salifert/Elos make to get a more accurate reading.

Doing water changes is the best way to quickly reduce nitrates. If you have nitrites it could be from a mini-cycle kicked off by the anemone dying, about the only thing you can do for that is wait it out and do water changes.
Switching to using RO/DI water will help keep nutrients down.

You may be overfeeding, twice a day for those fish is probably not necessary depending on how much shrimp you're feeding at night. Try feeding once a day or even once every other day for a week or so while you try and get the nutrients under control.

Alkalinity you'll need something to dose. There are kits like this one that will give you everything you need to supplement to keep your chemistry in check although if you don't have any corals it may not be necessary and water changes, done regularly, should handle that.
Two Part Kits Bulk Reef Supply

 

nitrate 200ppm? Do you mean 20ppm? 200 sounds very extreme! Not sure if fish would be able to tolerate that. Algae is probably caused by the major nitrates and excessive nutrients in your tank. Feed less! Do a 10-15% water change over several days to get those nitrates down. Don't worry about the alk until you get your nitrates straight.

 

Hi guys
Ok, last night I was up until 2am. I took a fork and pulled the algae off the sand floor and net it out. Brushed the inside of the tank walls too.

I used those test strips which I understand are not very good now. Those strips said the nitrites, nitrates and alkalinity were very very bad. I redid the test and what I posted above is correct...although the strips probably read worse than what they are since the strips are not a reliable source?

Regarding feeding, i feed in the a.m. one marine quizine frozen cube. Then at night I feed about one small raw frozen shrimp sliced up. Also, the seaweed leaf for the tang.

Now, I will be doing a 10 gallon water change shortly. Note, I left the sponge filter in the tank and squeezed the thing so all the brown crap came out. Opened the hole on the plastic that holds the stone on the sponge filter so the air would pass thru and create bubbles. Apparently the oxygen helps get rid of the nitrates or something? On the left side of the tank is the power head and you can see the waves it creates. On the back is the hang-on auqua tech carbon bag filter. Should I put the extension tube back on so it reaches to near the bottom of the tank?

Note, the tang seems to lose weight, I can tell by the sunken in area behind his head. In the past I had to double the cube feed so he put weight back on and he is ok right now...maybe a little underweight.

First photo is prior to removing most of the algae, the rest is after(noon today).

Now where is the cheapest place to buy these nitrate, nitrate and alkaline testers?

Thanks guys!

 

and some more photos.

 

That sponge filter with all the brown crap is probably a nitrate factory. I would of taken it out and cleaned it in the sink. Test kits are sold at most stores that sell fish. Those test strips are unreliable and I would not base anything I do to the tank on those. Once you properly test the water then you can decide what to do.. First things first you will most definately need a water change ASAP.. Just make sure you know exactly what your doing. You will need to keep the Salinity and Temp as close as possible to its current state which I would imagine is pretty decent if you have fish alive. That should bring down your nitrates. When your doing your water change try and suck some of that algae off the rocks.

Also remember the more you mess with that tank the more its gonna stress out those fish.. try not to do too much all at once. Everything needs to gradually change to perfection

 

This is an important question that I don't believe has been answered? Sorry if it has already been answered and I missed it!