Your opinion wanted

[Adrenalyn]

So here it goes i lost a six line wrasse and a pygmy angel in the last two days. my water tested negative for everything the day before this happened then after i lost them it seems as though my nitrite jumped up to about .25. my starfish and urchin seem to be doing just fine though.

I took my water into That Fish Place today to have them test it also and they said they have never seen water like this the ammonia is at 0ppm and has been every time they have tested it, but the nitrite is high.

any ideas?

[CutthroatKid]

Have you changed anything recently in the tank? Do you use RO water?

[Adrenalyn]

Only change i made is that the place i get my ro water from was out, so i added 1 gallon of distilled water which tested fine before i added it. Other than that it has just been adding corals and fish every so often.

My main tank did experience a mini cycle when i hooked up the sump about 2-3 weeks ago, but everything survived and all the levels went back to normal.

[CutthroatKid]

Well that's all I could guess at. I'd check it again and see what it is...

[Adrenalyn]

I took my water in again today to That Fish Place and we tested it. It was the same other than my nitrates went down a little. ( i did a 1 gallon water change today) One of my friends that works there suggested micro-lift Special blend. It is a bacteria blend of some sort that smells like vomit anyway i hope this helps because it is about the only thing i can think of.

one a lighter note my tuxedo urchin decided to wear two colonys of polyps and a mushroom today and was wandering around the tank with all this on him. My Clown goby must have liked it because i saw him perched on the mushroom taking a piggy back ride .

[CutthroatKid]

There better be a picture of that! haha

[Ninong]

...it seems as though my nitrite jumped up to about .25.

Nitrite at 0.25 ppm would be a problem. It's possible that your ammonia was 0.10 or thereabouts and just wasn't picked up by the hobby-level test kit. Nitrite at 0.25 ppm is too high but it's not disastrously high.

I took my water in again today to That Fish Place and we tested it. It was the same other than my nitrates went down a little.

You didn't mention your nitrate reading in your first post, just nitrite at 0.25 ppm. We don't know what your nitrate is/was except that it "went down a little."

So right now your ammonia is zero. What is your nitrite? What is your nitrate?

Thanks.

[Adrenalyn]

My nitrite was up to somewhere between .25 and .50 this morning when i tested but this afternoon it was back down to .25 my ammonia still not noticeable, as for nitrate it was between 10 and 20 ppm every time i tested this week. ( dropped yesterdays when i did the water change.

There better be a picture of that! haha

Sadly the goby took off when i went to grab the camera but i did get a picture of the urchin with the mushroom and it looks like he has a little umbrella!

[Ninong]

If your ammonia is zero and your nitrate reading is between 10 to 20 ppm, then I suspect something is wrong with your nitrite test kit. I doubt that your nitrite is really somewhere between 0.25 to 0.50 ppm. It's probably no more than 0.10 ppm.

[Adrenalyn]

yeah that's what i thought, but i took it to the LFS and had them test it beside my test kit and it showed up exactly the same in all three of the tests kits that we tried.

[Adrenalyn]

I did a water change today(3 gallons) that seemed to help so i figure i will just do these every other day or so until the nitrites are staying at 0ppm.

I noticed that my toadstool leather has gone a bit limp, should i be concerned? i just got it 3 days or so ago when the LFS thought that my water was testing positive for nitrite because of the prime i used.
Also i got some hammer coral the same day and it is sunken in and producing milky discharge i'm hoping it is not dying. My zenia, mushroom, and colony polyps all look pretty good though.

[Adrenalyn]

As promised a picture of my mushroom wearing urchin


This is what you get when you don't do your research. A starving fromia starfish in a 12 gallon tank is a no no (sadly I didn't do my research and trusted someone who sold it to me

My clown goby that thinks he is a clown fish.

Tiny clownfish he is getting darker already, but eating like a pig.

My newest baby a cherub angel that loves to explore.

[Seige]

nice pics

[Adrenalyn]

Thank you! It took me forever to figure out how to get nice shots with my camera but they seem to be coming out pretty well now.