HELP! Nitrate spike - things going down fast :(

[Jessie]

Going to recheck levels now, clownfish are looking like they won't make it So so upsetting - everything was great, now in just hours nothing I good.

[Slyguy00]

Generally the best solution to most water condition problems is water changes. And the sooner you can do one the better. The longer you leave whatever it is in your tank the less likely it is things will survive.

[Jessie]

Thanks for your support, all levels are still the same, everything 0 except Nitrate at 0.15 and Phos at 0.1. Temp is 79 too. Strange thing that happened was I was spot feeding my new goniopora earlier and it excreted slime, 30 min later I had a huge rash on my arm, the slime went all over the tank. Wonder if that has anything to do with it. I guess I'll try to sleep for a bit, not much more I can do at 2:30am, I will do a 50% water change tomorrow, as early as I can get more RO water. Thanks a lot everyone.

[kien]

Your nitrate readings are a bit confusing, is that 15mg/L ? The second time you recorded 0.15. Is that with different units or the same units? You said they were the same which is why I'm a bit confused.

If I recall, 15mg/l is roughly 15ppm which normally should not have caused your tank to go south. More delicate corals (like sps) would not appreciate the high nitrate levels and prolonged exposure to high nitrates may be problematic to some fish, but you said this was a spike, suggesting that your nitrates were elevated recently. I would not be so quick to blame your nitrates for current issues.

If the blenny and the coral are new then they could just be trying to adjust to your tank. They could also have been sick already, and if they were then they may have introduced a pathogen into your tank.