Jump to content
Premium Aquatics Aquarium Supplies

7 month cycle, first nano tank, am I doing this right?


Chandler221

Recommended Posts

Chandler221

Hey guys,

 

First post and I been wanting to join the forums since I first started this tank!

So glad to finally join up.

 

Anyway,

 

I have a 10 Gallon tank that I have had running for about 7 months now and have had only one damsel in it and multiple clean up crew members. The damsel is going strong but my clean up crew seems to keep dying and I can not figure out why. All my levels test normal, I do a 1-1.5 g water change weekly, I only use the water from the local aquarium (I am assuming it is RO/DI water). I add Microbe-lift special blend weekly after my water change, and Kent Marine Nano Reef part A and B every 3 days. My light cycle is 6 1/2 hours (5 pm - 11:30 pm), with the first hour being the blue LED and final 1/2 hour being LED. The other 5 hours are white LED and the blue LED. The lamp I use is a SolarFlare 3wx5 LED (Bought it for 75$ at the local fish store). My filtration system is in the back of the tank with 2 separate compartments. On the left side where the tank water flows in, is my bio balls. It flows over to the right side, over a sponge which i clean once a week as well, and then flows thru the pump and back into my tank. I feed my damsel once a day (a pinch of flakes). For cleaning my glass of the hard algae, I use a sponge and gently scrub it off during my water change. The temp in my tank stays consistent 78-79 degrees and my water stays at 1.024.

 

Sorry for the step by step but I wanted to include everything I do. If there are any modifications of things I should or shouldn't be doing, please let me know!

 

My question is,

Why is my clean up crew constantly dying?

I have try adding coral too and it as well has slowly died off.

 

I am afraid to add to much at one time, in fear of loosing a lot of coral lol

 

What type of coral can be added with my type of bulb?

Should I buy a different bulb?

 

Here is a picture of the tank

 

 

post-85230-0-13846000-1405822345_thumb.jpg

Link to comment

it's somewhat typical for clean up crew members to die off from time to time, they don't have the longest life expectancy. I would however expect them to last 7 months. I'd start by running some tests like nitrate phosphate alkalinity calcium and so on, nitrate relating to clean up crew deaths and the rest relating to coral death. with one fish it seems off there'd be green algea growing, its a sign of nitrates atleast. otherwise those inverts need a drip acclimation moving to your tank and if your doing so i dont know why the inverts would be dying off?

Link to comment
Chandler221

I had two turbos for about 3 months and they both died within a week of each other. The only members of my clean up crew that remain are 2 blue leg crabs.

 

What would you say the average life expectancy be?

 

Snails been lasting me 3-4 months, seems like that is a very short life line.

Link to comment
Chandler221

Also the lighting I have incorporates two 3watt 10,000K daylight diodes, two 3watt 6700K warm daylight diodes and one 3watt actinic diode for 15 total watts of wide-spectrum illumination. Would this be enough for growing coral?

Link to comment
Chandler221

you mentioned your water parameters are good but can you post them? I wonder why you are doing Kent Marine Nano Reef part A and B if you don have corals at the moment.

It was suggested to me from the local fish store. Whether he was just trying to make that extra sale, or assumed I had coral, I am not sure. I did have a few plugs in there, which died after about a month or two.

 

Ammonia : 0

Nitrate: 0

Nitrite: 0

Phosphate: 0

 

I have the basic API Liquid test kit

 

Im a newbie :closedeyes:

Link to comment
Chandler221

That is a good question!

 

I wondered that today when doing my water change.

 

I will make sure to pick up a test kit for calcium and alk tomorrow!

 

Is there anything I should be dosing my tank with other than the Microbe-lift Special blend? (Also recommended by the LFS)

Link to comment

I would stop dosing or adding anything extra. Break it down to simple things. Are you mixing your own salt or buying it mixed? You might go over the tests again, even with an api you should be reading a small amount of nitrites. Corals and invertebrates are also sensitive to copper, think if that could be a factor. How is temp swinging? You should be able to add a softie or lps coral and get it to live for longer than a few days in some harsh conditions.

 

 

Keep it simple though, less amount of variables to consider when you do.

Link to comment

I wouldnt get an alk and calc test. I mean if youre changing the water every week and have no corals nothing is taking those things you are dosing out. The two part probably killed ur snails

Link to comment

I wouldnt get an alk and calc test. I mean if youre changing the water every week and have no corals nothing is taking those things you are dosing out. The two part probably killed ur snails

 

it would be nice to see what the alk and calc level are for the pre-mix water he's getting from LFS. And for how long he has been he dosing part A and B, it would be nice to see what his current level are.

Link to comment

it would be nice to see what the alk and calc level are for the pre-mix water he's getting from LFS. And for how long he has been he dosing part A and B, it would be nice to see what his current level are.

 

I think we both know that his elevated alk and calc from dosing 2 part is whats killing things

Link to comment

do they have enough stuff to clean, eat?

 

do you have any hitchhikers emerging?

 

my pico reef is a couple months younger than

yours and has a bunch of amphipods and snails, etc,

and also algae. maybe you don't have enough detrius

for the clean up crew?

Link to comment
Chandler221

I buy the RO/DI water and salt water from the LFS. Is it preferred to mix my own with the RO/DI water?

 

 

 

I would imagine they have enough to clean, there is algae growth in the tank.

 

How do I prevent the hard algae on the glass blooming ever two weeks?

 

Thank you everyone for the help!

Link to comment

chandler, i buy all mine too, because my tank is

3 gallons and i'm lazy. but i haven't had issues.

but then, i never bought a clean up crew? i had

two cerith snails, they were doing well--but one

killed itself in my wave pump, alas. it might be you

just need to cut back on clean up crew if they keey

dying.

Link to comment

I buy the RO/DI water and salt water from the LFS. Is it preferred to mix my own with the RO/DI water?

 

 

 

I would imagine they have enough to clean, there is algae growth in the tank.

 

How do I prevent the hard algae on the glass blooming ever two weeks?

 

Thank you everyone for the help!

 

It is possible the LFS water is bad. Sometimes they do not change filters regularly because they don't want to spend extra $. It is generally better to mix your own so you know where everything is coming from.

 

I agree the 2 part is probably screwing everything up. You don't dose what you don't test for. You only replace whats needed and you know what is needed by testing ;) Generally 2 part is not needed in equal parts either. Calcium and Alk get used up in different ratios.

 

Since there are no corals, nothing is needed. In fact, water changes with good water/quality salt will replace most of it each week until the tank is filled out with corals.

 

If you plan on making this a reef tank then buying an Alk, Ca, and Magnesium kit won't be a waste. They will be useful for your reef endeavors anyways. Magnesium keeps Ca and Alk in balance so its also good to know.

 

I won't say these are absolutely needed if $ is a concern. My 1st reef tank was softies and I didn't test for anything (or dose anything) but softys are forgiving and water changes gave them whatever they needed.

 

Once you can keep a CUC alive, they will help control the algae. But otherwise it is good husbandry and filtration.

Link to comment
Chandler221

Thank you for all the help!

 

I am no longer going to dose the tank with anything and I did buy a new CUC

3 turbos and I still have 2 blue leg crabs that been with me since the beginning. I have not bought the alk and calc test kit yet ( they didn't have one at my LFS).

 

I am new to a lot of the terminology such as "Softies". What type of coral would that be?

 

Would Zoas and Pollys survive under my current lamp?

Link to comment

soft corals are softies. a lot easier than

the hard corals. i've had very good results

with my mushroom coral, my green star polyps

and also my xenia. they've all grown or propogated

in the five months since i emergency started my pico

tank. ha!

Link to comment
Chandler221

What type of lamp are you running?

 

And how fast do they grow?

 

Say if I bought a plug with 5-6 polyps on it and wanted to see maybe 20?

What would be the proper dosing for that and lighting?

 

I would love to start getting some color in my tank other than the algae on the rock! lol

 

:unsure:

Link to comment

i'm not good with the tech terms. ha!

 

but here is my light for my nano tank:

 

http://www.truaqua.com/aquarium-led-light-nano-tr.html

 

my mushroom coral have *just* split in two.

so it took five months.

but my xenia started splitting basically

the same week it went into the tank. (they

can take over fast! keep them quarantined

on frags if you can.) my one xenia tree is now

three, and a fourth is growing where i had cut it.

Link to comment

Your tank looks good!

 

What do you supplement it with?

 

thanks, it's doing all right as i'm a total noob.

(and the is 3 months old, before everything had

propogated!)

i do a gallon water change every 7-10 days

and feed 2-3 times a week wiath AZOX Coral

Food Macro Diet. it's in a pump form and i just

pump once into the tank. the LFS guy recommended

it to me--though i don't think coral needs food really?

depends on the owner.

 

i spot feed the sexy shrimps with one pellet once

a day. though my giant amphipod (like 1/2 inch!) have

been stealing it sometimes. =(

Link to comment
CatfishSoupFTW

been working on my 10 gallon build since april, and.. so far so good? i got all coral, no fish yet. but i do have a CUC. some blue legged hermit crabs and one turbo. so far so good. this is what i do, maybe it will help.

 

-par38 with 16 diodes, totalling 54 watts. the 12 diode ones are fine as well. Its about a foot above water level.

-15 pounds of LR

-a shallow one inch bed of aragonite substrate

- I try to do daily one cup water changes, and due to evaporation i also add one cup of RO water. My RO water i buy from a water depot, and mix my own saltwater with instant ocean. I used to do 25 percent water changes a week, but feared that my water changing water could be different than my tank water to such a degree that it may change it too drastically. so a cup a day is less but more.

 

Alk is at 9

Calcium 420

ammonia 0

nitrate 10 (trying to bring this down)

nitrite 0

phosphate 0

 

Corals i have mainly zoas, about 7 or so frags, from 1 head to 20 heads. Also got an Acan (easy , id recommend these) a blasto, (again easy ) and a ricordea, easy as well. My coral issues would be two sps, acroporas , and one pipe organ coral. I recently bought a polyfilter to clean the water, but it hasnt done too much, and i also recently bought rotifeast which is coral food. I think thats why some of my corals are struggling is due to lack of food. Everything else seems in check though.

 

so i guess comparing yours to mine your lighting does seem a bit low than to what i see most people run. If you wanna use your lighting for now, then get some easy zoas to grow. most of those 5-10 dollar ones are usually the easier and more common ones. OH get a coral dip! revive is one of many versions, but those are crucial before introducing corals to a tank. kills any bad guys hidden in the corals. zoas arent a crazy threat, but my pipe organ had TONS of them when i dipped it.

 

so id say easy corals are

 

most zoas

blastos

flavia aka brain coral

acan

ricordea

 

try these out with your lighting, but i would suggest upgrading that. Do you have good flow in your tank ? maybe there is a dead spot somewhere which could be harming your cuc. I have heard the API kit isnt the best, but.. you know what, i use it as well hahaha, seems to be getting the figures id like to see. lol i use it as well in my 55 fresh water and no harm there either.

 

here is my build log, and my overall log. not entirely updated but , lots of pics so you can see whats up. maybe youll notice something who knows. from one noob to another. XD

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/346638-10-gallon-starfire-build/

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...