SubmrgedSkull Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I set this up a little over a year ago. Last Wednesday I received an order I got from a website of 2 bags of copepods (1 Algagen, 1 theirs), a bunch of Dwarf Cerith and some Nassarius Snails and put everything in. Everything was fine until the next day when I found all three of my fish dead as well as several amphipods. The snails and hermit crabs weren't moving either. I did a 3-gallon water change and ran the HOB fiter with carbon for a few days. After a couple of days everything white was yellowish brown and there was a white film on the glass. I didn't know if it was a bacteria or maybe they sold me bags of saltwater full of nitrates and dead pods... Anyway I was thinking of boiling everything and maybe starting over, but I think I'll just wait it out and see what happens. All the brown stuff is still there, which I'm guessing is diatom algae. I had a Royal Gramma, Neon Dottyback and a Firefish along with a Turbo Snail, some Blue-leg Hermit Crabs and a bunch of tiny Ball Anemones. BTW the purple rock is from previous 20-gallon tanks I've had from six or eight years back. I'm using an Aqueon HOB filter (which it came with) every once in a while and replaced it with an Aqua-Tech Power-Head. I have it shooting toward the center, but flows mostly toward the right half of the tank where there's more open area, but have the rotating diffuser turned slightly, so some water is shot towards the left half. Should it be the opposite? Well, I placed the pump where it is because of how it's made. What if I stick it to the right glass and just have it shoot straight across to the opposite side? Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Corals I had in this before... I also had some Zoas, but they didn't survive either. The only coral that has survived and is growing is the Montipora. Link to comment
Sharbuckle Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 IF YOU ARE GOING TO BOIL YOUR ROCK MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO PALYTHOA/ZOANTHID. http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-news/2012/11/26/reefkeeper-lands-in-hospital-after-trying-to-boil-zoanthid-corals.aspx http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/personal-experiences-with-palytoxin-poisoning-almost-killed-myself-wife-and-dogs BE SMART, BE SAFE Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Cool. Thank you. i think there's about three of them, but they're almost dead. I've tried putting them in different parts of the tank moving them weeks or months apart, but it didn't work. I'm just going to wait it out. The hermits and snails are doing fine now. Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 19, 2016 Author Share Posted June 19, 2016 OK everything was fine, so yesterday I bought 6 damsels (3 of both species) and a decorator crab. Well, this morning all the fish were dead and the water was cloudy like when my previous fish died. I think there might be a disease in there, so no more fish for a few months or more. Any one know what species those damsels are? I can't find anything on them on the internet... Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 Two days ago I was looking at my Monti that started bleaching and turning green a few days ago and decided to do a water change, so I changed out 3 gallons. Yesterday I noticed the anemones weren't opening up much and the hermit crabs weren't moving around much, so I thought I'd check the salinity... it was at 1.030! I took two gallons of water out and replaced them with freshwater, which dropped the salinity down to 1.025. I wonder if the salinity was too high before and that's what killed the fish, but wouldn't the inverts die before the fish? Here's another pic of my decorator crab... Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Two days ago I was looking at my Monti that started bleaching and turning green a few days ago and decided to do a water change, so I changed out 3 gallons. Yesterday I noticed the anemones weren't opening up much and the hermit crabs weren't moving around much, so I thought I'd check the salinity... it was at 1.030! I took two gallons of water out and replaced them with freshwater, which dropped the salinity down to 1.025. I wonder if the salinity was too high before and that's what killed the fish, but wouldn't the inverts die before the fish? Here's another pic of my decorator crab... you added 6 damsels after a big die off?? That's a huge no no, the bacteria doesn't have time to keep up with the bioload, then you would run into phosphate and nitrate problems, algae outbreak and maybe even ammonia spikes Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 you added 6 damsels after a big die off?? That's a huge no no, the bacteria doesn't have time to keep up with the bioload, then you would run into phosphate and nitrate problems, algae outbreak and maybe even ammonia spikes Well, I did a 3-gallon water change and ran carbon for a few days. I figured the water was clean, but one of the damsels died a couple of hours after I put them in and the rest died over night. I don't think it was "bioload." Well, and when the first three fish died, overnight, I took them all out the next morning. I've also run carbon a couple times after that. I'm not sure what's going on, but yeah that might be what's happening. Phosphates is what I was thinking, because of the diatom bloom and the carbon. Well, but then again, wouldn't the inverts die before the fish ever would? ...or is that just shrimp and not crabs? Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 I took the Monti out and put it in a 3-gallon container next to the window with an air pump bubbling the water right next to it. I don't know if it's going to make it it's halfway gone already. Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Well, I did a 3-gallon water change and ran carbon for a few days. I figured the water was clean, but one of the damsels died a couple of hours after I put them in and the rest died over night. I don't think it was "bioload." Well, and when the first three fish died, overnight, I took them all out the next morning. I've also run carbon a couple times after that. I'm not sure what's going on, but yeah that might be what's happening. Phosphates is what I was thinking, because of the diatom bloom. Well, but then again, wouldn't the inverts die before the fish ever would? inverts would die before true, but I've had a cleaner shrimp survive an ammonia spike and my fish die, lol it's crazy I know Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 I know six damsels is a lot for a 10 gallon, but I thought I'll just run carbon every couple of days and do a 3-gallon water change once a week. I think I'll just get one or two small fish instead... maybe three. Everything was fine and thriving before that order of pods went into it... You know what? When I added the pods it rose the salinity! Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 I know six damsels is a lot for a 10 gallon, but I thought I'll just run carbon every couple of days and do a 3-gallon water change once a week. I think I'll just get one or two small fish instead... maybe three. Everything was fine and thriving before that order of pods went into it... You know what? When I added the pods it rose the salinity! i had 4 fish in my ten, and it was a little tough to keep phosphates and nitrates down especially with an HOB filter, since switching to a sumped system I have found my tank to be much more stable and clean, I added a BTA after a month and it has been perfectly fine, that 6 month line about BTAs is a load of shit unless you don't know what you're doing in reefing lol Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 i had 4 fish in my ten, and it was a little tough to keep phosphates and nitrates down especially with an HOB filter, since switching to a sumped system I have found my tank to be much more stable and clean, I added a BTA after a month and it has been perfectly fine, that 6 month line about BTAs is a load of shit unless you don't know what you're doing in reefing lol I read carbon leaches phosphates, but it should keep the nitrates out. I've got some Chaeto in it and that red stalked alga, though... Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 I read carbon leaches phosphates, but it should keep the nitrates out. I've got some Chaeto in it and that red stalked alga, though...i don't think carbon does either, it just filters our impurities in the water keeping it clear and safer for your livestock, I don't even run carbon in my system, I have a fuge with macro algae and a protein skimmer, that's all Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 What really keeps me hopeful is that the isopods and tiny copepods are alive and breeding. I haven't seen any amphipods, though... I might have to order some more. One good thing is that the deco crab ate one of the dead fish whole, but left an eye socket and I was able to get the rest of them out. Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 I know people say there should be more water than rock, but I like a lot of rock for "pod" production and if there are enough pores and spots in the rock for the right bacteria you don't really need filters just water changes. I usually try to keep around three small attractive-looking fish in my tank, but I thought I'd try a group of damsels... bad timing. F*** it I'll just stick to the usual. I recently added a bunch of rock rubble around the rock. I'd like to put broken coral rubble around on the sand Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 About detritus, I usually use a turkey baster once or twice a day to blow it all into the water to feed the sponges or get sucked into the HOB filter when it's running. I'm currently looking to attain some tiny brittle stars, but haven't been able to. I love sponges and I have two different yellow kinds. I'm trying to get them to spread, but it isn't working. I've got some nice pink, black and white sponges too. Sometimes I target feed them filter-feeder food, but not that often. I don't want to dirty the water too much, as I don't want to run the HOB filter all the time.. The black sponge is thriving and spreading fast, but none of the other sponges are. I guess it's just getting more water flow. Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted June 27, 2016 Author Share Posted June 27, 2016 Well, there's a lot off diatom algae on the side glass panels and on other stuff... I think I removed too much of the water too quickly. I wonder if the rock rubble I put in there is also impeding the water flow into the rock pile too much. I tried to place it so that there'd be a lot of openings, though. Also, I think the deco crab might eat more than the three fish I had in there before combined -- it did eat a whole fish. Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 After a couple of months of the Monti being in the container it turned brown and there was a lot of brown mush on the bottom, so I turned the air pump off for a few hours so I could clean it out. When I checked it I discovered there were a couple hundred copepods swimming around at the top! I ended up putting some of them back into the aquarium and cleaned out the container. Yesterday I decided just to put the Monti back into the aquarium, because I put the ball of Chaeto in there and some isopods started multiplying in the container. Also, I checked in it a few times and have only seen one or two copepods in it. I guess they all died... The very good thing now, though, is algae is spreading in the tank and there are hundreds of copepods (Tisbe) and isopods (Asellota?) everywhere and I know there are some amphipods, because I see their shed skin floating around sometimes, but not sure how many. Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 Here's a pic of the Monti... Y'all think it will recover back in the tank or should I just throw it out? The isopods are ALL OVER IT and there's no flesh coming off of it, but it's releasing something into the water, because there's been an explosion of the serpulid snails all over the glass panes as you can see in the back.... Link to comment
SubmrgedSkull Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 This tank no longer exists. I moved everything into a 20-gallon tank, so I'm going to start a new thread about that one. Link to comment
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