JTFISHY11 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I have had a 5g nano setup for about 10 weeks now. Did a 25-30% water change two days ago. The next day I went to the LFS and bought three coral frags, candy cane,gsp,and zoo's. Put them in late afternoon and ran the lights on them for a couple of hours. Today I turned my lights on at 7am like I always do and got home about 5pm. My zoo's were closed up and the gsp too. It also appears that I had a little bit of algae bloom today. Anyone know what is going on here? I tested the water prior to getting the corals and everthing checked out( ph,am,na,ni). I have had a Talbot's damsel,4 bb snails,4 red legs, and a cleaner shrimp in the tank for a couple of weeks now and all looking healthy and active. I wonder if it is the lighting? 2 pc system with one 65w 10,000k and one 65w 50/50 actinic. The light sits about 5 inches above the surface and the tank is 12 inches deep. I hope this is enough info to get some ideas of what could be the problem! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Forgot to add that I have been doing water changes once a week (same qt) since week 7. Link to comment
kennyboy019 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Have you checked your water since then? What is your salt level? What is your temp? Link to comment
Chuckle_Berry Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 shoud have FW dipped your zoos Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Could be any number of reasons... your best bet is to post your tank peramiters and test results here so we can see if anything is off. I'm also curious as to how long you run your lights. If you turn them on at 7 and get home at 5 you're already runing what... 10 hours? how much longer do you run the lights? My lights don't come on until 1 PM and go off at 11PM - this way I get a chance to enjoy the tank before the lights go out. Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 I just checked water yesterday about 2pm. I run the lights 12 hours a day and my temp is 77-79 depending on time of day. na 0, am 0, ni 0, ph 8.2. I have not dosed any nutrients. why should you fw dip zoos? Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 What is the SG and how are you checking it (Hydrometer or refractometer)? Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 why should you fw dip zoos? Zoa's are prone to parasites and if you just put them in your tank you could be bringing in some unwanted hitch hicking predators that could give you a massive headache tryinng to kill them all after they've infested your tank. But other than that... no reason. OH... and I don't just fresh water dip them... all my zoas get dipped in a solution with Kent Marine's Tech D in it. I've had to deal with Nudi's before and don't want to do it again. Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 hydrometer. It shows a reading of 1.024 Should I do another water change? Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 I checked my water again everything is fine. Thanks to the advice of Scott I had my buddy test my SG and WOW MY SG WAS ABOVE 1.030!! I went a got a gallon of R/O water and took a gallon of my tank water out and replaced it with straight R/O. I will check it in a bit and go from there. I will defintely look into a refractometer now that I know my hydrometer is a piece of crap. Will my corals bounce back quickly or is this more serious? Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I checked my water again everything is fine. Thanks to the advice of Scott I had my buddy test my SG and WOW MY SG WAS ABOVE 1.030!! I went a got a gallon of R/O water and took a gallon of my tank water out and replaced it with straight R/O. I will check it in a bit and go from there. I will defintely look into a refractometer now that I know my hydrometer is a piece of crap. Will my corals bounce back quickly or is this more serious? Don't shock them by lowering it too quickly. Your corals are pretty hardy and will hopefully recover. Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 I figured it could cause a shock, thats why I only changed out a gallon. I bought these corals because I have read that they are all hardy species. I feel so stupid! But in my fish only setups I have never had a hydrometer fail. Do You think my lighting is to intense at 130w on a tank as shallow as mine? I would be willing to buy different lighting if it comes to it. Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I think the lighting is fine, I have 150W MH on a tank 20" deep. When I got started in SW, I had a Deep Six Hydrometer, it turned out to be off by .005. Same situation as you, my SG was really 1.030 and I thought it was 1.025. Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 The other thing is now that my tank is a couple months old and nitrates are 0-5 why do I still have so much algae?? I run my lights 12 hours a day would 8-10 be better? Sorry about the all the questions Scott but you have been very helpful! Thanks again Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 The other thing is now that my tank is a couple months old and nitrates are 0-5 why do I still have so much algae?? I run my lights 12 hours a day would 8-10 be better? Sorry about the all the questions Scott but you have been very helpful! Thanks again How old are your bulbs? Are you using RO/DI water? I run a 10 hour light cycle normally. I'm acclimating my tank to the new light so it's a lot less right now. Link to comment
JTFISHY11 Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 The lights are only a couple months old. Currently using distilled water only, but have considered using the r/o water Walmart sells. I just hate all algae in my tank and floating in my water! I will have to post pics of it. Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 The lights are only a couple months old. Currently using distilled water only, but have considered using the r/o water Walmart sells. I just hate all algae in my tank and floating in my water! I will have to post pics of it. Well, the bulbs should be fine and distilled should be fine. A picture might help. Maybe it is too much light for that small of a tank. Link to comment
SmittyCoco Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Your tank is still young. You have your tester corals now so You shouldn't buy anymore until dialed in. If you are going to start using walmarts ro water you should buy a tds meter. Do you have a phosphate test kit? What salt mix do you use? What are you using for mechanical filtration if any? What exactly are you using for flow? Go slow let it grow. Hth ! Link to comment
winterparkmg Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 The lights are only a couple months old. Currently using distilled water only, but have considered using the r/o water Walmart sells. I just hate all algae in my tank and floating in my water! I will have to post pics of it. I have used Walmart water for two years. No problems with water quality, heavy metals, random diatom/algae blooms, etc that I can remember. There are a few quick fixes to help your algae problems and a couple of long-tem prevention methods. Short term: phos-ban. Put it in a filter bag or brewing sock if you have a beer brewing supply around. Same thing. Just put some of it in a baggie and run your water through the filtration media. You can do this twice per media refill by baking the phosban on a cookie sheet after soaking it for a few days the first time. Instructions are on the Kent Marine canister it comes it. This will remove the phosphates that your algae is feeding on. Second quick-fix is to try a 3 day blackout every month. I believe it was a recent reef-of-the-month winner that did this successfully with many SPS. Candy canes won't care. This will inhibit your photosynthetic growth of algae for the blackout period, giving a lawnmower blenny, margarita turbos, etc a chance to catch up on it all. Third: do both of these coincidentally and throw in a few extra CUC for the time being. If you don't like the Margaritas size given your tank size, you might check to see if your LFS will let you rent them (and the lawnmower blenny as well) for a short time, some do. You feed them, you return them, you get your cash back in some percentage. Long term: Set up a small sump with innovative lighting. Throw in some chaeto and other macro algae and allow it to compete with your pest algae for nutrients. This is a fantastic method as it can double as a refugium for pods for you. Second choice: Shorten your light period permanently. 8 hours instead of 12 is okay unless you have SPS, or unless you have mushrooms and zoas reaching for light (extended an inch is bad...). I've tweaked my photoperiod to MAKE the mushrooms increase in surface area. They can be prettier that way. Fun little effect if you like playing God... Your lights are fine. I had 130W, same setup as you on 10 then 20 gallons forever. You have PLENTY. I think a shorter photoperiod would do you some good with phosban, then maybe a sump. You'll see a pretty noticeable effect after awhile I think. PS, I have a single 400 W MH with a 65W PC bulb over what is almost a 50 gallon tank at 20" deep. So I've seen both ends of the spectrum (darn... no pun intended), and it's all worked out okay thusfar. Best of luck!!! ~William Link to comment
thermosts Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 It took my GSP and Cloves 3 days before they opened up after adding them to the tank. Give them time to adjust and they should open. Link to comment
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