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Coral Vue Hydros

New 29 Gallon, having issues with inverts and coral


Pozzy

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SETUP:

29 gallon long

40 lbs of live rock

DIY Chaeto reactor (Two Little Fishies Phosban Fitler Media Reactor powered by a Cobalt Aquatics MJ1200 Powerhead Sump and Abelle LED Plant Grow Strip Lights )

Caribsea Super Naturals Aquarium Sand 

Hydor Koralia Nano 425 GPH Sump

Jebao 530-1000 GPH Wavemaker

Fluvial Marine and Reef 2.0 LED Strip Light 32 Watts

Instant Ocean Aquarium Salt

 

 

LIVESTOCK:

Yellow Watchman goby

Mandarin Dragonet

2 Occelaris Clownfish

3 Nassarius Snails

3 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs

Hammer Coral

Zoanthid "Gatorade"

Copepods

 

 

MY STORY: 

I currently have a 29 gallon long that is about 2 months old and I'm having issues with my newly placed corals and with certain inverts I place in it. I fully cycled my tank within 2 weeks with Bio-Spira and dosing ammonia chloride once to 4ppm and letting it drop. My tank has about 40 lbs of live rock in it. After the cycle I decided to add a watchman goby, emerald crab, and mandarin dragonet (eating frozen mysis). The goby and dragonet made it and are doing fine up to this day but the crab died I think since after 4 days it was frozen in the same spot it was added. The crabs bottom part of its shell was open which made me think it possibly molted but I never have seen a crab in my tank. I temp and dripped acclimated all of them. I decided at this time to make a DIY chaeto reactor because my nitrates were very high. I built it and added copepods into it with some live rock and chaeto. I added the copepods hoping they would be able to reproduce in the reactor and it seems to be working. The reactor has a plant strip light around it bought from amazon. After about another 2 weeks I added a fire shrimp, 3 nassarius snails and 3 blue legged hermit crabs. The fire shrimp died after an hour of being added in but everything else lived. I did temperature acclimate and drip acclimate all of them. Just 4 days ago I added a serpent star, two clown fish, a hammer coral and zoanthid. The serpent star just like the crab and fire shrimp did not make it and died. It was stiff after about an hour and after 2 days it didn't move and it was in direct light. The star smelled bad when I took it out and the goby seemed to nibble on it from time to time. I placed my corals high up on my rocks and I let two days pass by and my corals still havent opened so I decided to place them on the sand bed to see if they will open up at all. It has been a day and both corals have not opened up. Both are shut tight and I did notice that the hammer coral had hair algae on it after being added. I attempted to take some of it off but even after trying it still had some left on it. I just temp acclimated the corals and put them into the tank after reading a bit that they dont need to be drip acclimated. I am wondering why my inverts keep dying after being added (shrimp, crabs, stars) and others live such as my nassarius snails and blue legged hermit crabs. They die very quickly and do not live to see the next day for the most part. I also am wondering why my corals have yet to open. I moved them from their location to see if the flow was the issue that was bothering them and they still havent opened (it has been a day after moving). After adding the chaeto reactor all of my nitrate issues or any small traces of ammonia are at zero. I just did a 25 percent water change yesterday as well hoping that mightve helped the corals open up but atlas nothing has changed. I use tap water treated with Instant Oceans Water Conditioner mixed with Instant Ocean Sea Salt. What is possibly happening from with my corals and why do some of the inverts I add die almost immediately after being added to the tank even while being acclimated? My calcium and carbonate hardness levels are very high and I wonder if that has anything to do with why my inverts are dying or my coral not wanting to open?

 

 

MY PARAMETERS (I use the API reef and saltwater test kits to check these levels):

Saltinity: 1.026

pH: 7.8-8.0

Ammonia: 0 PPM

NItrite: 0 PPM

NItrate: 0 PPM

Phosphate: 0.25 PPM

Calcium: 520 PPM

Carbonate Hardness (KH): 17 dKH

 

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I would definitely stop using treated tap water and get a ro/di filter. It’s gotta be one of the most important pieces of equipment used to maintain a clean and stable reef tank. 

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Tap water is a no no with reefs.

 

There is far too much in tap water that can't be removed with conditioners. 

 

Rodi or distilled should be used for reef tanks.

 

Corals take more than a day to acclimate to their new environment. They should be started at the bottom and slowly raised to their final destination.

 

Continually moving them will irritate them.

 

There should be no ammonia present in your tank once it's been cycled.

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Your calcium is a little high but I wouldn’t worry about that much. Your KH is high and your pH is a little low in my opinion. Have you tested your salt mixed conditioned tap water before adding to the tank? What are those levels? From my experience which is still limited, inverts usually outlast fish in a newly set up tank. Your dragonet is eating mysis? I’ve only known them to eat copepods, but I’ve heard of weirder things. What is your temp? 

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24 minutes ago, BlennyBoi said:

way too many fish

Are you saying that's too many fish for a 29 long or too many fish because of the tanks age? I agree with the age part but if you're talking about tank size there are people on this exact website with 4 fish in a Nuvo10 and other smaller tanks lol. 

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1 minute ago, ReefGoat said:

Are you saying that's too many fish for a 29 long or too many fish because of the tanks age? I agree with the age part but if you're talking about tank size there are people on this exact website with 4 fish in a Nuvo10 and other smaller tanks lol. 

too many fish for its size

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You could have that many fish in a mature tank with a well established biofilter. A young tank won’t have the bacteria in it to process the waste it takes time to build that up. The tap water needs to be fixed. Maybe get lfs rodi until u can afford your own unit. 

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43 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

I absolutely disagree. But that's just my opinion. There are multiple tanks on this website that are half the size of that tank with 3-4 fish

I agree with you.

 

3-4 fish in a 29g is not the problem.

 

I'd say 98% it's the tap water.

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