First Saltwater Tank (evo 13.5)

[Tired]

Any nitrites? Is it possible the water had chlorine or some other contaminant? Temperature and salinity okay? 

 

Since the shrimp is okay, I would think they might have been sick. Have you seen any odd behavior? 

 

I would also like to say that the problem with coral banded shrimp isn't just them threatening fish during the day. They're opportunists. If they find a sleeping fish at night, they might kill and eat it. I don't think it killed both of the clowns, that would be odd for it to do, but bear in mind- they can be predatory. Fish don't reliably avoid predators, otherwise there would be no predators. 

[findingnemo23]

4 hours ago, Tired said:

Any nitrites? Is it possible the water had chlorine or some other contaminant? Temperature and salinity okay? 

 

Since the shrimp is okay, I would think they might have been sick. Have you seen any odd behavior? 

 

I would also like to say that the problem with coral banded shrimp isn't just them threatening fish during the day. They're opportunists. If they find a sleeping fish at night, they might kill and eat it. I don't think it killed both of the clowns, that would be odd for it to do, but bear in mind- they can be predatory. Fish don't reliably avoid predators, otherwise there would be no predators. 

No nitrites, I only use store bought RODI water, temp is always 78.5 and my salinity is always 1.024-1.026....at the LFS they have "1.017" written on the outside of the tanks, which is lower than mine...do you think it's possible this could be the cause of death? (even after a month)

 

I noticed the fish slept at the top of the tank right at the water level, so I doubt the shrimp bothered them at night....but the bigger clown fish of the two was always terrorizing the smaller one by nipping at it and chasing it around the tank

[Tired]

Well, knowing that, you should make sure to acclimate any fish you get from them very slowly. But I'm pretty sure acclimation shock kills fish faster than that. I would be worried about disease, at this point, though it would be odd for them to die at once without any symptoms. 

 

On the off chance your shrimp was actually responsible, did the one it wasn't eating have any visible damage? How big is it versus them? 

[findingnemo23]

The one didn't have any visible damage, and they were roughly the size of a quarter if not smaller, the shrimp is a lot bigger for sure...each arm is about 2 inches long...I'm debating on whether or not to get 2 more clowns, or a six line wrasse as replacement fish

[findingnemo23]

Just picked up my first ever coral- a Sunny D Zoanthid along with a yellow tail blue damsel! I used coral dip and but I didn't see any pests come out from hiding. I plan to feed it reef roids once a week with a turkey baster and increase my light schedule to 10hrs/day now. I left the "plug" on the bottom on the coral and just found an opening in my live rock big enough for it to shove into.

 

Hopefully everything does well! 

[Chris27]

On 9/19/2020 at 2:15 PM, findingnemo23 said:

Just picked up my first ever coral- a Sunny D Zoanthid along with a yellow tail blue damsel! I used coral dip and but I didn't see any pests come out from hiding. I plan to feed it reef roids once a week with a turkey baster and increase my light schedule to 10hrs/day now. I left the "plug" on the bottom on the coral and just found an opening in my live rock big enough for it to shove into.

 

Hopefully everything does well! 

 

Edit: My bad, listen to the professionals not me

[Tired]

Actually, yellowbelly devils are a different species. 

 

Yellowtail blue damsels aren't very aggressive. In a tank that size, one other fish that doesn't remotely look like a damsel could work, maybe a goby? A clown goby would work very well, they're nearly immune to bullying due to confidence and a bad-tasting slime coat. Or a shrimpgoby, they live under the rocks. 

[findingnemo23]

27 minutes ago, Chris27 said:

Hi there, i'm not exactly a professional (Im just in the cycling process right now) but most experienced reefkeeper's don't recommend a damsel in a smaller tank, especially as a first fish. They are very territorial, much more than clowns (despite belonging to the same family). The damsel you have is known as a yellow tailed devil for a reason

 

6 minutes ago, Tired said:

Actually, yellowbelly devils are a different species. 

 

Yellowtail blue damsels aren't very aggressive. In a tank that size, one other fish that doesn't remotely look like a damsel could work, maybe a goby? A clown goby would work very well, they're nearly immune to bullying due to confidence and a bad-tasting slime coat. Or a shrimpgoby, they live under the rocks. 

according to live aquaria it says they are "semi-aggressive": https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/134/yellowtail-damselfish?pcatid=134&c=15+1926+134

 

However I was forced to remove my coral banded shrimp, I have put up with that devil for far too long..the first thing it did was scurry over to the new coral and tried ripping it to shreds with it's claws. I'm almost certain it is what killed my 2 clowns after seeing that behaviour.

 

Now I'm wondering if this damsel will be a bully or not...do I dare add a skunk cleaner shrimp and 2 more clowns?

 

[Tired]

2 clowns and a damsel is pushing it, bioload-wise. One clown would probably be fine, clownfish are also semi-aggressive and should be able to stand up for themselves. 

 

Coral banded shrimp (aside from getting large enough that they'll look out of place in a tank that size) are definitely opportunists who will go after things they can kill and eat. Anything with claws like that shouldn't be trusted.

[findingnemo23]

The damsel died this morning...I have no clue what i'm doing wrong either

[Tired]

Parameters? 

 

Did it show any symptoms of anything? Might have been sick. 

[findingnemo23]

Temp- 78.5

Salinity- 1.026

High Range PH- 8.0-8.2

Ammonia- 0ppm

Nitrite- 0ppm

Nitrate- 5-10ppm

 

Fish didn't show anything, but it never really ate more than 1-2 food pellets in front of me per day

[findingnemo23]

Just added 9 new corals, they came in the "beginner coral starter pack" so I don't know what they are yet.

I used aqua stick epoxy which doesn't look good now, but I used it when I set up the tank and it has since matched the colour of the rock and blends in fully

[Tired]

Interesting way of mounting. I would get yourself some coral/bone cutters, as you can use those to remove the corals from the plugs. Just cut between the coral and plug, the glue will break as long as the coral isn't attached too firmly to the plug. If it is attached, just use the cutters to snip the stem off the frag plugs. That way, you can make things look nicer. Remember not to touch the zoanthids with your bare hands, either by using tongs/tweezers to hold the plug or by wearing gloves. 

 

From left to right in the last picture, I see what looks like two candycane corals, then maybe an acan, then what looks like clove polyps, then a zoanthid frag (with algae on it), then two more zoanthids, then... almost looks like an encrusting montipora? And that last one is a LPS of some sort, maybe favia, but it's hard to tell from that angle. 

[findingnemo23]

I was wondering whether or not I should remove the plugs lol. I'm curious to see if they will stay in place or get knocked over...the epoxy isn't really sticking to either the rock or plugs and is more of a "kick stand"

[Tired]

Superglue gel works better, IME, to attach things. Gel, not liquid, or you'll just make a mess. Use lots of it. Don't glue them in place right now, though, you need to figure out where they want to be. Different corals like different light levels and flow. For now, just lean them places.

[findingnemo23]

I removed all the epoxy from the rocks, cut the plugs off the corals and glued them all back to the live rock,

 

Today I bought a royal gramma and scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp...the fish has been laying in the bottom corner since I added it and i'm a bit concerned

[Tired]

There we go, that looks much better! 

 

It's normal for fish to be stressed when first added. In your case, he doesn't really have anywhere else to be. The shrimp has claimed the arch, like shrimp do, leaving the gramma without anywhere to hide. Turn off the lights for today to avoid stressing him more, and find something to put in the tank for him. Royal grammas like caves they can hide in and defend. A big seashell can work, or another rock set against one of your existing rocks. 

[findingnemo23]

Unfortunately the damsel died the next day.

 

My thoughts causing all my fish to die is the stock filtration foam block- So I threw it away and added a 6.5oz bag of chemipure elite to chamber 1...the bag is just sitting on the very bottom. I'm using filter floss at the top of chamber 1 also.

 

I was debating on buying the intank media basket but it would be over $100 for me with duty and taxes.  

[Tired]

I don't think a foam block would kill your fish, unless something in it was poisonous. 

[findingnemo23]

On 10/19/2020 at 3:21 PM, Tired said:

I don't think a foam block would kill your fish, unless something in it was poisonous. 

I was never a fan of the stock filtration, and so many people on here say to get rid of the foam block and use chemipure elite with filter floss. Now lately I have been noticing some dark pink cyano/dino on my sand and rock. So I did a 20% water change and vacuumed it all yesterday and it's slowly coming back again today. I'm thinking maybe I need to upgrade the stock return pump?

[Tired]

No you don't. You have algae because you have a new tank. New tanks have to run through the "ugly stage", which includes a lot of algae, until non-pest algaes can get established to outcompete the pest stuff. You should expect algae.

You should probably remove the chempure- you need to keep nitrates at 5ppm or above and phosphate above 0.03ppm, or your corals and beneficial algae will both starve. 

What you can expect to see is a big surge in different kinds of algae. Slime algae is usually first, then hair algae. Pull out long hair algae and thick mats of slime by hand, and add cleanup crew to deal with the rest. Don't do a lot of water changes, do not scrub the rocks. Gently stir the sand when you do a water change. You need to let non-pest algae get established, at which point the pest algae will have competition and will die off. Until then, you're going to have a lot of pest algae. Don't dose anything to kill it, you'll only delay the tank maturing. Just let it happen, and, once you have an appropriate number of snails and decent amount of nutrients, the tank will work itself out.

[findingnemo23]

Here's a little update:

 

Been dealing with purple/black/brown slime that has been coating everything in the tank, along with these feather like things that are on the sand bed. It's very easy to remove with a turkey baster and by sucking it out during water changes. The GSP and zoas have grown since I've added them. The other corals are still the same as when I added them.

 

All my snails, hermit crab and shrimp are alive, but literally every single fish I've added has died. For now it's a coral and CUC only tank.

 

I feed the tank once a day and add 1/4tsp of reef roids about twice a week. Still doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks and changing filter floss about twice a week.

 

I've noticed an infestation of small white bugs that crawl on the inside of the tank glass and purple slime. I can't tell if they're copepods or isopods or something else. Also don't know whether they are good or bad either so any info on that would be awesome! 😄

[farkwar]

Deleted, I am going to shut up

[mipster]

On 10/18/2020 at 11:42 AM, findingnemo23 said:

I was debating on buying the intank media basket but it would be over $100 for me with duty and taxes.

You got your frag pack from Fragbox so you must be a fellow Canadian. You can buy an intank media rack from them, they stock them. Worth every penny. I started an EVO 13.5 this year too, I just upgraded to an IM20 but you can read through my thread for my adventure if you like.

 

https://fragbox.ca/product-category/dry/fluval-upgrades/

 

You are feeding really heavily for that tank and your filtration. You don't have any fish and your corals do not need that much food. I would cut back to once a week feeding. What level are your nitrates at? I have a feeling they are on the high side based on what I'm seeing.

 

Does that brownish/purplish algae disappear at night?