Cycling tank still, hermits keep dieing, snails ok

[Feclar]

Still waiting for my mantis but my hermits keep dieing

Started 12g tank in January

Since January have had 6ish nerite snails that hangout in the sand and 5 zebra striped snails that hangout at the top water line/along the tank, also a pencil urchin, damsel, 'nemo'-fish, these guys have been fine.

Have had about 3 batches of 5 hermits die, now have 0 in tank, I love watching them but they dont last they die 1-6 weeks after introduction.

I acclimate by floating the bag for an hour.

If I don't clean the inside glass for a week alot of brown/red algae accumulates

I have done lots of re-aquascaping in the tank, there is a 1-2" sandbed and lots of live rock

Try to do 2g water changes every 1-2 weeks
I use RO water from my work, mix & heat it a few days prior.
When I change the water I use a turkey baster to stir the sand and get stuff off the live rock before I pull the water out.

I did a water change Sunday, now 2 days later here are my numbers

Salinity 1.021
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
ph 8.2
Temps 78-82 per digi termo

I am concerned for my future mantis...
Not sure what is going on...

Water temps too variable?
Water source sucks?
I only feed the tank flake food?
I should not disturb the sand/rocks when doing water changes?
My pump shoots air bubbles, have had lots of problems with this pump and it is very finicky on exact water level regardless of level of push it is set at?
I have no skimmer?
Halp?

 

[dismalorb]

Are you sure your nitrates are reading at 0ppm? There should be some sort of nitrate spike when you stir up the sand bed. Also, what's the size of all the fish and snails in the tank? Sounds like a rather large bio-load for a 12 gallon, buddy.

Also, I would raise the salinity to at least 1.024 slowly if possible.

Skimmers are nice when it comes to a mantis tank, but not necessary unless you feed 'em every day. I feed my O. havanensis three times a week.

How much are you feeding these fish? For a tank this size, I'd put enough food in there to completely disappear within 15-20 seconds.... daily or every other day.

If you're having a brown diatom algae outbreak, try doing a "lights out" for 2-3 days and that should take care of it. If you're seeing "red algae" aka cyanobacteria, syphon out as much as you can and do a treatment with one of the cyano-killers/red slime killers you can find at your LFS. Follow the directions exactly, including the removal via activated carbon 5 or so days later.

Good luck to you!

 

[walmart]

I would say its your salinity and not acclimating them properly.

Float for 15-30 minutes. Drip acclimate for 3-4 hours with inverts.

 

[DanInSD]

Agreed. A salinity change that big can cause death due to osmotic shock. Keep your tank at natural seawater levels (~1.025) and acclimate new animals slowly (especially inverts).

Dan

 

[Danyal]

don't think it's the low salinity(i've had hermits at 1.016 before for over a month) i think it may be that you're not doing a drip acclimation so if the hermits are kept at 1.026 in the store then you're causing a big shock when you dump them.

 

[dismalorb]

Both of the LFS' I worked at keep their salinity at around 1.021-1.024, and literally dumped snails and hermits in the displays right after shipment. They can deal with a minimal amount of osmotic shock with a very low mortality rate.

Drip acclimation is the best form of acclimation, but I *never* drip acclimate my snails or hermits in my home tanks and they always do fine.

If you're having any types of algae, there's obviously something feeding it.

 

[Guygettnby]

i have had ungodly amounts of problems regarding algea growth in my 20g mantis tank from day 1 and have never understood why until 1 day i had a long chat with a fellow at one of my LFS and he gave me an idea to try and since then my algea problems have slowly started to diminish over time.

his thinking was that nothing else in the tank was using the light and using up the energy, so there fore the algea had alot of light and plenty of nutrients to grow. so he suggested that i put some macro algea or some corals in the tank to use the nutrients. so i went out and bought a bag of cheato macro algea and dumped it in the tank. since then the algea continues to grow and i have to keep pruning it back some weekly. but my algea growth has defilently slowed down alot. i also dont leave my lights on nearly as long anymore either. i turn my lights on later in the day and have them on abit longer at night so i can enjoy my tank when i get off of work. i dont know if anything the guy told me was true but from my experience it is working... so it may work for you as well. good luck with it all...

 

[Guygettnby]

OH and make sure your tank is not getting any direct sunlight either. that defilently causes some serious algea growth.

 

[dragonladylea]

Was the tank a used tank? Copper in the tank?

 

[KADLETZ]

what is your tank load # of animals are they new, did you have a ich problem? did you use copper?