Invert Dieoff...Any Ideas???

[NanoKat]

A while back I had my hermits and shrimp (including a scarlet...bummer!) killed by a temp spike. Well, I have the temp issue under control now and I added some blue legs, margarita snails, and a cleaner shrimp. Now, I don't see any of the hermits or the shrimp and the margaritas seem to have all croaked. I dose kalk, iron, and bionic and do bi-weekly water changes. The last time I checked, my parameters were okay as far as the tests I have...my nitrates were a bit high, but nothing else of note. I'm going to test again tomorrow. I also think that in the process of whatever has happened that my pods have died off also...this was extremely bad timing, as I put a green spot mandarin in last week before I started realizing that the inverts were not doing too hot in my tank. The only remaining inverts I have left are my astrea snails that have been in the tank for about a year now.

Any ideas or sharing of experiences on something like this would be appreciated...I'm at a total loss at this point cause I've never had anything like this happen before.

Also, with the lack of pods at the moment...any tips on feeding the mandarin? I've bought brine the last couple of nights and have put cyclopeze in with them before feeding...someone said it would help to supplement the nutritionally void shrimp. I'm also using reef bugs, as I had been over the last year or so to boost my pod population.

 

[bawla47]

nitrates will do it. they are very sensitive to that. ive lost alot of my inverts to high nitrates. finally at around 20 and dropping.

 

[pedromatic]

I respectfully disagree with bawla. At one point I had a Dogface Puffer and the nitrates were off the chart. The tank was crawling with crabs, snails, pods, mysids, etc. Anything unusual lately besides the temp? I don't think temp would do it either. Cleaning around the tank with some solvent? Air Freshener? Scented candles close by? Think out of the box IMO.

 

[bawla47]

how highs off the chart pedro? mine was around 60 maybe, i think they do better with the nitrates if the animals were already present in the tank, and nitrates slowly crept up on them. they could take it to a point, but if left there, its too much stress on them.

alot of mine stuck around for a little while, but eventuall died. still have alot of blue legs and pods etc. ive been at high nitrates for months tho.

 

[pedromatic]

Bright crimson on the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Salt Water Nitrate test, 160ppm.

 

[ReefWreak]

The only thing I can imagine causing a dieoff of inverts is someone eating them. Short of that, you'd see a huge decline in your corals before you saw a dieoff in your inverts. That's of course my opinion, but maybe some of the more experienced guys can set it straight.

 

[pedromatic]

copper?

 

[NanoKat]

Hmm...I do have a scented candle on one of those warmer things about six feet and around the corner from the tank...I've used it on and off for about a year now. Maybe I'll move it somewhere else.

I had also figured the corals are more sensitive and fully expected to see a problem with them before the inverts. I'm doing a test and water change today.

Other than the candle though...no crazy cleaning going on here, not enough time for that!

Thanks for the ideas...I'll post my results from my tests later today.

 

[coralfragger101]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11862570#post11862570 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pedromatic
Bright crimson on the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Salt Water Nitrate test, 160ppm.

I agree with you Pedro. At one point I had a tank that literally had probably 6,000 hermits in it. The nitrates were truelly off the charts. Didn't seem to bother them at all.

 

[NanoKat]

I believe that the creatures in the tank can get used to things like nitrates slowly climbing to unreasonable levels...I have several in my tank that have survived many increases in nitrates, ammonia, etc.

Well, tested my water before water change and my ammonia level looked a little elevated...it had been .5 since installing the eco system (that's when I started testing and writing it down) and it looked like it was over 1.0...was hard to tell cause I'm using a "quick dip" test strip and I don't know how accurate they are if at all. It read .5 after the water change though. My nitrates before and after water change was 20. They have also been at 20 since adding the eco system.

Since this "dieoff" may have affected my pods, I'm going to Eco Reef to pick up some more chaeto and have them check my water for me again. Can't find my hydrometer either, so need to have my salinity checked too.

The mystery continues...

 

[coralfragger101]

If you had/or are having an ammonia spike - that could be the culprit.

 

[jerrym21]

another thing to look at might be iodine. most inverts need a maintained iodine level to thrive.

 

[pedromatic]

You probably should add one of those bacterial supplements to speed up the cycling process. EA has the one that's refrigerated, I forget the name, but I've had good results with it. Strange that the fuge would increase ammonia level, unless something in there (or your tank) died. Besides the cheato and the mud, is there any other organic material in the fuge?

 

[NanoKat]

Yes, there was a dieoff...thus this thread. I removed any of the snails that I could see around the tank (still had flesh in them, so could be contributing to the ammonia).

I think Robert at Eco Reef may have helped me find the culprit. I took some water for him to do some more extensive testing on and he found that my alkalinity was really low. I had been dosing bionic until a couple of weeks ago when I ran out and hadn't gotten replacement yet, so I was slacking off. Picked some C-balance up today since he was out of the bionic size I normally buy (the gallon size is a bit big for my nano...would take years to use that up). This will tide me over til I can get the bionic again.

Another lesson learned...this time,

Don't slack on your dosing!

Boy, this stuff is complicated!