Issues with new reef tank....

[so_tatted]

Hello all,

I recently stepped into the reefing world about 6 weeks ago when I set up a 35 gallon cube reef tank. I put it together and it cycled great. I began with a canister filter, but then upgraded to a 10 gallon sump with a protein skimmer. The tank only has about 25 lbs of live rock (I like the minimalist look) and 2 quarts of ceramic bio-balls in the sump.

The issue I am having has just come about. I currently have 1 clownfish, 1 tuxedo sea urchin, 2 zoanthid frags, 1 kenya tree frag, and 1 star polyp coral frag. I added the clown about a month ago and its been doing great all along. About 2 weeks ago I added the sea urchin and 1 zoanthid frag. Then my lfs had a Black Friday sale and I added another zoanthid frag, the kenya tree, and the star frag. Only 2 days after, my sea urchin began dropping its spines. A day later all my zoanthid and star frags closed up and have not come out. I've tested my water and here are my results:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
PH: 8.3
Calcium:420 ppm
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.025

Before I added the second round of frags, the urchin and the zoanthid frag were doing great! I supplemented the urchin's food with Hikari algae waffers, and today (after going to the lfs) I gave the zoos a iodine dip.

Please help. Thanks!

 

[Zer0.]

Idk, 0 nitrate in a tank with a fish and bioballs sounds fishy.

Are you running carbon?

 

[so_tatted]

Yes I am, just a small bag of it that came with the canister filter. I put it in the sump.

 

[acabgd]

How stable are your parameters like temp, salinity?

 

[so_tatted]

Fairly stable, my temp started dropping to 77 last week due to cooler temperatures in the house, so I got another heater and placed it in the DT to assist the one in the sump with maintain a constant 79. I check the salinity about once a week and it has dropped slightly to 1.023, but then I add some water and it brings it back up later that day. I also put a glass canopy over the DT about 2 weeks ago to assist the temperature variations and to lessen the evaporation. However, i do not have a cover for the sump, so I believe that is where the majority of evaporation occurs.

 

[so_tatted]

The guy at the lfs says that the urchin could be suffering from malnutrition. Could the Hikari algae wafers be bad for it in any way? I read the label, but didn't see anything that stood out that I should not use it. As for the corals, I am at a complete loss... so were the guys at the lfs. The iodine dip did yield some little critters on the zoos though, hopefully they will start popping out again in the next few days

 

[gone fishin]

Fairly stable, my temp started dropping to 77 last week due to cooler temperatures in the house, so I got another heater and placed it in the DT to assist the one in the sump with maintain a constant 79. I check the salinity about once a week and it has dropped slightly to 1.023, but then I add some water and it brings it back up later that day. I also put a glass canopy over the DT about 2 weeks ago to assist the temperature variations and to lessen the evaporation. However, i do not have a cover for the sump, so I believe that is where the majority of evaporation occurs.

Are you topping off with freshwater for the evaporation? Evaporation is going to happen. You do not want to close up the tank to much. This will limit oxygen exchange, reduced oxygen in the tank. A lot of people use screen mesh tops for this and to keep the critters from jumping out.

 

[CuzzA]

Urchins eat coralline algae. In fact they have 5 specialized teeth designed through evolution for that specific purpose. If you don't have any coralline algae in your "new" tank I suggest you take it back to the LFS and ask for a store credit.

As far as the zoas, your tank is still in its infancy and still developing so they may be reacting to the on going changes.

However, a sure sign of zoanthids eating nudibranchs is prolonged closed polyps. Iodine will not kill these pests. Only freshwater dips and manual egg removal. If you believe your zoas are suffering from nudibranchs then prepare some fresh rodi water. Match the temperature to the tank and add baking soda to match the tank pH. Dip them for 15 seconds and in the process blast them with a turkey baster and shake them up in the water to remove them. Then inspect for eggs and scrape them off. Repeat if they are still present.

Also, ALWAYS dip zoas in fresh water before adding them to your tank.

 

[so_tatted]

Yes, I'm topping off with fresh RODI water. And thanks about the sea urchin CuzzA. I was under the impression that they would be okay with supplemental feeding until more algae came into the tank. I give the zoanthids a fresh water dip also.

 

[CuzzA]

No problem. Give it a few months when your coralline takes off and then pick up another one.

And speaking about their teeth. Here's a good interesting read.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/18804

 

[wcarterh]

What are your phosphate levels? I've seen corals react to higher phosphates too many times to count.

 

[Azedenkae]

Recently I've been hearing about a lot of death stories that indicates death happened after adding zoas. Not sure if it's a coincidence or if there's a link.

 

[Puffyluv]

What is your kH? Noticed that was not in your water test results...and I am going to venture a guess and say that your kH is probably very high, since you have a small tank that has a pH as high as 8.3.

This could definitely cause the stress you are seeing...agreed, I am hesitant to believe 0 nitrates when you have bio-balls...could be maybe a bad kit?

I would check kH, and get a second opinion on the nitrate test...hopefully using a different brand (or if it is API, a tester that follows directions, lol) of test kit.

Best of luck to you, hope everything stabilizes soon!

Edit: Just checked how old your tank is...six weeks is a bit soon to have so much livestock...but I still suspect your kH. Doesn't seem like enough time to build up high nitrates, though...unless your source water was high to begin with, I can't imagine the bio balls working THAT fast...

 

[shesacharmer]

I had a bristleworm in my zoas that aggravated them...to the sump he went. Then they started closing up for no apparent reason. I read that some of them don't like being too close to one another and more light. I moved some from the bottom of my tank to the middle and spread them a little further apart and they opened right up. Worth a try.

 

[so_tatted]

The bio balls I have are the ceramic marine pure ones from BRS. And I tested my KH this morning. It took 12 drops, which if I'm reading the directions correctly is 214.8ppm. I do have an API test kit (planning on upgrading after this). However, there is some good news. The green stars all opened back up this morning, and 2 of the zoanthids polyps opened also. Hopefully its turning around. Also just tested the nitrates again, still reading 0ppm (depending on how accurate this kit is).

 

[so_tatted]

Also took the glass canopy off the DT. I think that may be helping...

 

[Puffyluv]

Cool, glad things are turning around! Depending on your dosing schedule, could be the kH was high a few days ago in relation to the Ca and Mg. Sounds like you are on the right track with everything you are doing to help it...time and stability always wins! Definitely make sure you are always keeping an eye on ionic balance...your kH, Ca, and Mg! There are lots of online calculators to help.

 

[Azedenkae]

The bio balls I have are the ceramic marine pure ones from BRS. And I tested my KH this morning. It took 12 drops, which if I'm reading the directions correctly is 214.8ppm. I do have an API test kit (planning on upgrading after this). However, there is some good news. The green stars all opened back up this morning, and 2 of the zoanthids polyps opened also. Hopefully its turning around. Also just tested the nitrates again, still reading 0ppm (depending on how accurate this kit is).

Just so you know, bio balls are a very specific description of a specific type of biological filter media. Marine Pure is not bioballs. Marine Pure actually do have the capacity to reduce nitrates, which is a possibly as to why your nitrates is zero (besides anything else).

 

[Puffyluv]

I haven't had any experience or reviews with Marine Pure yet, so I totally missed that!!! Thanks for pointing that out, learn something new every day!

 

[Azedenkae]

I haven't had any experience or reviews with Marine Pure yet, so I totally missed that!!! Thanks for pointing that out, learn something new every day!

Cheers mate. We all learn something new everyday. Marine Pure is special in that it has a huge surface area to volume ratio, which means a lot more surface bacteria in the same volume compared to a lot of other biological filter media. That also means it is likely and do house a lot of nitrate-reducing bacteria, a lot more so than other products. And stuff. When I was first introduced to Marine Pure I was like '***' is this thing. But seeing how it was in every single sump in the store I work at, I decided to test it out. Works wonders. I did write a short article/blog post on it. If you want to I can pm you the link.