New Tabk problems,

[stuhope123]

Hi All

Im new to this forum and the marine species so go easy on me

So around 3 months ago i started up my mini 70 litre marine tank.

I filled with RO water mixed with salt - and added around 6kg of live rock, The tank is running a pump, heater, and a fluval powerhead, and 4 x t5 bulbs (2 x White, 1 x Blue, 1 x red, Lights are currently on for 7 hours a day 4pm-11pm) there isn't really room for skimmer however will be doing weekly 10% water changes.

After around a month or so i believed my tank to be cycled so bought a clean up crew and a damsel,

1 x Yellow tail blue damsel
2 x Ceirith snails
2 x Nassarius snails
4 x Scarlett hermit crabs
2 x Turbo snails

After a couple of weeks everything seemed fine so i proceeded to purchase a cleaner shrimp,

Another 2/3 weeks passed and everything still fine.

I then purchased 2 clowns, For about 2 weeks they seemed fine, The damsel wasn't really bothering them and they where just swimming happily, i then noticed 1 morning 1 was dead, I did a 30% water change and the next day another was dead. Everything else still fine.

2 weeks later i tried again, purchased 2 clowns Low and behold another couple of weeks same thing again and they have both died again

I have noticed quite a lot of brown algae on my sand which i keep moving for it to go white again, Also on my glass and on my rock, it seems to be brown on the sand and green on the rock, This is also annoying.

My water params are as below

Salinity - 1.027
Temp - 26-30 Degrees
Ammonia - 0 (hard to tell on my api test but pretty confident its 0)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 0.5ppm
Water changes have been every week at 1 10 litre bucket.

So my questions and problems are:

1. Why so much algae even with a CUC, is there anything i can do or buy to get this lower and to stop my sand and glass looking horrible really quickly?

2. Why do the clowns keep dying but everything else seems okay in the tank with no signs at all of suffering?

3. Is there anything i am doing wrong? I know it is heavily stocked for the size however my friend had this tank before me and kept more than this just fine, along as i keep up on the water changes.

4. I know my nitrate and Phosphate are fairly high, What can i do to lower these apart from water changes, I don't have a qt tank unfortunately.

Any help is extremely appreciated, I am new to the marine life however try and do as much research as i can before i dive into things.

Thanks All.

Stu

 

[billdogg]

Hi All

Im new to this forum and the marine species so go easy on me

So around 3 months ago i started up my mini 70 litre marine tank.

I filled with RO water mixed with salt - and added around 6kg of live rock, The tank is running a pump, heater, and a fluval powerhead, and 4 x t5 bulbs (2 x White, 1 x Blue, 1 x red, Lights are currently on for 7 hours a day 4pm-11pm) there isn't really room for skimmer however will be doing weekly 10% water changes.

After around a month or so i believed my tank to be cycled so bought a clean up crew and a damsel,

A damsel in that size tank is asking for trouble - generally speaking, they need about 50g/damsel

1 x Yellow tail blue damsel
2 x Ceirith snails
2 x Nassarius snails
4 x Scarlett hermit crabs
2 x Turbo snails

After a couple of weeks everything seemed fine so i proceeded to purchase a cleaner shrimp,

Another 2/3 weeks passed and everything still fine.

You are taking your time - GOOD!!! Patience is of utmost importance in this hobby

I then purchased 2 clowns, For about 2 weeks they seemed fine, The damsel wasn't really bothering them and they where just swimming happily, i then noticed 1 morning 1 was dead, I did a 30% water change and the next day another was dead. Everything else still fine.

Damsels and clowns are in the same family and have the same general requirements. All are territorial and will fight, especially in a system that is already too small

2 weeks later i tried again, purchased 2 clowns Low and behold another couple of weeks same thing again and they have both died again

See above

I have noticed quite a lot of brown algae on my sand which i keep moving for it to go white again, Also on my glass and on my rock, it seems to be brown on the sand and green on the rock, This is also annoying.

The brown is more than likely diatoms, just a normal part of any new tank. Unsightly perhaps, but just a phase your tank is going through

My water params are as below

Salinity - 1.027
Temp - 26-30 Degrees
Ammonia - 0 (hard to tell on my api test but pretty confident its 0)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 0.5ppm

PO4 is pretty high. It could be leeching from your rocks, it could be from overfeeding, or perhaps a combination of the two. I would suggest cutting back on food and perhaps running some GFO (granular ferric oxide) in a reactor. For your size tank a TLF 150 HOB reactor would be perfect. GFO can be had from www.bulkreefsupply.com for a reasonable price

Water changes have been every week at 1 10 litre bucket.

So my questions and problems are:

1. Why so much algae even with a CUC, is there anything i can do or buy to get this lower and to stop my sand and glass looking horrible really quickly?

GFO in a reactor

2. Why do the clowns keep dying but everything else seems okay in the tank with no signs at all of suffering?

Too small of a tank, the damsel is very likely beating them up

3. Is there anything i am doing wrong? I know it is heavily stocked for the size however my friend had this tank before me and kept more than this just fine, along as i keep up on the water changes.

Select fish more suited to a small system

4. I know my nitrate and Phosphate are fairly high, What can i do to lower these apart from water changes, I don't have a qt tank unfortunately.

NO3 is ok, GFO for the PO4. A QT can be as simple as a 10 or 20g tank that can be bought very inexpensively from any pet store

Any help is extremely appreciated, I am new to the marine life however try and do as much research as i can before i dive into things.

Thanks All.

All your questions are good! Keep them coming. I really think you are on the right track

hth

Stu

 

[billdogg]

And I forgot - get rid of the red bulb - either another white or actinic would be a much better choice. Red will do nothing other than promote algae growth.

 

[Clowning_Around]

Salinity is high, I would step that down.

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[Clowning_Around]

1.023- 1.024 is a good goal, this gives you some buffer qith evaporation. 1.025 would be your max.

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[Reefiez]

1. Why so much algae even with a CUC, is there anything i can do or buy to get this lower and to stop my sand and glass looking horrible really quickly?

get a glass cleaner, i need to clean my glass every 3 days or else it gets really yucky. if you neglect cleaning the glass, the algae could become really hard to get off!

2. Why do the clowns keep dying but everything else seems okay in the tank with no signs at all of suffering?

fish may not have been healthy when you bought them
damsel could also have been a bully when you're not looking
ammonia spikes that wasn't detected (from tripling bioload and food load)

3. Is there anything i am doing wrong? I know it is heavily stocked for the size however my friend had this tank before me and kept more than this just fine, along as i keep up on the water changes.

to be honest, i've kept a 4 inch yellow tang, a purple firefish, 2 anthias, a cleaner shrimp in a 12g quarantine tank for 6 weeks. I put that down to being really well cycled from previous inhabitants, and a weekly 30%
water change.
Nano tanks are much trickier since the water parameters can change so quickly with a small volume of water.
If i were you, i'd be testing my water for ammonia 2 times a day for a week when i add new fishes. Negative results will eliminate one possible explanation for what's causing the die-off.


4. I know my nitrate and Phosphate are fairly high, What can i do to lower these apart from water changes, I don't have a qt tank unfortunately.

You could up your water change, a 5g water change would be around 30%, which is the simplest to do. There are also some tiny HOB skimmers you could look into. There are some that hang inside the tank and some on the outside. there should be plenty of articles or posts to help you choose, good luck =)

 

[stuhope123]

Thanks all for your help so far, really helpful.

I think I'm going to try a small skimmer that sits on the inside, Can anyone recommend any which would be completely submersed that wouldn't be visible?

Im also going to try and lower the salinity by adding water with a lower salinity on water changes,

The red bulb will be swapped tonight if it promotes algae growth too,

What does everyone think about stocking? How many clowns, cleaner etc would you expect in a tank this size?

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Percula9]

Get rid of the damsel