This close to giving up....

jeffrey_ropp

jeffrey_ropp

Member
Despite a dedicated effort, I can't figure out what's wrong with my tank. For a few months now, I've been battling cyano. I've cut my feedings, done more frequent water changes, and tested everything I can think of. I've lost 2 fish, several crabs and snails over the same period.

After tweaking magnesium, alkalinity, and calcium over the last week, I figured I had everything perfect so I started to rebuild a clean-up crew.

Tonight I added 6 trochus snails and a turbo. I acclimated all new specimens for 30 minutes. Within 4 hours everything appears to be dead or dying. I'm completely frustrated and at a loss to explain. Its as if something poisonous is in my tank that I can't detect.

Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Phosphaste = 0
Calcium = 420
Alkalinity = 8dKH
pH = 8.2
Specific Gravity = 1.024
Magnesium = 1350
Temp = 78-80

I skim with a AquaC EV-180 and run my lights about 12 hours/day.

What is wrong?!?!?!?!?

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated. Thanks for letting me vent!
 
Did you bought a used tank? It may contaminated with copper which used for treatment of certain diseases in a fish only tank? Or, try to use different test kits.
 
I had that problem too. It just went away out of nowhere. trust me it will go away. Just keep up with water changes. Patience my friend!
 
Just cut down your lighting and the cyano will go away by it self. Iv had it two times, in two different tanks and both times Iv cut my lights in half ( 4 hours for me and only 2 hours of full light) from its normal 8 and 4 hour times. Iv also heard kalk will help since it keeps your PH high. Also make sure you do good water changes and clean off as much as you can. DONT blow it off the rocks!!! I REPEAT DONT BLOW IT OFF THE ROCKS. haha it will get worse that way. Also make sure the water your using to mix your saltwater is at 0ppm along with maybe running GFO. As for the clean up crew they could have just been unhealthy and were on there way out anyways. I personally only ever lost coral due to cyano.
 
I was losing easy corals, sponges and snails for a while in my 240 and could not figure out why. One cold day 2 months ago my wife was in the kitchen in the early morning and said she saw a flash of light coming from my big tank. So I checked it out and found my EBO 300 watt heater was bad. It had actually melted the top rubber portion and it was lose inside the glass tube. The tube was full of water and everything was very black and fried inside the heater. What she had seen was the heater trying to come on while it was full of water, creating a flash of light. I had been smelling something electrical for a while, but could not find it and figured a ballast was getting ready to quite on me. Apparently the heater had been this way for a while. The weird thing is it did not blow a GFI, circuit breaker or shock me. I guess I was lucky, as I have been zapped by lots of other heaters and it is no fun. I replaced it with a RenaSmart heater. That is the only heater I will buy or recommend anymore.
I have been amazed how quickly thing rebounded after taking the heater out. The change was visible the next day. My leathers started opening again and the fish seemed happier.

All that said cyano is an indication your not doing enough maintenance/water changes, in my opinion. Suck the cyano out when you do your water changes and at least double the amount of water you change and the frequency. I would also use a small power head to blow off the rocks and get the excess detritus out of the rock work. That is the only real way I have been able to eliminate it.
 
Thanks guys.

I still don't understand what would cause the almost instant snail death.

I've been conscientious is removing the cyano by siphon during water changes. 10% at least twice per week for about a month now.

For flow, 2 Tunze Nanostream 6025s.

Stock
One Percula clown
2 chromis
1 small yellow tang
2 zebra hermits
1 scarlet hermit
1 nasarius snail
2 monti caps (dying away)
some zoas (losing polyps)
 
sorry... but i LOL'd pretty hard when i came in... i read the tittle then saw your avatar pic... it just cracked me up...



anyways... how old is the tank..? you're a member since 03, so i figured it's an old tank...
what condition is your sand bed in...? do you have a DSB...? have you been seeing bubbles forming and popping out from sand...?
what type of salt are you using, or what kind of water are you using...? reason i ask is because wile going thru DnD my zoas started melting out of no where and i was mysteriously losing fish... so i blamed the salt... switched and everything is A-ok now... weird...
are you using a swingarm hydrometer or a refractometer...?
do you have a form of ATO...? (because monti's are dieing)


it does kind of sound like you might have copper in the water... but it could also be toxins leaking out of the live rock... if you rock is like, super duper old, you might have problems like this... also your live sand...



and don't get so frustrated... i went through the same thing and almost went out and got all new live rock and sand... good thing i didn't... sheesh...
 
good recommendations from everyone but also run a polyfilter. I would do it asap. It will take care of any copper and other harmful subtances.
 
Inverts can be very sensitive try to aclimate a little longer? Also running GFO and Carbon does more than polish the water and lower phosphate. They pull toxins and heavy metals out as well. Some people say GFO lasts for months, but if you feed heavy like I do mine is fried in a month. I change carbon every week and GFO every three. I have lost many hermits over the years do to the stress of aclimation, I would drip them slow and poor out half the water 3 times over a 3 hour period to be extra safe. Good luck figuring it out?

One last thing .024 on the water is a little low, if your refractometer is not calibrated your salinity could be even lower. Have a friend check your level and I would bump it up to .025, I run .026 on my systems.

Also 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate means your skimmer is working too good and you might want to feed heavier or add some more fish. I shoot for .03 on the phosphate and 10 or less on the nitrate will not hurt most corals. The nutrients help things look nice.

I am playing with ultra low nutrient with Eccobak and I am not sold on it yet as my corals have been stressed more than ever before in that tank.

Good Luck.
 
Do you have small children or had a few near your tank? Reason I ask is because I recall another reefer who was baffled with problems with his tank and come to find out that someone had tossed a bunch of pennies into his sump. I have no idea if that is enough to cause problems in your tank. Hope you figure it out soon.
 
Problem with hobbiest grade copper kits is that their resolution may not be good enough... other words you may have copper in the tank that goes undetectable in kits.

I would put the money towards a Polyfilter as suggested. Cheap insurance. You should be able to tell if there is copper by the change of color on the pad after awhile.

Also check for stray voltage.
 
Didn't read the whole thread, but make sure you test kits are measuring correctly with someone elses. Copper could be a problem, but for something to die that quickly I'm thinking temp or salinity. Make sure you double check those with equipment you trust. I've had issues with both in the past when I thought they were fine.
Jeff
 
i swear... not reading threads but still posting your opinion is the new coach shoes...



and i can't believe i forgot about a poly filter... i use one of those every couple of months... i try to use one at least twice a year... worth the ~20 bucks or whatever it cost now... also... remember to replace your carbon... when it leaks stuff back into the water column, it does it in huge amounts... but that's like if you leave your carbon in there for a year or so... LOL...
 
DANNY G2004 said:
And I thought my lights where on way to long 12hrs is to much 6 to 8 should be plenty
Click to expand...

but... is it bad to have them running that long...??? sometimes, my lights are on for 14 hours or so... if i get home super late... i turn them on at 5pm and turn them off when i go to sleep... bu hardly get any algae, but i also don't see anything negative about it... am i lucky...? or is the 6-8 hours just the recommended minimum...??
 
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