What did i do to my zoas?

[FishMann]

First of all, while im not new to these forums (registered couple years ago) i just started browsing them again and was gonna eventually start posting. Well i guess that is now.


I just cycled my 10 gallon nano about 2 weeks ago. Currently i have about 7 hermits (red and blue leg), 3 nasarius an turbo and margarita snail. Yesterday I added the first coral, 2 small zoa frags of about 5 polyps each. I glued them onto a rock at the lfs, took them home a dripped them. When i put them in the tank, they soon opened up and looked very nice. This morning however, they are only parly open and some are a little folded over.

Saturday night i did a water change but noticed that my nitrates were still around 20. Since i was not going to be home for 2 weeks (left this morning actually) i decided to do another water change last (sunday) night. This morning the nitrates were around 10.

pH is stable at a liittle above 8
amonia 0
nitrite 0

last time i checked these was a week ago
alk (dkh) 11.2
ca 350
magnesium 1050


My light it a corallife mini might that a bought a couple years ago for a little refugium that i never got around to since i never set the tank up. Its a pc 50/50 18 watts./ Yes its low but my zoas are high enough up to be fine. Too high? Once my wallet says its ok i will upgrade to a 96w so that i can have a much nicer looking tank.

Ok, so since im not home, and wont be for two weeks, what should i tell my brother to do- take them out or give them time?

thanks

**** im late for class

 

[gobind]

GIVE THE TIME OR KEEP ON DOING WATER CHANGES

 

[Ladipyg]

How did you cycle the tank?...sound like an incomplete cycle with the nitrates that high...change out about a gallon a day and good luck.

 

[surfnvb7]

yeah, i'd say you added them too early. nano tanks have such unstable water chemistry.

i helped my girlfriend set up a 10g nano a while back. we waited 1 month before adding corals or any live stock. we just let the live rock cycle in the water. everything tested out fine, added corals, everything was fine for a month.

then when we finally added a fish, everything went to crap. nitrites jumped, silicates and phosphates jumped, all the zoas started dying etc. huge slime algae outbreak etc.

very big pain. so, big thing with those nano tanks is just make sure you have cycled completely, and just take it slooooooooow. i cant say i know anyone who did a 12g or under tank that rushed it and it didnt somewhat crash *eventually*

 

[FishMann]

yeah i figured as much. I just couldnt resist some nice looking free frags. Ill have my brother bring them back to the store and pick them up later.

I cycled the tank with partly cured live rock. The tank they were curing in had no ammonia, just nitrites. The tank is cycled in terms of no ammonia and no nitrite and the diatom bloom was normal. Just not established enough like surfnvb said.

 

[Ladipyg]

If you don't get an ammonia spike at some point, the tank hasn't been cycled correctly. You need the ammonia to feed the bacteria so that it grows enough to do it's job and break down wastes. I used plain household ammonia to cycle my 75 gallon tank, took 5 weeks and I added ammonia every 3rd day. 1 tsp for 75 gallons. Got my ammonia spike and than just let it go until everything was reading zero. Did a 60% water change and have never had a problem. surfnvb7 is right about nano's...they can go from sugar to sh*t in no time. Regualr water changes will help prevent that...good luck

 

[FishMann]

No, that was for the tank that the rock was curing in. There was still plenty of stuff to die off on the rocks and my tank cycled normally.

 

[FishMann]

for anyone interested, i got home sunday and everything looks fine. I had my brother make up some water and do changes. When i checked my trates they were significatly lower, practically 0.

pics
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=879064