Newbie

[liquidgsr]

Hello Wamas.  Joined up here not too long ago and started my first tank early last year.  I cycled the tank for about 6 months and then introduced my first few fish.  Thank is a Waterbox 130.4, Eshopps Skimmer 120, Hygger Titanaium Heater, 2 MP40s, Jaebo Return bump, Generic ATO, Two 150w Nicrew Lights

 

1st Yellow Clown Goby

2 Firefish Goby, Ora Lightning Maroon Clown

3 2nd Firefish Goby, Purple Firefish Goby, 2nd Ora Lightning Maroon Clown, Juvenile Blue Hippo Tang

4 Black and White Ocelarius Clown

5 Cleaner Goby and 6 line Wrasse

 

I have added some coral frags since

Dunkan

Kenya Tree

Green and Orange Montipora

Slimeball Acro

A few Zoa Frags

Birds Nest

Few other Acro

Chalace

 

I got a Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone that split into two.

 

My Green Montipora have lost color and bleached.  I think this maybe due to low iodine and calcium.  I have since started to dose iodine, but haven't dosed calcium yet.  The brids nest did the same.  I have not been able to borrow a PAR meter yet to check the levels.  I have my lights coming on for a little over 8 hours with the whites running for about 4hrs at 5% and blue at 20-25%, then 5 hours with just the blue at 30%.

 

I got the Wrasse and the Cleaner Goby 2 days ago from Petco.  They both hid and yesterday I found the Wrasse finally.  Unfortunately it came out of hiding and started swimming upside down.  I put it in my sump with no lights to calm it down, but this morning I found it dead.  I will have to check my parameters. All other fish are healthy.

 

After getting the black and white clown I had to remove my maroon clowns due to immediately bullying it.  They are now in a IM 16 AIO and are a mated pair.

 

I have a 5 gallon quarantine tank I have setup for when I buy the livestock and transfer them in the tank.

 

I have had a total of 5 Conch, Many types of snails (Margarita, Trochus, Nassarius, Turbo, Top Crown), and hermit crabs that have all died.  I now only Maragarita and Nassarius left.

[Origami]

Welcome. I hope that you find your stay here rewarding.

It sounds like you took your time cycling your tank. That's good.

It's hard to say why your Montipora is suffering. Guessing about iodine or calcium deficiency, and then acting on that isn't a good idea, though. You really need to test. I suggest five core tests to start: First: Salinity. Get a refractometer, calibrate it, and measure your salinity. Second: Temperature. Next: Calcium and Alkalinity are two of the most important ions to measure. And finally, measure your magnesium. Note that I didn't include phosphate, nitrate, potassium, or anything else. Not that these are without value, but because these are the most basic water parameters to track.

Test using quality test kits and post what you've found.

Regarding your wrasse, how long did you have it before it died? Did you follow any sort of quarantine protocol before adding it to your tank?

Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

[ReefdUp]

Welcome! Sounds like you're off to a great start! This group is great, with lots of knowledgeable and friendly folks. We have a meeting coming up very soon as well. Hope to see you there!

[Origami]

Here's an old thread that might be worth taking a look at, @liquidgsr, too.

[DFR]

 

On 1/3/2024 at 10:43 AM, liquidgsr said:

Hello Wamas.  Joined up here not too long ago and started my first tank early last year.  I cycled the tank for about 6 months and then introduced my first few fish.  Thank is a Waterbox 130.4, Eshopps Skimmer 120, Hygger Titanaium Heater, 2 MP40s, Jaebo Return bump, Generic ATO, Two 150w Nicrew Lights

 

1st Yellow Clown Goby

2 Firefish Goby, Ora Lightning Maroon Clown

3 2nd Firefish Goby, Purple Firefish Goby, 2nd Ora Lightning Maroon Clown, Juvenile Blue Hippo Tang

4 Black and White Ocelarius Clown

5 Cleaner Goby and 6 line Wrasse

 

I have added some coral frags since

Dunkan

Kenya Tree

Green and Orange Montipora

Slimeball Acro

A few Zoa Frags

Birds Nest

Few other Acro

Chalace

 

I got a Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone that split into two.

 

My Green Montipora have lost color and bleached.  I think this maybe due to low iodine and calcium.  I have since started to dose iodine, but haven't dosed calcium yet.  The brids nest did the same.  I have not been able to borrow a PAR meter yet to check the levels.  I have my lights coming on for a little over 8 hours with the whites running for about 4hrs at 5% and blue at 20-25%, then 5 hours with just the blue at 30%.

 

I got the Wrasse and the Cleaner Goby 2 days ago from Petco.  They both hid and yesterday I found the Wrasse finally.  Unfortunately it came out of hiding and started swimming upside down.  I put it in my sump with no lights to calm it down, but this morning I found it dead.  I will have to check my parameters. All other fish are healthy.

 

After getting the black and white clown I had to remove my maroon clowns due to immediately bullying it.  They are now in a IM 16 AIO and are a mated pair.

 

I have a 5 gallon quarantine tank I have setup for when I buy the livestock and transfer them in the tank.

 

I have had a total of 5 Conch, Many types of snails (Margarita, Trochus, Nassarius, Turbo, Top Crown), and hermit crabs that have all died.  I now only Maragarita and Nassarius left.

Looks like you are off to a good start in terms of equipment and stocking.  I’ll repeat what others have already said, you should test your alkalinity, calcium, nitrate and phosphate (assuming your salinity is stable) before blindly making adjustments.  

 

However, from the sound of things, you don’t currently have a demanding load your elements since you only have a handful of frags in a 130g.  This being said, I doubt your calcium would be a cause for the coral bleaching/fading.  Right now regular water changes would be the easiest, and since you’re not testing, the best way to keep things stable.  I’m also not familiar with the Nicrew lights, but having them both set to a max of 30% is a pretty low intensity.  This would only be a total of 90w over a 4-foot tank, which is equivalent to about 2 T5 bulbs.  Shy of knowing your par levels or how everything is set-up, I’d say increase your lights to >60% to help reduce loss.

 

There could be a number of reasons for fish loss.  What do you feed, and how often do you feed?

[cpeguero]

I’ll second the comment on not dosing without testing. I learned that the hard way a few years ago. Had iodine levels off the chart and lost a few fish because I was dosing iodine, but not testing.
 

No matter what you’re dosing, make sure you are testing that element. 

 

I’d strongly recommend the Hanna checker for calcium. Alkalinity is straightforward enough that a manual test is easy to do. 

[liquidgsr]

Thanks for the replies.  I have a Hanna Marine Master Testing kit that I use to test parameters.  I have not had time to test recently, but I am planning on dropping off the water samples to a LFS to get it all checked and hopefully figure out what is going on.

 

The Six Line Wrasse I had for maybe 2 days.  It went into hiding as soon as I got it in the tank.  I quarantined it along with the Cleaner Goby in a separate tank for maybe 4 hours before putting both of them in after acclimating them for a hour.

[liquidgsr]

So I picked up a Apex Neptune from a WAMAS member and also a Kactoily 7 in 1.  I setup the Apex Neptune and moved the Kactoily 7 in 1 to my 16g IM Ora Lightning Maroon Clownfish tank, but the salinity isn't showing anymore.  I have to figure that part out.  How do I hook up my 2 Ecotech MP40s to it?    I am still trying to figure out how to use this system and just have everything set to on.  I am also trying to figure out how to route my ATO and lights to Apex system.  I am looking for a Trident as well to add to the system.l. 

 

Side note, went to Aqua Haas and talked to Adam.  He said Phosphate levels are very high and need to lower them and said to raise the Alkalinity.  I just did a water change.  I need to do another water test, hopefully today and see how they are.  Picked up a Coral Beauty, Percula Clownfish, Orange Spotted Goby, Coral Banded Shrimp, and Turbo Snail from Fintastic.  Unfortunately the Shrimp didn't make it.  It hid right away in the tank and after 2 days died for some reason.  Fish are all happy.  I can't find my Cleaner Goby, He was maybe a half in inch long and I cant find him anywhere.

 

Side note, I am redoing my sump and noticed a lot of debri buildup at that bottom.  How do you all clean out your sumps of all that?

Edited January 18 by liquidgsr

[Origami]

@liquidgsr, just a suggestion, but post your questions in a separate thread in the General Discussion area rather than burying it in an old thread of yours. It may get more attention that way.

 

Inverts (such as your shrimp) are very sensitive to salinity changes (much more so than fish) and need to be acclimated very, very slowly. Improper acclimation can lead to inverts dying, often times, within several days to a week or more, later. 

 

Have you figured out your other technical issues? If not, go ahead and post separately in the appropriate forum.