Tank in Trouble?

[Guest Keyoke]

Gang,

 

I've noticed that over the last week or so nearly all of my inverts (snails, shrimp, etc) - including one .. majestic CBS that has been with me since the start of the tank have died. Nearly all of my snails, excluding a few of the larger narssis, are gone and only a handful of blue or tricolor hermits are left.

 

Tank water params look OK, I haven't tested for iodine yet (going to pickup a kit this weekend).. all of my corals are doing just fine though, so is my T.Maximus and all my fish..

 

Another possible symptom is that I can't seem to keep my skimmer under control. I'll get it adjusted just right and overnight the thing will dump nearly 2-liters of nearly clear, odorless water into the 2-liter collection bottle.. When I kick the skimmer back and re-adjust it's fine for a few hours but for no reason *blam* it goes nuts again.

 

I've also noticed a slight decline in pods - actually a rather marked decline. Even in my sump area where the things ran rampant as there were no predators there, the sump/fuge is almost empty - what bit of Grape Calurpa I had as disentigrated, and the only thing that seems to continue to grow well is Halimedia...

 

Anyone got any ideas? As I said water params look to be OK, though I'm going to pickup some new kits as the ones I got are a good year+ old now just to be safe...

 

Perhaps it's time for a water change.. I haven't done one yet (tank is a little over a year old now) but things were running so well... anyone got 30 gallons of RO?

[victorh]

Youve never ever done a water change?

 

Backup your thermometer, salinity, amonia, nitrates, and nitrites tests with someone elses test equipment.

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i second the thermometer. i used to have a bunch of snails always die and i took it down a bit and now my nas's are doing fine. do you have any blue leg/ red leg hermits? ive noticed that they love to eat es'cargo...

[davelin315]

List the tests that you have done and their results. And when you change water, don't do a drastic one, do a small one as the inhabitants have become used to the water. If you are losing a lot of water to the skimmer, what are you replacing it with? Have you checked your salinity? Perhaps it is off because of how you replace the skimmate that is taken out? If the inverts are dying, perhaps they are being affected by swings in the salinity or pH? Just guesses, but if you list what the test results are, it would help narrow down the possibilities.

[flowerseller]

I have 10g left of some excellent IO water I just made this weekend. I came on here to post the test results of it with the new salifert test kits I just got. You are welcome to it and I apologize for adding 10 just before to my system. Hey I'll hold the 10 I'll drain off after these posts since I know it's good. I am also filling my RO vat and you can take about 15 of that. I can meet you almost anytime tomorrow as of now, call me at the shop - 703.FLOWERS.

 

You mentioned your water params are fine but didn't give us any numbers.

Fine is fine but numbers tell the story. Care to share?

My first guess is nitrate or SG.

Was it suggested to you not to exchange water?

[Guest alex wlazlak]

i thought it might have been my nitrites, because they were/still are sky freaking high and the snails i have now are doing great.

[JMsAquarium]

I got about 20 gals of RO/DI I can spare (made this weekend). You are welcome to it if you can come and pick it up in Falls Church, in the evening.

LMK

 

JM

[dbartco]

Out purcellville way for any reason I have a 44 gal of new ro

[Sugar Magnolia]

I'm also thinking it could be your SG.

[Lee Stearns]

WHat kind of water you using to top off? If its tap you could have built up copper or any know variety of compounds that we generally do not test for over a year. Copper is an invert killer. Also w/o any water changes your magnesium and other trace elements will deplete much more rapidly- I have access to 10 gallons or RO and 5 gallons of fresh SW you are welcome to if I am any closer than the rest of the offers. PM if you need to drop by. Available most of the week> I also have a Magnesium test kit. but do not have one for copper.

[mutley29]

Yo Jeff

 

you can swing by and pick up some RO/DI from me, i've got 135gal container of it

 

LMK

 

Anton

 

Ps. i have moved but still in Manassas city

[Guest Keyoke]

WHat kind of water you using to top off? If its tap you could have built up copper or any know variety of compounds that we generally do not test for over a year. Copper is an invert killer. Also w/o any water changes your magnesium and other trace elements will deplete much more rapidly- I have access to 10 gallons or RO and 5 gallons of fresh SW you are welcome to if I am any closer than the rest of the offers. PM if you need to drop by. Available most of the week> I also have a Magnesium test kit. but do not have one for copper.

51046[/snapback]

 

 

I'm using distilled water from the local grocerystore.. I know, I know.. but it's worked well for the last year and since my wife STILL wont' let me get an RO/DI unit.. (I migh just do it anyway.. what's a week on the couch anyway, eh?)

 

I usually check the SG of the tank on a weekly basis when I need to top-off.. people are going to CRINGE when the learn my top off procedure..

 

Usually once a week I pickup about 4-5 gallons of water from the store and store it next to the tank with the lids cracked open a bit.. I usually end up having to add a little less than a gallon a day to make up for evaporation (90-G tank, 20L Sump) loss of skimmate, etc. Normally I just dump the makeup water down one of the two overflow pipes - tho SLOWLY.. over the course of about 20-30 minutes.

 

Once a week I normally clean the skimmer cup, wipe down the insides of the body with a paper towel, etc. If I'm running carbon for any reason I'll usually swap it out or take it out of the tank. Makeup water that day gets a dose of Kent Iodine (about 8 drops) and Kent Liquid Calcium (about 10 drops), and a couple of drops of Phyto-vert. Additionally I alternate between Coral-Vite and Essential elements (in those pre-measured tubes - 1 tube per 50Gal - I only us 1 tube) .

 

If SG looks to be low because of creep, I'll add a scoop or two of salt into the makeup water until I get it to slightly higer than it needs (e.g. 1.028 - 1.030). typically that brings me back into line with the 1.025~1.024 range that I shoot for.

 

I don't normally check water params that much, and as mentioned I've never done a water change in the year or so the tank has been up. If it ain't broke... I know that runs contrary to everything we've ever heard/learned/had beaten into us.. I ran a 40G breeder w/o a water change for 3 years w/o problem, provided I made sure to keep up on the trace elements.

 

I can say that when the tank was doing OK, the CBS would molt some times as often as once a month, and it wasn't uncommon to see my other crabs and shrimp to molt nearly as often. Snails grew well as well, the big Turbo just kicked it this morning and there is a good 1/2 of shell that's not covered by any coraline.. he was doing great.

 

Both grape and feathered calurpa have dissapeared from my fuge.. they're simply.. gone. All that's left is some halimedia (small leaf variety) which still seems to be OK, tho the growth rate is down.

 

I've also noticed I'm getting an outbreak of cyano and diatoms.. which makes me wonder about silica..

 

The only recent change was an upgrade to T5 (went from 4x 55W PC -> 4x 28W NO T5 - which even tho aren't HO bulbs suit my needs perfectly for now.. and at $28 a pop. 2x Actinic/2x 10K) but I did that back on Dec 21st (since then my Maxima has REALLY opened up.. could just be the new bulbs) I also ran a combination of carbon/zeolite over the holidays that was removed about a week ago - I went on vacation and didn't want my neighbor to have to deal with a lot so ran the carbon/zeo as a "just in case" measure..

 

now that I think about it... I wonder if it was that carbon/zeo combination.. after I removed it things started to go downhill..

[dbartco]

at least go by a nitrate test kit and post the results.

[HowardofNOVA]

Jeff,

Your running a 90g system, right?

#1 BUY A RO/DI UNIT YESTERDAY!!!!!

#2 See above just in case!

#3 Do a regular monthly water change, have you ever heard about cooking a live frog in a skillet? You keep adding heat slowly until, well cooked frog! That could jump out anytime, but changes slowly goes un-noticed! Same principal, you got to throw the old out for the new occasionally to allow your system time to rebuild, not slowly deteriate.

#4 Isn't there something about a refugium (Calurpa) that goes asexual or something, would that have anything to do with it?

#5 With the constant dumping of waste regularly into the system, its not surprising that your Nitrates are probably off the charts. Might be time for either a new skimmer or serious over-haul of the one you have.

Just my opinion!

Howard

[davelin315]

Check your nitrates. If the caulerpa did go sexual, depending on how much you have, you may have dumped an awful lot of nutrients into the water.