James's 34G Solana - new to saltwater, YIKES

[Randy-S]

i use a eheim 3581 auto feeder and it works great when i am on trips I grabed mine from petsmart
http://www.marinedepot.com/fish_food_eheim_feed-air_digital_auto_feeder-ap.html

 

[jgalvin]

thanks Randy! I'm going to be gone for 14 days, will this one work for that length of time?

i use a eheim 3581 auto feeder and it works great when i am on trips I grabed mine from petsmart
http://www.marinedepot.com/fish_food_eheim_feed-air_digital_auto_feeder-ap.html

 

[jaysauce]

thanks Randy! I'm going to be gone for 14 days, will this one work for that length of time?

BTW....Dennys pet world in kirkland is selling them for $29.99.

 

[jgalvin]

Fantastic, was about to order online, would rather keep the business local and I'm at Denny's at least every other week looking at their corals and fish.

BTW....Dennys pet world in kirkland is selling them for $29.99.

 

[jgalvin]

Help, first problem with tank!

HELP!

I have had the tank up and running 3 months (bought an established tank off craigslist). So far, other than my Blenny dying, in the past 3 months everything has been doing well (lots of new coral growth, fish happy). Since I've had the tank the Nitrates have been high, but have been doing weekly water changes, running the skimmer, and feed just a little once a day. While high for the past 3 months, everything was growing like weeds (in a good way). I did my weekly water change Saturday, everything happy. Sunday I wake up and all my xenia is dead, my leather looks to be dying, and the rest of my coral are all closed up. I check the water and everything is good except nitrates high (same as always). I ran to the LFS and bought 15G of saltwater and did an emergency change of 19G and added Amquel +. Any idea what's happened, nothing has been added to the tank for 2-3 week.

Any cause of why this is happening? I'm assuming a late cycle hit my tank. Any suggestions on how to treat/fix?

Thanks much!
James

 

[jgalvin]

just brainstorming on this, i do have a hammer coral that was starting to sting a xenia branch next to it, I was going to be fragging and giving some way. Could the sting have killed the peice next to it, which caused all the other pieces to die off (even on the other side of tank?)?

 

[FreakinReefin]

just brainstorming on this, i do have a hammer coral that was starting to sting a xenia branch next to it, I was going to be fragging and giving some way. Could the sting have killed the peice next to it, which caused all the other pieces to die off (even on the other side of tank?)?

Maybe yes...maybe no, but I can tell you that you really need to get those nitrates down and fast! With a relatively small tank it is pretty easy to do. I would grab yourself a cheap trash can from Home Depot or Fred Meyer and stock some SW from your LFS; get it to the same temp as your tank and do at least a 25-50% water change. Then do it again in a few a couple of days until the nitrates get lower. Nitrates don't get smaller unless you have a really developed refugium and even then a fuge doesn't completely eliminate them. With Xenia, you can really use them as a good indicator for water quality. When they are not expanding fully then you got a quality control issue.

 

[jgalvin]

Thanks for the reply Freakin.

I had been contemplating putting a refugium in the back and this might be the trigger I need to do that. I figured yesterday I did a 60-70% water change, but this morning everything still looked pretty bad. Will repeat again mid week. I'm hoping its the stinging/killing of the coral that is the root issue. While Nitrates way too high, they have not gone up any over the few month I've had the tank set up; and during those couple months, 3 xenia stalks have grown to close to 15. Will continue large water changes and see what comes back. Thanks again!

- James

 

[ashton]

Hey James are you running any carbon? It might not be a bad idea to run some carbon especially if you think corals may have been going after each other. And when you do the water change you will want to make sure you get the temp and sal. of the new water as close to your tank water as possible. Also you may want to test the water you are getting from Denny's to make sure there are no nitrates, phosphates or anything going on there.

 

[bigblue141]

In reading your post I noticed these corals in your tank:

torch coral
hammer coral
frogspawn coral

They have VERY long sweeper tentacles that come out during the night. Some are up to 6" long. If the sweepers are touching other coral, they would be stinging them. I'm guessing in the size tank you have, there is probably other coral in the vicinity of the above 3.

Make sure you have plenty of room around them and it should help with your coral "warfare"

 

[FreakinReefin]

In reading your post I noticed these corals in your tank:

torch coral
hammer coral
frogspawn coral

They have VERY long sweeper tentacles that come out during the night. Some are up to 6" long. If the sweepers are touching other coral, they would be stinging them. I'm guessing in the size tank you have, there is probably other coral in the vicinity of the above 3.

Make sure you have plenty of room around them and it should help with your coral "warfare"

+1 on the other corals in the area of the sweepers. Also a HUGE oversight by many new reefers is making sure the salinity, temp and other conditions are equal to the water you are putting in. You may be putting in water that is at least a couple degrees off and shocking your corals. I am betting it is a chemistry or temp issue. Chemistry more than temp though. I made a massive mistake when I started of topping off my evaporated water with saltwater. Make sure you are testing your salinity. Always top off with fresh RODI water.

Also, you don't want to do too large of a water change. 60-70% is pretty massive and the corals are essentially having to reaclimate themselves to the water condition. You want to make sure that you do maybe 25-30%...maybe a little bit more every few days or so, if you are trying to basically replace all the water in the system with new.

 

[jgalvin]

thanks for the replies. Still no clue what happened and why it is happening. I was only doing a 10% water change (RODI water) once a week. For 3 months everything flourishing and growing. I did the regular 10% water change (checking all parameters, heating it to exact temp, etc) on satuday morning. Woke up Sunday morning to most everything dead or closed. Thinking something got in the water, I ran to Dennys to get water and did an emergency 60% water change. Monday, more die off things no better. Ran to denny's again (now i'm thinking copper got in my tank?) and had them test, all parameters including copper and nitrates are perfect. I still do another 60-70% change. After the second major water change the torch and frogspawn start to open a bit, zoa's closed, xenia and leather and crabs, and some snails dead. and now the live rocks are starting to turn white

i figured at some point I would run into a problem, but thought I'd know the cause. I can't think of anything that could cause this, perhaps I rushed things, but wasn't expecting the whole sale die off. The 5 fish are doing fantastic though, they are unphased. I was hoping stuff would come back, but will start scrapping off the dead stuff this weekend to try to avoid an ammonia spike. I just wish I could figure out what happened, i can't believe my hammer stinging my xenia could cause all the immediate die off (not a problem anymore since its all dead).

Any and all ideas appreciated? I seached for hours online and went to two LFSs for advice and still stumped. Hoping it was just a random act and I can go back to the bliss of a happy healthy tank soon.

- James

 

[FreakinReefin]

thanks for the replies. Still no clue what happened and why it is happening. I was only doing a 10% water change (RODI water) once a week. For 3 months everything flourishing and growing. I did the regular 10% water change (checking all parameters, heating it to exact temp, etc) on satuday morning. Woke up Sunday morning to most everything dead or closed. Thinking something got in the water, I ran to Dennys to get water and did an emergency 60% water change. Monday, more die off things no better. Ran to denny's again (now i'm thinking copper got in my tank?) and had them test, all parameters including copper and nitrates are perfect. I still do another 60-70% change. After the second major water change the torch and frogspawn start to open a bit, zoa's closed, xenia and leather and crabs, and some snails dead. and now the live rocks are starting to turn white

i figured at some point I would run into a problem, but thought I'd know the cause. I can't think of anything that could cause this, perhaps I rushed things, but wasn't expecting the whole sale die off. The 5 fish are doing fantastic though, they are unphased. I was hoping stuff would come back, but will start scrapping off the dead stuff this weekend to try to avoid an ammonia spike. I just wish I could figure out what happened, i can't believe my hammer stinging my xenia could cause all the immediate die off (not a problem anymore since its all dead).

Any and all ideas appreciated? I seached for hours online and went to two LFSs for advice and still stumped. Hoping it was just a random act and I can go back to the bliss of a happy healthy tank soon.

- James

Did you make sure to check the salinity? If you did, did you use a Hydrometer or Refractometer? That just can't be a "stinging." That is a chemical and/or salinity issue. You gotta remember that you have a relatively small tank and any change or cycle is going to immediately affect your tank.

 

[jgalvin]

Thanks, yes I checked salinity with my hydrometer and the LFS's hydrometer - always kept it exactly at 1.024. When this happended I ordered a refractomer which is in transit. Honestly I wish it was something stupid I did (e.g. put in freshwater for water change, unplugged heater, put bleach in tank, anything), then I'd know what the issue is, blame myself, not do again, and happily move on.

Since my tank is young it was mostly free or $10 frags that died and CUC, although money is not the issue. The others LPS, Acans, and Zoas are hanginig in there, but still mostly closed up. Really the only answer I can think of is my hammer stinging the xenia and it causing a chain reaction by releasing some chemicals which aren't tested for with the standard test kit. Will update the thread with progress and thanks for the replies and suggestions. On all the dead corals in there, should I leave some to see if it grows back or remove it all?

- James

 

[jgalvin]

Its been awhile since i've updated my tank build. My last post was on my "melting xenia" a few months back. After that all my corals sprung back and have been very happy (i've concluded that my hammer stung the xenia and caused some sort of chain reaction causing all the xenia to "melt"). My frogspawn has grown from one frag to 8 heads. I'm now in month 9 of having my first saltwater tank, and loving the hobby. I am already wanting to upgrade to a bigger tank, but wanted to give my tank one year to see if I was committed to the hobby. The 34G solana is great, just kinda want bigger fish and more real estate for corals now.

Thanks for all the comments and here's a few FTSs. Thinking i have too much bioload in the tank now, so will likely be getting rid of my recently added chromis fish. My clowns have been laying eggs on the back wall every 3 weeks of so, kinda cool, but they don't get in the open tank too much as they hover over the eggs.

 

[jgalvin]

Well, my Solana is doing awesome, since these pics, traded the chromis to Kang and added a tailspot blenny. BUT, i've been running out of room in my 34G solana, so after way too much debate, on Friday I ordered a 57G reef ready oceanic illuminata from Denny's. They had a moon madness sale and i got the tank for $260. Very nervous about going to the bigger tank, but excited too. This solana was my first experience with saltwater and i learned so much over the past year. Will take my time getting the stand, light, sump, and stocking it, but will post a build thread when it gets going.

 

[Krish]

Your Solana looked great and I'm sure the new tank will be even better with all the added experience. It should be much easier for you to keep the bigger tank as more water volume equals more stability so things aren't as easily influenced like temp etc. You will be fine! Good luck!!

 

[jgalvin]

thanks Krish, i do consider myself lucky, other than melting xenia and a frag of blue tort that died, i've had zero problems with my tank in one year. from day one my nitrates have been on the high side (20), but temp, salinity, and other parameters have stayed very level.

all my LPS has grown from single heads to 10+. its been a super simple tank to maintain. i've gone on vacation for 2 weeks, no issue, and do a quick water change once every 2-3 weeks. so while excited for the new tank, have a feeling that i'm pressing my luck, but that's why this hobby is so fun. always something new you can do!

- James