My wife and I are new to saltwater.   We bought a 150 gallon established saltwater tank with hundreds of mushrooms, and some other soft corals, snails, crabs, 3 perculas, etc.  Two and a half weeks before we picked up the tank, the pump and lights and heater got turned off, and everything died.  We transported everything home, including the water and re-set up the tank about a month ago. 

 

We ended up with a single mushroom that survived and two snails, and several Aiptasia which have done nothing but multiply. 

 

We have 3 - 250 watt metal halide lights, 3 blue acitinics (all at least a year old), a wave maker with four small powerheads, a protein skimmer, and a small 20 gallon refugium with some sand, rock and nothing else.

 

We have purchased 150 small detritus-eating snails (Oblagatas?) and 125 small blue legged hermits and a single cleaner shrimp.  We've added three fish and sadly lost all three (a powder blue tang, and two small Chromis).   The tang lasted 4 days, one Chromis disappeared (?), and the other lived 12 days.

 

We have a 6 inch sand bed (but we have no idea how live it is anymore), and about 75+ lbs of live rock (we hope).  The temperature is between 78 and 80 degrees, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, PH and Salinity are all right where they should be. 

 

We are looking for some Peppermint shrimp to help our Aiptasia problem, some macro algae for our naked refugium, some sand stirrers (not sure anything survived that 2 1/2 weeks before we brought the tank home), some Algae eating snails to help with our considerable Algae problem, and some friendly advice. 

 

We'll be at the meeting on the 4th, anxiously looking to expand our knowledge and bring home whatever we can to help our situation.  

 

Thanks,

 

Dale and Terri Baker

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the WMAS!

 

From reading your post, its clear that you have done some research! That is a great first step and will most definately pay off in the end.  Fortunately, those items on your want list will be available at the meeting this coming Thursday.

 

I can give you some advice: be patient.  The hobby takes time and perseverance.  Now, read what come next (very likely from Mark) and good luck.

 

BTW, I wouldn't worry anymore about sifting the sand. That many hermits will take care of that!

 

PH was 8.3, Nitrite was less than 0.3 mg/l, Ammonia was zero, salinity - between .022 and.023, Nitrate is at 0, Alkalinity is 2.5.

 

 

The tank had been running for more than 3 years, and pretty successfully, we think. 

 

We transported everything in huge rubber containers.  We pumped some of the tank water into the containers, then gently lifted the rock out of the tank and put it in the tubs, until all of the water and all of the rock was removed.  The rock remained submerged for the entire move.  Then we scooped out the sand and put it in a container with the remainder of the tank water.  We drove it all home (about 25 miles) and as soon as we got home, we put pumps, lights and heaters in each of the tubs with the rock and the sand to begin circulating and warming the water, rock, sand, etc.  The next day, we disassembled the tank and equipment, cleaned it up, moved it and reassembled it.  We did rinse the sand slightly with 20 gallons of tank water that we reserved.  We put all of the tank water, rock and sand in the tank and added about 40 gallons of premixed, heated 4 day aged water (yes we have an RO/DI). 

 

Algae:  Oh yes, we have algae.  Lots of beautiful, long, flowing, pesky Algae.  Some on the glass, but we've tried to keep that cleaned off.  We're hand pruning it everyother day or so.  The Aiptasia's worry me.  We had about 8 survive the move, but we must have 30 or 40 now.  They're in everyrock, and in the sand, and we've seen a few tiny free floating babies. 

 

Your expertise is most welcome.  We've been reading and studying for about 6 months, anticipating beginning a saltwater reef aquarium, but so far we've had lots of puzzling frustrations and we're hoping you can help us find some success. 

 

We're in Cache Valley in Lewiston, a little town near the Idaho Border.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Anyone have any ideas why our fish keep dying?  We are able to keep some things alive.  Our little Skunk Cleaner Shrimp is a happy little guy that will eat out of all of our hands.  He's growing and has even molted already.  We have some tiny feather dusters on all of the rocks, and have seen some tiny 1/4" red and white spiky worms (some kind of bristle worm maybe?). 

Filtration:  two hang on the back continuous siphon overflows that go into a 35 gal bucket holding about 20 gallons of water, rock and about 2 inches of sand.  We have a turboflotor 1000 protein skimmer with a 9.5 magdrive pump cycling water back to the main system.  That's it.  We have the return outlet and 4 small powerheads for water circulation inside the tank.  But that's it.  Nothing organic in the refugium at all.

I agree. It sounds like throwing gas on a fire.

And thanks to all who have offered their help and advice, we hope to thank you all in person on Thursday.

 

Second, Pick up as muck live sand that you can from as many members that you can. I will bring some for you. Your system has suffered a major disaster. It needs all the live infusion that we can give you. My 125 has live sand from 9 different tanks when I set it up. Several pounds from some. IMO it helps to get things going on the right track. If you want I will also donate a couple of pounds of live rock. It all adds bio diversity for your system. With infusions from several members tanks you will see great strides fairly soon.

I didnt notice, but are you useing a filter sock? If not I would recomend useing one at least for now. Also do weekly water changes in the neiborhood of 20g at a time. That will bring your "bad" levels down and help with maintaining the nessesary levels of the essentials. IMHO I wouldnt put ammonia or anything else in your tank that can push you backwards.

Please read this http://www.garf.org/ugly.html - www.garf.org/ugly.html and then call me to discuss the specific pros and cons of things that can be done with your particular tank.

My number is below. If long distance is a problem, call me with your number and I'll call you right back.

 

We talked with Mark Peterson today who offered some good advice and told us of some good articles to read.  Then Steve Burton called and generously offered to come over and test and look over the aquarium.  We learned a lot from his visit, and apparently things are not as dire as we thought, he said he's seen worse.  All water parameters were good (Calcium was a little low).  The hair algae is abating a bit thanks to some good advice (ugly mermaid web artical referenced above - Thanks Mark).  We've pulled out tons of algae by hand, and the regrowth is slowing down.  The hermits and snails are beginning to make some noticeable difference. 

 

Thanks to Steve we now have a plan on how to improve our refugium, overflows, water flow, aquarium look, and have a better idea on how to proceed with inverts, fish and corals.  Today was quite and education, and we're looking forward to tomorrow nights meeting. 

 

Thank you to all who have offered live sand and macro algae, I think that will be the final puzzle piece that will get us set in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I add as much sand as I can get from a friend's tank, live rock from the store and fill with water.  There will be plenty of die-off from the live rock alone to cycle the tank.  When the ammonia drops to zero, I start to add livestock.  And I add livestock slowly to allow bacteria colonies to catch up to the increased bioload.

The use of pure unscented ammonia ...

 

I find it incredulous that you'd suggest to an admitted Novice to add ammonia to their tank.  Using ammonia to cycle or even test for nitrifying bacteria is best left up to the experienced hobbyist, imo.  Even then, I'd suggest an ammonia salt over liquid ammonia.

The biggest draw back to using pure unscented ammonia over typical fish foods, or grocery store bought table shrimp is the method requires a large water change of 90%.

 

Help me out.  Why does this method require such a large waterchange?

 

The pure unscented ammonia can reek havoic on the PH of a tank

 

You're adding enough ammonia to cause a pH increase?  That's a lot.  Another reason to use an ammonia salt.