madducks42
Resident Nihilist
Hey Everyone!
It's been a while since I posted here and even longer since I've managed to go to a meeting. I decided to go back to school about a year ago in addition to working full-time and starting a part-time business. So I basically have no free time anymore, lol. But I'm almost done with school so I'll be able to start participating in various hobbies again. Yay!
Back to the subject at hand. Almost two years ago, right before both me and Caesar got crazy busy in our work lives, we decided that our 90 gallon tank was going strong and it'd be fun to do a nano tank. Honestly don't know what we were thinking. We got a Red Sea nano, I don't remember the exact gallon size, it's either the 21 gallon or 34 gallon. Unlike our 90 gallon which we constantly freaked out over and constantly tried new methods instead of just leaving it alone for the first year, the nano tank was largely left on it's own for the first year. We kicked off the ammonia cycling processes but after that it was just regular water changes every 1-2 weeks, usually about 15% of the water. We added one fish about six months in and since then only a handful of coral. We haven't been adding calcium or alkalinity because there isn't really any coral in the tank, I recently added two small frags about two months ago.
The problem is that any invert I put in the tank dies within a few days. Shrimp. Dead. Hermit crabs. Dead. Snails. Super dead. There are actually three snails that have survived for over a month now but that's three survivors out of over a 100. So not good odds. The fish that's in the tank has been in there for over a year now and is doing fine. The few coral frags in the tank are surviving but not thriving. And the algae is out of control. I'm pretty bad at figuring out what type of algae it is. It's brown, kind of filmy, no air bubbles or strings. It covers everything and if I clean it off everything in the tank it will be back within two days.
So long story short, I'm trying to figure out why any invert I add to the tank dies. And secondary, figure out what's up with the algae. Open to any ideas or suggestions.
Tank Info
- It's been up and running for almost 2 years at this point.
- Calcium: 390
- Alkalinity: 6.8
- Magnesium: 1300
- Phosphates: 0
- Nitrates: 0
- Copper: 0
- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrites: 0
Additional notes, it's possible that the calcium and alk swing a bit. Going to try and test every day for the next two weeks. Every time I've tested they've been pretty close to these numbers but I think I usually test after doing a water change. I keep suspecting it's copper but I've tried two different testing kits and it always comes back as zero copper in the tank. We use r/o water and it's the same water source that we use in our 90 gallon and my frag tank, both of which are thriving and have zero issues.
It's been a while since I posted here and even longer since I've managed to go to a meeting. I decided to go back to school about a year ago in addition to working full-time and starting a part-time business. So I basically have no free time anymore, lol. But I'm almost done with school so I'll be able to start participating in various hobbies again. Yay!
Back to the subject at hand. Almost two years ago, right before both me and Caesar got crazy busy in our work lives, we decided that our 90 gallon tank was going strong and it'd be fun to do a nano tank. Honestly don't know what we were thinking. We got a Red Sea nano, I don't remember the exact gallon size, it's either the 21 gallon or 34 gallon. Unlike our 90 gallon which we constantly freaked out over and constantly tried new methods instead of just leaving it alone for the first year, the nano tank was largely left on it's own for the first year. We kicked off the ammonia cycling processes but after that it was just regular water changes every 1-2 weeks, usually about 15% of the water. We added one fish about six months in and since then only a handful of coral. We haven't been adding calcium or alkalinity because there isn't really any coral in the tank, I recently added two small frags about two months ago.
The problem is that any invert I put in the tank dies within a few days. Shrimp. Dead. Hermit crabs. Dead. Snails. Super dead. There are actually three snails that have survived for over a month now but that's three survivors out of over a 100. So not good odds. The fish that's in the tank has been in there for over a year now and is doing fine. The few coral frags in the tank are surviving but not thriving. And the algae is out of control. I'm pretty bad at figuring out what type of algae it is. It's brown, kind of filmy, no air bubbles or strings. It covers everything and if I clean it off everything in the tank it will be back within two days.
So long story short, I'm trying to figure out why any invert I add to the tank dies. And secondary, figure out what's up with the algae. Open to any ideas or suggestions.
Tank Info
- It's been up and running for almost 2 years at this point.
- Calcium: 390
- Alkalinity: 6.8
- Magnesium: 1300
- Phosphates: 0
- Nitrates: 0
- Copper: 0
- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrites: 0
Additional notes, it's possible that the calcium and alk swing a bit. Going to try and test every day for the next two weeks. Every time I've tested they've been pretty close to these numbers but I think I usually test after doing a water change. I keep suspecting it's copper but I've tried two different testing kits and it always comes back as zero copper in the tank. We use r/o water and it's the same water source that we use in our 90 gallon and my frag tank, both of which are thriving and have zero issues.
I think carbon/sponge is good idea, also how many inverts are you adding? I wonder if there just isn't enough of a food source to sustain them?
