W
weatherby
Guest
I have a 12g NanoCube that's been established for quite some time. This tank's previous owner housed sea horses and anemones in this tank for over 2 years prior to me taking ownership of it which should suggest how well established the tank is.
When I took ownership, the tank had four pieces of live rock teaming with bristleworms, small featherdusters, Christmastree worms, and baby serpent/brittle stars. The glass had plenty of those little white sponges that develop and the water teamed with 'pods.
Anyway, on to the point of this post:
Twice now I've had catastrophic events occur where all (or almost all) fish in the tank would die and even the feather dusters, bristleworms, and baby stars would become VERY stressed.
The first time this happened, about a month ago now, I lost a pair of clowns and my old featherduster. When I checked the water params at that time the nitrite levels were WAY too high and I thought that was the cause, but had no idea where the ammonia would have come from. Looking back now, I believe the nitrite in the water was an after affect of all the dieoff in the tank not the cause of it.
When I mentioned this to my lfs guru he said it sounded like something had leached all of the useful O2 out of the water, basically, suffocating the fish, and I presume nearly doing the same to the other animals. Now there is a large growth of hair algae on the back wall of the nanocube, and when I mentioned this he said that algae releases O2 while the lights are on, but releases CO2 when the lights are out, and this could, in a large enough concentration without aeration, leach the breathable O2 out of the water...
Well, it's happened again. Last night I lost a another pair of clowns, (maroon this time). I had 2 other fish in the tank for temporary holding until we finish our move as the other tank they will be going into is not ready yet. One of those two died as well as the clowns, and the second is not too happy, but I got him out of the nano and into an acclimation tub and began acclimating him to my 55g DT. He may or may not make it, but the other little visitor to the tank didn't make it...
Any thoughts on what would cause this kind of mass death so quickly? Both instances happened while the lights were off and the air pump used to aerate the cube and disburse that oily film on the surface was not plugged in. IS this hair algae killing my fish if I don't aerate the water constantly? Or is there something else wrong with this nano tank?
Oh, btw, the params for this second incident show no nitrite but over 70 on nitrates which were not this high prior to this event... so I attribute the high nitrates to the dieoff of the fish in this case... though I could be wrong. Opinions?
When I took ownership, the tank had four pieces of live rock teaming with bristleworms, small featherdusters, Christmastree worms, and baby serpent/brittle stars. The glass had plenty of those little white sponges that develop and the water teamed with 'pods.
Anyway, on to the point of this post:
Twice now I've had catastrophic events occur where all (or almost all) fish in the tank would die and even the feather dusters, bristleworms, and baby stars would become VERY stressed.
The first time this happened, about a month ago now, I lost a pair of clowns and my old featherduster. When I checked the water params at that time the nitrite levels were WAY too high and I thought that was the cause, but had no idea where the ammonia would have come from. Looking back now, I believe the nitrite in the water was an after affect of all the dieoff in the tank not the cause of it.
When I mentioned this to my lfs guru he said it sounded like something had leached all of the useful O2 out of the water, basically, suffocating the fish, and I presume nearly doing the same to the other animals. Now there is a large growth of hair algae on the back wall of the nanocube, and when I mentioned this he said that algae releases O2 while the lights are on, but releases CO2 when the lights are out, and this could, in a large enough concentration without aeration, leach the breathable O2 out of the water...
Well, it's happened again. Last night I lost a another pair of clowns, (maroon this time). I had 2 other fish in the tank for temporary holding until we finish our move as the other tank they will be going into is not ready yet. One of those two died as well as the clowns, and the second is not too happy, but I got him out of the nano and into an acclimation tub and began acclimating him to my 55g DT. He may or may not make it, but the other little visitor to the tank didn't make it...
Any thoughts on what would cause this kind of mass death so quickly? Both instances happened while the lights were off and the air pump used to aerate the cube and disburse that oily film on the surface was not plugged in. IS this hair algae killing my fish if I don't aerate the water constantly? Or is there something else wrong with this nano tank?
Oh, btw, the params for this second incident show no nitrite but over 70 on nitrates which were not this high prior to this event... so I attribute the high nitrates to the dieoff of the fish in this case... though I could be wrong. Opinions?
