snails and fish keep dying

M

monsterm

Guest
Hi guys,
I'm a bit fustrated with my 14 gal biocube. It all started with an algae problem I had a couple months ago. So I bought an algae attack pack with 10 magarita snails and 10 hermits. All of the magaritas died in a matter of a month. The hermit survived a little longer before their numbers started to dwendle. I was left with about 4 hermits which I still have. I added about 18 more hermits and from what I can see they are sill thriving. I tried to put more margaritas in my tank because they did such a good job when I had them, but they all died in a matter of days. So I gave up on margaritas and tried turbo snails but it was the same thing. I held off on adding any animal to the tank for about a month, then I tried to add fish insted. I tried a firefish, it died within 48hrs.
Then I decided to get 2 cromis a few months later. One of them did not last through the night. They were both fine when I acclimated them in the bucket but as soon as i put them in the water, the one that died started acting strange. the other lasted for about a week. But I woke up to see the hermits snacking on the cromis. I do a water change once a week. My ammonia= 0, Ph= 8.0, nitrite=0 nitrate=5, salt=1.023. I don't know what is going on. I've had the nano for 9 months. I have not made any modifications to the biocube. The only thing I have in the tank is green star polyps and the hermits. I am afraid of putting any thing else and wasting my money. Does anyone have any suggestions? There is so much things I want to do with the nano.
Thanks
 
fenrir

fenrir

Member
First of all that is way to much of a clean up crew. I have the same tank with two medium sized fish and I only have 3 hermits and 4 astrea snails,2 nasarous and fighting conch. SO you might be seeing die off of your clean ups from starvation. Also what are you using for chekcing your salinity? I had a similar problem with keeping corals when I was using a hydrometer and I thought I was keeping it .023 when actually I was keeping it at .045
 
raymondcookjr

raymondcookjr

Member
Originally Posted by monsterM
http:///forum/post/2516943
Hi guys,
I'm a bit fustrated with my 14 gal biocube. It all started with an algae problem I had a couple months ago. So I bought an algae attack pack with 10 magarita snails and 10 hermits. All of the magaritas died in a matter of a month. The hermit survived a little longer before their numbers started to dwendle. I was left with about 4 hermits which I still have. I added about 18 more hermits and from what I can see they are sill thriving. I tried to put more margaritas in my tank because they did such a good job when I had them, but they all died in a matter of days. So I gave up on margaritas and tried turbo snails but it was the same thing. I held off on adding any animal to the tank for about a month, then I tried to add fish insted. I tried a firefish, it died within 48hrs.
Then I decided to get 2 cromis a few months later. One of them did not last through the night. They were both fine when I acclimated them in the bucket but as soon as i put them in the water, the one that died started acting strange. the other lasted for about a week. But I woke up to see the hermits snacking on the cromis. I do a water change once a week. My ammonia= 0, Ph= 8.0, nitrite=0 nitrate=5, salt=1.023. I don't know what is going on. I've had the nano for 9 months. I have not made any modifications to the biocube. The only thing I have in the tank is green star polyps and the hermits. I am afraid of putting any thing else and wasting my money. Does anyone have any suggestions? There is so much things I want to do with the nano.
Thanks
RAISE YOUR PH TO 8.2/8.4 BRING DOWN YOUR NITRITE TO 0 BRING YOUR SALT UP WHAT IS YOUR KH
 
fenrir

fenrir

Member
I use a refractometer now, very accurate and you will wonder how you lived with out it. It will run you about $60 but it lasts alot longer than a hydrometer.
 
M

monsterm

Guest
does anyone have any suggestions on why my fish are dying? Is it just a bad batch of fish or should I take out the bio balls and replace them? The star polyps have been florishing it has even spread a little. So I don't know whats wrong. I am planning to add a few frags this weeked. Will they be safe? What other tests should I get to insure my water is healthy?
Thanks
Mo
 
M

monsterm

Guest
I drip acclimate them for about 2 hrs. I think I read in one of the other threads that you should acclimate snails for about 3 hrs is that correct? if that is the case I think I should start doing that.
 
perfectdark

perfectdark

Active Member
What kind of test kits are you using? Strips or Liquid? Your nitrate level is not causing the deaths IMO. And according to your readings there is nothing that should be dieing. I would question your test kits first. Your first chromis most likley died from acclimation shock. If you didnt catch him in time and he sat in your tank for a while its possible for that to have created an amonia spike which could of started the whole crisis your in now. Did you do a water change when you noticed the first dead chromis? If not the amonia could of hurt the other along with your inverts. Its possible that your other chromis being affected by the first ones death caused his death, amonia burns the gills of fish and its affects can somtimes not been seen until an unexplained death occurs. Now 2 fish deaths inside of a week and the second was definatly not noticed till the next day. So the possibility of more amonia being released is indeed somthing to consider. Which can also be the reason why more of your inverts died too. JMO.
 
M

monsterm

Guest
Thanks PerfectDark for the explaination. what you said makes lots of sense. because its such a small tank, things can go wrong so fast. I use liquid test, and I think it is time to get rid of my tests. I think they are old. I am not adding any supliments into the tank would i need to test for calcium? How important is KH test. I use an Ro/Di water?
thanks
 
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