Someone I need some advise Please

[tcoco]

IF bio balls in a wet/dry for what ever reason get fully submerged well not all of them just about 3/4 of them would it kill all the bacteria on them rendering another mini cycle. Someone please help. I had no trace of amonnia or nitrates for the longest time I added about 20# of live sand and some base rock about a week ago. My hermit died today and I did a water check and I have alittle trace of amonnia and nitrates. When adding the sand and rock I filled my bio chamber with water . I'm in the process of mixing some 5 new gals of water to do a change would this help

 

[bang guy]

No. Submerging your bioballs will not cause the bacteria to die off. The filtration will be slower and the gas exchange severly limited but it will still function. You may experience a slight rise in ammonia since less of it will be evaporating directly into the air but that will be very temporary and very slight.

 

[tcoco]

Ok bang I removed the water right after I relized it filled my bio area would the live sand have die off. What would make a hermit litterally jump out if its shell and die And no molting it was the carb the shell was in one part and the full crab in a corner.

 

[bang guy]

1 - How was the Live Sand transported to your aquarium?
2 - How long did it take?
3 - Is the Base Rock dead rock?
4 - Has the Base rock ever been in an aquarium?
5 - How is your snail doing?
Guy

 

[tcoco]

1&2. I bought the sand from here 2 day Fed-ex pkg very well added it on top of the south down as soo as I got home.
3. The base was dead very dead
4. No never in an aquarium was from hawaii very dry rock when I got it. nothing on it at all.
5. The snail isn't moving as much kinda dorment he's still alive because I can see him move back into his shell for now I have a very hard time keeping snails and crabs Don't know why and my LFS blows. the Anemone is looking great fully out waving around

 

[surfnturf]

Sometimes, crabs have trouble molting and die. That is the only time that they leave their shells(that I know of), other than to quickly dive into another shell. I have heard that if you don't have enough iodine in the water, this happens more often. I'm not saying that you have a problem with iodine, just that I've heard low levels can prevent a successful molt. HTH

 

[tcoco]

I don't know about the iodine level I don't have a test and I haven't added any

 

[bang guy]

1&2 - Live sand shipped even for 1 day will have some die-off. 2 days will have more die-off. I believe that is the source of ammonia. Anouther source could be organic material in the dry rocks that began to rot once it was submerged.
I have a feeling you had an Ammonia spike and it was already coming down when you tested it.
Sorry you lost your hermit.
I asked about the snail because they are also very sensitive to copper. I was wondering if your rock may have been contaminated. I think the Anemone would be suffering with copper. They are not easily affected by ammonia though.

 

[tcoco]

Thanks bang I was thinking the same about the sand I'm going to do 5 gal change tonight and hope this fixes the problem.
Thanks for you help

 

[tcoco]

Well I did my best to bring down my levels but I lost my snail. Damn . I got the ammonia level down from .25 to zero, but the nitrate was at 20. I'm goning to test again when I get home from work Hopefully the new filter media I put in and also added some new carbon will lower it some more.
so the readings last night were
ammonia 0
nitrate 20
ph 8.4
nitrite 0