Help! I cant keep anything alive in my nano! - Page 2

Shadow Tempter · #26 01/06/2005, 06:19 PM

Just Seachem Reef Buffer, a drop of lugol's and a capful of strontium once a week (to the main tank).

I'm also thinking of adding Seachem Stability has anyone tried this product? And planning on seeding the sand bed if I can find a store here in cali that has those (70-99 bucks from ipsf and inland is a bit too much i think)

Shoukd I adding something in the tank this weekend (if all the tests look good this weekend) just to see if the water is going well - any recommendations?

bobioden · #27 01/06/2005, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadow Tempter
Just Seachem Reef Buffer, a drop of lugol's and a capful of strontium once a week (to the main tank).

Are you testing for Strontium? If not, then you shouldn't be dosing it. It is one chemical that can mess with a tank. Who told you to dose a capful a week?
I still think it has somtething to do with cooper. Was the tank used for anything before you used it?

How do I acclimate. I float the bag for 10 minutes, throw some of my tank water in the bag for a few minutes, than either net the fish or pick the coral out and into the tank it goes. And I have never had one death doing it this way, and I have added TONS of things to my tanks.

Bob

Carl_in_Florida · #28 01/06/2005, 06:51 PM

Do you happen to have wife or girlfriend that hates your nano tank? Do you have any "buddies" that may think it is cool to try to get fish drunk? Any kids that might drop stuff in a fuge?
I still say it was a chemical contaminate. Hope all is well.

Carl

Shadow Tempter · #29 01/06/2005, 06:55 PM

Yes I'm testing, strontium is ok in my main tank (well, almost a week...more like when i remember to dose though) not the nano.

We'll see how this one turns out this time...

DongShenYin · #30 01/06/2005, 06:57 PM

Just a note, Shadow... slow down! Altering a ton of things so much so soon may cause other problems. Especially if you want to troubleshoot the situation.

Shadow Tempter · #31 01/06/2005, 07:34 PM

Dong,
Trust me, I'd like nothing more than let it for awhile and let nature take its course. But I'd like to know if I solved what was causing the crash or not (I might not know what caused it, but atleast I can sleep at night knowing that the tank is ok)...and the only way to find out is to put something live in the tank...

Carl,
The nano is safely out of reach of the my kids, no buddies for parties (i wish), and I'm actually setting this up for my wife's sister for her office so...I think she wants it to do well...and so do I so, I can place some corals from the main tank in there that the wife picked out and grab me some more corals that I want)

Shadow Tempter · #32 01/06/2005, 07:34 PM

Dong,
Trust me, I'd like nothing more than let it for awhile and let nature take its course. But I'd like to know if I solved what was causing the crash or not (I might not know what caused it, but atleast I can sleep at night knowing that the tank is ok)...and the only way to find out is to put something live in the tank...

Carl,
The nano is safely out of reach of the my kids, no buddies for parties (i wish), and I'm actually setting this up for my wife's sister for her office so...I think she wants it to do well...and so do I so, I can place some corals from the main tank in there that the wife picked out and grab me some more corals that I want)

DongShenYin · #33 01/06/2005, 07:49 PM

Just a simple and stupid question... was the tank new when you got it?

Shadow Tempter · #34 01/06/2005, 07:53 PM

yeah it was new...it's a 12"L x 6"W (bowfront) x 8"H glass tank with a tank-mounted 9w lamp (from aqualux or something). The lamp was getting corroded with salt creep so I swiched to a mini-aqualight fixture.

DongShenYin · #35 01/10/2005, 05:07 AM

How's the tank, Shadow? (I know it's only been 3 days...)

k_kagy · #36 01/10/2005, 03:49 PM

I only read your first post and noticed that the same thing happend to me just before my tank crashed. My snails were dying, hermits and the rocks smelled of rotting flesh. My tank had been running for a few months and was already cycled. The problem came while on vacation my brother did something to cause what ever happened.
Anyway--you might have gotten bad rocks.
What I did was start completely over. New sand, LR, let all my filters dry out completly for a few days. What ever was in my tank that killed my snails =0 needed to go.
It is also really easy to overdose a small tank. If you added to much calcium or whatever that could be your problem.
Anyway this might be repeated info, but good luck.
Kent

brianemone · #37 01/10/2005, 08:02 PM

all i know is that mushies dont die from no aclimatization, those things are tough to kill (unless it was on its way out before you put it in)

NwG · #38 01/10/2005, 08:15 PM

please stop putting animals into your tank until after you have fixed the problem... also you changed the filter so the tank will need to recycle unless you used your old biofilter.. what did you clean your rock with??? the die off from this will add to the problems in your nano...

SIR PATRICK · #39 01/10/2005, 10:24 PM

I wouldnt use those rocks again. The rocks tend to absorb metals, including copper. When I 1st started to try salt water, I bought rocks out of a tank with copper, and couldnt keep any invertabrates alive. That was before I eaven knew copper was hazerdous, and it was in some tanks.I never tested for copper, but these days I look back and realize my big mistake. Now a days I keep softies with ease with pretty much the same hardware, and different insides to the tank.

k_kagy · #40 01/11/2005, 01:40 AM

I agree. Go with some new rocks. Your size tank won't cost too much anyway. In the long run it will pay off. If you do decide on this I would just start over again. Just fix the problem at once rather than trying to tweek it over time.
Kent

Shadow Tempter · #41 01/12/2005, 02:49 AM

Well, I started over again after I couldnt figure out what was wrong...(I did test for copper, and it was negative). I changed the setup with: 12" aqualight, whisper with carbon and added some live rock and sand from my main tank. I emptied the nano's saltwater and used my tank water. I've done this since my last post, 5% water change (twice now) and it all looks good...(I saw a nassarius snail that i thought died, pop out 10min. later after filling it with my tank water). I've been testing every day for ammo-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-0, ph 8.0, alk-8.6, cal-480 its all been constant so I added a small piece of GSP on monday...which opened up right away...and a couple of aptasia showed its brown polyps the next day (i never thought i'd be happy to see those). Tonight, I'm gonna start weening the nano water from my tank water and get it used to freshly made water.

Really, I don't know where I went wrong...but I guess we can rule out the copper (I'm still testing every day though...just incase)

I guess I should get that aptasia out soon though before it multiplies...

Thanks for the input all...it really helps put nano into perspective...

k_kagy · #42 01/12/2005, 02:32 PM

In your nano I wouldn't dose with anything. Once the tank starts filling up with lots of corals, than you might want to add a couple drops of calcium.
Good luck, glad everything is going well so far.
Kent

Broodingwolf · #43 01/12/2005, 03:37 PM

sorry I might have missed this but did you have your water tested somewhere else? It may be that your test kit is just damaged or old.

dingofarmer · #44 01/13/2005, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aeherold
Acclimation Question Here: ok, so there seems to be quite a range. What is the consensus on acclimation? One article I read said float the bag in the tank 10 minutes for temp, then do mini water changes in teh bag with your own tank water, like 10% every 10 minutes for 100 minutes, then just put the water and fish into the tank. Thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Anne

Personaly, I float the bags for 20m, then add 1/3 cup of tank water every ten minuts for an hour or maybee longer if there is alot of water in the bag. Works great for me. Just added my second string clean up crew. the starting line is overworked

I do not dump the LFS water in though, when I feel they are ready I carefully empty as much water out. pull if I can otherwise I'll slowly coax the others in. my 2 cents.

dingofarmer · #45 01/13/2005, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadow Tempter
Just Seachem Reef Buffer, a drop of lugol's and a capful of strontium once a week (to the main tank).

I'm also thinking of adding Seachem Stability has anyone tried this product? And planning on seeding the sand bed if I can find a store here in cali that has those (70-99 bucks from ipsf and inland is a bit too much i think)

Shoukd I adding something in the tank this weekend (if all the tests look good this weekend) just to see if the water is going well - any recommendations?

16G nano. I used Seachem stability from day one. Tank was cycled in a week, was able to add lR on day 3. Sand was settled by day 2. I used it, double dose for one week. It setup the tank. I did not add any Live stock until week two and it was just two hermits, 2 turbos, one perparment shrimp. Water test still look good. Its not the ultimate anwser but it works. just needs time to setup. week 4 any its going good. I'm not a big fan of adding all kinds of crap, but this stuff has a good rep around here, seems to work better for smaller tanks though???????