911 Help

[mrcowboy]

Background:
12 gall nano cube
10 pounds of live sand
17 pounds of live rock
The tank cycled for 7 days. The am and the nirtire spiked and lowered to 0. I then placed a cleaning crew in 4 days ago (1 brit star, 1 sand sifting star, 10 hermits, and 3 turbo snails.) I was informed my am would go up a little bit because the new bio load introduced.
I woke up this morning and my water was really really cloudy (greyish white). I tested my water and my am was at .25 nitrite was as 0 and my nitrate was at 0 as well. Ph is at 7.8 and the temp is steady at 76. One of my snails was hunched over and my hermits are no longer moving as there were when they first were placed inside the tank. I did a 20% water change and retested with the same results. I let them be for a few hours and the water is still cloudy and they dont move. I don't think they are dead as they move a tad bit but im worried help!!!! PLEASE

 

[loganj]

I'm not sure your tank is through cycling...7 days is a VERY short cycle. However, .25 is not a dangerous ammonia level. Any ammonia is not good though. I'd check it and the nitrite every day and do whatever water changes were required to keep it in check. Most inverts are sensitive to any amount of ammonia/nitrite and will not be very active if any is present. How did you acclimate them? Turbos can be quirky and need careful acclimation as do the stars. Although ammonia can cause cloudy water, it sounds to me as though you have a bacterial bloom going on. These are usually harmless and will subside on their own in a few days once they have run out of food. I would not feed anything for a while, run the skimmer, and keep a check on the water parameters.

 

[mrcowboy]

Thank you so much. I guess I have to sit here and wait it out. I acclimated with a turkey baster. I cut a hole on the top of the bag dropped tank water in. waited 15 mins. dropped more water in. waited. repeated till bag filled emptied half of the water into a bucket and did it again. 2nd time around i dumped the water into a bucket and fished the guys out and set them into tank. =-(

 

[steve r]

inverts are also sensitive to ph. i think 7.8 may be a little low. did your ph come up after the warer change?

steve r

 

[JohnNLuc]

I would have to agree with logan 7 days is entirely too short for a full cycle even if you used sand from an established tank. My other concern is that the sand sifting star will not have enough room to roam in such a small tank. I dont know if you were told but sand sifting stars will eat all the things you look for in a sand bed such as pods, worms and other creatures and in a 12G tank he will go through it in no time. I'm sure I sound like a broken record but Nano's are very hard to keep if you are new to this hobby due to the water volume and how fast things can go wrong.

Just my .2

 

[Hara]

a cycle takes roughly a month to go from start to finish. Could you tell us how you cycled your tank? What you used for the ammonia source?

 

[mrcowboy]

inverts are also sensitive to ph. i think 7.8 may be a little low. did your ph come up after the warer change?

The ph did not raise.

My brit star bit the big one sometime while I was sleeping. The crabs look ok now as well as the snails. The sand sifter im going to return to the LSF. Thanks for the help guys. I guess I'll have be forced to be wait longer as money won't be avail for super long. But thats a good thing... For the livestock anyways

 

[IfoundNemo]

I would get a bigger tank if i were you. Less headache down the road.

 

[mrcowboy]

I'll just make sure I ask a lot of questions on the forums before I make moves with live stocking. Should I pick up any other test besides am, nirite, nitrate, and ph? And what should me water parameters be at with them?