Took over established Tank in need of help

[JSE]

Last night I brought home a 12 gal nano cube with lots of coral and a very small clownfish. The former owner was tired of the hobby and wanted to get rid of it. He parted with everything he had VERY cheaply. It was clear when I went to pick it up that maintainence had been somewhat neglected for a while, but when I got it home and put all the water back in, all sorts of gunk came out of the sand, pumps and filters. There was a lot of stringy stuff that that settled on the corals and stuff floating on the top as well.
I am at work right not but plan to do a PWC when I get home in a few hours. I wish I could have done one last night but it was way to late.

The fish was alive and swimming last night, but this morning I couldn't find him. I hope he was just hiding in the rock. Also, the two snails that are in there both climbed out of the water and are hanging out on the inside lip of the tank. I'm assuming this is because of increased nitrate levels based on what I've read. The corals looked better this morning and a few opened up when the light came on althought I didn't have a chance to stay and observe. I'll post pictures of everything as soon as I get a chance.

Other than a PWC is there anything else I can do to get this tank back in good condition? How should I go about cleaning the stringing gunk off the corals? Also, a little bit of sand settled out on some of the smaller lower corals (Zoas I think) is this a problem? Thanks in advance for the help and I'll post updates.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome to AA. If you are talking about hair algea being the stringy stuff then when you do your PWC`s then siphon up the algea when you take the old water out and then put new SW in. Do this weekly for good results.

 

[pat8you]

You can use a turkey baster or eye dropper to blow the sand of of your corals. It may irritate them.

 

[JSE]

I'm sad to say that the clownfish didn't make it. I found him wedged between the a rock and the glass. He must have died last night thats why I didn't see him this morning. It was really hard to get him out, but I did. I took some water to the LFS to test because I was having trouble with the test kit. They told me that everything looked fine (they used one of those 5 in 1 strips) They guy I got the tank from had the heater set to 79 but they said that was a little high and that I should put it to 76. What do you think?

Whats more upsetting than the fish dieing is the coral. See the pictures below. The LFS said not to do any and just let the tank run. I was planning on changing out a gallon or so, but I thought I'd opinion form you all. Most of the stuff that was floating around in the tank has settled out and is gone. I guess it was just stuff in the sand that got kicked up during the move. Is there anything else I should be doing? Do you think that the purple coral will live, one side is pretty discolored? Thanks for the help and the earlier replies.

 

[JSE]

Oh and whats up with the snails? They don't want to be in the water at all.

 

[DJLiquid]

Nope. 79 is better then 76 (too cool).

 

[DJLiquid]

Get "ocean in a box" from your lfs and change out 3 gallons. You'll see everything perk up nice. Who knows the last time a water change was done. I don't see any cyano. It looks good. Congrats! I have a 14gal Oceanic Biocube that's been running PERFECTLY for eight months! Please, feel free to shoot me any questions.

 

[melosu58]

Let`s see some hard water test results. I`m seeing a bunch of bleached out corals. Also what kind of lighting?

 

[JSE]

Thanks for the replies. I found out that there was some dying/bleaching of the corals by the previous owner when he replace the bulb with a new one and didn't raise the light up at all. Its a 70w MH. Its the clip on the back kind.
I've been testing my water a lot and different tests ( he gave me quite a few) are giving different results for the same measurement.
Best I can tell its
SG - 1.026
Nitrites - not detectable
Nitrates- not detectable
Alk- around 180 ppm (i'm having trouble comparing the colors) Adding any alk buffer (part 1 of the 2 part ESV calcium additives I was told to use) causes a white precipitate. What does this mean?
Ca- ran out of the test for this. will try to get to the store for more soon.

The snails finally went back in the water and started to eat algae thats growing on the dead coral

Also found a few aiptasia. How important is it to kill these things. Some of them are going to be really hard or impossible to get to.

Can anyone identify the large purple coral? It was looking better for a few days but this afternoon the non bleached side deflated and looked worse than before. Everthing else seems to either be maintaining or doing a little better.

 

[Brad.Sedore]

i have been leaving my aiptasia... they havent spread yet. once they do ill get a little bit more ambition to kill them. right now it seems okay. but ill let the experts shed more light on that

the large purple coral looks like a dead/dying brian coral to me.

-Brad