ccblazer
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have had my 30 gall. bow front tank now going on 4 months now. I wrote to this forum asking for advice as i wasn't able to keep any of my clean-up crew or corals. Fish are just fine. 2 clowns, dart fish, golden Blenny and a few others. First it was mentioned it could be the lighting and so i went out and doubled the T5 H2O to 2 sets. Then it was said maybe the flow wasn't enough as i had to restrict the amount of return as the pump couldn't keep up. So i went to twice the strength of pump and then upsized my sump from 10 to 20 gall. Now the flow is excellent. I even added another 10 lbs of rubble rock. Then it was mentioned that i should add a third power head and so i did, upping the total to three. I even took the water sample to the LFS for testing and everything turned out fine.
I am also running a skimmer.
So at this point i figured that i could try some cleaners and corals. I use a drip method to introduce new livestock. I bought a cleaner shrimp and a emerald crab. One day after i put them in the tank they disappeared among the rocks and haven't been seen since. Presumed dead.
I also added a small leather coral that had it's tentacles flowing at the store. When i put them in my tank, within 40 minutes the tentacles had completely retracted. It is 5 days later, they never appeared again and i just removed it from the tank. Looks pretty dead.
So thats it. Sorry for the long post but now what. i have lost numerous corals and cleaners since day one and am running out of money. Please help. something is major wrong. But what?
2. Current lighting & Bulb Age: 4 bulbs T5HO
3. Nitrate: .25 ppm
4. Calcium: 480mg/l
5. Phosphate: .25 (this is new, there was none earlier)
6. Alkalinity: 65ppm
7. pH: 8.2
8. Salinity: .025
9. Temperature: 87
Copper is 0
10. Liquid or strip test kits: liquid.
12. Current amount of flow: not known.
13. Current tank dosing regimen: none
I am also running a skimmer.
So at this point i figured that i could try some cleaners and corals. I use a drip method to introduce new livestock. I bought a cleaner shrimp and a emerald crab. One day after i put them in the tank they disappeared among the rocks and haven't been seen since. Presumed dead.
I also added a small leather coral that had it's tentacles flowing at the store. When i put them in my tank, within 40 minutes the tentacles had completely retracted. It is 5 days later, they never appeared again and i just removed it from the tank. Looks pretty dead.
So thats it. Sorry for the long post but now what. i have lost numerous corals and cleaners since day one and am running out of money. Please help. something is major wrong. But what?
2. Current lighting & Bulb Age: 4 bulbs T5HO
3. Nitrate: .25 ppm
4. Calcium: 480mg/l
5. Phosphate: .25 (this is new, there was none earlier)
6. Alkalinity: 65ppm
7. pH: 8.2
8. Salinity: .025
9. Temperature: 87
Copper is 0
10. Liquid or strip test kits: liquid.
12. Current amount of flow: not known.
13. Current tank dosing regimen: none
