need help with lighting

[crb530]

hey i was wondering i have a ten gallon tank with a 20watt and a 13 watt mini compact fluorescent 50/50 lights now i was told this was enough to do small corals and stuff like a frogspawn and some small polyps now i had a small frogspawn that was open the first day i had it and has not opened up sense and its been 4 days does it not have enough light

 

[melosu58]

Moved to General hardware and equipment discussion.

Do those stretch across the whole top of the tank? I would think that would be enough for a 10 gallon tank. Have you ruled out water problems as the cause?

 

[thincat]

Yes how old is your tank? What are the water parameter. SG,Ammonia, nitrite, & nitrates for now. What is the water temp.

 

[crb530]

yes it goes across the who tank

water seems good everything else is growing like crazy

every thing is 0 except the is about 25 on nitrates

i was on vacation so i dont know how hot the tank got when i came home it was at 80 i have three fans blowing on it to keep it cool

and the tank is about three months old

 

[thincat]

Okay, if you don't have any stock in there yet I would do a 30 - 40% PWC to bring your nitrates down by at least half. Then you could start to add fish and corals slowly. a couple a week would be okay.

 

[crb530]

i do i have two fish and two shrimp there doing great and so are the polyps and mushrooms there growing like crazy thats y im confused.

i will do water change today i do atleast once a week till i buy a protein skimmer

 

[thominil]

On a ten gallon a skimmer isn't needed as PWC's accomplish the same thing.

 

[melosu58]

On a ten gallon a skimmer isn't needed as PWC's accomplish the same thing.

 

[crb530]

oh ok thats what i thought but i was told if i started doing corals i should get one


so does any one have a clue what could have happened to my frogspawn

 

[thincat]

everything is 0?,,,.what did you test for ? What is the water temp?

 

[crb530]

all i tested for was the basics nitrate nitrite amona ph and salinity

and water temp right now is 79

 

[thincat]

Okay, they sound good. How much water to you change? do you bring it up to temp. 80 degrees is a good temp. Wait a few days and see if it improves. I believe it has something to do with the amount of water you changed.

 

[crb530]

i do a two gallon water change once or twice a week depending mainly once a week though and yes i do


i did a three gallon water change today cause my brother added iodien to the water which i read can kill the frogspawn

 

[CementShoes]

and a lot of other things. How can you be sure nothing else was 'added'?

 

[crb530]

because my brother told me he added it cause he does it for his tank

i know what goes into my tank thats how i know

 

[thincat]

Okay, now that you did the water change, let us know if that corrected the problem.

 

[crb530]

i will by the looks of it the frogspawn died idk though its just the white skiliton with the stuff deep inside of it

i was told to leave it in the tank because if there is any tissue left in it it can come back to life so i hope at least one of the three branches does

 

[crb530]

well by the looks of it the frog spawn is all the way gone now but the star polyps and the button polyps and the rest of the corals are doing great idk what happened

 

[thincat]

Frogspawn Coral is a large polyp stony coral (LPS) and although one of the easier corals to have are still a lot more sensitive then star polyps and Zoas and or Palytoas. As such I am not to surprised that it was the one that did not make it. Be careful that the temp. of your PWC is close to that of your DI and be sure to do your Makeup water at least a day in advance.

 

[crb530]

yeah idk what happened

i do all that stuff when doing water changes


i also have been reading that they are very sensitive to salinity changes and well i was gone i asked my brother to keep the tank toped off and he didnt so i had that problem to

it is for sure i lessen learned and im happy i only payed 10 bucks for it but still sad i killed it