Turbosnail
Aquarium Advice Freak
I've been reading through this forum and have had successful freshwater tanks in the past but have always wanted saltwater.
We found a 29 gal. Reef tank in our area on Craigslist. I know bigger is easier to maintain but we live in a small appartment and this is the largest I can support. It came stocked with a clown fish, yellow tang, a black urchin, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, 3 anemones, 2 turbo snails, some crabs, and about 25# live rock, and some kind of soft coral - it is round, green and disc like??? It came with a current actinic lighting, bak-pac protein skimmer, under gravel filter. "I didn't intend to own any anemones due to their long life spans in the wild, but since I have them I'm going to do my best to keep them alive".
This is the story....we got the tank for $300 and moved it to our house, everything was successful and no losses. I've added a bio wheel filter because the under gravel is not very good and there was a little more algae in the tank than I wanted and also my protein skimmers pump has not been working. We've had the tank about a week now and found out we have a problem with glass anemones and bristle worms (maybe fire worms, some have little red spots). We've tested the water and everything was fine. Yesterday we went to the LFS and bought a butterfly fish to deal with the anemone problem, brought him home, acclimated him to our tank. Once in the tank both the clown fish and the yellow tang would not leave him be. We quarantined the clown and yellow tang plus about 5# of live rock and used water from the tank. The butterfly was very happy for the rest of the day eating glass anemones. Come morning, the butterfly, peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp were all dead in a pile . One of my turbo snails was unhappy looking and my urchin’s spines were drooping. The clown and yellow tang were quite fine in the quarantine tank. We tested the water and had very high nitrate levels in the main tank, the quarantine tank tested fine. We put the turbo snails and urchin in the quarantine tank and they perked up. We did a 60% water change and nitrate levels are much lower, around 15ppm. Everything is back in the main tank and everything seems to be doing alright so far. We also put in contaminant tester sponges and couldn't find any contaminants.
That’s where I'm at right now. Not sure what I did wrong. Any advice would be great, plus if you have any advice on how to get rid of glass anemones and bristle worms (about a thousand)??
I look forward to being a part of this forum. Thanks everyone for your input.
I'll add a picture as soon as I can figure out how to!!
We found a 29 gal. Reef tank in our area on Craigslist. I know bigger is easier to maintain but we live in a small appartment and this is the largest I can support. It came stocked with a clown fish, yellow tang, a black urchin, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, 3 anemones, 2 turbo snails, some crabs, and about 25# live rock, and some kind of soft coral - it is round, green and disc like??? It came with a current actinic lighting, bak-pac protein skimmer, under gravel filter. "I didn't intend to own any anemones due to their long life spans in the wild, but since I have them I'm going to do my best to keep them alive".
This is the story....we got the tank for $300 and moved it to our house, everything was successful and no losses. I've added a bio wheel filter because the under gravel is not very good and there was a little more algae in the tank than I wanted and also my protein skimmers pump has not been working. We've had the tank about a week now and found out we have a problem with glass anemones and bristle worms (maybe fire worms, some have little red spots). We've tested the water and everything was fine. Yesterday we went to the LFS and bought a butterfly fish to deal with the anemone problem, brought him home, acclimated him to our tank. Once in the tank both the clown fish and the yellow tang would not leave him be. We quarantined the clown and yellow tang plus about 5# of live rock and used water from the tank. The butterfly was very happy for the rest of the day eating glass anemones. Come morning, the butterfly, peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp were all dead in a pile . One of my turbo snails was unhappy looking and my urchin’s spines were drooping. The clown and yellow tang were quite fine in the quarantine tank. We tested the water and had very high nitrate levels in the main tank, the quarantine tank tested fine. We put the turbo snails and urchin in the quarantine tank and they perked up. We did a 60% water change and nitrate levels are much lower, around 15ppm. Everything is back in the main tank and everything seems to be doing alright so far. We also put in contaminant tester sponges and couldn't find any contaminants.
That’s where I'm at right now. Not sure what I did wrong. Any advice would be great, plus if you have any advice on how to get rid of glass anemones and bristle worms (about a thousand)??
I look forward to being a part of this forum. Thanks everyone for your input.
I'll add a picture as soon as I can figure out how to!!