I hate my tank!

[jslaney]

Sorry this is a bit of vent with a few questions at the end.

First the specs:
-72 gallon with a 20 gallon sump
-Single strip of Power Compact Fluorescents (New Bulbs)
-Vertex 100 Skimmer.
-Approx 70 lbs of dead rock and 30 lbs of live rock added 2 months ago.
-Shallow sand bed.
-Specific Grav = 1.026
-Nitrates < 10 ppm
-PH = 8.3
-Phosphate < 0.2 ppm
-Alk = 10 dkh
-Calcium = 675 ppm

Second the history
-Tank started up 3 months ago.
-Dead and live rock added 2 months ago. Live rock added to seed dead rock. Dead rock from bulk reef supply.
-10 scarlet hermits added 1.5 months ago (doing great).
-2 weeks ago skimmer added. prior to this it was a skimmerless tank.
-Water top ups performed using tap water that is let out for a minimum of 24 hrs.
- I have changed 20 % of the water twice since beginning

Third the problems.
-After 3 months I would have hoped for lavish growth of Coraline with tons of pods and small starfish infesting every nook and cranny. What I have instead is Tons of cyano growth and very few small pods on the glass (barely visible).
-I have added snails on 2 separate occasions and they shrink up immediately upon entering my water and die after a couple days.
-I feel like a failure as I cant even keep snails alive. My hermits are fine so I would figure anything really bad would kill them as well.
-I am scared to add anything else in case they die as well. My parameters say everything is fine but I am not sure.


Fourth my Caveat.
-I appreciate that people have lost thousands of dollars in corals in one night so I should really not be complaining about not being able to keep snails but to a novice its really frustrating. I jsut want my tank to look nice like the ones I see in the forum. Instead it looks like really expenisive rock covered in Brown sludge.

Fifth my questions
-Any ideas why snails die so easily in my tank?
-Any ideas on how I can get the coraline and pods growing in my tank?
-I have not been testing for ammonia or nitrites as the tank has been running for so long. Should I be? Is there anything else I am missing.
-I never rinsed the dead rock when I got it. Is it possible that they treated it with something harmful that is still in my tank? It looked awfully bleached when I first got it.

Sixth, thanks for listening to my whining and thanks to anyone that can answer.

Sincerely,

Jon

[leezard]

Hi Jon,

As I am also a novice, I just wanted to offer the only small piece of advice I could:

Love your tank, and it will love you back.



Good luck. I'm sure it will work out eventually, and be worth every penny INVESTED (not lost!)

-Krystal

[TheRealBigAL]

Are you using RO/DI filtered water or just tap water ?

[syeve]

I took my water to my LFS and had them run the full spectrum of tests. They gave me great advice on area's where I needed help, I have not looked back since the last time I took my water in and got the a-o-k.

Moral: Let the pro's do what they do. You support them, let them support you!

[chevyjaxon]

you made no mention of ammonia or nitrite levels the tank was skimmerless so the DOCS may have gone toxic i would do a 3 gallon water change every day for a month to see if things improve if you do the math that works out to a 100% water change in a month i currently change out 28 gallons a week in my tank and that works out to 60% a month i do 2, 14 gallon water changes a week let us know how it pans out

[dkcrx]

Fifth my questions
-Any ideas why snails die so easily in my tank?
-Any ideas on how I can get the coraline and pods growing in my tank?
-I have not been testing for ammonia or nitrites as the tank has been running for so long. Should I be? Is there anything else I am missing.
-I never rinsed the dead rock when I got it. Is it possible that they treated it with something harmful that is still in my tank? It looked awfully bleached when I first got it.

Sixth, thanks for listening to my whining and thanks to anyone that can answer.

Sincerely,

Jon[/quote]

1. Snails can be a pain, they need a lot of aclimation time, they can be sensitive to temp and salinity change.
2.Coraline wont grow if your Ca is to high ( PS yours is way to high ) should be aprox 380 - 440ppm.
3.Testing never hurts, if in dout, test.
4.The dead rock could have been bleached, you can solve that isue by useing Prime or any other clorine / cloramine remover. "which I'm sure you did when you add your tap water!" Right?

Anything you may have missed. Was your live rock cured or did it stink when you got it?
the ugly algy is a fase every new tank goes through, sometimes goes away after a couple months, sometimes can take up to a year. if you dont have any corals, or things that require light, turn them off for a week or so it's not a cure but will slow the growth, maby end it if your lucky.
I use tapwater all the time dont waste your time letting it go stagnent, use prime and mix the fresh water( shake it pour it from container to container, whatever you can do to airate it) then mix with your salt or add as top up water.

and most important, be patient, this hoby is all about time and fun.
hope this helps, good luck

[marie]

Patience is the key to this hobby, 3 months is too soon to be throwing in the towel. If it were my tank I would do large water changes (30-40% at least) once a week using RODI water, run some phosphate removers and carbon and keep the lights turned off. If you have no corals in the tank I would leave the lights off for the next month, the hermits won't mind

If you have what looks like brown mucous in your tank then it could be dinoflagelletes. Dinoflagellates can kill snails (it's also aptly named brown snot algae) .

[landshark]

Could you be referring to Cyano? Check and make sure you have enough water movement in your display tank. What are you using for powerhead(s)?

[Chowder]

How long did you take in aclimatting the snails? And how was it done?

[chevyjaxon]

Originally Posted by chowder

how long did you take in aclimatting the snails? And how was it done?

+1