Zakary2003
Active Member
Tldr: nitrates plummeted, unkillable algae despite no readable nutrients and significantly reduced feeding, all turbo/astrea snails simultaneously died recently.
Previous issues and background:
I've been having a lot of issues with my 20 gallon cube AIO reef. This is the first tank I've been 100% responsible for. I did almost all of the general maintainence on my family's 60 gallon reef, but it was set up when I was very little and I never had to cycle, stock, or start my own tank. A few months ago, I think around 8 or 9 months at this point, I got my own tank because I wanted one now that I've moved out. I cycled it, bought live rock and artificial rock from my LFS, added media and rubble from the parent's tank, added fish, turned the lights on, and added corals, and everything was going smoothly. The tank was doing flawlessly, the uglies were short lived, and all of my fish, corals, crustaceans, and anemone were growing great and doing fine. Around Christmas, everything changed. Cyano took over. Then I removed it religiously, reduced the time the lights were on, and it was fine. Then green hair algae took over and hasn't gone away since. I tried vibrant but it just made everything in the tank unhappy and didn't help with the algae. I tried reducing nutrients through water changes and a resin my LFS recommended and that caused dinoflagellates to pop up. I handled the dinoflagellates by dosing bottled bacteria and stopping with the heavy and frequent water changes I had been doing to reduce nitrates. The dinoflagellates are gone. I added all of that background in case my treatments caused the current issue...
Current issues:
Now, a few months later, the GHA is taking over, covering every surface. Nutrients aren't even registering on my LFS's low range nitrate tests. I've reduced feeding to just spot feeding the fish once a day, but the algae hasn't stopped after weeks of trying. My cleaner shrimp died after failing to completely molt (Calcium was at 380ppm at the time) and my pistol shrimp is missing, but my hermit crabs and emerald crab seem fine. The weird part though is that my turbo and astrea snails all stopped sticking to the glass and began rotting alive. The snail would react to touch, but smelled like death and would not eat or move around. They just sat in the sand, unmoving but not dead. The hermit crabs weren't even eating them, and normally they are all over fallen snails, alive or not. I removed the affected snails but I'm really worried they're a sign of an iminent tank crash. All 3 Mexican turbos and all 6 astreas died, but my tiger conch and all 3 zombie snails are fine. My 3 trochus snails died seperatly before the incident.
Current stocking: 2 clownfish, 1 6-lined wrasse, 1 yasha goby, 1 pistol shrimp (missing), 1 bubble tip anemone, >10 hermit crabs (mostly blue legged), 1 tiger conch, 3 zombie snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 lettuce nudibranch (missing), leather corals, zoas, palys, duncans, clove polyps, xenia, gsp, green sympodium, random brown wild LPS from live rock.
1 cleaner shrimp, 3 Mexican turbo snails, 6 astrea snails, and 3 trochus snails recently died.
Hardware and schedule: tank is a waterbox cube 20. Light is an AI prime 16 with the saxby preset (but the whites are turned up higher for my preference). I do not have a skimmer. I do not have a refugium, but I grow mangroves in the back middle chamber. I do a 15% water change every Wednesday. I use LFS store water for water changes and top offs. They use RODI water but I don't know what salt they use. Their salt water tests at 35ppt about 400 Calcium, about 1300 Magnesium, and less than .02 Phosphates. Their top off water is 0 TDS.
Parameters are currently even more unstable than when the tank was cycling, but I have the average paramers prior to this incident below, followed by current readings.
Normally:
0ppm ammonia
0ppm Nitrites
15-20ppm nitrates
Phosphates: .05
Salinity 35ppt
Temperature 78F
PH: 8.1 (day) 7.9 (night)
Alkalinity: 8-9 DKH
Calcium: 360 (before water change on average) to 400 (after water change on average). I do not dose calcium because I don't have many stony corals
Magnesium: 1350
Currently:
0ppm ammonia
0ppm Nitrites
0ppm nitrates
Phosphates: .02
Salinity 35ppt
Temperature 78F
PH: 8.0 (day)
Alkalinity: 8-9 DKH (out of better test reagent, using API test)
Calcium: 380ppm
Magnesium: (out of reagent)
How is the algae so bad when I don't have any readable nitrates? Why is there no more film algae on the glass? I know the hair algae can be consuming it all, but I don't even know the source. Why would vibrant not work to kill it? I've stopped feeding corals reef roids, and I spot feed the fish now, so I don't understand how the nitrates are getting into the system to fuel with growth. Why did the snails simultaneously start rotting alive?
If it wasnt for the algae and nutrient situation, I'd think the snails died of disease and it was unrelated. I'm not sure. At this point, I'm desperate for an explanation and open to solutions. I'll take anything I can get. At the moment, I'm afraid to get anything new or replace anything lost, and it's kind of draining my enjoyment for this hobby. I was hoping to get into more intermediate corals like euphilia and SPS at reefapalooza but now I'm not thinking my tank will be stable enough...
Previous issues and background:
I've been having a lot of issues with my 20 gallon cube AIO reef. This is the first tank I've been 100% responsible for. I did almost all of the general maintainence on my family's 60 gallon reef, but it was set up when I was very little and I never had to cycle, stock, or start my own tank. A few months ago, I think around 8 or 9 months at this point, I got my own tank because I wanted one now that I've moved out. I cycled it, bought live rock and artificial rock from my LFS, added media and rubble from the parent's tank, added fish, turned the lights on, and added corals, and everything was going smoothly. The tank was doing flawlessly, the uglies were short lived, and all of my fish, corals, crustaceans, and anemone were growing great and doing fine. Around Christmas, everything changed. Cyano took over. Then I removed it religiously, reduced the time the lights were on, and it was fine. Then green hair algae took over and hasn't gone away since. I tried vibrant but it just made everything in the tank unhappy and didn't help with the algae. I tried reducing nutrients through water changes and a resin my LFS recommended and that caused dinoflagellates to pop up. I handled the dinoflagellates by dosing bottled bacteria and stopping with the heavy and frequent water changes I had been doing to reduce nitrates. The dinoflagellates are gone. I added all of that background in case my treatments caused the current issue...
Current issues:
Now, a few months later, the GHA is taking over, covering every surface. Nutrients aren't even registering on my LFS's low range nitrate tests. I've reduced feeding to just spot feeding the fish once a day, but the algae hasn't stopped after weeks of trying. My cleaner shrimp died after failing to completely molt (Calcium was at 380ppm at the time) and my pistol shrimp is missing, but my hermit crabs and emerald crab seem fine. The weird part though is that my turbo and astrea snails all stopped sticking to the glass and began rotting alive. The snail would react to touch, but smelled like death and would not eat or move around. They just sat in the sand, unmoving but not dead. The hermit crabs weren't even eating them, and normally they are all over fallen snails, alive or not. I removed the affected snails but I'm really worried they're a sign of an iminent tank crash. All 3 Mexican turbos and all 6 astreas died, but my tiger conch and all 3 zombie snails are fine. My 3 trochus snails died seperatly before the incident.
Current stocking: 2 clownfish, 1 6-lined wrasse, 1 yasha goby, 1 pistol shrimp (missing), 1 bubble tip anemone, >10 hermit crabs (mostly blue legged), 1 tiger conch, 3 zombie snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 lettuce nudibranch (missing), leather corals, zoas, palys, duncans, clove polyps, xenia, gsp, green sympodium, random brown wild LPS from live rock.
1 cleaner shrimp, 3 Mexican turbo snails, 6 astrea snails, and 3 trochus snails recently died.
Hardware and schedule: tank is a waterbox cube 20. Light is an AI prime 16 with the saxby preset (but the whites are turned up higher for my preference). I do not have a skimmer. I do not have a refugium, but I grow mangroves in the back middle chamber. I do a 15% water change every Wednesday. I use LFS store water for water changes and top offs. They use RODI water but I don't know what salt they use. Their salt water tests at 35ppt about 400 Calcium, about 1300 Magnesium, and less than .02 Phosphates. Their top off water is 0 TDS.
Parameters are currently even more unstable than when the tank was cycling, but I have the average paramers prior to this incident below, followed by current readings.
Normally:
0ppm ammonia
0ppm Nitrites
15-20ppm nitrates
Phosphates: .05
Salinity 35ppt
Temperature 78F
PH: 8.1 (day) 7.9 (night)
Alkalinity: 8-9 DKH
Calcium: 360 (before water change on average) to 400 (after water change on average). I do not dose calcium because I don't have many stony corals
Magnesium: 1350
Currently:
0ppm ammonia
0ppm Nitrites
0ppm nitrates
Phosphates: .02
Salinity 35ppt
Temperature 78F
PH: 8.0 (day)
Alkalinity: 8-9 DKH (out of better test reagent, using API test)
Calcium: 380ppm
Magnesium: (out of reagent)
How is the algae so bad when I don't have any readable nitrates? Why is there no more film algae on the glass? I know the hair algae can be consuming it all, but I don't even know the source. Why would vibrant not work to kill it? I've stopped feeding corals reef roids, and I spot feed the fish now, so I don't understand how the nitrates are getting into the system to fuel with growth. Why did the snails simultaneously start rotting alive?
If it wasnt for the algae and nutrient situation, I'd think the snails died of disease and it was unrelated. I'm not sure. At this point, I'm desperate for an explanation and open to solutions. I'll take anything I can get. At the moment, I'm afraid to get anything new or replace anything lost, and it's kind of draining my enjoyment for this hobby. I was hoping to get into more intermediate corals like euphilia and SPS at reefapalooza but now I'm not thinking my tank will be stable enough...
