What are we doing wrong?

Discussion in 'New To The Hobby' started by LeslyeC, Oct 4, 2009.

to remove this notice and enjoy 3reef content with less ads. 3reef membership is free.

  1. LeslyeC

    LeslyeC Plankton

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2009
    Messages:
    14
    Location:
    West Texas
    Hello, Everyone! I am new to the board and I'm hoping someone (lots of someones) can help us. My son and I have had a saltwater aquarium for about 3 years now. This week we added the lights to enable us to have coral, etc. We must be doing something terribly wrong! First thing, our anemone died. Yesterday our clam died. Today all of our coral has lost its color and looks horrible. We don't know what we're doing so wrong. It is a 55 gallon tank and we only have 3 fish in it because we haven't had the best of luck with our fish, either. Can someone please help us?

    Thanks in advance. I'm sure I didn't tell all I need to in order to receive help. Ask whatever you need to and we'll answer. We need to get this figured out before we drop more $$ into this hobby!
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2008
    Messages:
    5,716
    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Here is a form from our ASAP forum. If you could copy/paste this and fill out as much of it as possible, it will help us to better know your system and will give us all the info to help you:

    PARAMETERS (important)
    Temperature:
    PH:
    Ammonia:
    Nitrite:
    Nitrate:
    Salinity:
    dKH/KH/Alkalinity:
    Magnesium:
    Calcium:
    Phosphate:
    Test kits you own:
    Liquid or Strips:
    Brand Name:
    Are they Expired?:


    Tank size?
    Estimated total system?

    Reef, fish only or, freshwater?

    Current inhabitants? What and how many?
    Clean up crew?

    How long has your tank been set-up?

    Substrate.
    Type?
    Depth?

    Live rock?
    How much?
    Did you recently add some?

    Filtration.
    Type?
    Protein skimmer?
    Do you wet or dry skim?
    Maintenance schedule for filtration?
    Drilled tank/hang on back overflow?
    Sump/refugium. What's in it and how much?
    Macro? What kind?

    Lighting.
    Lighting type?
    Age of bulbs?

    Feeding
    What?
    How much?
    How often?

    Water change schedule.
    How much?
    How often?
    What salt brand?
    Water source?

    Additives/supplements used?

    Do you have a ground probe?
    What kind of flow does your tank have?
     
    1 person likes this.
  4. LeslyeC

    LeslyeC Plankton

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2009
    Messages:
    14
    Location:
    West Texas
    PARAMETERS
    Temperature: right around 80 degrees
    Test kits you own: We don't own a test kit. We take a water sample to the guy where we buy our fish, etc. from. When we took a sample in last week he said our ammonia and nitrates were a little high, probably as a result of too much food, but not at a toxic level.
    Tank size? 55 gallon
    Reef, fish only or, freshwater? Reef and fish
    Current inhabitants? What and how many? We have an Engineer Goby, Pseudo Strawberry (that is probably not the correct name) and a Coral Beauty. We had an anemone that died and a clam that died. Right now we have 2 corals that can be anywhere and 2 that are to lay on the sand. One with short hair and one that waves in the breeze. They all look sick and colorless today.

    How long has your tank been set-up? We have had our tank 3 years. We have just added the coral, etc. this week.

    Live rock? Yes
    How much? 60-75 pounds of live rock
    Did you recently add some? no.

    Filtration.
    Type? We have a Rena Filstar XP filter.
    Protein skimmer?
    ***I'm afraid I don't know the answers to the other filter type questions.
    Age of bulbs? 1 week

    Feeding
    What? frozen brine shrimp
    How much? 3 cubes
    How often? every other day

    Water change schedule.
    How much? We have never totally changed the water. We add water, ph booster and salt when it gets low.
    How often?
    What salt brand? Oceanic Sea Salt mixture
    Water source? R/O water
    What kind of flow does your tank have? We just added an extra flow pump for the other side of the filter flow.
     
  5. sean_p_f

    sean_p_f Sea Dragon

    Joined:
    Dec 17, 2007
    Messages:
    502
    Location:
    NE Ohio
    wow 3 cubes every other day. on a quick look i would say you are way overfeeding and i would buy my own test kits and get a good feel on what is going on in your tank.

    i would also recomend doing a few water changes
     
  6. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2008
    Messages:
    5,716
    Location:
    Reno, NV
    Yep, agree to both points.
    First off, ANY amount of ammonia is toxic. That could definitely be causing all of your issues in itself. First thing you need to do is buy your own test kits. Often times, the store will tell you things like this, or tell you everything is fine when it's really not, if it means you're walking out the door with another critter.
    Cut back on feeding drastically. 1 cube of food should last you a nearly a week with the stock you have ;) And mix it up a little. Start feeding mysis. Brine shrimp has very low nutritional value.
    What kind of lighting exactly do you have?
     
  7. swagger87

    swagger87 Zoanthid

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2008
    Messages:
    1,134
    Location:
    Taylor, Mi
    You don't need to add salt when you add water to the tank unless you have taken it out to do a water change. When you continue to add salt to a top off, you are raising the salinity and it will eventually become uninhabitable.
    It would be a good idea to get a test kit to use at home (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, pH, phosphate, salinity) so you can be sure where your levels are.
    What kind of lights did you purchase?
    Did you take out the anemone as soon as it looked bad or did you wait until it was surely dead and began to give off odor?
    Did you do a water change after it was removed?
     
  8. Click Here!

  9. LeslyeC

    LeslyeC Plankton

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2009
    Messages:
    14
    Location:
    West Texas
    thank you everyone for the help!!! We will buy our own test kit tomorrow! We didn't do a water change after the anemone died. Is it too late? We took it out as soon as it looked like it was disintegrating. As for the clam, I worried about it all day because it didn't ever open or close. We went to move it to another part of the tank where it looked like everything was doing better and it fell apart. I don't usually add salt to the water. I always add ph booster. I'm afraid I don't know how to answer the question of what kind of lights did we buy. It is in a cabinet over our tank and there is two blue florescent lights and two very bright white lights. We were instructed to turn the blue on in the morning for about an hour and then turn the bright ones one. Then at night we turn the bright ones off about an hour before the blue ones. We probably have the lights on about 10 hours a day.

    Thank you everyone!!!
     
  10. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2009
    Messages:
    11,284
    Location:
    shenzhen Guangdong PRC
    one question from me

    in the almost 3 years that there where just fish in this tank, did you treat the fish with any medications? if so, what did you use?

    Steve
     
  11. Whisky Tango Foxtrot

    Whisky Tango Foxtrot Skunk Shrimp

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2008
    Messages:
    294
    Location:
    Rhode Island
    +1 to everyone's questions... How often do you do water changes, and how much each time?

    I don't mean to be rude, but knowing more about the hobby and maintenance for your tank wont hurt. Filtration and lighting could have had a large impact on a few issues you were having with the clam and anemone. As you have stated earlier, the water quality of your tank needs some good TLC and better maintenance will help. You've come to the right place for help and with a bit of research and advice, we can guide you on how to improve your current situation.

    Once again, please do not take offense! We are here to help.
     
  12. NEW REEFER

    NEW REEFER Fire Worm

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2009
    Messages:
    153
    Location:
    NC
    Also comes to mind that the new lights may be the problem, what kink T-5s, halids, could be over powered, if you didnt acclimate the tank to the new light. just a thought.