Unresolved Things aren't quite right and I don't know why

I have a 12 gallon biocube by JBJ with the stock PC lighting. In the tank I have around 13 lbs of live rock, a few pounds of sand (just enough to create a thin layer on the bottom), a Koralia 240 powerhead, and am using an InTank media basket. The basket is stacked filter floss, carbon, phosban, purigen. Second chamber has a heater and a mini fuge I just put in with a submersible light and cheato, third chamber has some ceramic bio media and the return pump.

I had a peppermint shrimp die maybe a week ago or less and I started a thread on here and concluded that the skunk cleaner was responsible for that. Two days ago I noticed that some of my mushrooms were shriveled up like they were stressed and yesterday was the same. Different mushrooms shriveled on different days and only 1 or 2 out of 8 were affected. Today after the lights came on all the mushrooms look happy and healthy.

The only fish in the tank is a firefish and he/she seems to be doing fine. He hangs out outside of his hiding hole all day long playing in the current and is eating fine and looks normal.

This morning when I woke up my skunk cleaner shrimp was dead. Yesterday he seemed fine. I thought to myself yesterday that the light part of him (anything but the red and white on top) seemed a darker brown than I used to remember but I don't know if my brain was just messing with me.

New additions within the last 2 weeks have been two heads of green trumpet coral and a 2x3 peice of green star polyp. Both of those seem to be doing good. The trumpets expand during the day and the GSP has already shown growth.

I had some digitate hydroids in my tank on a rock and I've since removed them. I kept the few button polyps that were on the rock and they already look better than they did when they were on the rock before I chipped them off (could be because they're in a higher spot with more flow).

I have some green hair algae in the tank and had a little bit of cyano on the sand an on one rock but not a huge deal.

I tested parameters this morning and here's what I've got....

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
pH - 7.8
Calcium 480
kH - 7
Phosphate - 0.25
Salinity 1.026

I use an API test kit for everything and use a refractometer that I just calibrated today for the salinity.

I'm concerned that I'm doing something or something is happening within the tank that's causing issues. I want to know why my skunk cleaner died, why my mushrooms were stressed for two days, and what I can do to help.

I realize small tanks are harder to keep and I'm willing to work at it. I purchased some 2 part calcium supplements but haven't dosed at all yet because I haven't seen a need. I have seen some new corraline growth since I've had the tank also.

My goal is to make this a soft and LPS reef tank with the one firefish. I also have a CUC of a few snails and a few hermit crabs.

So who can help me?

 

Are you sure that the shrimp died and you aren't just seeing the molt? That could be the reason for his color change as well. I have never had a tank this small but it seems like it would be a challenge keeping the parameters like salinity stable. Shrimp have a hard time with large salinity fluctuations. just throwing that out there.

 

I have myself been fooled by the shedding of a shrimp- thinking it was dead only to find it was perfectly fine a few hours later.

 

Same here.

I can't really think of anything that would cause all of this to happen :-/ I'll let someone else chime in.

 

The mushrooms sound like they were just going through a natural phase. I freak out when mine do things like this (a lot of the softies seem to), my leathers will not show polyps for a day or 2 than come back looking better than ever. Just a thought. And I have to been fooled by the molting of a shrimp. Sounds like it could be a coincidence that this all happened around the same time. If the shrimp really is dead, it could be to much or to little iodine. In a small system that could be easy to do. How long has this system been running?

 

My shrimp has molted a few times so I know what that looks like. It definately died. In a tank as small as this it's impossible to lose a cleaner shrimp. There are overhangs and alcoves for him but there's nowhere in the tank he could go that I couldn't see him.

The mushrooms all look perfect today so who knows what happened yesterday and the day before. I don't want to assume that everything is OK now because I beleive something is happening within my tank.

 

Oh for sure. I wouldn't expect you to stop looking for all possible problems. My point is don't give your self a migraine over it. I think we are all looking for issues w/ our tanks, even when they are 100%. Doing this helps us avoid them. Once again though the shrimp dieing could be the iodine, as they need a proper amount to successfully molt. I would keep some water on hand just in case...could there be some softie chemical warfare going on?

 

Can I recommend a series of big water changes, just in case? Everyone may be right and it's all fine. When I've thought something was wrong though, I've frequently been right. There is no better response when you're unsure than water changes. You reduce the bad and replace good.

 

+1 servillius

I agree... I have a 20g and every time I start to get nervous I do a water change. Not huge ones, but about 20% or so. Even if you can't nail down exactly what it is, a blank slate is always a good thing. How often do you do WCs?

Also, someone else mentioned that shrimp are sensitive... how long did you have them? My first cleaner died a couple of days after I got him. If they aren't in good health to begin with the change can be too much