looking for some advice on what went wrong!

I Had a 16 gal nano with 36wt compact fl. lighting. It was doing awsome. The coraline algae was spreading fast and at the time I had 5 bubbletip anemonies 2 gold sriped maroons and a hawkfish, snails and livesand3-4in thick. The tank had been up for about 8 months and everything was healthy. I had wanted to upgrade to a nano 28gal. with hqi lighting so I could do hard corals as well. When I did the up grade I did a tank transfer. I did add some of the sand as well before remembering that it was not a wise thing to do. so My tank crashed, and I think moving the sand as well was the cause. so the only thing that made it were the fish. I went through the whole cycle process before buying an anemone again. Well about 5 days later the anemonie died so checked all prems and were fine. I had been adding calcium and soda ash to get it ready for hard corals and am wondering if that could be the problem and if so how to fix it. I bought 2 snails as a test after about 3 weeks after to see if ready and they also died about 5 days after as well, so now I stuck and need a way to get back on track.


Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope you can give me some pointers.

 

What exactly are your parameters?

 

Well, you must keep in mind that Anemones usually do much better in established tanks. Moving the sand in your old tank probably released many anaerobic gases which caused the crash. Did you have any sand sifters in your old tank. If not i would suggest planning some for your new tank. If the invert did not survive i would suspect copper is the culprit, but without tank parameters that is tough to say. I would post your tank params and a pic of the tank - that will help most of the people on here.

 

sal. is at 00.025 ph is 8.2 cal. is between 350-400 but alk.I think is to high and was wondering if that could be the problem. I cant get an accurate reading almost like its to high to register. and how to get the level were it needs to be. Also would it also kill an anemoneas well?

 

Sounds like your params check out to me. If your test kit isn't reading maybe take a sample in to the LFS and have them test it. With CA at 350-400 i wouldn't think it would be that high, but you never know. Maybe do a large water change to get a head start on getting the problem out of the tank.

 

I have a hawkfish and a lawnmower blenny and they are territorial, so what would you suggest I put in thier for sand sifters.The anarobic gas thats what I that but couldnt remember. still a little rusty. The copper comment not sure why that would be the problem since I never put any type of meds or cure alls that would have copper in it. Unless your saying it was a natural reaction of some sort.

 

Well do, and should I get an r/o unit if Im going to be doing stonys or just keep using treated tapwater and phosguard?

 

was the new tank you got used or did you use any new parts?? This sounds like a copper issue to me.

 

if you planning to go into lps or sps i would stop using tapwater and get a ro/di unit and start using it right away. let the tank settle, sounds like you went throught a cyle and the tank needs time to establish and mature before you move into stoneys.

 

thats what Im doing now, just need to make sure its ok first. Thanks for the advise