Looking for advice on my 5 month old 13.5 Evo. (warning LOTs of information)

[Sharkbait19]

When it breaks off it is looking to spread.
I haven’t had issues with the bio balls.

 

[DannoOMG]

So Don't put anything in there as a replacement? Just leave it as floss and carbon?

Dragons Breath will also help export nutrients. Definitely moving in the right direction!

One strong suggestion. Ditch the bioballs. They either do nothing or just trap deitrus and crank out nitrate.

 

[DannoOMG]

Tank update. Nitrates are down to 0. After a big water change and still using my media basket my nitrates went for 20+ ppm to 0. Now I want it to be more around 5ppm would be nice. I wonder if I went through my "Nitrate spike" I kept hearing about.

I have had some loss in the meantime. Something whacked my 6 lines tail almost completely off. Died the next day. I wonder if his tail got in the powerhead of my MP10. I put an urchin guard on it just in case.

I got a midas blenny and 2 more corals. A blastomussa and a darth maul favite.

So far things are "okay." I am currently trying to get my alkalinity and calcium up properly using Bionic 2-part system. I had an alk of 8. Now I am at 10. Calcium is 400.

I spot feed my Aussie lord and blastamousususususa once a week. I cut down all my coral feedings to once a week. AB+ only is dosed once a week.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Looking good! Only thing I’d mention is that a Midas gets rather large for that tank.

 

[DannoOMG]

He is already almost 5 inches. I will keep an eye on him. I can always bring him to my bosses 90 gallon tank at work.

So far he is a big fan of chomping on the algae on the glass and back wall.

 

[Sharkbait19]

He is already almost 5 inches. I will keep an eye on him. I can always bring him to my bosses 90 gallon tank at work.

So far he is a big fan of chomping on the algae on the glass and back wall.

I’d bring him in. You can always get a tailspot or a bicolor for your tank.

 

[DannoOMG]

For those who have had Halloween Hermit Crabs (or orange legged) do they sometimes retreat into their shells for a length period of time? I had 3 of them and adored them. Now I just have 3 shells laying around.

At one point in my tank I bought 6 dwarf hermit crabs. That number went down to 3, months later I am magically back at 5.

Do hermit crabs "hibernate?" Or should I assume my orange legged hermits have bit the dust. It has been over a month. All my other inverts are fine by the way.

 

[Sharkbait19]

For those who have had Halloween Hermit Crabs (or orange legged) do they sometimes retreat into their shells for a length period of time? I had 3 of them and adored them. Now I just have 3 shells laying around.

At one point in my tank I bought 6 dwarf hermit crabs. That number went down to 3, months later I am magically back at 5.

Do hermit crabs "hibernate?" Or should I assume my orange legged hermits have bit the dust. It has been over a month. All my other inverts are fine by the way.

From what I know, they need a very particular type of shell, so if there isn’t a larger one to molt into, they would die. No firsthand experience though.

 

[DannoOMG]

I do have one larger shell in the tank. Guess they didn't like it...

 

[DannoOMG]

So I got a blastomussa (spelling) a few weeks ago. When I first got him, he had opened up nice.

Now this is what he looks like...

I moved him from the back of the tank to the front in more direct lighting. I dropped the flow down on my MP10 to 20%. Here are my tank stats at the moment.

8.1 pH
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
5 Nitrates
196 KH
0 Phosphates
1.025 gravity

I circled his current location in the tank. Any ideas of what is going on? I feed him ONCE in great while but I can't imagine that is what is doing him in...

I've never experienced this coral and don't know if he is looking bad or good... Thoughts?

 

[MaxTremors]

Your Alk is kind of high (and from looking at your older params it looks like it’s not very stable), also you need a little bit of phosphates, zero isn’t good. Do you know what your calcium is? I didn’t read through the entire thread, but you mentioned cleaning out your filter sponge once every two weeks, if that’s still the same I start cleaning it a minimum of twice a week.

 

[DannoOMG]

My calcium was high last time I tested it. It was at 500. Actually it was last week.

I just started dosing bionic alk and calc. I have been trying to get the right amount and just started dialing back from 4 ml to 3 ml.

Every week I take the filter floss out and toss it and replace it with a new strip.

and yes, my parameters are a bit nuts. It is something I have been struggling with. Trying to cut back on feeding etc... Nitrates have been my demon for the most part.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Same is happening with my blasto. I think it may have to do with feeding, as I don’t frequently feed corals.

 

[DannoOMG]

The blasto is still capable of eating. I just spot fed it and my Aussie lord some food and they both promptly closed up on the food. It can't be doing that bad if it still wants to eat.

 

[DannoOMG]

I'm convinced my nitrates are the reason behind some of my corals woes.

This is the most recent numbers for my tank. (9 gallons of total water)

I'm a little frustrated at how quickly the nitrates shoot back up. My biggest water change is about 35% but I use the premixed water for (i forget the brand).

So since I have switched to that different media basket and putting fresh floss in every week, I can't say it has made that much of an improvement. I REALLY suck at this hobby. I thought a nano tank would be cake. Oopsie doodles!

I have been meaning to get an alternative test kit to API's. (Money and stuff)

 

[jazzfisher]

Okay. Here is a small update on what has happened since I last talked to you guys.

* Cut down on feeding corals.
* Kept my tank in the dark for 3 days.
* Did a 35% water change one week and I am now doing 10-15% water changes weekly.

I did not want to go full throttle and put the new media basket in immediately. I wanted to make changes to feeding and try and kill some of the algae before I did that. I didn't feel like shocking my system with so many changes.

Now I only feed my corals phytoplankton (1 mL) and an extremely small amount of the dry ZooPlan twice a week. I do 2 ml of the AB+ daily (only for a week now) and I do small shavings of frozen shrimp so my Wrasse doesn't go on a killing spree. I put in just enough where I can see them finish it off and there are hardly any remains left.

Here is a picture of the tank from this morning.

So I have removed the foam block that houses the carbon and bioballs. Problem is the media basket I have from inTank won't fit in my middle chamber cause there is some hard shelf preventing it from going all the way down. So I decided to hacksaw off the top of the new chamber to get it to fit. (see image)

I have 1 layer of floss on top of some Chemi-pure blue and the bioballs on the bottom tray. Now beneath this whole basket there is another layer I could possibly add some stuff since it is open anyways. I'm not sure you guys would recommend to put in there. I'm not sure if you can see the space from this picture below...

So if you plan on doing this the way I am trying it. You need to take into account that a 3 chamber basket won't fit in that middle section. I figured getting rid of the foam block would be a priority to cut down on crap building up in my tank so it is an upgrade either way.

So my tank has cleaned up but that isn't because of the new media basket. I only just added that this afternoon. Any clean up you see was due to turning lights off, reducing feeding, big water changes etc...

As of right now this wonky setup I have going seems to be flowing just fine. I plan on changing out my floss every week to see if I see a change in my nitrates.

Let me know if you think this was a really stupid thing to do.

*edit* Reason for going in the middle chamber is the skimmer appears to be working fine so I am not ready to get rid of it. Feel free to call me stupid for doing what I am doing.

Hi! Hang in there! But wanted to tell you you have the filter floss upside down. The white goes on top so it catches the debris. I use the same filter floss and change mine everyday in my 10g and every other day in my 30.

 

[DannoOMG]

Oh CRAP! Thanks. Flipping it now!

 

[DannoOMG]

For laughs I got the Salifert Nitrates test. (It was the only one they had aside from API at the store) It shows my nitrates at 25 ppm.

I am trying some of this stuff in my media basket. Filled the bottom chamber with it.

 

[DannoOMG]

My nitrates have been around 5-10 for a while now. *shrugs* Will keep changing floss out, rinsing denitrate in tank water and weekly water changes.

I did something kind of possibly dumb.



^^ I got this guy. I always wanted one. My tank has been running for 7+ months. I've seeded it twice with pods. I have another batch coming. The guy at the store told me his ruby dragonettes eat frozen food... So far he has turned his nose up to mysis and brine frozen food. He is grazing in the sand and on rocks. Hopefully he is just shy cause it is a new tank for him but something tells me he isn't going to eat frozen food. He isn't afraid of my spot feeding tube though...

 

[Sharkbait19]

My nitrates have been around 5-10 for a while now. *shrugs* Will keep changing floss out, rinsing denitrate in tank water and weekly water changes.

I did something kind of possibly dumb.



^^ I got this guy. I always wanted one. My tank has been running for 7+ months. I've seeded it twice with pods. I have another batch coming. The guy at the store told me his ruby dragonettes eat frozen food... So far he has turned his nose up to mysis and brine frozen food. He is grazing in the sand and on rocks. Hopefully he is just shy cause it is a new tank for him but something tells me he isn't going to eat frozen food. He isn't afraid of my spot feeding tube though...

Probably won’t eat frozen without a lot of training, but it’s possible. It is a smaller dragonette species so food intake will be a bit less.
I’d recommend getting a refugium or something to breed pods in. These guys can clean a tank out fast…
And if it does work out long term…tell me cause I would love one in mine!