A few quick questions from a new tank owner

[normanqt]

Hello, you all have been very helpful in the past. Now I have a few more questions that I hope someone can answer. I bought a used tank about a month ago. After the move everything was going pretty well. There was a lot of diatoms and one of the corals died but all the fish, shrimp and other corals made it. After a couple weeks I added a diamond back goby and about 70 little snails, a pencil urchin, some chitons, and limpets to help with the diatoms. After a few days the tank was looking great. There is hardly any algae and eveything seemed to be doing ok. Only a couple of the snails and limpets died. Yesterday I found 1/2 of a hermit crab floating around the sand. I did a 10% water change and took the piece out. Today I discovered that the pencil urchin was covered in slime and missing 1/2 of his legs. He did not look very healthy and it looks like something ate a big chunk of him. So I took him out of the tank too. The only think I could think of was a emerald crab came with the snails. Would he eat hermit crabs and urchins?

Also some of my cyano bacteria seems to be turning white. It almost looks like it is getting scratched. So far it is only happening on one of the rocks but I don't want it to spread to my whole tank. I believe the purple stuff is important.

I also noticed today that my Elegance coral was only 1/2 expanded. This is the first time this has happened and I have no idea what would cause it.

Lastly, there are two strange looking algae type things that have been in the tank since I got it. I am not sure what they are or if they need to be removed.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Reefing Madness]

Black Alage
Looks like your Coralline is dying out.
What are you water params if you don't mind me asking?

 

[normanqt]

That is a good question. I have an old api test kit. For the last month the ammonia has stayed right at .25ppm, There has never been a trace of nitrite, nitrates are around 10ppm, The PH is at 8.2 and the salinity is 1.025 and the calcium is around 400. I am slowly upgrading my test kits because the ones I have are like 10 years old. But so far I have a new PH meter and a working salinity gauge. Next on the list is one of those ammonia monitors.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Right on. Now yiu need to test for Alkalinity and Magnesium, those are very important in a Reef.
Alk between 8-12
Mag between 1250-1350

 

[Saltyg]

Reefing is right on. The white is just your coralline dying off, taking a guess your alk is probaly low. When my alk dropped to 6 my coralline started to die. Try to find another kit to test ammonia but if your really at .25 then thats probaly why your coral not opening all the way. Emerald crabs will def eat snails, corals, etc if they are hungry. From my experience with them if they have no algae to munch on they go into eat whatever in front of me mode.=)

 

[ajwalker261985]

From what I know I'd say your dkh/alk is low too an that's what your coralline is dying off,also 70 snails sounds like a lot to have in one tank and have maybe produced so much waste that's why your ammonia is high also you said you got no algae in the tank now so what are your clean up crew living on? Maybe things are dying off as they are being eaten due to lack of food??? Fairly new to the hobby myself and I'm just throwing ideas out tgere?anyone correct me if I'm wrong??

 

[normanqt]

You were right. My alk is very low! around 1. Granted that is with an older test kit but the reference showed at least twice what my sample had. What is the best way to boost the alk levels?

 

[ajwalker261985]

Ph buffer will also bring your all up.

 

[ajwalker261985]

*alk

 

[Reefing Madness]

You were right. My alk is very low! around 1. Granted that is with an older test kit but the reference showed at least twice what my sample had. What is the best way to boost the alk levels?

WOW. Think you just solved the problem right there.
I use Baking Soda, and you don't need much to raise Alk.

 

[normanqt]

Ok, I added a bit of baking soda tonight. Also, I ordered a new test kit that should be here in a couple days. Thanks for all the help! I will let you know how it turns out

 

[ajwalker261985]

That's what I would do,first invest some money in all test kits you'll need,then if your alk was at 1 I'd have done a 50% water change to start as well as clean all equipment and then start supplementing from there if the params are too low,your dkh should be between 7 and 12.hope everything is ok now.

 

[normanqt]

Ok, today things are looking better. I added a bit of baking soda over the last 3 days. Now my alk is up to 7dKH. Ammonia appeared to be at .25 but I took a picture of the tube and the chart and compared the colors with photoshop. Now it look much more like 0 then .25 I am not sure if that is an accurate way to do it but it seems to be easier to see the different shades. Everything else is looking good as far as nitrite and ph. My nitrates are up around 15 so I might need to take a closer look at that. The Coraline seems to be looking better already. Instead of the white lines that looked like snowflakes, it is now a smooth mass of different shades of purple. The elegance coral opened back up and is looking good.

However, I did find another slimy snail underneath it again this morning. I sucked out the slime with a turkey baster but I am not sure what killed it. Elegance corals don't eat snails do they?

Thanks again for all your help,
Andrew

 

[ajwalker261985]

Glad it's all ok,I'd get your dkh up to around 9 though and will look even better again and won't be a problem if it drops again a little.keep an eye on it as coralline will extract the kh out of the water to live and as yours is growing back you might see it drop again.