4
40432
Guest
This is some back story for context;
So I am new to the hobby, I failed in my first attempt., I tried to start with a pico tank, 5 gallons., I had no RODI water, no way to measure salinity or test parameters and I decided to start the tank out with colored sand and colored rock. I stocked it with an LPS finger coral and a long tentacle Anenome. They both died due to high salinity in the first week. I removed the Anenome and left the coral in there to rot.,
I emptied the tank and let it sit for a month, did my research and listen to the saltwater aquarium radio podcast every day and I still listen to it to gain more insight on subjects I’m not familiar with. *I know Jeff does not recommend starting with a pico tank.* Finally I felt confident enough to give it another go, I did acquire tools for measuring salinity and test kits as well as RODI water from LFS, however, I did not change out the substrate. I let the tank cycle for about a month and then added a cleanup crew, left them for a week and added a couple fish, waited another week and added some corals.
In the 5 gallon pico tank, week 5 I added 3 dwarf blue legged hermit crabs, 2 Astraea snails, 1 emerald crab. Week 6 I added 2 ORA mini ocellaris clownfish. Week 7 I added a Duncan coral, a pulsing Xenia and a finger leather., everything was going great for the next few weeks after adding the coral, everything was growing it looked like it was thriving in my tank parameters, and I found it very odd that my nitrate and nitrate were always high even if I did of 50% water change. Then one day my finger leather coral started to shrink and it’s been a week, it’s polyps are still closed and it’s not getting better, but it still has good coloration. I added some chaeto this week to absorb some of the nitrates and whatever else is leaching from the decomposing coral in the substrate.
* Side Note * I used an old canister filter, removed the powerhead and used that to contain some live rock and chaeto just as a simple in tank copepod hotel/refugium
Long story short I had the epiphany this morning that when I made the mistake of leaving a dead coral in the tank, that decomposition is still occurring and causing ammonia to rise, producing the high nitrite and nitrate in the tank. So today, my fiancé asked me to re-organize the living room and I’m going to move everything out of the tank into a 5 gallon bucket of RODI brine with a heater and an air stone that I have had heated the past 36 hours. I’m going to take out the old substrate, clean the old substrate, replace with live sand and hopefully solve the issue I’ve had with corals being unhappy. Strangely enough, the Xenia and Duncan, which are supposed to be like my indicator corals have both seem to be really happy despite the elevated nitrate and nitrate.
My only curiosity about my decision is, can I wash and reuse the old substrate somehow? Idk
Feel free to share thoughts/ comments or concerns.
So I am new to the hobby, I failed in my first attempt., I tried to start with a pico tank, 5 gallons., I had no RODI water, no way to measure salinity or test parameters and I decided to start the tank out with colored sand and colored rock. I stocked it with an LPS finger coral and a long tentacle Anenome. They both died due to high salinity in the first week. I removed the Anenome and left the coral in there to rot.,
I emptied the tank and let it sit for a month, did my research and listen to the saltwater aquarium radio podcast every day and I still listen to it to gain more insight on subjects I’m not familiar with. *I know Jeff does not recommend starting with a pico tank.* Finally I felt confident enough to give it another go, I did acquire tools for measuring salinity and test kits as well as RODI water from LFS, however, I did not change out the substrate. I let the tank cycle for about a month and then added a cleanup crew, left them for a week and added a couple fish, waited another week and added some corals.
In the 5 gallon pico tank, week 5 I added 3 dwarf blue legged hermit crabs, 2 Astraea snails, 1 emerald crab. Week 6 I added 2 ORA mini ocellaris clownfish. Week 7 I added a Duncan coral, a pulsing Xenia and a finger leather., everything was going great for the next few weeks after adding the coral, everything was growing it looked like it was thriving in my tank parameters, and I found it very odd that my nitrate and nitrate were always high even if I did of 50% water change. Then one day my finger leather coral started to shrink and it’s been a week, it’s polyps are still closed and it’s not getting better, but it still has good coloration. I added some chaeto this week to absorb some of the nitrates and whatever else is leaching from the decomposing coral in the substrate.
* Side Note * I used an old canister filter, removed the powerhead and used that to contain some live rock and chaeto just as a simple in tank copepod hotel/refugium
Long story short I had the epiphany this morning that when I made the mistake of leaving a dead coral in the tank, that decomposition is still occurring and causing ammonia to rise, producing the high nitrite and nitrate in the tank. So today, my fiancé asked me to re-organize the living room and I’m going to move everything out of the tank into a 5 gallon bucket of RODI brine with a heater and an air stone that I have had heated the past 36 hours. I’m going to take out the old substrate, clean the old substrate, replace with live sand and hopefully solve the issue I’ve had with corals being unhappy. Strangely enough, the Xenia and Duncan, which are supposed to be like my indicator corals have both seem to be really happy despite the elevated nitrate and nitrate.
My only curiosity about my decision is, can I wash and reuse the old substrate somehow? Idk
Feel free to share thoughts/ comments or concerns.
