Help Rookie Mistake: Added live rock and killed my clown and coral not looking good either

Zumo · Sep 29, 2023

So my tank is 3 months old and my first saltwater tank and I am learning as I go. I setup this 55 gallon with a Tidal55 HOB filter on June 28 and today is the 29th of September so it’s been about three months. In the first week , I added two Mexican turbo snails and two small hermit crabs. The two turbo snails lasted about 2 1/2 months and died. I fed them dried seaweed as much as I could but I don’t think I had enough food to sustain them. Also, as the second one was dying, I bought another Mexican turbo snail, and it seems to be doing OK since there is more algae growing now than before. I also bought a clown fish about only two or so weeks of having the tank going. Then when the tank came about the two month mark, I added a hammer coral. Probably too soon but I’m starting to realize that everybody pretty much has their own journey when keeping a saltwater tank and the coral seemed happy.

During the first month, I had the light set to come on about three hours a day, then bump it up to six the second month and now this month it comes on eight hours a day. I have no idea how to set the light but I do have more blue light than white light, still learning. I have not done any type of water change and what I’ve realized is that about every two weeks, I am losing about 5 gallons of water through evaporation, I replace this water with ROI water and the salinity seems to be fine calcium is good and alkalinity is ok off of strip test but getting better testing solution for that soon. I noticed some Spirorbid worms on the glass so I guess the tank is cycling appropriately.

All was good until yesterday, I added 22lbs-sh of live rock from my LFS and with-in 3 hours the hammer retracted and 12 hrs the clown died. I did not rinse the rock, I just set it in. I get it, I screwed up. My question is now what do I need to do to make sure my tank get safe enough again to reintroduce another clown and more coral. The plan for this tank is to be a reef tank. I only had the clown in there to help cycle.

Timfish · Sep 29, 2023

Sorry about your clown!

First off, get used to learning new things, been keeping reefs for 4 decades now and best thing I've learned is how ignorant I am and how much I still have to learn.

Snails, thier death could have been a preexisting condition so don't beat yourself up over it.

That much live rock could be a cause of your problems but I've done similar amounts/ratios over the years with fully cured live rock and not have problems. The lack of water changes and/or heavy feeding coulds also be factos so your problem could have multiple causes and not just a single variable. If it was my system I would do a 25% water change right away and follow up with several 5-10 gallon water changes over the next couple weeks. I would encourage you to continue do water changs on a regular basis. There are things that build up in reef systems we can't test for but can have serious ramifications for corals and won't be removed by other means.

brandon429 · Sep 29, 2023

post a pic of the tank. nothing from the actual live rock killed the fish
the tank had losses in pattern before the fish were lost, but agreed it's coincidental

post pics of the tank

if it was pressed against live rocks it may not be apparent/or if sandbed waste upwelled (has a track record of killing fish) was the culprit that may be tied to physically installing rock into the tank, but the rock itself doesn't leak a poison, they don't leak ammonia, to kill fish when moved to another tank. every reef tank convention (MACNA etc) is a set of live rocks moved from a prior tank into a skip cycle convention reef display.

k2- · Sep 29, 2023

Yes please for water change - as my 5th year of reef keeping i had challenge with in my first year. if you added a live rock then dont worry - let it settle for a few weeks. Also do a water change and observe hammer coral if its doing better after water change and then gradually decreasing you might want to test your water parameters.

WHich light are you using ? Let us know and someone will have a setting for it.

Do you have a skimmer or something for nutrient export ?

Zumo · Sep 29, 2023

brandon429 said:
post a pic of the tank. nothing from the actual live rock killed the fish
the tank had losses in pattern before the fish were lost, but agreed it's coincidental

post pics of the tank

if it was pressed against live rocks it may not be apparent/or if sandbed waste upwelled (has a track record of killing fish) was the culprit that may be tied to physically installing rock into the tank, but the rock itself doesn't leak a poison, they don't leak ammonia, to kill fish when moved to another tank. every reef tank convention (MACNA etc) is a set of live rocks moved from a prior tank into a skip cycle convention reef display.

Before and After

Zumo · Sep 29, 2023

k2- said:
Yes please for water change - as my 5th year of reef keeping i had challenge with in my first year. if you added a live rock then dont worry - let it settle for a few weeks. Also do a water change and observe hammer coral if its doing better after water change and then gradually decreasing you might want to test your water parameters.

WHich light are you using ? Let us know and someone will have a setting for it.

Do you have a skimmer or something for nutrient export ?

Plan to get another one of these too

Tidal 55 has built in skimmer

livinlifeinBKK · Sep 29, 2023

If you could smell the rock and it smelled like rotten eggs than maybe it was the cause...but I'm still doubtful that it would release THAT much ammonia. If it smelled like the ocean, it didn't have anything to do with the rock.

Lavey29 · Sep 29, 2023

If you're not doing weekly water changes on a new tank as a new reefer you will have no success in this hobby.

k2- · Sep 29, 2023

Awesome - SKimmer is good

So by the look of it i can tell a 30W light for corals might not be good enough on a 4 ft tank (is this standard 55 G or custom dimension ?) - Secondly if you are on a budget for corals please consider a blackbox like viparspectra - they are better of the lot but still a bit expensive but not as expensive and you might find one on sale here in marketplace for around the same price. 1 of them can do good for corals in the middle of the tank but you might need 2 if you want to venture into the SPS.

k2- · Sep 29, 2023

Lavey29 said:
If you're not doing weekly water changes on a new tank as a new reefer you will have no success in this hobby.

This was my biggest regret and mostly the root cause of my first year chaos -as I was learning , changing the water actually could have covered for a-lot of mistakes I made until I get to a point to somewhat stable system. Then slowly I reduced water changes - now i am once in 4 weeks but still i can notice the change whenever its 4th week.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 29, 2023

There are many definitions of "live rock", so when you say live rock, it means it was wet rock, right? not dry?

thecitadel · Sep 29, 2023

Sure. Everyone has their own journey, but there is pretty much a guideline on how to have a successful reef tank.

I'd return any live stock still alive, and restart, take my time before adding anything more and do a lot of research. Water changes are very important.

It's super simple to fishless cycle a tank and add in small livestock later. I waited 3 Years before touching a coral, and created current 220 gallon from 2 systems that were 4 years old. Basically insta tank but again, I waited another year for corals.

As far as lights, I use Wills actually off amazon. The cheaper black boxes compared to vipar and have been amazing. You don't need white lights on at all. I only turn them on to view or do some fixes.

k2- · Sep 29, 2023

yeah blackboxes are as good in growing beautiful corals as any (e.g. AI, etc) I keep my viparspectra at 99 Blue and 5 white on a 240 G tank.

thecitadel · Sep 29, 2023

k2- said:
yeah blackboxes are as good in growing beautiful corals as any (e.g. AI, etc) I keep my viparspectra at 99 Blue and 5 white on a 240 G tank.

Mine are set on 40 lol it's crazy how bright these get. Also 165w. Only thing I don't like, no ramp setting.

Jobe S. · Sep 29, 2023

I know everyone goes their own way and each tank is different but I disagree with waiting years to add corals. When I started my first tank I let it cycle for around two weeks before adding a clown to help it finish cycling. Soon after I purchased my clean-up crew and some wrasses to help with algae and pest control. At around month 4 I added my first corals. I started with soft coral and once I gained stability and the corals began to grow I started with some beginner lps and now am into easy sps like Montipora and my tank is now about 8 months old. The key to a successful reef tank is a regular maintenance schedule but more importantly stability. More than anything though you need to learn from your own mistakes because I find no matter how much is posted online I try to go my own way anyway. Good Luck!

Lavey29 · Sep 29, 2023

k2- said:
This was my biggest regret and mostly the root cause of my first year chaos -as I was learning , changing the water actually could have covered for a-lot of mistakes I made until I get to a point to somewhat stable system. Then slowly I reduced water changes - now i am once in 4 weeks but still i can notice the change whenever its 4th week.

Similar experience for me. I did weekly till about 10 months then slow scaled back as tank got more stable and predictable. Now 18% every 3 weeks with major and minor element dosing in between. Things are very stable now and predictable by just viewing the tank conditions but you are quite correct that the key for new reefers is water changes.

Zumo · Sep 29, 2023

livinlifeinBKK said:
If you could smell the rock and it smelled like rotten eggs than maybe it was the cause...but I'm still doubtful that it would release THAT much ammonia. If it smelled like the ocean, it didn't have anything to do with the rock.

Ha I did smell it and is smelt great I thought! I love the smell of the ocean and that is what I smelled.