Help with a new tank

[ahunter20]

My name is Adam and I just joined this forum today. I am new to saltwater aquariums and need some help getting everything balanced.

Tank: Nuvo Nano 20 gallon
Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 100 watts
Lights: 2 Aqua Night LED lights

The tank was purchased and set up on 12/16/17 using premium salt, 15# of live rock, black Fiji live sand and 1 bottle of Instant Ocean Bio-Spira.

On 12/21/17 my local fish store did a water test and everything tested good to add fish and some coral. I added the following:
1 Long Nose Hawk Fish
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Green Plate
1 Neon Frogspawn
1 Gold Branch Frogspawn
1 Metallic Hairy Mushroom already on a live rock
2 Green Star Polyps
1 Zoanthid Polyp

Everything acclimated great the first couple of days. All the coral didn't fully open, but they did all open some.

Here are some dates and issues I encountered.
12/27/17 Long Nose Hawk Fish jumped out (it should have been covered)
12/28/17 Added a Bluegreen Chromis and a Stubby Clown
1/2/18 Added 4 Turbo Snails
1/6/18 Bluegreen Chromis died (mouth was detatched when I removed him from the tank)
1/17/18 2 Turbo Snails died

Between purchasing the tank and now, all my coral have stopped opening up except for my Frogspawn.

1/17/18
Water temp 78
7 hours of light daily
Nitrate 40 ppg (it was 80 a week ago so I have been treating it with natural nitrate remover)
Nitrite 0 ppg
pH 8
C. Hardness 80
G. Hardness 180
Salinity 34 (I'm currently adding RO to bring this down)

Here are some pictures of my coral for reference.
2 pic green plate
3 pic green star polyp on top and zoanthid on the bottom
4 pic green star polyp
5 pic metallic hairy mushroom

 

[thaitopher]

Wouldnt be surprised if you lose all your frogspawn. From youe timeline, you added coral and fish five days after setting upnuojr tank. It probably didnt finish cycling. Your nitrates shouldnt be anywhere neae 40 ppm and you need to also test your phosphates. Both should be under 1 ppm. They key is to do everything slowly.

 

[thaitopher]

Post a pucture of you lights

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R!

How often are you doing water changes, you've got some nasty stuff in there that may or may not be affecting your corals.

 

[DSC reef]

Welcome to R2R. Sounds like you might need a new LFS. Your tank needs to cycle and despite there testing, five days is really quick. The amount of livestock added at once is to much, store should've known IMO. I wouldn't add anything else and let this tank mature for a while.

 

[hijinks7]

So for one you are adding fish too fast. a 20g can only add 1 fish at a time. You add a single fish wait a 2-3 weeks for the next one. Reef tanks HATE change.. you want to introduce as little change as you can. I have a 120 and I only add one fish at a time

Second do you mix your own salt or get it from a LFS?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!!

What is your ammonia level at? It sounds as though your tank wasn't done cycling before you started adding stuff, and you added alot at one time and it couldn't keep up. 34 for salinity is pretty spot on I wouldn't lower it. 35 equates to 1.026 which is where you want for corals.

 

[ahunter20]

Wouldnt be surprised if you lose all your frogspawn. From youe timeline, you added coral and fish five days after setting upnuojr tank. It probably didnt finish cycling. Your nitrates shouldnt be anywhere neae 40 ppm and you need to also test your phosphates. Both should be under 1 ppm. They key is to do everything slowly.

The store I purchased everything from makes a premium water that does't need to cycle as long (or so I was told).

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I agree that you added a lot to this tank in such a quick amount of time. But it's not the end of the world. I would go and get some reef start supplement such as Dr. Tims or Seachem Stability and add that to the tank per directions on the bottle. No more corals and fish until you get your nitrates down and have them stay pretty consistent for several days. It would also be good to get into a weekly water change schedule. I personally do 5 gallons a week on my tank but 2-5 gallons would be enough for this tank as long as you're doing them regularly.

Don't give up, you made a good decision reaching out for help

 

[DSC reef]

The store I purchased everything from makes a premium water that does't need to cycle as long (or so I was told).

Bacteria is not stored in the water column . With that statement alone I'd look for a new store. There setting you up for failure with that kind of info. I'm sorry this happened for your first tank.

 

[ahunter20]

Welcome to R2R!!

What is your ammonia level at? It sounds as though your tank wasn't done cycling before you started adding stuff, and you added alot at one time and it couldn't keep up. 34 for salinity is pretty spot on I wouldn't lower it. 35 equates to 1.026 which is where you want for corals.

I don't have anything to test my Ammonia levels yet. Can you recommend something?

 

[ahunter20]

I just started doing water changes 2 weeks ago. I changed out 4 gallons at a time once per week.

 

[ahunter20]

So for one you are adding fish too fast. a 20g can only add 1 fish at a time. You add a single fish wait a 2-3 weeks for the next one. Reef tanks HATE change.. you want to introduce as little change as you can. I have a 120 and I only add one fish at a time

Second do you mix your own salt or get it from a LFS?

What is LFS? I purchase my salt water premixed.

 

[revhtree]

LFS is Local Fish Store! Welcome Adam!

 

[Crabs McJones]

I don't have anything to test my Ammonia levels yet. Can you recommend something?

What is LFS? I purchase my salt water premixed.

LFS stands for Local Fish Store. And for an Ammonia test kit I prefer the Salifert test kits myself
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/salifert-ammonia-aquarium-test-kit.html

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hi and welcome.
I hate to say that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. With a small water volume you would struggle to put that amount of livestock in, in such a short time. The bacteria need to be able to keep up with your added fish, and when one dies that's more bacteria to cope with then the waste from new replacement fish it will struggle even more. The bacteria that deal with waste don't live in the water column, it's in the rock. Just take it slow and let the tank mature and you will reap the rewards of the patience that this hobby at some point will teach you. Go slow.
This is just my recommendation not law.

 

[NY_Caveman]

If you added live rock from the local store, your tank may have cycled quickly. But that is still a huge amount of livestock to add at once in any tank. If you have another store nearby, see if they can test your water and help figure out where you stand. That is where I would start from here. Definitely need to know if you have ammonia in your tank. Very dangerous to the critters.

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r!! Don't get discouraged! Back up research more depend on LFS less and start again its worth it!

 

[Pongo]

Welcome to R2R Adam.

If this is your first rodeo in the salt I would go to this forum and read all of the stickies at the top for a start.
There is some really good info there.

 

[Gil03]

Find yourself another fish store and do yourself/pocket book and future inhabitants of the tank a favor and start reading this forum. Respectfully...you're going way too fast and don't have the knowledge to keep up.