TankYouVeryMuch
Active Member
I started up my 20G IM AIO tank a little shy of two months ago. Things have been going well and I was building out my clean up crew to keep things in check as they came. I had just recently added a serpent star, an urchin, and a conch. Other tank inhabitants include two paired juvenile clownfish, a tailspot blenny, a couple ceriths, a couple astrea, and a single blue leg hermit. I also had a large colony of seven different zoa species with interspersed clove polyps, a GSP, and a small piece of montipora. Hopefully “had” is the wrong word, but time will tell.
Here’s the TLDR: Almost all of my inverts and maybe my corals have died, and I’m not sure why but there are a few culprits.
The tank is using filter floss (cleaned daily), a MiniQ skimmer, and a refugium filled with healthy macroalgae in reverse light schedule. There are a small number of copepods visible in the tank. The water is usually a touch cloudy, but unsure why.
Part of the difficulty in tracking down exactly what happened is complicated because a number of things happened in a short period. Hence the detail. Sorry it’s long.
Day 1: A snail keeps burying in the sand. I’ll keep an eye on it. Experimenting with a wavemaker which stirs up some crud, but it’s too strong for my tank so I ultimately remove it. Some clumps of algae are taking hold that appear to be briopsis. Add a serpent starfish.
Day 2: I add the urchin and conch to help CUC. I see the snail is still buried and hasn’t moved. Urchin immediately travels to top of waterline along with a snail. Test everything I can and it all looks good (I’ll go through it once, but it remains basically unchanged throughout):
Alkalinity 8.1
Temp 78-79
Nitrate: Undetectable
Nitrite: Undetectable
Ammonia: Undetectable
Salinity: 1.026
Day 3: Urchin is cruising the rocks. Conch is siphoning sand. Cerith is still buried. I note this morning the clownfish are moving a little slower and not eating as eagerly. They’re not listless, just not zipping as auickly. Related to cloudiness in the water? Decide to add finer filter material. Fish are breathing normally.
I’ve been dealing with a small number of micro bubbles getting into the display and haven’t been able to track down the cause yet. It started before I added the MiniQ. I had replaced tubing, but with no improvement. So I decided I needed to remove the pump, put a small amount of silicone grease on the fittings above the waterline, and use zip ties to ensure a tight connection on the right angle corners.
When I removed the pump I also removed some filter material I had placed beneath it to dampen noise. I thought the material was polyester batting, but now worry maybe it was cotton batting. It stirs up a little crud, but not a lot.
I also change out the carbon bag for some new carbon. I rinse the carbon out in some tank wastewater, then under the tap until it runs clear, then rinse well in and under RO water. Placing it in the tank triggers the ATO and dumps a spurt of water in.
I add a roughly 2” square of new polyester batting (confirmed) to the inlet tray, with a layer of floss on top. Removing the tray also triggers the ATO (I’ve gotta remember to unplug it, it’s so sensitive on a tank this small).
I look in the tank and notice all of the corals have started closing up in a way I’ve never seen before. Hmm. I take a break for a little while to think about what it could be. I worry that maybe I didn’t do a good enough job rinsing the tap water out of the carbon. I remove the carbon and it triggers a third dump off the ATO, which I then unplug. I add 1/4 capful of Prime just in case it was chlorine. I also remove the polyester batting square just to be sure.
Right after the ATO dumps the corals close up even tighter. I realize that this water is the first time I’ve gotten RO water from Natural Grocers in-store dispenser. The unit was serviced within the last 30 days and made no claims about remineralizing. I had topped off with a cup of it in my 5 gallon Opae Ula tank the day before with no visible effect. Could it be the RO? I worry maybe there’s copper, as I can’t think of anything else that might cause such a dramatic reaction. But the multitude of life in the opae tank, including baby snails, are all fine.
I leave the ATO unplugged and go to bed. At this point the water in the display is a bit messy from sediment having been stirred up. I turn the lights down so as not to stress the corals more.
Day 4: The new starfish is in the corner of the tank, dead. All of the corals are closed and a few zoas are swollen like water balloons. Water is still visibly cloudy but I see some copepods swimming around, surprisingly. Salinity tests at 1.025, everything else is unchanged. Fish are fine, conch is doing his thing, but the urchin and Ceriths are not moving. Lights are kept on low.
I take the water to the LFS as soon as it opens (noon). Ammonia and nitrate test fine, but the RO shows a TDS of 17-20. I get two five gallon tubs of saltwater to do water changes. Arrive home and do the first 5 gallon water change (half the water in the tank) and remove a couple of the rocks to do some treatment with H202 for the briopsis at the same time. Rinse with peroxide and then rinse off in old tank wastewater (not the latest stuff).
I’m careful not to mess with the sandbed. Put everything back as best I can. I add a 2” square of Poly filter to the tray to try and remove any potential contaminants and maybe get a clue what it was.
Snails are now dying. In an attempt to remove one of the astrea snails using tweezers it gets buried in the sand. I am unable to find it searching a small area, and stir up a bunch of sediment in the meantime. I decide to quit messing with it. Throw an extra HOB filter on with some floss to help with the sediment and go to bed.
Day 5: (today). Urchin is dead. Conch isn’t moving. Fish are OK. Water is still cloudy. GSP has opened a tiny amount, but the zoas and cloves are all still closed. The hermit is now on the zoa colony, which makes me wonder if some have died and he’s scavenging them. Not sure how long it should take but the poly filter is still white, no sign of contaminants.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m planning to do another water change today, but now I’m scared to put any inverts into the tank again.
Possible culprits:
- A bacterial bloom, maybe worsened from kicking up sediment.
- The RO water contained something toxic—but why no apparent effect in the much smaller tank?
- The (possibly) cotton batting was rotting and removing it dumped stuff into the water. But considering it was literally supporting the return pump, shouldn’t that have been in the water already?
- Full moon.
- ?
Here’s the TLDR: Almost all of my inverts and maybe my corals have died, and I’m not sure why but there are a few culprits.
The tank is using filter floss (cleaned daily), a MiniQ skimmer, and a refugium filled with healthy macroalgae in reverse light schedule. There are a small number of copepods visible in the tank. The water is usually a touch cloudy, but unsure why.
Part of the difficulty in tracking down exactly what happened is complicated because a number of things happened in a short period. Hence the detail. Sorry it’s long.
Day 1: A snail keeps burying in the sand. I’ll keep an eye on it. Experimenting with a wavemaker which stirs up some crud, but it’s too strong for my tank so I ultimately remove it. Some clumps of algae are taking hold that appear to be briopsis. Add a serpent starfish.
Day 2: I add the urchin and conch to help CUC. I see the snail is still buried and hasn’t moved. Urchin immediately travels to top of waterline along with a snail. Test everything I can and it all looks good (I’ll go through it once, but it remains basically unchanged throughout):
Alkalinity 8.1
Temp 78-79
Nitrate: Undetectable
Nitrite: Undetectable
Ammonia: Undetectable
Salinity: 1.026
Day 3: Urchin is cruising the rocks. Conch is siphoning sand. Cerith is still buried. I note this morning the clownfish are moving a little slower and not eating as eagerly. They’re not listless, just not zipping as auickly. Related to cloudiness in the water? Decide to add finer filter material. Fish are breathing normally.
I’ve been dealing with a small number of micro bubbles getting into the display and haven’t been able to track down the cause yet. It started before I added the MiniQ. I had replaced tubing, but with no improvement. So I decided I needed to remove the pump, put a small amount of silicone grease on the fittings above the waterline, and use zip ties to ensure a tight connection on the right angle corners.
When I removed the pump I also removed some filter material I had placed beneath it to dampen noise. I thought the material was polyester batting, but now worry maybe it was cotton batting. It stirs up a little crud, but not a lot.
I also change out the carbon bag for some new carbon. I rinse the carbon out in some tank wastewater, then under the tap until it runs clear, then rinse well in and under RO water. Placing it in the tank triggers the ATO and dumps a spurt of water in.
I add a roughly 2” square of new polyester batting (confirmed) to the inlet tray, with a layer of floss on top. Removing the tray also triggers the ATO (I’ve gotta remember to unplug it, it’s so sensitive on a tank this small).
I look in the tank and notice all of the corals have started closing up in a way I’ve never seen before. Hmm. I take a break for a little while to think about what it could be. I worry that maybe I didn’t do a good enough job rinsing the tap water out of the carbon. I remove the carbon and it triggers a third dump off the ATO, which I then unplug. I add 1/4 capful of Prime just in case it was chlorine. I also remove the polyester batting square just to be sure.
Right after the ATO dumps the corals close up even tighter. I realize that this water is the first time I’ve gotten RO water from Natural Grocers in-store dispenser. The unit was serviced within the last 30 days and made no claims about remineralizing. I had topped off with a cup of it in my 5 gallon Opae Ula tank the day before with no visible effect. Could it be the RO? I worry maybe there’s copper, as I can’t think of anything else that might cause such a dramatic reaction. But the multitude of life in the opae tank, including baby snails, are all fine.
I leave the ATO unplugged and go to bed. At this point the water in the display is a bit messy from sediment having been stirred up. I turn the lights down so as not to stress the corals more.
Day 4: The new starfish is in the corner of the tank, dead. All of the corals are closed and a few zoas are swollen like water balloons. Water is still visibly cloudy but I see some copepods swimming around, surprisingly. Salinity tests at 1.025, everything else is unchanged. Fish are fine, conch is doing his thing, but the urchin and Ceriths are not moving. Lights are kept on low.
I take the water to the LFS as soon as it opens (noon). Ammonia and nitrate test fine, but the RO shows a TDS of 17-20. I get two five gallon tubs of saltwater to do water changes. Arrive home and do the first 5 gallon water change (half the water in the tank) and remove a couple of the rocks to do some treatment with H202 for the briopsis at the same time. Rinse with peroxide and then rinse off in old tank wastewater (not the latest stuff).
I’m careful not to mess with the sandbed. Put everything back as best I can. I add a 2” square of Poly filter to the tray to try and remove any potential contaminants and maybe get a clue what it was.
Snails are now dying. In an attempt to remove one of the astrea snails using tweezers it gets buried in the sand. I am unable to find it searching a small area, and stir up a bunch of sediment in the meantime. I decide to quit messing with it. Throw an extra HOB filter on with some floss to help with the sediment and go to bed.
Day 5: (today). Urchin is dead. Conch isn’t moving. Fish are OK. Water is still cloudy. GSP has opened a tiny amount, but the zoas and cloves are all still closed. The hermit is now on the zoa colony, which makes me wonder if some have died and he’s scavenging them. Not sure how long it should take but the poly filter is still white, no sign of contaminants.
So that’s where I’m at. I’m planning to do another water change today, but now I’m scared to put any inverts into the tank again.
Possible culprits:
- A bacterial bloom, maybe worsened from kicking up sediment.
- The RO water contained something toxic—but why no apparent effect in the much smaller tank?
- The (possibly) cotton batting was rotting and removing it dumped stuff into the water. But considering it was literally supporting the return pump, shouldn’t that have been in the water already?
- Full moon.
- ?
