DegaBird
New Member
Hello All!
I have a 3 month old IM Lagoon 25. Everything has been doing very well until Monday when I found a single peppermint shrimp *almost* dead. He was very lethargic and by the end of the day had passed. He appeared "milky" inside of his shell and I wondered if it was a molt going wrong. Everything/one else seemed completely fine so I figured it was just one of those things. I did do a round of testing on Monday and had the following parameters:
pH: 8.2, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: .50, Phosphate: .18, Salinity: 1.024, kH: 14.9, Mg: 1480, Ca: 480
I've been battling phosphates right out of the gate and honestly that's the best number I've seen since the tank was set up. Phosphate is tested via Hanna Checker, salinity with a refractometer, nitrates/kH/Mg/CA with Salifert, pH with both Hach and API and nitrites/ammonia with API.
Everyone else seemed fine, including a pair of clownfish, yellow watchman goby, two other peppermint shrimp, two red striped shrimp, two sexy shrimp, porcelain crab, randal's pistol shrimp and various snails/hermits.
The three peppermint and pair of red striped shrimp were added 2/18/26. The other inverts back mid January.
There are various corals in the tank ranging from mushrooms/zoas, LPS like chalice and torch and a few SPS (monti and birdsnest). There are two rock flower anemone and a bubble tip.
The tank is in my office at work. I WFH Tuesdays and Thursdays so I did not observe the tank yesterday. Upon today I found a dead red striped shrimp and can only locate one more peppermint so I presume the other two shrimp are toast. I did test ammonia/nitrite and had 0 ammonia, .25 nitrite which I presume is FROM the missing dead shrimp, not WHAT killed them as the readings were 0 Monday. This shrimp also appeared "milky" and was very soft to the touch but I have a feeling he died yesterday and wasn't "fresh". I cannot find missing remaining 2 shrimp.
I have seen the pair of sexy shrimp, pistol and porcelain crab today. none of the corals are showing any signs of distress. I just hung a bag of fresh carbon in the tank and did a water change. I have filter socks on the intakes, a nano reactor running Phosguard, a few bags of carbon and biological filtration with the sand/rock. Temperature hangs around 78 degrees, lighting is a Hydra 26HI and aside from the tank's pump there is a Hygger on there for flow.
I have been wading through a diatom bloom but that has calmed SIGNIFICANTLY in the last week and I even found two spots of coraline on the rocks!
The one change made last Thursday was the addition of a few coral frags from Queen City Coral.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated it! Thank you.
I have a 3 month old IM Lagoon 25. Everything has been doing very well until Monday when I found a single peppermint shrimp *almost* dead. He was very lethargic and by the end of the day had passed. He appeared "milky" inside of his shell and I wondered if it was a molt going wrong. Everything/one else seemed completely fine so I figured it was just one of those things. I did do a round of testing on Monday and had the following parameters:
pH: 8.2, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: .50, Phosphate: .18, Salinity: 1.024, kH: 14.9, Mg: 1480, Ca: 480
I've been battling phosphates right out of the gate and honestly that's the best number I've seen since the tank was set up. Phosphate is tested via Hanna Checker, salinity with a refractometer, nitrates/kH/Mg/CA with Salifert, pH with both Hach and API and nitrites/ammonia with API.
Everyone else seemed fine, including a pair of clownfish, yellow watchman goby, two other peppermint shrimp, two red striped shrimp, two sexy shrimp, porcelain crab, randal's pistol shrimp and various snails/hermits.
The three peppermint and pair of red striped shrimp were added 2/18/26. The other inverts back mid January.
There are various corals in the tank ranging from mushrooms/zoas, LPS like chalice and torch and a few SPS (monti and birdsnest). There are two rock flower anemone and a bubble tip.
The tank is in my office at work. I WFH Tuesdays and Thursdays so I did not observe the tank yesterday. Upon today I found a dead red striped shrimp and can only locate one more peppermint so I presume the other two shrimp are toast. I did test ammonia/nitrite and had 0 ammonia, .25 nitrite which I presume is FROM the missing dead shrimp, not WHAT killed them as the readings were 0 Monday. This shrimp also appeared "milky" and was very soft to the touch but I have a feeling he died yesterday and wasn't "fresh". I cannot find missing remaining 2 shrimp.
I have seen the pair of sexy shrimp, pistol and porcelain crab today. none of the corals are showing any signs of distress. I just hung a bag of fresh carbon in the tank and did a water change. I have filter socks on the intakes, a nano reactor running Phosguard, a few bags of carbon and biological filtration with the sand/rock. Temperature hangs around 78 degrees, lighting is a Hydra 26HI and aside from the tank's pump there is a Hygger on there for flow.
I have been wading through a diatom bloom but that has calmed SIGNIFICANTLY in the last week and I even found two spots of coraline on the rocks!
The one change made last Thursday was the addition of a few coral frags from Queen City Coral.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated it! Thank you.
