I think my pico is crashing...

[picasso]

I have a 5.5 pico tank at my office with 2 tiny clowns and some low maintenance corals. Since Friday, my tank has been going downhill & I can't figure out why.

The tank has been set up since April or so & up until Friday has been doing well with minimal maintenance. I do about a 1.5 gallon water change weekly. I schedule the water change on Fridays since there are fewer people in the office & it's just easier that way. I got pretty busy a couple weeks ago and missed my weekly change. So this past Friday, I noticed my Xenia not doing so hot (I kind of gauge the tank, by how the Xenia looks) and decide a bigger than usual water change might be in order since it had been a couple weeks.

I did a 2.5 gallon-ish water change & left for the weekend.

On Monday morning I came in and there was more algae on the glass than normal for a Monday & my torch coral was completely closed up. After cleaning, I noticed... everything was closed up or shrunken. Zoas, Xenia, mushrooms, palys, torch, Acans, GSP... all of it.

I did what tests I had at the office.

salinity 35ppt
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
PH 8.2

Clowns & hermits seem unaffected. Cerith & Nassarius snails seem ok. one Astrea I saw flipped over in the sand a minute ago. Not sure if it fell or is dead. I don't like to mess with dead snails. The smell is too much!

I have an AC70 running as a fuge w/ chaeto. I put a bag of carbon in there today. Anything else I can do? Any Idea what might be causing this?

I did switch salt from IO to Kent Reef Salt starting with the water change on Friday. Although I switched salt at home too & it seems to be great.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

What's the temp?

 

[picasso]

What's the temp?

My heater is probably a bit undersized, but I wanted to fit it in the back of the AC70 rather than the display.

Temp was stable at 76.3-76.6 and then rose to about 77.5-78 a month ago when I started lighting the chaeto with a 13w PC light.

My office HVAC runs on a program and the AC runs through the weekend. I didn't stop in the weekend, but I do most weekends and the temp doesn't fluctuate much if any on the tank.

My light timer is still set right, so I don't think we lost

 

[picasso]

... Power at the office either.

 

[mnat]

Might want to check your alk. Your PH is in line but with the no water changes and then a big water change you might have just thrown it off. We found our pico to be very tough when it comes to keeping steady water params. Xenia can survive a nuclear holocaust but for some reason alk swings seem to close it up.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

sorry to hear that picasso. I hope all turns out well. I could NEVER do a pico, I give lots of credit to people who do!

 

[picasso]

I'll check the alk tomorrow morning when I get in.

I've never really adjusted alk before. What would I do to raise/ lower it?

 

[mnat]

To raise it there are buffers (I use Alk 8.3 by brightwell). To bring alk down you can do a normal water change or bring the calcium up. What salt are you using?

 

[Mbodell]

with a pico, why not just change the full 5 gallons with some aged water?

 

[TanksNStuff]

I think Mike (Bodell) had a pretty good idea. Do a 5g water change on your tank at home, but bring the "old" water to work and use it for the pico. Just take out the fish and put them in your bucket from home, then empty out the pico and replace it all. Should be pretty easy.

I also agree with the other Mike (mnat) that Alk sounds like it could be the issue. Nitrite is a bit high too though. Have you tried using chemi-pure elite? That usually helps a lot with keeping smaller tanks clean.

 

[Rbu1]

That Kent salt has higher Calcium and Alk numbers. Doing a 2 gallon water change on a 5 gallon system is enough to stress everything out big time. I am going from memory but I htink the CA on the Kent measured around 550 and the alk was in the 11 range. Don't quote me on that but I recall them being high. Test your parameters and test the parameters on the newly made salt batch.

 

[picasso]

That's exactly what I did. Drained a 5gallon bucket from home an topped off with fresh and changed out all of te water in the pico once I acclimated the fish to it.

My torch got completely wiped out. Everything else is still closed up but not doing any worse. I gave everything a dip in coral Rx also.

I'm almost certain it was the larger than normal water change with the Kent reef salt. My calcium tested right at 550. Alk was almost off the chart using the salifert test. I think it was around 13!

When people say swing happen quick in a pico, they aren't kidding!

The whole tank looks like hell right now. . The coralline turned real dark and green algea covered the rocks in like a day. I think I'm going to take all the corals & rock home & start fresh. Things will have an easier recovery in my 90.

If anyone comes across a yellow tipped torch frag, keep me in mind. It's my favorite coral & I'm bummed I lost it.

 

[mnat]

Sorry to hear you lost your coral. We have found frome keeping only nanos for the past few years it small and consistent are the best ways to go. If you miss a water change in the future do 2 smaller water changes over the course of the week instead od one big one.

 

[picasso]

Yeah. I'm probably going to start dping smaller water changes yet, and do them twice a week.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Ahh, sorry about the Torch. :'(

Breaking down now and putting the remaining corals in the 90 is probably your best option to save them.

Smaller, more frequent water changes for the pico in the future also sounds like a good idea.

This is what you would call experience... learning things the hard way isn't always the best plan, but it sure makes you a more knowledgable reefer.