tank raised clarkii just died for no reason

[cmsurfr22]

I don't know what happened to my tank raised clarkii clownfish i came home yesterday and found a shrimp picking at him on the sand bed. All my params seem to be in check and i've been doing regular maintenance. Weekly 10% water changes. Cleaning sump.

My system has been up and running April 8th. That's when my cycle started using LR.

Right now i have 1 Pacific Blue Tang, 1 Clarkii clown, 1 blue green chromi and 3 blue purple mushrooms (these are doing great, fully opened every day). I've lost 3 blue green chromis to "Ammonia Burn", a medium rock covered in green star polyps ( don't know why ), and now a clown fish for an unknown reason.

I've been feeding nori daily to the tang, Ocean Nutrition's Prime Reef to everything else. About twice a week i feed 1 cube of frozen mysis shrimp.

I have about 200 snails, 4 emerald crabs, and 3 peppermint shrimp.

As far as equipment goes i have a 210 AGA Reef Ready. This is the Skimmer/Sump that i have: http://www.petpromenade.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=36AB0000-1087161091. I have taken all the bio balls out. I have a turbo twist 36 watt that i run 24/7. i have two return pumps, quiet one 4000, and quiet one 4000HH. They create about 1000-1200 GPH flow. I have two Seio M1500 that are turned down a little.

I have 250 LBS of live rock and a 2.5" sand bed of bahama oolite carab sea arag alive.

I'm running 6 72" VHOs. 2 actinic blues that come on at 7:30 am and turn off at 8 pm. 2 50/50 and 2 actinic white that come on at 10 am and turn off at 6 pm.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .05
Nitrate: 10-25 (i've been slowly lowering this number by water changes)
Magnesium: 1290
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.3
Alk: 3.77
kH: 10.6
Calcium: 440
Tank Temp: 76 in the am and 80 in the afternoon


What am i doing wrong that things keep dying? ???

 

[ReeferNets]

CmSurf.... Although Clowns are supposed to be easily kept in an aquarium They actually are bad shippers and tend to succumb to disease easily. Clowns are in my opinion hit or miss fish.... Most of the time they do well but there is always a bunch out of the group that succumb to disease...

How long did you have him?
Where did you buy him?

 

[cmsurfr22]

i've had him for about a little less than a month and i got him from pets plus in delran...3 of the 4 blue green chromis i got from there died of "ammonia burn"....i'm hoping this is the last fatality of the LFS fish. I've learned my lesson and i am no longer going to buy fish from any LFS. where does everyone get their fish from?

 

[curbdog]

Hello cmsurf22,
I was reading you post and I thought you might like to read this.
This is a quote from a paper by Randy Holmes-Farley, you may have read some of his papers before,
"This section outlines a variety of actions that can be taken to reduce nitrate levels in aquaria.  Note that I don’t include any discussion of water changes, though obviously they work to some extent.  The problem is that it is very hard to reduce the nitrate concentration to natural levels in that fashion unless the system is constantly flushed with clean water. "
I have been studying about nitrates because I have a problem with them as well. I had a fish only tank with large carnivores fish. I don't have the fish anymore, but I still have the nitrates.
Anyway I thought that I would jump in and just say something about what I have read about reducing nitrates. Here is the address to the paper if you would like to read it, http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm.
Sorry about your Clarkii.
Michael.

 

[cmsurfr22]

Thanks Curbdog!! i was debating whether to scrap my wet/dry-skimmer all in one for a custom made sump with refugium and an aquac ev-240 skimmer. after reading this article it seams the best way to remove nitrate is to harvest macroalgae and have better skimming.

 

[Stidd]

I keep reading the term "harvesting macroalgae". What do you mean by this and how would this reduce nitrates? I am assuming that the macroalgae is growing in the sump? Does this happen naturally? When you harvest... where does it go? Do you just get rid of it?

Man... SOOO much learning to do.

Guy

 

[cmsurfr22]

macro algea growns in a refugium, right now i have mine in my sump which is not the ideal location for it because there is too much flow, however it has helped my nitrates go from 25 down to <1 in a couple weeks. you harvest it because it grows fast and will fill up your refuge and have no more room to grow so you just take some out and give it to someone else who needs it or donate it to the club....

having macro algea in your refuge helps reduce nitrates because that's what it consumes to grow. there are other added benefits of a refuge such as you can run the lighting for it on the opposite scheadule of your display tank lights and that will help keep your pH level over night. the lighting only cost me 15 bucks, 5 for the sock from home depot, and 10 for the 5000K bulb which i got at a local lighting supply company. the bulbs at home depot only went up to 2300K or so which doesn't work anywhere near as well as the 5000K.


your refuge should be a minimum of 10% of your display tank volume so if your tank is 100 gallons your fuge should be 10 gallons. your flow rate through the fuge should be 25% of the inlet flow to your sump which can be controlled with a "T" and a ball valve.

 

[Stidd]

Thanks for the awesome answer!!! You make it sound very simple... Thanks again!!! In the near future I may have to purchase some macro algae from you to start up my refugium...

2 questions...

What is the purpose of live rock in the fuge?

What is the purpose of a Deep Sand Bed in a Fuge?


Thanks CMSURFR!!!

Guy

 

[cmsurfr22]

the purpose for a DSB in a fuge is just another place for anerobic bacteria to build up and help convert nitrite into nitrogen gas...if you look at a DSB that is developed you should see little air bubbles in the sand....those are nitrogen gas bubbles and eventually they'll work their way out of the sand and dispurse into the air when they reach the surface of the water. it's also a predator free area for copapods to breed which is one of the things in live sand. if you have a mandarin goby a fuge is a must as copapods is all they eat. the rock is in there because it can be....basically another place to put LR which is biological filtration. the more biological filtration the less chemical and mechanical filtration you'll need.