What am I doing Wrong?

[Ram_Puppy]

First, Water Parameters:

Oceanic Mix at 1.023 SG made with RO water. (30 gallon tank) I changed water once a week until a few weeks ago when I switched to a once every 2 weeks (stocking is incredibly light right now.)

Amonia, Nitrate, and Nitrate have been pegged to 0 for 6 weeks. PH has been fluctuating right around 8.0 and 8.2 I started adding a kent DKH buffer to bring the ph up with every water change, I figure it is the Ro water keeping it low.

To recap, I have pods growing, coraline is coming up in the tank.

4 weeks ago I added 7 Dwarf Zebras hermits, 4 trochus grazers (one appears to be a turbo though! ) and 3 electric hermits (2 orange, 1 blue) another blue was allready present. (total of 4)

about 4 days after purchase of the three crabs, th elittle blue one died. 2 weeks ago, the orange one that I talked about molting here, died. and then this morning, I somewhat confirmed the death of the orginal blue, with the featherdusters on his shell. I found his shell upended (open side up) this afternoon, I had thought he molted yesterday, because his forward half was out of the shell, looked just like when the orange one molted.. I am guessing now it was his body.

so, I am down to one electric hermit, and wondering if I am killing these poor beautiful creatures...

Oh, and I added, courtesy of rocketeer (jack) on wednesday, a small pulsing xenia frag with a pink coloration, a colt coral, and a small star polyp on wednesday, all are doing great, are fully extended, and enjoying life as far as I can tell.

[Ram_Puppy]

forgot to add I have an emeral crab, oldest resident, happy as can be.

[dan]

how old is the tank?

[Ram_Puppy]

The tank was started on January 16th, it stabalized from it's curing cycle around February 7th or 8th I think... (sorry don't have my records in front of me. )

As I said, for the last 5 weeks, maybe 6 I think, I have had nitrates, nitrites, and amonia pegged to zero.

I cycled with a 18 pound piece of tonga live rock. and the arag-alive sand bed.

[Ram_Puppy]

Surely my stronium levels were not to low after the molt, on such a lightly populated system right?

[StephenA]

I wouldn't worry about Stronium. Did you cure the rock in the tank? Are you sure about the Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrate? Is there enough for the crabs to eat? I lost half my hermits in the begining too, never found a true reason. I would stick to a 5% water change once a week on that tank.

[DeletedAccount]

On a new system there is very little food available for the hermits to graze on. I put sinking pellet food in my newish 180 for hte hermits since there is not enough stuff for them to feast on. Good luck with the remaining one!

On my 29g "bad fishy" tank (for the bullies that need to be removed for a while) I do a weekly water change. A ssytem that small, and fairly new, doesn't seem to be very stable.

What kind of test kits are you using? Have you ever gotten anything other than a 0 reading on them? I had a nitrate test kit that never budged from zero When I ran out and bought a new one my tank mysteriously shot up!

[Ram_Puppy]

I am positive on the amonia, nitrate, and nitrate, I test 3 times as week, and trackit on an excel spreadsheet...

I switch back to doing a 5 gallon water change a week. (measuring any less is difficult.) I season my water for a day, even with instant ocean, and keep a power head and heater in the water, so it goes in at the same temp, spec grav, and so on. And, I am buffering it, as the PH is still a little low before adding.

(Oh, and I baselined my test kit using fresh water as well.)

I guess just chalk it up to a bad start and keep going? last night I got home at 1:30 AM (night shift sucks.) and used a red piece of plastic over a maglite to observe the tank, the orange is out having fun.

Oh, and as for food, I was throwing in a pinck of freeze dried plankton (can't remember the brand) every other day, soaked in Kent Zoe saltwater, and about once a week would put a 3 x 3 inch square of non salted sushi wrap (which I have read is the same thing as the seaweed sheets they have at the petstore, only cheaper.) I would put a corner between the mag scraper and the glass move it to the bottom where they could get it, and leave until devoured. (the mithrax in particular seems to love it. (i also soaked this in Kent Zoe as well.)

there are, that i have seen, about 20 adult amphipods running around, countless juveniles, and copepods are all over the back three panels of glass which I am allowing to grow over with algae. (It is taking forever! :) )

I guess I will not add anything else for the next month or so, and watch, and see what happens, will continue adding the plankton and seaweed soaked in Zoe I guess to make sure these guys have enough to feed on until there are other inhabitants to the tank.

[Ram_Puppy]

Oh, I am using an admittedly cheap test kit, the Aquarium Pharmecuticals... at the time my tank was cycling it was all I could get (my wife got a little stingy for a while when I came home with a 100 dollar rock.. she just doesn't understand! :) )

Yes, I cycled the rock in the tank, I baselined the test kits on day old water (before added to tank) and the amonia, nitrate, and nitrite have all had registers way above zero during the cycle. The flowchart I have in my excel tracking spreadsheet shows a massive hump in late januarly, early feb, and then it flatlines at zero up until today (and will I am sure, continue)

I am planning on getting salifert kits and just keeping the AP stuff around for emergencies (like running out of the good stuff) but I figured, for now, with so little in the tnak, I might as well keep using it. I guess now, with the xenia, colt, and star polyps in, I am going to go ahead and look into ordering a salifert kit.

[StephenA]

Have had the water tested at the lfs?

[alexwolf]

i have an extra alkalinity test kit by Salifert, brand new $15 someone ordered it and never paid for it.

[Ram_Puppy]

do you buy each piece of a slifert test kit individually? or do they sell whole 'kits'?

Having a local store test the water may not be a bad idea, if I am not exhausted at the end of this split shift (1 PM to midnight Friday, 6 AM to 1PM Saturday) I may run by Aquatic Warehouse...

[Ram_Puppy]

alex, are you in San Antonio?

[alexwolf]

Yeah, Babcock Huebner area, or Bandera Eckert

[Ram_Puppy]

hmm... I may come get that from you this week... will pm you this week about it.

[Ram_Puppy]

ok... I bought an alkalinity test kit yesterday (I as at cb pets getting snails for my wifes tank) and my DKH was 4.8 last night when the lights went off, and 4.6 this morning when they came on.