Strange die off

[crazyhaggis]

I had to go away for three weeks for work, during that time I had someone come in and feed my fish, but not change any water.

When I came back I noticed a few of my turbo snails had died, now they have all died. I checked the water and everything was fine.

I thought maybe some sort of disease had wiped them out.

This was about four months ago I just thought I'd mention it in case its connected to my current problem.

The problem I'm having now is about a month ago I got sick of constantly having to pull hair algae out of the tank, (reason for buying turbos snails) so I cut the light on time from ~10 hours to ~8 hours. This seemed to work well and has reduced the amount of algae!

However this leads on to my second problem my tank used to be full of small invertebrate that looked like shrimp, the largest were about 6mm long. I had to move the whole tank about two weeks ago whilst decorating. Since I've put it all back I've noticed that these little invertebrates seemed to have disappeared.

I have one cleaner shrimp and she's quite happy and doesn't seem bothered neither do my fish, which are two cinnamon clowns, one green cromais and a sergent major.

Again I've checked the water and it all seems fine, I've only had the tank for about a year and so I'm a little worried as to whats going on. (tanks size 4 foot x 14" x 12")

I would like to reintroduce these little invertebrates, would the best way be to purchase some more live rock, although I don't want to do this until I've figured out what happened to them.

thanks

[Reefscape]

I had to go away for three weeks for work, during that time I had someone come in and feed my fish, but not change any water.

When I came back I noticed a few of my turbo snails had died, now they have all died. I checked the water and everything was fine.

<<Could of been that could not right themselves, lack of food, could be numerous things really, you water is fine, so, i would not be overly concerned>>

I thought maybe some sort of disease had wiped them out.

This was about four months ago I just thought I'd mention it in case its connected to my current problem.

The problem I'm having now is about a month ago I got sick of constantly having to pull hair algae out of the tank, (reason for buying turbos snails) so I cut the light on time from ~10 hours to ~8 hours. This seemed to work well and has reduced the amount of algae!
<<Nice to hear its on the recession for you...cool>>
However this leads on to my second problem my tank used to be full of small invertebrate that looked like shrimp, the largest were about 6mm long. I had to move the whole tank about two weeks ago whilst decorating. Since I've put it all back I've noticed that these little invertebrates seemed to have disappeared.
<<Simply copepods. This will come back as the tank settled down from the move. If your concerned, you can buy copepod cultures online and add them to your system>>
I have one cleaner shrimp and she's quite happy and doesn't seem bothered neither do my fish, which are two cinnamon clowns, one green cromais and a sergent major.

Again I've checked the water and it all seems fine, I've only had the tank for about a year and so I'm a little worried as to whats going on. (tanks size 4 foot x 14" x 12")

I would like to reintroduce these little invertebrates, would the best way be to purchase some more live rock, although I don't want to do this until I've figured out what happened to them.
<<See comment above about pods>>

thanks

Added some comments above in red..

Niko

[crazyhaggis]

Thanks Niko, thats put my mind at rest was getting worried, that something nasty had managed to get in the tank.

[Catpicklesdog]

I agree with everything Niko said. The only thing I'd add with regard to your algae issue is: how are old are your light bulbs, did you test for phosphates and do you use R/O water?

[crazyhaggis]

I agree with everything Niko said. The only thing I'd add with regard to your algae issue is: how are old are your light bulbs, did you test for phosphates and do you use R/O water?


My tube is just coming up for a year old and is due to be replaced.

I don't use RO water as the LFS is a good distance away. I was looking into getting a RO kit from ebay but to be honest I'm a but unsure how to connect one up. If I'm right they require high pressure to work so they need to be connected into your water main?