Long post- be forewarned but I really need some help.
Setup: 10 gallon SW tank with Ecclipse hood (32 watts light, 150 GPH flow). No skimmer or powerhead. Inhabitants: one small clown, LR, zoas, mushrooms, rics. Three mexican chestnut turbo snails.
Situation: I was starting to get a lot of algae on the glass and my snails weren't doing much. I needed to do a water change anyway, so two days ago I did a 20% change and scrubbed off the walls. Most of it was just brown algae on the walls, but there were a few strings of greenish stuff. The water I used with the pre-mixed saltwater from PetCo. Everything seemed fine. Last night I get home and the three snails aren't moving and there is reddish-brown algae on everything.
After much researching and panicking, I decide I have either a bad cyanobacteria problem. However, I posted on my local reef club forum and some said it was the toxic dinoflagellates and that my clown would probably die and that I needed a phosban reactor, a skimmer and carbon and phosphate filtration immediately. I didn't want to put a lot of money into this tank as I am hoping to upgrade to a 24g nano next year when I move, but I'm obviously willing to do whatever necessary to keep my clown alive! This all seemed like a lot plus I don't know how a lot of it would work with my hood.
I tested the water tonight and there is "slight ammonia and slight nitrites" which I know is bad. I have a crappy test strip kit and I'm going to take it to my LFS in the morning for more accurate testing. I also just added the appropriate sized carbon filter cartridge, but I couldn't find any media to remove phosphates, which I understand may be a problem. I also decided the snails were officially dead and removed them, so hopefully that will help with the ammonia? I'm going to do another water change in the morning though just to be safe.
When I looked at the algae tonight, it's still mostly the red stuff on the sand, but I did notice some small air bubbles at the surface of the sand around one of the rics, which was not open despite the light being on.
Also I found a powerhead that I think I can use to increase flow. It says it is 6W, 120 V...not sure how many GPH though (it came from a used tank purchase) so I'm trying to figure that out.
I'm turning off the lights for now.
Some additional background: I think I have been overfeeding- I've had a hard time feeding the clown the frozen mysis- she's so small a lot inevitably falls to the floor and I try to pick it up but am not always successful.
Also, I had been doing top offs with distilled water, because someone at the lFS told me that. I'm now reading that that is no good.
Pics are attached- blurry since my camera sucks but I thought it might help.
1. Is there anything else I should be doing?
2. Do you think it is just cyanobacteria? Or worse?
3. I was planning on adding some more snails and a hermit this weekend; assuming my water is ok should I still do that? I'll be in Chicago and have access to better livestock. I was hoping for another fish as well but that's definitely on hold. But perhaps a stronger CUC would help?
4. I'm now only feeding the cyclopeeze one at a time so I can watch her eat each piece. I was planning on getting some Rod's reef to start using this weekend as well, but I'm concerned it will have similar effects as the frozen mysis. Is the cyclopeeze and pelleted food alone sufficient until I get a better CUC and all this under control?
5. I'm unfortunately scheduled to go on vacation for two weeks on Monday and my friend is going to come over every other day to check on the tank. She's a fish person so I trust her but I didn't know if there's anythign she needs to specifically watch for as a consequence of all that.
Thank you so much for your help. I'm new to all this and try to do as much research as possible. I really appreciate any input.
Setup: 10 gallon SW tank with Ecclipse hood (32 watts light, 150 GPH flow). No skimmer or powerhead. Inhabitants: one small clown, LR, zoas, mushrooms, rics. Three mexican chestnut turbo snails.
Situation: I was starting to get a lot of algae on the glass and my snails weren't doing much. I needed to do a water change anyway, so two days ago I did a 20% change and scrubbed off the walls. Most of it was just brown algae on the walls, but there were a few strings of greenish stuff. The water I used with the pre-mixed saltwater from PetCo. Everything seemed fine. Last night I get home and the three snails aren't moving and there is reddish-brown algae on everything.
After much researching and panicking, I decide I have either a bad cyanobacteria problem. However, I posted on my local reef club forum and some said it was the toxic dinoflagellates and that my clown would probably die and that I needed a phosban reactor, a skimmer and carbon and phosphate filtration immediately. I didn't want to put a lot of money into this tank as I am hoping to upgrade to a 24g nano next year when I move, but I'm obviously willing to do whatever necessary to keep my clown alive! This all seemed like a lot plus I don't know how a lot of it would work with my hood.
I tested the water tonight and there is "slight ammonia and slight nitrites" which I know is bad. I have a crappy test strip kit and I'm going to take it to my LFS in the morning for more accurate testing. I also just added the appropriate sized carbon filter cartridge, but I couldn't find any media to remove phosphates, which I understand may be a problem. I also decided the snails were officially dead and removed them, so hopefully that will help with the ammonia? I'm going to do another water change in the morning though just to be safe.
When I looked at the algae tonight, it's still mostly the red stuff on the sand, but I did notice some small air bubbles at the surface of the sand around one of the rics, which was not open despite the light being on.
Also I found a powerhead that I think I can use to increase flow. It says it is 6W, 120 V...not sure how many GPH though (it came from a used tank purchase) so I'm trying to figure that out.
I'm turning off the lights for now.
Some additional background: I think I have been overfeeding- I've had a hard time feeding the clown the frozen mysis- she's so small a lot inevitably falls to the floor and I try to pick it up but am not always successful.
Also, I had been doing top offs with distilled water, because someone at the lFS told me that. I'm now reading that that is no good.
Pics are attached- blurry since my camera sucks but I thought it might help.
1. Is there anything else I should be doing?
2. Do you think it is just cyanobacteria? Or worse?
3. I was planning on adding some more snails and a hermit this weekend; assuming my water is ok should I still do that? I'll be in Chicago and have access to better livestock. I was hoping for another fish as well but that's definitely on hold. But perhaps a stronger CUC would help?
4. I'm now only feeding the cyclopeeze one at a time so I can watch her eat each piece. I was planning on getting some Rod's reef to start using this weekend as well, but I'm concerned it will have similar effects as the frozen mysis. Is the cyclopeeze and pelleted food alone sufficient until I get a better CUC and all this under control?
5. I'm unfortunately scheduled to go on vacation for two weeks on Monday and my friend is going to come over every other day to check on the tank. She's a fish person so I trust her but I didn't know if there's anythign she needs to specifically watch for as a consequence of all that.
Thank you so much for your help. I'm new to all this and try to do as much research as possible. I really appreciate any input.
