Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing...but true...and I am VERY concerned...whole thing almost makes me want to tear everything down and give up...but I knew saltwater was fragile going into it...
Anyway, last night I put 5 snails and 1 anemone in my tank, and the snails were all dead within a half hour...this morning, the anemone seems to have suffered the same fate (all shrunk down).
Little background:
75 gallon overflow with wet/dry filter and Prizm skimmer. Been up for about 6 weeks with 3 small fish, 2 damsels and a clown, all healthy, good color, clean fins, and eating very well. Did two water changes, 15 gal each, with "Culligan" RO water from Wal-Mart, use RO for top-off, but initially filled the tank with tap water. Use Crystal Sea mix from Marine Enterprises.
Tank was purchased second-hand from a local fish store, doesn't do marine any longer. Sat empty for a while, including about 40 lbs of now "dead" rock. I soaked the rock for a few days in clean water b4 using it, but didn't actually sterilize it with bleach or anything of the sort.
Only negative as of late is the diatom bloom, but everyone says that it's normal in the first month or so.
This leads me up to a week ago, when I added 10 snails and 10 blue-legged hermits. Snails were dead within an hour, but I still have between 6 and 10 crabs left (can't really tell as I've never seen more than 6 at once). I acclimated the snails for about half an hour, including adding water from my tank to their bag.
Of course I thought something was amiss, and in speaking with my local Marine store, he said it was probably nitrates.
Saturday night, I did another 15 gallon change. Tested the water Sunday, all was good, and tested it again yesterday morning. I use Red Sea's Marine Lab test kit. All good, nitrates @ 30.
Last night, went back to lfs, took some water and had him test it, his results were the same as mine, so he thought snails and a hardy anemone would be fine. Guess not.
I acclimated everything for an hour last night, very slowly adding and drainingg water from bags, and snails stopped moving within a half hour, anemone this morning.
Salinity is fine, ammonia and nitrites @ 0, nitrates @ 30, temp @ 79 degrees.
Any thoughts/help/suggestions? Something else that I should test for? I want to expand my tank, but not at the expense of more inverts.
Sorry to be so wordy!
Anyway, last night I put 5 snails and 1 anemone in my tank, and the snails were all dead within a half hour...this morning, the anemone seems to have suffered the same fate (all shrunk down).
Little background:
75 gallon overflow with wet/dry filter and Prizm skimmer. Been up for about 6 weeks with 3 small fish, 2 damsels and a clown, all healthy, good color, clean fins, and eating very well. Did two water changes, 15 gal each, with "Culligan" RO water from Wal-Mart, use RO for top-off, but initially filled the tank with tap water. Use Crystal Sea mix from Marine Enterprises.
Tank was purchased second-hand from a local fish store, doesn't do marine any longer. Sat empty for a while, including about 40 lbs of now "dead" rock. I soaked the rock for a few days in clean water b4 using it, but didn't actually sterilize it with bleach or anything of the sort.
Only negative as of late is the diatom bloom, but everyone says that it's normal in the first month or so.
This leads me up to a week ago, when I added 10 snails and 10 blue-legged hermits. Snails were dead within an hour, but I still have between 6 and 10 crabs left (can't really tell as I've never seen more than 6 at once). I acclimated the snails for about half an hour, including adding water from my tank to their bag.
Of course I thought something was amiss, and in speaking with my local Marine store, he said it was probably nitrates.
Saturday night, I did another 15 gallon change. Tested the water Sunday, all was good, and tested it again yesterday morning. I use Red Sea's Marine Lab test kit. All good, nitrates @ 30.
Last night, went back to lfs, took some water and had him test it, his results were the same as mine, so he thought snails and a hardy anemone would be fine. Guess not.
I acclimated everything for an hour last night, very slowly adding and drainingg water from bags, and snails stopped moving within a half hour, anemone this morning.
Salinity is fine, ammonia and nitrites @ 0, nitrates @ 30, temp @ 79 degrees.
Any thoughts/help/suggestions? Something else that I should test for? I want to expand my tank, but not at the expense of more inverts.
Sorry to be so wordy!
