My husband and I set up our very first saltwater tank. 75g. Well its been up for maybe 9 days now and we have 16 live rock, 1 peppermint shrimp, about 6 snails and 3 hermits. Well everything was going well up till about 3 days ago. I noticed my kenya tree shrinking/shriveled. Well in a panic I called the LFS we got everything from and explained. He said it could be stressed and not to worry. Well little did we know what aiptasia were because he failed to tell us that when he was supplying us with the live rock, but anyhow they were covered with them. So me being a newbie I thought they belonged. Well after showing a fellow reefer the kenya he said it's dying from the aiptasia next to it. I have a thousand of these things in my tank. To be more exact I have about 64 and that's within the 16 rocks and not including those I can't see but I even counted the teeny tiny ones. How do I get rid of these and FAST. I have one growing on my kenya. It's a teeny one but HELPPPPPP please. I feel horrible for not researching on my own before it got this bad. Helppppp!
I need help STAT
- Thread starter jrbates08
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Zero Nitrates
I love chalices
Put some more peppermint shrimp in there and they will eat the aiptasia. No worries!
P3FE
Active Member
If your tank has only been up for nine days, your nitrogen cycle is probably on the beginning stages, Amonia in your tank is probably rising by now, hence why your tree is dying, your invertebrates are probably next in line. Test your water and make sure your cycle is complete before you add anymore livestock, it will take about 4 weeks.
Please dont be rude. Im already stressed out and hubby is threatening to take it all down because im emotional over a rock!!! The guy who helped us set up our tank said that because everything is well established that it would be fine. We've only had the rock with the kenya about 5 days. I know this is going to be a learning curve but it's much easier when u get help instead of criticized. Everyone has to start somewhere. Zero Nitrates, so should I worry about these as much as I am or just go buy some peppermint shrimp and calm down??? Is there something I can do to help my kenya? How many shrimp should I get for a 75g tank. I'm about to go buy 50 if it helps lol (that was a joke to those with no sense of humor) would 6 be good?
TheGrimmReefer
Well-Known Member
Sounds like you should have done more research, period. Too often, people jump into this hobby without knowing a thing, and too often people make mistakes like the ones you've made. Which, would have been easily avoided, had you done research beforehand.
Join a local reef club, read articles and posts on R2R, and understand what you're getting into, before going any further.
Join a local reef club, read articles and posts on R2R, and understand what you're getting into, before going any further.
Again, no need to be rude. There's only so much u can "read" before u think you are ready. But low and behold there are many surprises that come along with this hobby. You may have thought u were financially ready for a child until BAM you are blessed with a disabled child who demands alot more then u expected. Does that mean u should be rude to someone and tell them to give up? No! That means someone who may have some experience with the situation should maybe lend some words of encouragement. I'm sure u didn't know the book when u started. But thanks for the advice u did give. I will now continue to read the 1200 page bible I have for salt water tanks
+1000000
cdness
2006 - Present
First off, Welcome to Reef2Reef. You are in good hands here...
Red Flag here... You need to let the tank cycle.
Second red flag here is you need to find a better LFS. First off they shouldn't be selling the rock if it is full of aptasia. They should have paid you to take it. They also shouldn't have sold you the coral, shrimp, or cleanup crew... Your tank needs to cycle.
To be 100% honest, you got ripped off. You don't even need to tell me how much you paid for the rock, because I have an idea what you will be paying to get it all cleaned off the rock. I have a feeling they are more than willing to sell you additional peppermint shrimp, copper banded butterfly, berghia, or a concoction of different chemicals to try get rid of it. If the LFS will take the rock back, get rid of it while you can. Get clean live rock or just cycle with dead rock from BRS or Marco.
If the LFS will not take the rock back, take a trip to your neighborhood hardware store for a large garbage can and high-strength muriatic acid. Follow the steps on R2R for cooking your rocks. This MAY kill off the aptasia. I know it will kill off the ones on the surface, but the ones in crevices can live through it. We acid bathed and bleached the live rock from a friends tank after it went through a house fire and was cold for 3 weeks... The aptasia lived through it all.
If you do not want to do the acid bath, go get a package os Mrs Wages Pickeling Lime and mix it with RODI water to make a paste. You can use a syringe to kill them off one by one with this DIY Kalk Paste (Joe's Juice, Aptasia-X, etc)
Red Flag here... You need to let the tank cycle.
Second red flag here is you need to find a better LFS. First off they shouldn't be selling the rock if it is full of aptasia. They should have paid you to take it. They also shouldn't have sold you the coral, shrimp, or cleanup crew... Your tank needs to cycle.
To be 100% honest, you got ripped off. You don't even need to tell me how much you paid for the rock, because I have an idea what you will be paying to get it all cleaned off the rock. I have a feeling they are more than willing to sell you additional peppermint shrimp, copper banded butterfly, berghia, or a concoction of different chemicals to try get rid of it. If the LFS will take the rock back, get rid of it while you can. Get clean live rock or just cycle with dead rock from BRS or Marco.
If the LFS will not take the rock back, take a trip to your neighborhood hardware store for a large garbage can and high-strength muriatic acid. Follow the steps on R2R for cooking your rocks. This MAY kill off the aptasia. I know it will kill off the ones on the surface, but the ones in crevices can live through it. We acid bathed and bleached the live rock from a friends tank after it went through a house fire and was cold for 3 weeks... The aptasia lived through it all.
If you do not want to do the acid bath, go get a package os Mrs Wages Pickeling Lime and mix it with RODI water to make a paste. You can use a syringe to kill them off one by one with this DIY Kalk Paste (Joe's Juice, Aptasia-X, etc)
TheGrimmReefer
Well-Known Member
Not being rude, being logical. IF you would have researched, you would know what diatoms are and why your sand is turning brown. You would have also known that you shouldn't have coral in a tank that is only 9 days old and is still cycling. Both of which, are ELEMENTARY in saltwater aquaria.
P3FE
Active Member
Don't get discourage, it's ok to make mistakes. The best advise I can give you is to stop worrying about the aptasia and let the tank run it's cycle. Nitrates is the last step of the nitrogen cycle, so you won't see any nitrates for a while until the cycle reach the end. Test your Amonia and Nitrites and see where they at. At nine days I would expect to see some rise in Amonia, and probably 0 nitrites and nitrates. Biggest thing in this hobby is patience, I know it sucks to wait, but if you don't you are going to loose a lot of livestock, and that's not fun.
cdness
2006 - Present
Please remember that many times people come off as rude through type, but they didn't mean the post to be read that way...
There are surprises, learning curves, and many baby steps along the way to a successful reef tank. Remember that nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Also the LFS is there to make money so take EVERYTHING they say with a grain of salt and verify their ideas with reputable online sources like Reef2Reef...
Joining a local reef club is a great way to meet local people with a common interest. It also gives you an opportunity to have someone assist you when things get tough. We have a program in out club where we can mentor new people to the hobby and make sure they are on the right track to being successful. It has been a great way to keep people in the hobby as the discouragement is limited as issues are handled well and right away.
You are right as there is only so much reading you can do. I would however suggest reading through the New to the Hobby section of Reef2Reef and stay away from the majority of the books. I know there are some good ones out there (Tony Vargas wrote one) that are good, however they are usually out-dated the moment they are printed. Reef2Reef has a ton of information to support you and your hobby. You can learn from other people's mistakes while letting others learn from yours. We all make them, even myself...
First of all... welcome to the forum.
Second and most important is that noone is being rude to you here. You have come here asking for help and the advice you have been given is correct. It may not be that advice that you want to hear but never the less members are giving you the correct advice. When starting out on a new tank you need to allow the tank to cycle. The person who has been helping you out should have told you this. Im not being rude just stating a fact.
This hobby tries the best of us and it may seem hard now but think of it in a positive light... youve learnt and you know this for the next time you set up another tank.
It isnt worth falling out with your other half neither.... so lets see what we can do with your situation...
1stly dont add any more stock. Keep things as they are and hope they pull through the cycle process. Keep testing your readings and look out for the ammonia spike (if you have one... some dont but most do). If i was in your position id also look at pouring in a bottle or two of Dr Tims One and Only to get that beneficial bacteria in your tank.
Once the ammonia and nitrites are reading zero then your tank is practically cycled.
Ive recommended Dr tims one and only because you use this in conjunctuion with an ammonia source... in your case your clean up crew that you have already added. Patience is key here. Just leave the cycle to do its thing and expect that you may loose stuff (we all do even with established tanks... dont let anyone tell you different lol).
Hopefully everything will survive... at this stage though getting a little stressed is spoiling the hobby for you at the very start and its a very enjoyable hobby... keep your chin up and see what happens.
With regards to aiptasia... peppermint shrimps may have a go at deminishing the population of aips but other suggestions are Joes Juice, aptasia X, Bergia nudibrach or alternative metody such as burning them out of the water with a heated screwdriver or a small blowtorch... both i have known to be effective. Dont let anyone suggest you boil your rock neither... really dangerous.
Hope ive not come across as rude and i hope in a few weeks time your issue is a thing of the past
Second and most important is that noone is being rude to you here. You have come here asking for help and the advice you have been given is correct. It may not be that advice that you want to hear but never the less members are giving you the correct advice. When starting out on a new tank you need to allow the tank to cycle. The person who has been helping you out should have told you this. Im not being rude just stating a fact.
This hobby tries the best of us and it may seem hard now but think of it in a positive light... youve learnt and you know this for the next time you set up another tank.
It isnt worth falling out with your other half neither.... so lets see what we can do with your situation...
1stly dont add any more stock. Keep things as they are and hope they pull through the cycle process. Keep testing your readings and look out for the ammonia spike (if you have one... some dont but most do). If i was in your position id also look at pouring in a bottle or two of Dr Tims One and Only to get that beneficial bacteria in your tank.
Once the ammonia and nitrites are reading zero then your tank is practically cycled.
Ive recommended Dr tims one and only because you use this in conjunctuion with an ammonia source... in your case your clean up crew that you have already added. Patience is key here. Just leave the cycle to do its thing and expect that you may loose stuff (we all do even with established tanks... dont let anyone tell you different lol).
Hopefully everything will survive... at this stage though getting a little stressed is spoiling the hobby for you at the very start and its a very enjoyable hobby... keep your chin up and see what happens.
With regards to aiptasia... peppermint shrimps may have a go at deminishing the population of aips but other suggestions are Joes Juice, aptasia X, Bergia nudibrach or alternative metody such as burning them out of the water with a heated screwdriver or a small blowtorch... both i have known to be effective. Dont let anyone suggest you boil your rock neither... really dangerous.
Hope ive not come across as rude and i hope in a few weeks time your issue is a thing of the past
Ok this is how this all happened. Our local and ONLY LFS that deals with salt water was relocating. We got an amazing deal on the tank from a friend of the family. We read and researched "what we thought was the appropriate information" but apparently we missed alot. He took the live sand straight from his tank into ours, also 50g was of his water from his tank so we had to add the other 15g of mixed salt water from the gallons. Then he said to start off with rock only which we did. He told us that day to come back that weekend for some shrimp and snails (which was 4 days later) so we did and at that time he was cleaning out one of his tanks preparing for his move and said "if u want to try these and see how they work out, your welcome to them" now he knew how new our tank was and that we were beginners. He also said kenya is pretty hardy. But what he failed to tell us was that the rock was infested with aiptasia. (It was out of the water while he offered it and we accepted) so with this happening the way it did, I figure he knew best and it had a possibility. But I appreciate everyone's advice. I will continue reading before anything else is added for at least 5 more weeks. But should I get some peppermint shrimp or just start all over? We have another store that sell cured live rock. Would it be better to just replace instead of treat?
Tbert33, thank u thank u thank u!!!!! Very informative!!!! I know people may not mean to come off rude, but you can definitely since it when it's left at that. So that k u very much. I'm going to wait it out and see what happens. I know this is a great hobby, my uncle used to have a 150g tank that was amazing. However he's not easily contacted 
but thank u for ur kind words and encouragement
but thank u for ur kind words and encouragement 
ReeferBob
Valuable Member
Good luck and I sincerely wish you the best but there is almost a 100% chance that everything in your tank is going to die. It is just too early and too many things have gone wrong already with it. What are your salt levels? Do you have a good test kit for at least Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates? Test those 3 daily. As a total newbie to the hobby, I would suggest you start over with what is in the tank. That is, the substrate, rock and water. Discard the existing substrate and water and start "cooking" your existing rock for use sometime down the road (a bad aiptasia infestation is very hard to get rid of). Get new rock, new water and new substrate for now though. Get that under control. Get the parameters right over about a month or 2, then slowly add livestock. Are you using RO/DI water? What type of salt are you using? What type of lighting came with the tank? What type of filtration? Lighting is critical to Coral survival.
Jimbo662
2500 Club Member
I've been in the hobby for only about 2 yrs and one thing I've learned is sites like R2R are invaluable. One thing to remember is every tank is different and you'll probably get a dozen different answers to your questions. It'll be up to you to figure out which answer best fits your needs / tank. One thing that you will find is consistent is that everyone will agree that the best method to keeping a healthy tank is to not make any major changes / adjustments.
good luck and just have patience...everything will work out in the end.
good luck and just have patience...everything will work out in the end.
