Inverts keep dying

[WilsonsReef]

Hi all, I've had terrible luck with inverts thus far in my saltwater career and I cannot figure out why. My tank has been up and running since January, and in that short time I've lost 2 shrimp and an emerald crab (granted one of the shrimp crawled into the mouth of an RBTA). Both shrimp and the emerald were very lethargic before finally succumbing to my nass snails and passing away. I got a third shrimp and it has begun to slow down as well. It molted maybe two weeks ago and was fine and moving around up until yesterday. Now if I put anything near him he doesn't really react. I've never treated with copper. Temp is 78, salinity is 1.025 (I have an ato so it's constant), nitrates are sub 10, phosphates are 0 (Hanna checker), dkh sits around 7.6-8. I have montis, acros, euphillya, zoas, shrooms, duncans, hermit crabs, snails, a royal gramma, chromis, mandarin, and bangaii cardinal who are all doing great. Whatever it is seems to be invert specific. I also do water changes weekly with reef crystals so I doubt its iodine. I'm really scratching my head trying to figure out what it could be. Thanks for any and all suggestions! I just want this little guy to be ok!

 

[T-J]

That's quite a bit of livestock in a tank that's barely 5 months old.
Was the tank new or used? Any chance of copper from a prior owner is why I ask.
It sounds like you've lost one shrimp and emerald crab mysteriously. With other inverts doing fine (you listed snails and hermits). Any chance they starved? Were they all from the same source? Perhaps the LFS you're getting them from is having issues and the ones that died were diseased or already stressed?

 

[ecexotics]

do you monitor your ph? any salinity swings ? at night time it's common to have ph drop which itself could be deadly or could lead to other fatal problems. do you run a skimmer at night for gas exchange ? outside air pump with stone ? before i added a co2 scrubber to my skimmer to buffer the ph i would always get rtn on my acro frags over night. something to check maybe

 

[Greg P]

I found with my last tank restart using man-made rock, I went through a diatom phase.
This killed off 2 attempts to add snails.
It also irritated my skin when I stirred the sand without gloves.

Try waiting for your tank to mature a few months more before adding sensitive inverts.

 

[WilsonsReef]

That's quite a bit of livestock in a tank that's barely 5 months old.
Was the tank new or used? Any chance of copper from a prior owner is why I ask.
It sounds like you've lost one shrimp and emerald crab mysteriously. With other inverts doing fine (you listed snails and hermits). Any chance they starved? Were they all from the same source? Perhaps the LFS you're getting them from is having issues and the ones that died were diseased or already stressed?

I’ve been very careful about the livestock. I have a large fuge and slimmer running and my nutrients have remained low throughout. I feed heavily 3 times a day to make sure my mandarin stays happy (he eats lots of Mysis). I hadn’t considered the LFS. I’ve heard they’re pretty good about livestock and the shrimp were all healthy in my tank for 1+ week before taking a turn so I lean more towards it being something in my tank. Could it take that long for issues to develop? Also, everything in my tank is new. The one thing that just crossed my mind is I’m using a cheap kedsum Pump, could that be leaching something?

 

[WilsonsReef]

do you monitor your ph? any salinity swings ? at night time it's common to have ph drop which itself could be deadly or could lead to other fatal problems. do you run a skimmer at night for gas exchange ? outside air pump with stone ? before i added a co2 scrubber to my skimmer to buffer the ph i would always get rtn on my acro frags over night. something to check maybe

I typically don’t monitor my ph. I do have a meter though and every time I’ve tested it’s been 7-8. I have a fuge that runs opposite light schedule as my day time tank and a slimmer that is always on. I’ve had trouble keeping any nutrients in my tank despite heavy stocking and feeding of fish and coral. Would it be a good idea to cut down the skimmer to just night time? And what’s rtn?

 

[WilsonsReef]

I found with my last tank restart using man-made rock, I went through a diatom phase.
This killed off 2 attempts to add snails.
It also irritated my skin when I stirred the sand without gloves.

Try waiting for your tank to mature a few months more before adding sensitive inverts.

I used Carib sea rock so maybe that’s it. I definitely won’t add any other inverts for awhile. Thanks for the tip!

 

[LegendaryCG]

A couple things I can think of:
Are you using a grounding probe/GFCI outlet?
Try a polyfilter and see if it absorbs any heavy metals
Do an ICP test

 

[Greg P]

I used Carib sea rock so maybe that’s it. I definitely won’t add any other inverts for awhile. Thanks for the tip!

It's not so much about the rock you used, but rather the Diatom and especially the Dino 'phase' you will go through with 'dry' rock and sand that will kill the Inverts
Many of us are going through 'phases' without real 'Ocean' bacteria.
Never back in the day did I see us dealing with Dinos or Diatoms when we used truly Live Rock.

Good luck !!