My Students 10g Nano
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OP
OP
Only possible thing I can think of is that the water used here from school has some copper traces in it somehow. Something that wouldnt affect the fish drastically but would affect the inverts? I started doing W.C's with my RO/DI water and topping off with RO/DI after filling the tank with school tap water. Im thinking I might have made a beginners mistake here. This school is one of the oldest in the country, there has to be some nasty stuff in the pipes here....crap, this just hit me now.
SeahorseKeeper
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It sounds like heavy metal poisoning to me. I would test for copper.
Dixie_reefer
Well-Known Member
Might want to test to for stray voltage also.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
You filled it with tap water? Yikes. I'd drain the tank 100%, clean out the rocks and sand, order a bag of Cuprisorb (just in case) to leave in the filter, and start over using RO/DI water.
OP
OP
I am just going to switch to a 20 gallon a fellow teacher donated. I have all the equipment that will work just fine. I also have enough sand, ect to do so. The 10 gallon is doing fine, I am going to run the poly filter and keep the current inhabitants until the 20 gallon is cycled.
The hermit crab is still alive but shy and I think if there is some metal present it is in small amounts. I am going to use rock I have at home that's macro rock and the current macro stuff I have in the 10 gallon. I am going to ditch the large non-porous rock to the left and use new sand in the 20. I think this is my best bet, bigger tank = less chemistry changes and less maintenance especially if I invest eventually (once the kids raise enough money) to get a ATO. The clown is doing good and I am going to re-use our mini koralia powerhead. The only thing im really worried about is lighting. I have zero lights for this 20 and I want the kids to be excited about the look of it. Any thoughts on this anyone? Good idea, bad idea?
The hermit crab is still alive but shy and I think if there is some metal present it is in small amounts. I am going to use rock I have at home that's macro rock and the current macro stuff I have in the 10 gallon. I am going to ditch the large non-porous rock to the left and use new sand in the 20. I think this is my best bet, bigger tank = less chemistry changes and less maintenance especially if I invest eventually (once the kids raise enough money) to get a ATO. The clown is doing good and I am going to re-use our mini koralia powerhead. The only thing im really worried about is lighting. I have zero lights for this 20 and I want the kids to be excited about the look of it. Any thoughts on this anyone? Good idea, bad idea?
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
It doesn't need any light if there is no coral or macro in it. If you do get something, in the meantime to getting 'real' lights, just grab an aluminum clip-on reflector from Home Depot and a daylight CFL and call it done. 
OP
OP
Ok little update here, I changed the rock work, use some macro rock I had at home and changed the aqua scaping, it looks okay but I am not 100 happy with it, ill post pictures tomorrow, the kids and I have off today 
The hermit crab seems fine along with the fish, the poly filter I ordered should be here tomorrow so Wednesday ill be able to get a good idea of what happened. LFS said that it wasn't the tap water that caused it, so maybe I just introduced them a little too soon and the ammonia got em, oops? I haven't heard of ammonia spikes killing off snails but who knows. Either way I wont be upgrading just yet, I might wait till next year to do a bigger tank because it looks like this one will be coming home with me over the summer. I might be moving rooms (crosses fingers) into a more permanent much more chemistry suited room. This will also house a tank MUCH better, I even have a RO/DI unit in the back room if I get the room I think I will.
Anyways the kids raised 25 dollars for a seastar my LFS has a tile star that's small and will eventually outgrow the tank but for now it will be okay and ill throw him in my main display when he outgrows it until I upgrade next year. Im going to add the poly filter see what happens, try out a few snails for a week, and go from there.
The hermit crab seems fine along with the fish, the poly filter I ordered should be here tomorrow so Wednesday ill be able to get a good idea of what happened. LFS said that it wasn't the tap water that caused it, so maybe I just introduced them a little too soon and the ammonia got em, oops? I haven't heard of ammonia spikes killing off snails but who knows. Either way I wont be upgrading just yet, I might wait till next year to do a bigger tank because it looks like this one will be coming home with me over the summer. I might be moving rooms (crosses fingers) into a more permanent much more chemistry suited room. This will also house a tank MUCH better, I even have a RO/DI unit in the back room if I get the room I think I will.
Anyways the kids raised 25 dollars for a seastar my LFS has a tile star that's small and will eventually outgrow the tank but for now it will be okay and ill throw him in my main display when he outgrows it until I upgrade next year. Im going to add the poly filter see what happens, try out a few snails for a week, and go from there.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
In such a small tank, I'd highly recommend staying away from any type of starfish besides a harlequin serpent or the like. With most starfish it isn't fully understood what they eat and they simply starve to death, and in nanos it happens very quickly, especially in one so young. I'd hate to see their money wasted on something that doesn't survive and thrive.
I doubt it was ammonia that killed the snails. Most reef snails are very, very hardy and can handle extreme temperature and salinity swings (as a lot are intertidal), and ammonia shouldn't bother them, not that quickly anyways, unless it was very, very high, but at that point everything in it would have also died and the water would have been very cloudy.
I doubt it was ammonia that killed the snails. Most reef snails are very, very hardy and can handle extreme temperature and salinity swings (as a lot are intertidal), and ammonia shouldn't bother them, not that quickly anyways, unless it was very, very high, but at that point everything in it would have also died and the water would have been very cloudy.
OP
OP
Yeah I don't know what killed the snails, I am putting the poly filter in the tank tomorrow. The starfish at the LFS is quite small, and I hadn't considered the harlequin, that's actually a really good idea. The kids decided that a cleaner shrimp would be more fun anyways considering they have more movement to them. Now that they know live aquaria.com they are all about researching things themselves haha.
I am going to wait and test the water, and get some snails in there again. I checked the parameters today and everything looks good. After a week or so of snails ill pick up a nice cleaner shrimp. The kids will like that and its the safest bet with a new tank.
Anyone have any experience with a Catalina Goby? The kids found him on live aquaria under nano gobies and hes bright red with a blue face. The immediatleyw wanted one.
I am going to wait and test the water, and get some snails in there again. I checked the parameters today and everything looks good. After a week or so of snails ill pick up a nice cleaner shrimp. The kids will like that and its the safest bet with a new tank.
Anyone have any experience with a Catalina Goby? The kids found him on live aquaria under nano gobies and hes bright red with a blue face. The immediatleyw wanted one.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Catalina gobies are temperate.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Most people don't. Tons of those little guys have died because people didn't research them beforehand. 
Pkunk35
Valuable Member
Great job on the tank, sorry to hear about the snails.
Just some thoughts:
1) sexy shrimp instead of cleaner shrimp. I just thnk they are more manageable in a 20, just as entertaining if not more. They also do great in groups. Nuttin wrong with cleaner shrimp too tho.
2) add detrivores and pods both for interest and CUC. Amphipods would be excellent to add now, make sure to feed em to get population explosion.
3) I love the macro algae idea. With a tank that is more based like a refugium, leaving for holidays won't be as big of a deal in terms of feeding.
Looking forward to seeing this develop some more!
Just some thoughts:
1) sexy shrimp instead of cleaner shrimp. I just thnk they are more manageable in a 20, just as entertaining if not more. They also do great in groups. Nuttin wrong with cleaner shrimp too tho.
2) add detrivores and pods both for interest and CUC. Amphipods would be excellent to add now, make sure to feed em to get population explosion.
3) I love the macro algae idea. With a tank that is more based like a refugium, leaving for holidays won't be as big of a deal in terms of feeding.
Looking forward to seeing this develop some more!
