Dead Nemo - RAAAAAAGE!!!

I missed the ventilation part. Usually people point a powerhead at the surface from the water, rather than a fan from above. How much surface agitation was that providing?

I did catch the Marineland Stealth Pro "Shatterproof" heater though. Might want to replace that ASAP, as they've been recalled for exploding in tanks. Forgot that in my original post.

 

This is true. I have one too. Is there a date or batch number/ Or certain watts. our all made?

 

im not tryin to be rude here, but how much of that post did you copy and paste? i noticed a few trademark symbols in there.......

looks like my cousins green hair algae to me.....covered everything......

are those aptasias in there? i hate them, and they spread like wild fire.......

 

I would also toss the reef crystals and go with different brand. Oceanic is relatively inexpensive if you order it by the bucket (200 gal) and has consistent readings batch to batch, IO does not.

+1 on the low salinity and change out the bulb for 10K+ (will help control algae and looks nicer the higher the temp IMO) though that shouldn't kill a clown fish. Careful on the water changes you don't want big swings (1.022-.024 not huge but could be a factor)

Try to get the calcium above 400 (though i don't know what types of coral you have in there looks like polyps and mushrooms to me)

The popeye is probably from water conditions (though it can be from injury)

How often do you clean on such a small tank i would do 5-10% every other week (its what I do) also get rid of any bioballs (i think i read that somewhere) they allow lows of organic material to get stuck in them and if you dont routinely clean them they lead to tons of nitrates

I also hate to say this but for a coil denitrator to work you need like 150feet and they are often ineffective. All you have is a couple clowns nitrates should be manageable with just water changes. (if all you have is the two clowns and no corals this can even be done monthly if its to much money)

yellow tip dwarf hermits are inexpensive and like to eat algae they might be a good addition.

Also lights are on for 12 hours is too much keep it between 8 and 10 if you can (you can supplement that time by making the moon lights go on longer than main lights) on my 34 the main light is on for 8.5 hrs and the moon lights go on 3 hours before and 2 hours after (so that I can still see my fish when i get home).

Pistol shrimp may be mantis shrimp (look them up) especially with the possible damage to the clowns eye . ask your GF if the clown on the floor was wounded (though if the tanks been up for two years you probably wouldnt have any livestock left in a small tank).

+1 for the sandbed needs to be shallower or deeper (and if you make it deeper be careful when you clean it as it could release all kinds of crap into the water. I'm actually not sure if you vacuum siphon DSB.

On the RO/DI ood to use one. You dont need to change them out until the reading into the membrane is .03 at that point you really only need to change out the first two chambers and the carbon block doesnt need to be changed until its about 66% yellow (if you use the color changing one)

 

as far as the heater its only the larger sizes (I'm not sure if 100 watts are included) that are affected recently (mid-late 2010). I called the place i bought them from ( i had 2) and got replacements for free (aqueon pro is almost the same heater).

 

I believe 100 watts was. I know I got my 100 replaced

 

pop eye is 99% due to poor water quality, so too is the algae on/in a tank this old.

12/12 lighting cycle- not what I'd do but some have limited sucess with this- it is usually a cause of algae that wont go away- which leads to other problems.

But I must ask - was the clown showing signs of stress? Did the clown have any whitish crud any where upon it?

How often do you feed and of what do you feed them?

Mind you these fish are very tough, so you have a serious problem, one I hope we can help you with.

BTW: I am not a huge fan of water changes on large tanks (such as mine) however, on smaler tanks with limited filtration, they are a requirement- how often do you do these and what is your water source?

 

wayyyyy too much to read sorry
from what i did see the pistol shrimp wouldent bother anything unless he was hungry i dident see wether you removed him or not if so get him a goby or start leaving him food
clowns that are mated or bonded nomally dont have issues after 6 months because the female has dominated and the hormones were dropped off so she wouldent harass him so he couldent turn female thats out of the question kind of a tricky situation maybe your tank raised clown was a fluke and it just toke loads of time to show up?

 

Yeah that first post was a bit of a duesy, but thanks for all the help here guys!

To answer a few of the questions,

I saw a big thread about the exploding heaters too while I was looking up the product name. May have to go shopping for a new one soon.

As far as the salt goes, I'm not actually using the "InstantOcean - Reef Crystals" just the plain "InstantOcean". I don't have any corals (yet) so the low calcium that from what I read is common in IO never bothered me much. I thought about switching this last go around, but didn't want to throw another variable into the mix with the algae problem already in full swing.

Ever since the algae started I have been doing 3 gallon water changes almost every weekend. I may have missed a weekend here or there, but never two in a row.

I basically already figured out what started the algae, it was the un-rinsed Marine Cuisine Frozen Fish Food I was dumping in. It was bursting with ammonia and phosphates - like stupid high readings. However, even dumping that in once a day the chemical test didn't even blip from 0 (I assume due to the algae consuming them so quickly).

The light I know is not the popular choice, but after testing a few ( way too bright) lights that were 10000k I tried the 6500k and really liked the look of it better. I could probably live with a 10000k light if it helped substantially with algae, but the 6500k worked algae free up until the last couple months. I may switch next bulb I buy and try it out.

To sort of sum things up, my understanding was that if the water tests "clean" then it is safe for the fish (ie if the excessive nutrients are in the algae they are not in the water hurting the fish). My main worry right now is that there is something else in the water - be it from the algae or sand or ??? that is toxic to the fish that doesn't show when testing the water params. The fact that all the past week none of the aiptasia will extend their tentacles is what nudges me towards that theory.

The clown that died was swimming around literally the night before, and then dead the next morning. The only change in behavior was that they both recently started to "hover" (basically swimming in place) just above sand and usually next to a rock or wall. They spent a lot of time like that, but would still swim around and go after food like they always have. And after searching most of the results would say something to the effect of "clowns do funny things some times..." so I wasn't sure if I was over reacting.

Just to be sure on the aeration idea, I popped the lid on the bio-ball chamber. It was sealed by any means just more of a splash gaurd but now its completely all open so that should add plenty of oxygen to the water I would think.

My last little guy appears to be still hanging in there, but his eye is swollen quite abit too.

 

According to the speaker from Steve's LEDs we saw last night, if you want to grow algae use a 6500 k bulb (or red LEDs) LOL. The warmer color spectrum promotes plant growth.