I am fairly new and need help! 60gal

some photos of the tank

Here are a couple of photos i took of the tank. Please let me know if you think anything looks outta whack. Thanks

 

what do you have for water movement? I see a small pump in the one corner, but thats all, you may not have enough flow through your tank but I could be wrong.

 

Hello dave, sorry to hear about all your troubles but I have to say the first thing that caught my attention was that you keep getting electricuted. That would bring me to ask about the grounding probe, which in turn would explain why your snails are dying so quickly. I think I would be checking all of my equipment for the stray voltage that could possibly be going through your system.( That's where the grounding probe comes in to play) I would personaly keep my pinkys out of the water till I found the problem.

 

Likely a stray voltage problem.
However, just wanted to suggest that you don't add anything to your tank that you are not testing for (etc: iodine, strontium). It has happened in the past where people have overdosed these type of additives with negative consequences.

 

Hello!

Hello, Yes I was shocked but that was due to a flow which happened and it had allowed some water to hit wires that I had spliced for my auto top off. I quickly realized what had happened when I reached into the tank! (Shock) and powered off every thing and moved those wires and pinned them way out of any waters reach. Since then I have ordered a ground probe just incase but my snails had died off before this event and luckily it’s been a week or more and every thing else is still alive after the shocking. As for water flow I have quite a bit. I have a powerhead (I know I don’t like it either) and my more proud adjustable tubing which runs along the backside of the tank. I have 6 jets placed in the back of the tank which I can adjust to point at different corals and such when I get them... that is attached to a mag 9.5 which has a flow of 800 gph at 4 feet. It is not a closed circuit (wish it was) but I feel the flow is pretty good. Thank you all for the suggestions please keep them coming it really gets me thinking about things I need to fix and have already addressed many of them. Thanks so much ;D

 

Shocked due to an overflow (sorry typo from above) which happened when I installed the Refug

 

Umm about the additives.. I do add calcium and trace elements a few drops aday. I wish I had a test for the iodine, strontium but i do not add much of these and when i do it is a very small amount. I add about 8 drops of calcium a day and have been trying to raise my cal from 350 to about 450 I will recheck it today but i would guess its around 400 now. As for the other elements how would i know how much to add I currentlly have a marine lab and reef lab by red sea ( I think these testing kits are horrible but don't know of any others)

 

From everything I have read if there is copper in the tank you won't be able to keep invertebrates , so If you want to keep it a reef system with these types of creatures you would have to replace the tank. Its not easy to keep a reef tank without snails/hermits, they keep the reef clean and tidy.

It is ok to use metal clamps outside the tank just as long as the clamps are not submerged or exposed to the salt water.
Metal clamps outside the tank
Plastic Clamps in all submerged areas

 

Good news but still leaves questions

I just got in the grounding probe and the copper testing kit. No copper was found and I tested it a few times (thank god). I have been away for a couple days and when I got back to my tank it seems I have had a little brown algae bloom. Also one of my hermits has decided to drop off his shell. I thought that he may have died but when I picked him up he started moving so I put him down. Don't know what the cause of this is. Still trying to figure it out. My skunk shrimp seem to be doing well. Just going to keep doing water changes ever week and keep my fingers crossed. I do want to know if any one uses a phosphate pad? How are they? My phosphates are still a little high and I think that is why I am having this brown algae any advice on that?

 

I second that...It is probably the ammonia, if you have 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates along with that level of ammonia you are at the beginnings stages of a cycle...