Help Needed Please Guys And Gals Also Starting Up New Reeftank Any Sug

[dazussdj]

Hi all,

Starting up a new reef tank with sump system and just need some suggestions on some fish for it and what to have in the sump please guys and gals.
The tank is 260litres bow front tank and sump is about 24 litres, it has uv and skimmer but both turned off as only have live rock in it at the moment.
I am very new to this and dont have much a of idea of what fish are reef safe or not or what fish mix well with others.

Also in my 180 litre tank i saw a worm at the bottom of the tank and looked like a earth worm it was brown and long any ideas what it is please i had high nitrates of 40 in there but there down to 20 now would that have made this thing turn up.

I have lost a coral over past week where i think it was from lighting being poor and high nitrates, the coral was a medusa coral but i have a mushroom coral what seems not happy looks like its decaying and a sponge coral which looks abit faded now was bright orange help please ?.

PS sorry for the waffling but i dont like seeing things die.

180 litre tank is a FLuval Duo deep 1000 with its 2 tubes lighting with reflectors, 1 bulb white , 1 bulb blue.
has red sea skimmer , fluval 405 external filter , 2 power heads.

 

[SkiFletch]

What kind of tubes? T12, T8, T5, PC?
What is the flowrate capacity of hte powerheads in GPH?
What are the following chemistry results (list all you can test for):
Temp
pH
Salinity/Specific Gravity
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium
More importantly, have you had your LFS verify your readings? If not, do so immediately.
Are there any fish in with the corals?
Do you run carbon?
What device do you use to measure salinity or specific gravity (hydrometer or refractometer)?
What is your input water source (tap or RO)?

Just as an aside the thing you saw was a bristleworm, good detritus eaters

 

[dazussdj]

What kind of tubes? T12, T8, T5, PC?

Okay what i can see t here T8

What is the flowrate capacity of hte powerheads in GPH?

one is 1200 maxijet
one is 400 maxijet

What are the following chemistry results (list all you can test for):
Temp 25c
pH 8.1
Salinity/Specific Gravity 1.024
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Phosphate 0
Calcium 380
Alkalinity havent tested it
Magnesium dont test for it

More importantly, have you had your LFS verify your readings? If not, do so immediately.
Yes lfs said readings was fine for what i have in there.

Are there any fish in with the corals?

2 x percula clowns
1 x clarki clown
1 x yellow tang
1 x scopas tang
1 x multicolour wrasse

inverts
2 hermit crabs red legged
3 cleaner shrimp
1 turbo snail

croals
bubble coral, finger sponge coral orange , mushroom one, green polyp one,

Do you run carbon?
yeah and rowphos

What device do you use to measure salinity or specific gravity (hydrometer or refractometer)?
refractometer

What is your input water source (tap or RO)?

Its RO which i make myself with a machine whats less than 6 months old

Just as an aside the thing you saw was a bristleworm, good detritus eaters

Thanks i hope its a nice worm.


Stocking wise i havent restocked the tank as i am waiting for the bigger one to be able to split up the clowns and the tang was thinking of turning the smaller tank into a fish only tank and keep bigger one as reef tank.

Any help would be appreciated i cant seem to see a reason why the corals would be upset except for the nitrates went up but have placed poly filter in to get it down while i water change aswell.

 

[SkiFletch]

High nitrates and low lighting were prolly the cause for the coral death. Do you feed phytoplankton or cyclopeeze for the sponge? Most sponges are non-photosynthetic and require feedings of tiny food to stay alive. A 2xT8 fixture is VERY low powered. You'll want to upgrade to PCs or T5s

 

[dazussdj]

High nitrates and low lighting were prolly the cause for the coral death. Do you feed phytoplankton or cyclopeeze for the sponge? Most sponges are non-photosynthetic and require feedings of tiny food to stay alive. A 2xT8 fixture is VERY low powered. You'll want to upgrade to PCs or T5s

Okay ski thankyou i intend to put the corals into the bigger tank as soon i can as its t5 lightning and pump system instead of external filter.

The work looks like a earth worm and certainly no spkes on it can it still be a bristle worm???

I looked at tank tonight and i found a half eaten cleaner shrimp any ideas whats done that. My wrasse was running around with it in its mouth with the clarkii clown having a go for it. Except for having the wrasse battered and with chips HELP

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, high nitrates will lead to death of invertebrates like cleaner shrimp, they just can tolerate them . Since you've having so many problems with nitrates, I might reccomend something as drastic as a 50% water change. By "multicolour wrasse" do you mean whats commonly known as a Velvet Wrasse? There are some wrasse species that are not reef-safe and eat inverts (although velvet wrasses are reef safe). Just want to make sure you have the right wrasse. Even "reef safe" wrasses can sometimes attack cleaner shrimp, especially if they're small. My solorensis wrasse ate the peppermint shrimp I added .

As for the worm, google peanut worm if you can. How long is this thing?

 

[dazussdj]

Okay Ski looks like the peanut worm i think so im guessing you leave it alone then.

Thankyou for your help very much appreciated

 

[SkiFletch]

yeah, peanut worms = good

 

[dazussdj]

Thankyou very much the last cleaner shrimp is still with me tonight fingers crossed.