Signs of a healthy/unhealthy tank

[jdeb101]

I think this topic would be a good general guideline for myself and other beginners for what to look for. Im sure theres many obvious answers, but also some not so obvious a lot of people dont realize.

Start posting!

 

[stingythingy45]

I have one.
Snails will not live in your tank no matter what.
When I first got into the hobby I started with a 20L and about 15lbs. of LR.
After cycling the tank(dead shrimp,waited weeks) I added CUC.Nothing would make it past a week.I had a blue mushroom coral melt and a scarlet crab crawl out of it's shell and die on the substrate.I tried removing an artificial rock....no good.Tested for copper.....nothing.All the water parameters seemed to be fine.Then I asked a LFS owner what it could be.He had me list the stuff I had used for the set up.Bingo......I used a cheap/unknown brand of saltmix sold at a local super pet store.I changed out the water and saltmix and things started to live.I've since moved to a 55 gallon and I still have a large turbo that made the move also.Now all my snails have white visors(new growth) and do really great.I also keep my calcium,Alk and Mg. at right levels.But i'm still convinced that it was the salt mix that was the culprit that first time.

 

[phatbob]

Coralline algae growth is always a good sign.

 

[smcnally]

I think a bad sign would be that everything is dead and a good sign would be that everything is growing