What killed my Copepods ?

[jakery]

I have a 55gal tank w/ HOB refugium & crushed coral bottom.

Ive had a problem with NO3's. They have always been high since the tank first cycles 4 months ago.

I have added a 8oz bottle of Copepods 3 times. (lights & filters off) with he hopes of having a Mandarin someday.

The last water change 3 weeks ago, (40%) I let the water change bucket settle and drained it down to 1/4" of water.

It was FULL of copepods! I used this water to populate my refugium.



Last week i did a water change and 1/3 bedding change to Sand & I did not find a single Copepod.

My NO3 reached 40-50ppm. (before water change, now 20ppm)
NH3/NH4 & NO2 @ Zero
Salt, PH & Alk normal
Cal 420ppm, Mag 1100ppm

Did this kill my Copepods? Is there something else that could do it?

Thank you.

 

[beckbrass]

why is your NO3 so high? Do you have fish? You say a filter how often do you change media? Do you have a skimmer? How much and how often do you feed? Whats your temp?

What kind of Pods did you add?

 

[jakery]

I think I was over feeding. I had a Biowheel & changed the filers every two weeks, but i replaced that with the refugium.

Here is everything you asked.

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums...-55-Gallon-Welfare-Tank-lt-New-member-content

 

[Turbosnail]

The problem is most pods you buy in a bottle are tiger pods and they are used to cooler water so they tend to die in the warm water of our tanks. Start a thread asking for pods there are some members who sell them and others who might give you a clump of cheato that has pods in it. I will check my cheato later when the fuge light comes on and see if I can spare some with a lot of pods. What is your location?

 

[jakery]

Very interesting !

I work in mansfield & would appreciate any copepods you can spare. PM sent.

 

[P-Nut]

dont stress out. Your tank is brand new.

in my alst tank, I waited almost one year to add a mandarin.

Just let everything grow and buy some nice polyps and corals that come with a nice piece of liverock.

 

[dannyp02908]

You are on the right track swapping the crushed coral for sand. Crushed coral is a nitrate trap. I made the same mistake with my first salt tank. Stupid kid at the LFS told me I needed it. That being my first tank, lasted a year and a half and crashed. Everything died in 2 days. After that, went to sand.

Agree with turbosnail on the pods. I only have 2 fish that eat the pods (wrasse and cardinal) and feel I have an over population of them. Got them from a tiny clump of chaeto.

 

[afrankiewicz12]

Don't use bottled pods get chaeto from a member cause it's loade with tons of pods including amphioxus which are my favorite, turbo's is loaded with like 3-4 different kinds ranging from tiny to med-lrg pods which are bullet proof