zoas

[beckisguy73]

I'm trying corals for the 1st time and I have 1 frag each of Bambams, eagle eyes and 2 others that i'm not sure the names of them. Bought them about a month ago and the eagle eyes are open the bambams were open now only half of them and the others dont seem to want to open up.. well I can kinda see a lil color so maybe %10 open. I have tried to move them around and get them out of the water flow and a few other places around the tank but still no luck.. It is a 30G bio cube with the standard lighting it came with.. 36W power compacts.. 10k white and the Actinic and the blue led moon lights.. my sg is 1.025 trites and trates are 0, PH is perfect and ammonia is weird.. it reads .50 added ammo lock still read .50 2 days later added ammo lock again and same reading.. Asked about it at local store and they told me that the ammo lock detoxifies the ammonia but may give false readings when testing for it. temp is 78-80.. any ideas what I could do? better lighting maybe? I need help and dont know what to do..

 

[stingythingy45]

Any ammonia in a system tells me something is not quite right.
Was this tank cycled?

 

[beckisguy73]

yes the tank was cycled

 

[stingythingy45]

Huh,that's odd,could you have had something die like like a large snail a fish missing or something?Because there should be 0 for ammonia in a cycled tank.

 

[stingythingy45]

How about a piece of live rock that wasn't really cured too good?

 

[beckisguy73]

dont think anything died.. I had 3 damsels that lived in it while cycling and now I have 2 black percs, coral beauty angel anhd a lawnmower blenny (had hair algea problem) 5 snails I see at least 4 on a reg basis and 5 hermits wich I think all 5 are still there, every 2 weeks or so I see my pom pom crab I have a very active arrow crab and 2 green emeralds that I see often..

 

[beckisguy73]

actually I did have a coral banded that died but was removed same day. (found it on my anenome think that may have did it in.. and I forgot I have 2 urchins and a skunk cleaner shrimp

 

[beckisguy73]

all the rock came from an established tank.. got it from a member on here. thats how i got the pom pom. he came as a hitchiker

 

[JasonandRay]

thats a big bio load you got there

 

[beckisguy73]

whats that mean??? I'm new to all this stuff. what should I do besides get a bigger tank? lol

 

[stingythingy45]

I was thinking the same thing.If you stock a tank too quickly the bacteria population that you grew during the cycle time can become overwhelmed.It won't be able to keep up with the fish waste and ammonia will become present.
It may take some time for the bacteria population to equal out so that it can process the waste down to nitrate without allowing ammonia.What ever you do don't add anything else to this tank.You are very close to crashing it.

 

[JasonandRay]

take out fish a 2 black percs, coral beauty angel and a lawnmower blenny thats more then i have in my 55. *please dont take this offensively*

 

[beckisguy73]

thank you everybody for all the help.
Mike

 

[afboundguy]

The test kit could be faulty but I'd have to agree it's a little much for a 30 gallon tank but what are you running for nutrient export? Macro algae? Skimmer? Also how long has the tank been set up and cycled? Adding too fast will make it hard on the bacteria like Bob mentioned but if you've put those fish in over an extended length of time that's not too bad...

Also the hermits/emeralds/other CUC could be just annoying them... I would also say that it could be the coral beauty; they are hit or miss (all hits IME) and if it's nipping at them that could be the problem right there...