5 gallon tank in recovery

[MonKei]

Recently my 5 gal tank (not really a reef.. but its small) has had a stroke of bad luck.. water got very cloudy, lost a few fish and starfish, had frogspawn look really sad.. I am sure all you experienced reefers know what I am talking about.. I've only been doing saltwater for about 6 months, so I am still pretty new at this and am not too sure what was going on.. my water tested fine at the LFS, so that wasnt much help.. but since, I've done a few water changes.. stired it up a bit to get the decaying organics out of tight spots and now its looking halfway better.. time will tell.. hopefully it will recover fully soon..

Equipment
5 gallon Mini-bow
20w 50/50 Mini-Compact Flurorescent Lighting
Whisper hang on back Filter
25w Hang on back heater (kept clean of salt residue...)
air pump/stones which are in there but havn't been in use for a long while..

LR and Livestock
Water salinity at 1.023 SG
~4lb Fiji LR
~1.5in sandbed
few coral remains just to fill space
4 x Blue leg hermit crabs
1 x Pyramid Snail
1 x Honey Chromis
1 x Yellow Damsel
1 x Frogspawn Coral

Food and Additives
Liquid Calcium
Live Phytoplankton (interesting find at the LFS - its all green)
Frozen Brine Shrimp

Pics
Front

Side

Closeup of Recovering Frogspawn and Hermit

I've thought about pulling the coral remains out in trade for a few more pounds of life rock, I've been told that it would be benficial to make it closer to 7 pounds or so in there.. Ive also thought about adding a small ~2 gallon sump/refugium off the side to add to water volume and keep water a little cleaner and maybe getting a very small skimmer as well (dont think its really necessary though...).. this would be sometime in the future... I want to let things settle in the tank before doing some big adjustment like that...
I'm open to any suggestions and criticisms that any of you may have, now that I have a better income, I'll be able to do more with this thing

 

[crod75]

Hi MonKei,

I have heard of problems similar to yours and it is pretty common to happen to people who are still relatively new to the hobby. Most likely the cloudy water is due to an overabundance of bacteria secondary to overstocking or adding too much nutrition to your tank. It can be very difficult to maintain such a small reef aquarium with one much less two fish. Although it certainly can be done if the fish are small enough and you are extremely careful to avoid overfeeding. How much and how often were you feeding the fish?
The reason that your water parameters tested fine, but everything looked so sick may have been that the dissolved oxygen levels dropped precipitously during the bacteria bloom. At this point you are probably better off avoiding any fish in the near future and doing serial water changes (up to 50%) maybe once or twice a week until things get better. Try to avoid too many and too large of water changes because it will be hard for things to get balanced.
As far as your future plans, I would definitely suggest adding a refugium and/or skimmer if you can figure out a way to add them to your tank without making things too complicated. A refugium would be great because of the added water volume. Unlike others, I am a strong proponent of skimmers for nano reefs. My smallest tank is a 12 gallon and I tried running it without a skimmer for the first 6 months I had it ( with 10 lbs of live rock that I had had for a few years). During that time I had consistent algae problems and my hammer coral never looked that happy after the first few months I had it. After those 6 months I installed a simple wooden airstone driven skimmer and since then the algae growth has been minimal and the hammer coral has really started to expand much more. (I still do 20% water changes every 2-4 weeks) I also have a 20 gallon reef tank that had always been running with a skimmer (BakPak 2R currently) for the 6 years I have had it and the tank has been running like a dream. Although I certainly wouldn't advocate it, I have gone up to 6 months without a water change ( because I was too busy or lazy) and still had minimal algae problems and strong growth in the soft corals. Of course that is all just my personal experience.
Anyways, good luck and let us know if things get better.

 

[MonKei]

thanks for the reply crod75,

since my last post, things have gotten better but worse all at the same time I suppose... I'll go with the negative note first, cause the positive is much better.. well my livestock count has dropped by two, and am now completely without fish. the chromis and damsel both died, roughly 2 days apart, they were lookin pretty sickly for a while... unfortunately the cardinal that was in there was the first to go, which was about a week ago.. ( a day or so before my first post ).. I talked to my friend last night, who works at a pet shop he specializes in salt fish there, and he thought that your theory of over nutrition was pretty sound, I was feeding the three fish brine shrimp every day, roughly what they consumed in about 2 mins.. he said that I should have been feeding that once every few days, which would keep the bacteria counts up and whatnot. so when/if I get more fish, I'll feed the fish less often..

but now for the good news.. the water has remained very clear since I first posted. and i turned on the bubbles to create a little more water flow around the tank, to stir stuff on the surface a little bit and help with oxygenation (and it looks pretty too :wink: ) The cleanup crew I've got workin in there is doing fine, eatin algae and being generally busy.. frogspwan has been opening up lots more, last night before I shut the lights out for the night, it was almost full size. so thats a good improvement I'd say..

I am going ot be dropping by the LFS again today and getting water tested, and also lookin at smallish tanks, more live rock and skimmer.. maybe I'll see something that catches my eye, maybe not.. we'll see I suppose. I'll post some more pictures of whats goin on w/ the tank tonight or tomorrow!
thanks again!

-Thayer

 

[MonKei]

well, all was good, water checked out just fine, and I still have yet to find a really good LFS, we'll just see I suppose... more bad news though... my 20w mini-compact 50/50 light burned out today :-/ grrrrr... I found an old 10w one though.. not nearly as bright... sigh... gotta go find another 20w one I think.. sux that I cant find a higher power retrofit for this size tank too easily...

 

[Anonymous]

Hey monKei

Did the bulb burn out, or was it the ballast? You can replace either, for less cost than a new light.

Also re: stirring stuff up ... you might want to avoid stirring the substrate when your tank is stressed. stirring up a lot of detritus can release decaying organics and other nasty nassers right into the water column, or they collect on your filter media, and that can cause a spike/crash.

also ... do you know what brand of test kits your LFS uses? if you can spare it, buy a pack of salifert kits, they're supposed to be the best/most accurate.

 

[crod75]

Hey,

I am glad to hear that your tank has gotten so much better. It sounds like things are definitely back on track, especially since your frogspawn is doing so well. Sorry about the fish though... Anyways, hopefully you didn't get too frustrated with your minor setback and good luck on finding a good LFS and replacement bulb. Maybe someone who lives in your area will see your post and offer some suggestions for good stores.

 

[MonKei]

here are those pics that I promised of how the tank looked as of june 7th

the full tank

frogspawn

its a little darker now that the higher power light is gone.. oh well.. and to replace the light it was only a few bucks, as it wasnt one of the fancy setups that you all have.. it was one of those bulbs that is used to replace a 4 inch incandesent light with one that is good for corals and whatnot. I picked up another at the LFS for like 7 bucks.. they work pretty good..

this is what it was that burned out, the cd is for size reference

the substrate is just going to sit now and not be jostled any more thanks for the advice.
-thayer

 

[brandon4291]

What are you guys' thoughts on dosing Ca++ but not alkalinity/carbonate?

 

[MonKei]

well I figured out what I decided to do... for now...
I added a 2.5 pound chunk of cured live rock about a week ago.. its doing fine..
Added a small pump on the right side, under the heater with a DIY acrylic tube to spread the water out over a greater vertical surface...
I ordered a 13w 50/50 CF lamp from hellolights, the kit with the ballast.. that should be here tomorrow..
sometime soon I'll install that.. I'll post pics when I get it in there.