Detailed help requestAre you experiencing any problems in your tank? Yes
Brief Description 1 tankbred juvenile Ocelaris clown died yesterday morning - I found it sucked up into the pipe of one of the powerheads. The surviving clown looked tired - at one point he went and lay on the bottom of the display tank for maybe 10 seconds. Zoa's (I think that's what they are) are not opening up anymore. Tonight the remaining juvenile clown also did not eat as well as usual (it ate like normal yesterday after the 1st clown was found dead).
Tank size 120cm x 45cm x 50cm
System Volume 390 litres
How long has your tank been running? 5 weeks
What livestock do you have? 1 tankbred Ocelaris clown (other one died yesterday morning)
5 hermit crabs (yellow tip and blue eyes)
6 snails (Narita, green turbo & turbo coronatus)
3 empty shells (same size as snails)
35kg of live rock with lots of life
1 mushroom type coral (does look too happy at the moment. I added on the 11th of Oct. It is not as open as it used to be.
Water Parameters Tested on the evening before the clown died:
Alkalinity (dkh): 7
pH: 8.3
Nitrite: 0.01
Nitrate: 4
Ammonia: <0.25
Salinity: was at 1.020 on the evening of the 17th. I did a 10% water change (salt mixed 5 days before) pushing the salinity up to around 1.022. Next morning after the dead clown was removed I did another 10% water change pushing the salinity up to around 1.023-1.024)
Temperature: 23 - 28
What lighting is over the tank? 3x30w T8's. For the first 4 weeks I only had one blue 30w T8 in. The zoa's were opening up fine. Last week I installed two white T8. I was away for the weekend (I found the dead clown Monday morning). I had the blue T8 on for the weekend. The two white T8's were of during the weekend. All the lights were of on the night/morning the clown died.
Pumps and equipment Pumps in display: 2xSeio's - 2,000lph each. 1xAquaH2O 2,000lph powerhead. Corner to corner overflow, with water from sump coming in at around 800l/h.
TS2 skimmer, DSB (I found two large empty shells at a new property I bought - I placed them in the sump, with the idea of eventually moving them into the display tank, on the evening before the clown died. I removed them on the morning I found the dead clown.
1xBuyo return pump, rated for 2,500lph (water is lifted about 1 metre, so it enters the display tank at about a rate of 800lph)
Professional auto top-up
RO unit. Bought it new about 5 weeks ago. I started up my tank with water from another reefer's tank.
Maintenance I test the water parametres once a week (Sunday afternoons). Everything tested fine (except for salinity which was low most of the time) since I started cycling the tank ( I bought 35kg's of cured live rock, so I didn't really have a cycle).
Added the two white T8's during the past week (as mentioned above). I feed the clown(s) 2 - 4 times a day (morning and evenings)
Other info and photo's. I couldn't post the photos in this info box, but I did upload them. Check my profile for photos of the zoa's before (open) and after (closed), as well as the mushroom thingy (sort of closed)
