Live sand may help a cycle by supplying some bacteria but it's not enough and a cycle can take up to 6 weeks. You obviously had the right bacteria in there I just don't think enough was built up to support two fish at once. Remember it's a 10 gallon tank, it's the same as adding 10 fish at once to a new 50 gallon. Seems obvious to me what the issue was. Hermit crabs will survive almost anything and they can't supply enough waist to produce the bacteria needed for fish.
Not trying to argue here, just get to the bottom of your issue. I mean what else could it be?

For the clown, I really think it was just the fact that it was crammed between the overflow teeth (I'm guessing all day as the clown was under the overflow when I left at 6am) for a very small specimen, I think it could stress out being stuck like that... The wrasse, is a mystery, I'm GUESSING it got nicked by the anemone (which I admit was an implulse buy) and being such a small fish, couldn't handle the sting...

My testing in the 3rd and 4th weeks showed the cycle, so I know it went thru it, I just never tested again before adding the fish. I realize that todays test of Nitrite read 0.00 to 0.02, but I'm not getting any reading for Nitrates even if the Trites dropped in the past 24 hours...

I saw a hawaiian strawberry crab today at the lfs. As soon as I saw it I thought of your themed tank. It would look purdy against your black sand.

I think Red Coral might be getting a Hawaiian shipment in soon. So I will have to pick thru it if it comes. :mrgreen:

Well, some not so good news tonight... Got home tonight and was looking at my tank, like usual, and glanced at my overflow randomly to see a fracture in the glass between the bulkhead and vertical edge of the tank.. It's not leaking water, but i am getting salt creep thru it..

Debating whether to leave it and hope it stands up for the remainder of the contest, or drop out and empty the tank.. :neutral:

anemone spells disaster for nano.need a well established and really stable system.

so then in other words anemone doesnt spell disaster for nano tanks, just one that arent taken care of. because you cant say because a tank is small you cant keep an anemone in the tank, just that it needs to mature, and be stable.

Not even close to being on my "concern" radar anymore...

Get some silicone... maybe some extra glass and go crazy on it... no need to drop out. It's only 6 months and it's only 10ish gallons to clean up

Yah Ive already cleaned 10+gal off the floor. Its really not that bad.:lol:

I got zero glass, not even a small peice, so I might just have to try and gob a ton of silicone over the fracture and pray it holds for 4-5 months.. lol

Been awhile since I posted any pics.. So here are a few, and Decembers FTS (on 1st page too)... Also threw in a short tank video too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...st/Cave10G.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...t/Tower10G.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...inkButtons.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...t/DecFTS10.jpg

Forgot the video... :lol:

Don't mind the music.. :razz:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h_MVI_0006.jpg

Almost looks like your clown is dancing to the music :lol:

Well, I am officially out. My back pane of glass popped on my this morning while I was trying to remove a snail from my drain pipe.. Emptied a good portion of the tank onto my bedroom carpet, the rest i was able to syphon out..

Saved the GSP, frogspawn and one batch of zoa's to the 75G. My orange plate, pink buttons and blue zoa's are on my frag rack in my 20G...

I've decided to not rebuild.. I'm too busy right now to start over.. :sad:

Really sorry to hear that. Especially b/c you started the contest. That really sucks!

Damn, you should consider rebuilding. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know. I'd be happy to mod your next 10 gallon for you if it means you'll stay in the contest.

this realy sucks, I was looking forward to seeing how yours turned out.

Steve

Yea, needless to say I wasn't a happy camper this morning at 5:40am..

And I didn't have enough time to properly empty the tank, so the LR will be sitting out in the open air all day. I'd have to re-cycle the tank which would eat in to the contest time. I just don't think it's worth while to re-build, after cycling for another month, it will only leave me 3 months for grow-out... I really got no time between now a the New Year to do any work on it.

that is really sad. I think your tank idea was excellent and as others, I was waiting to see how it grew out. Please reconsider and restart the tank. Is there no way you could just stick the rock into your other tank sump so it stays healthy??? There's gotta be a way to do it! You've put so much into the contest itself that to be out is a true shame.

I'm really sorry this happened. Nothing worse.

Ah, drag dude! Really sorry to hear the unfortunate news. I was also looking forward to this Hawaiian Biotope. Again, sorry for all the troubles.

pictures are awsome quality and so clear. very nice