Michika's 28g long nano-esque tank!

Der_Iron_Chef · #1 12-04-2007, 03:29 PM

Catherine, I'm not sure I would personally risk it. Obviously if a clam just died, then there's something still going on. What kinds of clams are these?

michika · #2 12-04-2007, 03:36 PM

The remaining clams are a gigas, and a dersa. The one that died was a smaller dersa, about 3" in length.

I agree something is still going on. I'm thinking its a cycle like Tony originally suggested, and have been treating it as such. Ideas on what I should do? I've been doing daily 7g water changes, keeping all my media fresh (nitrate, phosphate, ammonia sponges, hypersorb, and carbon). This is so frustrating. What else could I be doing?

Between my paper and this tank drama, it is not a good day!

kwirky · #3 12-04-2007, 03:59 PM

it costs $$ but you could convert to zeovit? I had amazing nitrate reduction within 3 days of starting the system. Now 2 weeks later it's undetectable nitrates in the new tank. U need a skimmer though. It costs about $160 to start up on a tank your size if you build your own reactor (which isn't too hard). $80 if you don't dose K+ (potassium).

Not guaranteed it'll help your situation as fast as you need it to though; it's quite the committment to a "new" style of aquarium keeping if it's only to take care of an immediate emergency...

michika · #4 12-04-2007, 04:04 PM

Zeo isn't for me. I researched it back when I started planning out this tank, and the financial commitment is too much. My tank used to be self sufficient, paying for everything I needed through frag & equipment sales. Thanks for the suggestion though. I am eagerly watching your build though to see how it all plays out. Lets say I would go the zeo route and suck up the cost, how do you think it would help my current issue? I know you mentioned lower nitrates.I don't have any nitrates now, I just keep the sponge in there in case there really is a cycle going on. Anything else you think it would help with?

I definitely would consider putting out the cash for zeo provided that I know it will work. The downside is that I'm not sure if I want to be on a long term program like. I could always wean my tank off of it right?

Delphinus · #5 12-04-2007, 05:26 PM

Zeo (or equivalent) seems to be about "helping along" the bacteria that help stabilize a tank. Now the advertised benefit is a reduction of nitrate and phosphate, and although you may not have a nitrate buildup, it still is bacteria that reduces ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate, so maybe it's possible that these could be helped along too. (I'm just guessing, I don't really "know").

FWIW I bought into Reef-resh (which is like "Zeo light") for about $150. You don't need a reactor and there are dosing instructions for daily dosing, or a lazier approach for weekly dosing. It might be something to look into. I was pretty impressed with how fast I started seeing results.

michika · #6 12-04-2007, 05:41 PM

I always thought, or understood Zeo, and similar products, to be about ensuring the right balance of beneficial bacteria, to keep the tank on that razor edge. I remember the benefits being lowered levels of pretty much everything as well, hence my earlier question.

Does it still sound and look like a cycle to you? Its been a LONG time since I've delt with a cycle first hand, so I'm not really sure about it.

Both Zeo and Reef-resh are available at Golds correct?

Matt · #7 12-04-2007, 06:41 PM

First, condolences. This is suckage extreme.

Second, I don't see how this could be a cycle. Immediate deaths at that scale says "toxin" to me. Did you use any new glues, cleaners, solvents,e tc. during the build? Did something get dropped in accidentally during the switchover?

I've never <knock on wood> had to deal with this kind of tragedy, so these are just guesses. I think I'd have broken the tank down and set up a QT tank by now.

kwirky · #8 12-04-2007, 06:49 PM

yeah zeovit takes quite a committment and the costs do add up. I've never experienced a cycle so fast as the zeovit cycle happening in my aquarium now though. The initial buy-in and the potassium dosing is the pricey part. Potassium's so expensive

. Zeovit and reef-fresh and the like have a lot of skepticism but at least it's not as strange as vodka dosing

I think one of the problems is the lack of test kits that have a range of 0.0 to 0.5 ppm nitrate. A few articles in advanced aquarist talked about testing that low. I had wierd algae stuff going on in my previous tank when introducing rock or pulling the rock out of the water and resubmersing it. Nitrates would test 0 on a salifert kit but I had this hunch there was enough in there for some algae types.