All my cleanup crew are dying

Altohombre

Altohombre

The Tennis Pro Reefer
What is the average tank life of most inverts? I have lost 1 Midas Blenny (not invert), 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 nassarius snail, tons of crocea, trochus(sp), turbo, astrea snails, and 4 of 6 blue legged hermits.

When I check my testing kits everything is fine.
Water changes done with water filter about every 1.5 weeks with a mix of Tropic Marin Pro and IO
Salinity is same as the ocean 35ppm
Protein Skimmer is doing its job
Filter is working
Had PhosBan Reactor working, but didn't do anything

only problem I see is hair algae that keeps fighting back. Also there are sometimes air bubbles surrounding the algae. I still get diatoms on the sand and glass. Phosphate materials and Silicate clear don't seem to do anything to help.

Only things I can think now are that maybe there is electricity getting them somehow, but corals, two clowns, flame angel, and Mandarin are ok.

Other possibility could be that I put my hands in the tank because the gloves can't pick things up well. I never wash my hands right before with soap, but maybe the effects of soap from a couple hours before has an effect.

What you guys think I should check for? It's getting frustrating
 
Definitely check for current in the tank. Something is not right. Even your cleaner crew should have a life span of at least a couple years.

Do you have large temperature swings? Are you using a hydrometer or refractometer to check salinity? Hydrometers are notorious for giving false readings, especially if you've had it for more than 6 months.

It wouldn't hurt to take a water sample to your LFS to double check, faulty test kits are all too common.

But if I were you, I'd pick up a voltmeter and check for voltage first.
 
Inverts will feel the effects of stray voltage before fish and corals do.Still hadnt figured that one out.
And like Biff said,It'd be a good idea to have your test kits double checked.Its possible that they've gone bad.
 
Could be a number of things. Hard to get to the bottom of something like this when everything is where it should be and all tests read good. If its not the electric issue, like mentioned above, i recommend getting the water tested for everything by your LFS just to get a second reading.
 
I do have a Refractometer. There aren't much temp swings. Nothing more than 2-3 degrees and usually takes a while to do that. How much do voltage meters cost. I am on a tight budget right now.
 
Snails are sensitive to high temps. What temp is your tank at usually?

Had PhosBan Reactor working, but didn't do anything

only problem I see is hair algae that keeps fighting back. Also there are sometimes air bubbles surrounding the algae. I still get diatoms on the sand and glass. Phosphate materials and Silicate clear don't seem to do anything to help.
Click to expand...
Hair algae, cyano/dinos, diatoms all feed on excess nutrients...high nitrate or high phosphate/silicate. What where you using in the phosban reactor? Use GFO (granular ferric oxide) in the reactor. If you see hair algae, you definitely have phosphates.
 
I got my voltmeter at Ace Hardware for around $12. Most people seem to have one sitting around the house, I'm sure if you asked your friends/relatives at least one would know what you're talking about and loan it to you.
 
I guess I am slow, but I went to Home Depot and the guy looked at me like I was crazy for wanting a voltmeter for my aquarium. Where exactly do I use the voltmeter to test readings. I thought I could put a probe into the water and it would tell me if there was any voltage in there but all the pictures just showed putting it in the sockets. What does that prove?
 
Set your meter to "AC voltage" Put the black lead into the ground hole of an electrical outlet.(round hole). Stick the red lead in your tank. If the needle jumps, you've got stray voltage. Start removing electrical items from your tank one at a time, and retest after removing each one. When the needle stops jumping, you've found your culprit.
This just happened to a guy on one of the other boards I hang at. It literally wiped out his entire tank over a one week period. Turned out to be one of his koralia powerheads. Now he goes on and on about how often this happens with koralia and has me all nervous about running them in my tank
 
Any update? Apparantly koralias are plagued with stray voltage problems. Go figure, I bought two last weekend.

Let me know what you find
 
Ok so I bought a multimeter and I tried different settings and got nothing. Last night I checked my parameters and Amm= 0, ph fine, Nitrite = 0, even Nitrate was 0. I checked salinity and it was a little on the low side. When I make water changes I set it to 35ppm on my refractometer and it was close to 30ppm which is around 1.023ish. Now I am wondering if a drop in salinity caused some deaths. Is 1.022 or 1.023 low enough to kill snails and hermits?
 
The low salinity probably wouldnt kill them, but if the swing from 35 to 30 was really quick then that could easily kill them.
 

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