new member here could use some help

[rockman]

Hi every one ive been in the hobby for about 2 years and am suddenly having some problems ive never had.My setup includes a stock current aqua pod 24 gallons 35lbs of live rock 1 clown fish .This is a skimmerless tank and will remain that way since i am anal bout water changes all my parimeters are good but i dont have an alk test or magniesum .My problem is that mky zoos and paleys will not open .They have always done fine i use ro-di water .For at least a month ive been losing zoos and paleys yester day i performed a 90 percent water change and am runing carbon as we speak .Could my alk ,or magnesum levels be the cause.Like i said my test are all reading perfect my niteates were a littel high untill yesterday also my salinity some how creped up to 1.027.I have 800 gph flow runing through the ststem .Nothing is looking good though even my shrooms look like hell.I am using salfert test kits .Temp is at 79 on the money ,salinity is at 1.025 ,nitrate and amonia are undetectable,ph is at 8.4 like it always is.Thanks for any advise that could be givin by the way this tank setup is new .I down sized from a 75 gallon used the same water and live rock so i am still in a established system .But i was having this problem with the other tank as well so i know its not a lighting issue.
Thanks for any advise.

 

[House of Laughter]

Do you have any pests that you know of? Flatworks or zoo eating Nudi branches? I would thouroughly inspect your tank and use some method of clibration as well - perhaps a fellow reefer in your area can bring thier test kits and do a quick round of tests? Are you using a swing arm for salinity or refractoometer or other? These things all matter since they affect our system sop dramatically. Is it time to replace the bulbs?

So many thigns could be possibly right or possibly wrong - list them out and eiliminate them one by one.

Hope that helps a little.

House

 

[rockman]

i am usind a swing arm and no pest that i know of the bulbs are 3 days old

 

[rockman]

i did find a strange creature the other dayit was about 3 inches long and 1 inch or so wide .It lookes kinda greayish abd at first when i saw it it was kinds curled looking the n when i touched it it got flat like a big pice of tape or ribbon,i tryed to id on the hitchikers guide but nothibng realy looks like it.
OH crap i just figured out what it was a flat worm could this be the reason im losing corals?

 

[rockman]

pic

this is what i found yesterday i have seen him 1 time before two years ago and i have lost some corals here and there for no apparent reason. Flat worm exit?

 

[House of Laughter]

That is a wild looking creature, I would bet it's not good!

House

 

[DevIouS]

Definitely a type of Polyclad Flatworm.
Not the pest Acoel Flatworm that we normally encounter.
None the less, I don't believe they are reef safe either.
Good catch.

Be careful with all the sudden changes, which can shock live-stock.

Zoos are moody. Sometime they melt away for no apparent reason.
I've went through it.

You did mention that your shrooms aren't looking the best, so now that you corrected your water parameters & caught the worm....keep watch & let us know how it goes.

Welcome to MR

 

[rockman]

boy do i wish it were that easy and i feel like an idiot .After finding this creature i couldent id it and it did not look like a normal flat worm i actualy left it in my tank.Is it possable this is the only one cause if it is im gonna find the littel basdterd tonite .Or should i use the fw exit anyway to be sure.

 

[prattreef]

As far as I know, those flatworms are completely harmless.... and very cool. I would suspect a salinity issue 1st. Randy

 

[DEEPWATER]

Welcome to MR !!!

one good thing to follow in this hobby is ,
when in dout take it out !!!!
Never leave anything in your tank that you are not sure of ,you can always QT until you find out what it is ..or just trash it

Ronen

 

[DevIouS]

As far as I know, those flatworms are completely harmless.... and very cool. I would suspect a salinity issue 1st. Randy

2 small quotes I found on-line

"All polyclad Flatworms are carnivorous, and specific about their prey. Most feed on sea squirts, bryozoans, small worms, crustaceans, or snails, but some are cannibalistic. "

"The Polyclad Flatworms, all of which are predators and not to be considered reef safe. "


Definitely not eating on zoos, but I wouldn't want it in my tank, just to be on the safe side.

 

[rockman]

ok i took my water to fishtopia my lfs and of course my f***ing pice of junk hydromiter is reading wrong thats wht my salinity was reading so high in the first place .It was reading 1.021 at fishtopia and ive learned my lesson as far as using cheap equipment.I will be increasing my salinity over the course of the next day or so .I am thinking that this is prob my problem .Right?All other parimeters were great i even had them test my phospates whice were almost undetectable.I hope the low salinity thing is the problem what do you all think?

 

[Blue02celi]

I dont know which hitchhikers are bad or not, but if I see a noticeable worm in my tank its goin bye bye, and its gonna take me a miracle to get it out lol. I know they arent all bad, but are any good?

 

[jhale]

1.021 is low, but not low enough to kill off zoo's and mushrooms, they are pretty tough.

it might be a combination of many things, herd to say for sure without all the info.

placing new bulbs on the tank may shock the coral also. what kind are they?

that worm has to be eating something in the tank to have lived for two years.

 

[KathyC]

Have to agree with JH on the point about the lighting.
Also curious as you said your ammonia and nitrates were undectable, yet you had slightly high nitrites..that's a bit odd. Might you have possibly confused those 2 when you provided the parameters? (nitrites/nitrates)
Zoas prefer water with some nitrates, but are not fond of overly clean water i.e. running carbon.
Any pics?

 

[rockman]

niteates that was a misprint sorry i never ment nitrite i ment nitrate i screwed up my typing and your eyes must have been playin trickson ya.The worm is comeing out soon as i get time this weekend .I dont know what else it could be .I made the lfs test everything twice.I also confirmed all the readings a third time with my own test kits.Well see what happens cause .Oh yea i understand that a change in lights could effect corals but these corals started with this crap in my old tank before the lights got swiched .I have never heard of zoas liking nitrates in the water but if thats true they would have been real happy last week when the traits were up.I am gonna figure this out and when i do ill post some pics,i dont want my first tank pics to look like hell ya know,lol.Thanks everybody for the advise and ill keep yall updated.

 

[digitalreefer]

I would inspect the polyps closely yo see if there are any spots on them...
Also check http://www.zoaid.com for other predator pics.

 

[rockman]

ok just got home from work and my zoos are looking better not compleatly opean by any means but two of the colonys i thought were goaners are open enough you can see there colors .Maby it was just a salinity issue it could have been down for a while ,my paleys are starting to open also.Next update tommorow.