Water adjustments affecting Shrimp? & fan worm query.

[Nippy]

Hi, my 24g nano has been running for 44 days all ok, was going well till last week as the KH started to drop gradually and when the KH had dropped to 7, calcium was 400, I was advised at the shop to add buffer to raise the KH and balance with a calcium additive and i followed their guidance. The KH is now 10, but the calcium went a bit high to 500 but has come down now. One hermit shed his skin last night ok, he is back in his shell looking ok. Sadly though, my peppermint shrimp tried to shed his skin (which he did regularly every 10 days) but this morning he had died, just half a bit of shell loose. Can anyone advise me wether it was the rising calcium that would have damaged him or the level changing or the KH dropping previously as I'm not sure?

Secondly, I bought a small red and white fan worm on Friday, it was still sealed in its tube when i put it in my tank, but didnt come out at all on day 1 or day 2, day 3 i spoke to the shop who said tap it to see if still in there, but looking at the tube - each night someone has had a chew on the end of it, probably the hermits, the question is can it survive in its tube if its end is damaged, and won't it be a bit hungry by now, does this look like it will survive?

 

[Trogdor]

Just so you know, Iodine levels affect the molting more than calcium. I don't think your calcium was really that high. I don't have experience with calcium and buffering it so I can't really comment. Sounds like a bit of coincidence to me. What inhabitants do you have in the tank?

 

[johnanddawn]

i would NOT dose iodine
ALK and Ca adjustments are best done VERY slowly and your original readings were not that bad. some say to keep ALK at the elevated level of 10 but i disagree. i believe having a slightly lower but very stable ALK is much better then constantly trying to push it up to 10. 7 is a little low, but whenever you change one the other reacts to that change as well. most peoples ALK problems are more about change in ALK rather then the actuall reading itself, ie the change not neccessarily the high or low reading is your prob.
i would decrease your dosing (or even stop) let the tank settle in and then determine about how much of that two part to add everyday to keep it stable. in a tank that size with regular water changes you really shouldn't even need to dose unless you have a large bioload of Ca/ALK demanding corals. JMO
many people have trouble with fan worms losing their crown, someties they come back sometimes not. if the hermits are bothering it however it may be dead as hermits generally won't effect a healthy animal. best bet just leave it and see what happens, i personnally do not try to keep fanworms because they are far more fragile in the long term then most people admit

 

[Nippy]

Thanks for the two replies.

I don't have much in it yet, only 1 red & 6 blue hermits, 2 polyps and 2 mushrooms, no fish as yet, wanted to get it a bit stable first, and understand what I'm doing. I have not added any iodine to the tank, didn't realise this, is there a test kit for it?

I agree the KH had to come up from 6, and I will let it settle, seems the most sensible thing to do and keep doing tests on it to see how it holds. Personally, i would prefer to use water changes rather than additives - if thats enough to control it. Maybe a water change once a week? Is that too much?

 

[johnanddawn]

there is a test for iodine but again i say - DO NOT dose iodine there is no need, and you don't need to test it
and with a new tank and no critters you have no need to dose ANYTHING!
1 gallon a week would be a good water change regiment for you
do you have sand? that will help to stabilize the ALK

 

[Nippy]

Yes, 1 inch of Caribsea, arag-alive on bottom, and live rock. I have been changing the water once every 2 weeks, approx 20%.

 

[johnanddawn]

that should be fine........ maybe even more then neccessary at this point 10% every 2 weeks is enough with your bioload

 

[Trogdor]

Actually I would recommend a smaller and more frequent water change. Something like 1-2 gallons per week. I personally do 2½-3 gallons per week in my 29g tank. I wasn't suggesting buffing iodine, but that it affects molting more than calcium. In a 24g tank you should be getting enough from your water changes that you shouldn't have to dose iodine.

 

[Semo]

Yeah, your levels don't seem like any range that would cause problems. Best bet when you have concerns about your water (founded or unfounded) it can never hurt to do a massive water change....That can always do wonders....water changes do hide lots of bad tank habits...

Another thing....don't waste time dosing alk or calcium until your magnesium levels are correct...~1300 ppm will work fine...your coralline will grow much better as well..

Wish someone let me in on the magnesium secret before I started trying to grow sps corals...

 

[Nippy]

Thanks for the replies. Magnesium is the only test I haven't done, and it's not in my sera box either so I will go and get that and do a test to check it.

One piece of good news on the shrimp front, when the shrimp had been in my tank 2 days it had shed its skin right in front of me and at the same time i saw lots of little tiny shrimps swimming away and then floating around at the top of the water in the flow - I thought my eyes deceived me to be honest. last night observing some caves I saw about 7 smallish shrimps all chasing each other at speed, some a little bigger than others, and living with some big copepods as well as a prickly little crab, so it will be interesting to see if these babies are peppermint shrimps (if they survive and grow bigger so that I am able to tell) But it also suggests that if the water quality affected the big shrimp maybe it would have affected them too, so possibly wasn't the reason for its demise.