Why am I Loosing my Hermits?

little_fish said:
Im not quite sure what you mean by wound, and honestly i have no idea. Did your eel perhaps try and munch on him?
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You know that part that comes up when they go in their shell? The disk thing? Well a little (very little) piece of it is missing on the side.
 
Today he's still alive, slightly. He didn't move all night. And now he has bristle worms on him.

ARGH!!! Are all inverts sensitive to phosphates? I don't have a test kit but I'm gonna get one.
 
Definately don't take my word for it...I just remember reading their lifespan somwhere.

When I was starting out I got too many crabs to help with my algae problems and once I got that under control they all didn't have enough food so I lost a few that way. I would focus on getting your Nitrates down tho...20 is high and it has to be coming from somwhere...
 
dankolle said:
20 is high and it has to be coming from somwhere...
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It's the after effects of the great nitrate depression. My father set up the tank like 4 years ago. He didn't do any maintenance. Then one day 3 years later he decided to test the nitrates. He got a reading of 5000 ppm by diluting, but I don't think that's even possible. So he did pretty much a 100% water change in one day (at least he didn't scrub the rocks with freshwater like usual :grumble:). So after that I took over the tank and got a protein skimmer and got an RO/DI unit and did 20% water changes every 2 to 3 weeks. Since then my nitrates have been around 20 (spiking every once in a while).
 
dankolle said:
What creatures are you keeping? How often are you feeding?
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Right now I have a Brazilian Dragon Moray, a brittle star, a cc sea star, 4 red leg hermit crabs, and 4 turbo snails (3 now I guess :grumble:).

I feed the eel and the starfish once every 4 days or so. But the eel eats a lot. Like 3 or 4 silversides.
 
I'm not that up on eels, but does he eat all of his food and not spit any back out? That might be creating a lot of waste for sure...how much LR do you have? When was the last "nitrate depression" in your system?
 
dankolle said:
I'm not that up on eels, but does he eat all of his food and not spit any back out? That might be creating a lot of waste for sure...how much LR do you have? When was the last "nitrate depression" in your system?
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He eats all of his food then acts hungry the next day. I don't have much LR, like 40 pounds maybe? Probably less. There was only one nitrate depression. But I've had some spikes. This was my last one: https://www.livingreefs.com/another-nitrate-spike-t35822.html and there's this one: https://www.livingreefs.com/nitrate-spike-t34247.html
 
dankolle said:
Are you having algae issues? Do you have live sand? Sump?
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I do have some algae problems but it's not to bad. I have about 1" of sand. I have a 55 gallon sump with a protein skimmer, chaeto and a return pump.

Ugh I don't have the money to fix up this tank and build a new one. To fix it (even only for what I have), I would need new lights (I have a one bulb t8 fixture with a really old bulb that's probably like 4000k and no other bulbs fit it), I would need to get more powerheads, and I would need like 100 pounds more rock. :grumble::grumble::grumble:

Maybe when my other tank is running I'll transfer all the inverts there and just leave the tank how it is. Could I put the cc sea star in the fuge? Do they eat chaeto?
 
Sounds to me like there are multiple issues with the tank contributing to the whole of the issues. Probably lack of flow, lack of beneficial bacteria, lighting causing algae blooms, and probably more...which would be the story of my reefing career. I would focus on upgrading what you can...more flow will keep stuff from sitting and changing your lights to prevent algae which contributes to the nitrate issues. Just my 2 cents worth, maybe a more senior member can help you more
 
I don't know much about the eel, but I would think the nitrates will definately stress it out...you have to think in the wild they live in perfect water conditions, so it is already stressed being in captivity, let alone without perfect water. If you can't change anything, I would step up your water changes up to 50% per week if you have to to keep the levels down.
 
dankolle said:
I would step up your water changes up to 50% per week if you have to to keep the levels down.
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That seems a bit excessive. If I got the nitrates down to 5 or 10 or somthin, it would probably stay there because the protein skimmer does a pretty good job at preventing buildup.
 
I think you are doing fine with your eel tank Alex, just worry about starting off on the right foot with your new tank. You know how to do it.

And if he is covered in bristle worms, its probably too late to do anything
 
Woohhooo!!! I found the blue leg hermit crab!!!! :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:


But the snail's a goner... :(
 
I gave up on hermit crabs. Emerald crabs and light foots are my new favorites. The emeralds are so cool to watch. I just found 2 hermits floating around yesterday.
 
I just got a phosphate test kit and it read over 5 ppm???!!!?!?!!? :shock::shock::shock:

Why would I be having this problem? I've been using RO/DI water lately and I tested my tap water which came out as 0, and I have chaeto that seems to be growing very well.

I just did a 20% water change a week ago and another today.

I don't get it! :frustrat:
 
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