Help save my Kenyas

...if it isn't already too late

I have two Kenyas in my tank that seem very unhappy... I am worried that they are dying, but I don't know what to do. Any advice or help will go a long way. Thanks!

Tank specs:
10g
Eclipse stock filtration and lighting
Koralia nano
25W heater

Chemistry:
1.024 salinity
79-82 temperature
0ppm Nitrate
0ppm Ammonia
0-5ppm Nitrate
8.1 pH

Livestock:
1 False perc clown
3 three-stripe damsels
1 Unidentified hermit
1 Nassarius Snail
2 Kenyas


Pics:




Details:

1. My Nitrates were up to 10ppm last week when I added live rock and sand from another established aquarium, along with the Kenyas, and I originally assumed this was the reason they were unhappy.
2. When I added the Kenyas, they slowly expanded fully and seemed like they were doing great. After a few days, they started shriveling back up and have not been the same since.
3. After doing some reading, I blamed the Nitrates and determined a course of action to lower them. I've done consistent tests and water changes (the latter using Petco saltwater). I also stopped feeding the fish flakes and swapped to pellets, fewer of which are lost to the gravel and powerhead.

Is it the Nitrates, the low light environment, or something else? What can I do to increase their odds of survival? Are they completely healthy and I just don't know how to read them? I am also going to be giving away the Damsels soon (just need to find a day when I don't get back from work at 11:30 ).



Some other notes:

• There is a lot of green hair algae in the tank... I haven't read anything that says that this is a bad thing, but I don't think it reflects well on the tank chemistry. Hopefully less food and lower nitrates will resolve this over time.
• There is also some red stuff that looks awfully like cyanobacteria - this hasn't become a problem yet, but I know it will at some point. Gearing up, knowledgewise, to deal with this when it blooms.
• Do I need more snails and crabs?

How old is this tank?

From the pics it looks like, R.I.P kenya

Well, that sucks... tank was set up as FO for about 6 months. New rock and sand from another MRer's aquarium has been in there for about a week (we've established in my other thread that I didn't go about this in the best way...)

What do you think killed them, and how can I go about making my tank more coral friendly before trying again?

Your problem is lighting.You never mentioned the light source .Kenya trees are like Dandeliones man, you can't kill them.

I feel for you man, I started with a 6 gallon Eclipse myself! The stock lighting in the tank should be sufficient for softies like the kenya tree, so I don't think that's the issue. You do seem to have a ton of hair algae and cyanobacteria - your clean-up crew can use a few more snails and hermits in my opinion. Other than a few more nassarius I would also get a few cerinths, as the latter are good at keeping hair algae at bay (at least when they first start to grow). I would definitely get a few blue-legged hermits to assist with the cleanup too, and would also consider a cleaner shrimp - they're just good at getting all the scraps and add biodiversity to the tank.

As for the Kenya trees themselves, they do look like they're in dire health, but I wouldn't give up hope just yet. Kenyas are really resilient from my experience so I would keep them in there for the time being - the only time when you really know that they are gone is when they become brittle and start to break apart (this only happened to me after the heater in my Eclipse 6 broke and the temperature reached 95 degrees).

It sounds like you are not at home a lot - do you know if there are temperature fluctuations in the tank that might occur when you're not there? The thing about Eclipse tanks is that they really trap heat - if it gets warm during the day the temperature can go up by a few degrees. I actually don't have a perfect solution for you if this is the case because I struggled with this myself when I had a 6 gallon and a 12 gallon Eclipse. Tanks this size tend to be less stable when it comes to temperature and water chemistry, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was the issue and you had no idea. I would consider changing the photoperiod so that it actually occurs later in the day (say 4PM - 12AM, or even later) as that might help to mitigate heat issues - you'll also be able to come home and enjoy the tank while everything is still "awake."

Hope that helps!

Johnson

just keep up your water chemistry up.
looks like you have a serious algae problem. what ever is the cause of that could be affecting your coral. what kind of water are you using?
I seen kenya trees survive through the most harsh conditions. i even had some recover afetr being buried in sand for 2 weeks.

Dre said:

Your problem is lighting.You never mentioned the light source .Kenya trees are like Dandeliones man, you can't kill them.

Click to expand...

Dre, I am using the stock eclipse 1 lighting... do you think they'll survive if replace the lighting?

I have been contemplating replacing the eclipse hood with a filter and a T5. I also found a link on drfostersmith.com that seems to indicate that I can replace the bulb in the eclipse to something more appropriate without a new fixture: 50/50 or 10k.

johnsonlee42 said:

The stock lighting in the tank should be sufficient for softies like the kenya tree, so I don't think that's the issue.

I would consider changing the photoperiod so that it actually occurs later in the day (say 4PM - 12AM, or even later) as that might help to mitigate heat issues - you'll also be able to come home and enjoy the tank while everything is still "awake."

Click to expand...

Thanks for the solidarity Johnson . The stock eclipse 1 lighting is really enough? or do you mean enough to not kill things right away... lol. See above what I wrote to Dre; will it help to get a better bulb? You have firsthand experience with the aquarium, so I would love to know what you did and how that worked out for you...

I'll do what you suggest with the light period - that sounds like a good idea, regardless. I don't think that the tank gets so much hotter during the day though, but I guess I can't know for sure unless I put my webcam next to the thermometer and keep an eye on it all day from work

I will also go somewhere to get more snails and hermits asap.

ecvernon said:

what kind of water are you using?

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Ecvernon, I posted my chemistry results in the post... I think that they have been within acceptable range. Is there some element missing?

I am using Petco saltwater, as per a very helpful suggestion on this forum . Not mixing my own since the tank is so small and I am not ready to invest in an RO/DI unit yet.

the onlt thing missing from your chemistry results is phosphate

ecvernon said:

the onlt thing missing from your chemistry results is phosphate

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll find a testing kit asap and try to post results in a few days.

also it may not be best to use gravel as a substrate.
in my experience no matter how much i used to clean it always trapped food and nitrates. when i 1st starteda small reef, i would test the water and it would come out good. Then i would test the water after a water change(after siphoning gravel) and it would jump to very high numbers

Give it a few days, they'll probably shed their mucous coat and then expand again.

I'm not so sure that is enough lighting.... What is the wattage of that bulb? I assume it is less than 20 watts. Which is a bit on the low side even for kenyas. I would just get rid of the hood alltogether and replace it with a pc or t5. With the live rock, you don't have to worry about extra filtration as long as you have good water movement. Just add a powerhead.

If you were considering removing the hood and changing to a T5, that might be the best idea and it will give you more options as far as corals are concerned.

+1 on the gravel as a substrate, usually a poor idea as it traps so much detritus.

You do need to know that Kenya Trees frequently behave as yours is currently doing, so all may not be lost! They also often seem to break in half..not to worry, that is a common way for them to reproduce. The part that breaks off will begin to grow wherever it lands.

Regarding heat in the way your tank is currently set up - can you check the temp on a weekend to see where it is after the lights have been on for a few hours? You should get a good clue from where it peaks when you get home from work (if you work 9-5 ish)- it won't have dropped much, if at all. A good idea is to slightly prop open the top of the tank and run a fan nearby so it keeps the warmer air from getting trapped under the hood.

Did you say you only got the rock a week or so ago? Did it have all of that algae on it when you purchased it??
While a clean up crew will help, so might want to lend them a hand by manually removing some of the algae. If you remove it one rock at a time, and keep it totally submerged in a bucket of SW while you tear it off the rock, also use a stiff clean brush or toothbrush to remove even more of it(then rinse with SW), you will get some instant visual relief

Best of luck with it, please do keep up updated and btw..welcome to MR

This may not be related to your experience, but I noticed that when I added Kenya trees to my tank there seemed to be a chemical "battle" between them and the zenia. One would expand when the other seemed wilted, and vice versa. This continued until I took the Kenyas out of the tank and the xenias were back to normal.

What ur total water volume?

DrHarryLopez said:

What ur total water volume?

Click to expand...

First post...

Tank specs:
10g
Eclipse stock filtration and lighting
Koralia nano
25W heater

Click to expand...

The stock eclipse 1 lighting is really enough? or do you mean enough to not kill things right away... lol. See above what I wrote to Dre; will it help to get a better bulb? You have firsthand experience with the aquarium, so I would love to know what you did and how that worked out for you...

Click to expand...

The stock lighting isn't the best, but this wouldn't be killing your kenyas. The lighting provided isn't optimized for marine lighting and the wattage is relatively low when compared to other systems, but as everyone else has been saying kenyas are extremely resilient and should survive under most conditions. If you want to upgrade to a better bulb that fits the Eclipse hood, either one of the ones that you listed would work - the 50/50 just has more in the blue while the 10K has more in the white, it'll really depend on how you want the tank to look, and the kenyas would be able to survive on either. 10K is aimed to support growth while the 50/50 supports how blue the tank looks.

Ultimately if you want to continue using the stock hood and upgrade to a better bulb, you should be able to support hardy soft corals, such as mushrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, cloves, buttons, leathers, star polyps, and others... you might also be able to support the more resilient LPS like frogspawn if you place them higher in the tank. Note that I would say that while you can support them, they probably won't proliferate like crazy in your tank because you're somewhat meeting minimal lighting requirements, though a few will just grow like crazy anyway because they can.

I would definitely take things one step at a time - as Kathy said I think you should try to manually clean up the algae from your tank, expand your cleanup crew, and decrease the amount of algae and cyanobacteria you have. Even if you were to get more corals it's likely that they will get choked out by all the growth you have in there right now. As your system stabilizes you can start to add more to the tank.

LOL Kathy yes I read the 1st post but I was hoping there was a larger sump or holding area.

Just a suggestion, maybe in the future you could increase the total water volume to stabilize your tank.

Thanks for all the input. I use live sand (should have included that in the first post), not gravel... sand came with the rocks, which did come with the algae. I'll try getting the algae off as you suggested Kathy. Sounds like I shouldn't leave all that growth as is.

Also, drharry, I don't have a sump. Not enough room in the apt, or I would have preferred a 55g tank as a first. Next one will be bigger, I hope