green emerald crabs and hemit crabs

ZEEBSS

ZEEBSS

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Feb 23, 2005
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friend of mine said my tank had clycled my nitrites were .03 i was told that snails hermits and green emeraldscrabs are sensitive to to nitrites .. my temp is 76 amonia is 0 nitrates o salinity 1.024 so i bought a cleaning crew,
20 snails 20 hermits 4 green emeralds.. aclimated them for 30 mins. and put them in .... almost instantly it looked like the green emerald had died . not much movent and 2 of them were upside down and stayed that way till this morning . woke up this morning and all the snails look dead . they hadnt moved at all from when i put them in last night , hemits seem to be fine , by the way its a 75 gallon tank with 50 lbs of live rock and my fluval 404 , any ideas anyone?
 
You added too much too soon.Cant add anything until ammonia and nitrite are 0.When you do add livestock you need to do little by little as to not increase your bioload too much at a time.
 
ya but i was told that after amonia is 0 and when nitrites are 0 and when nitrates are 0 (and this did happen)at the end of cylcing you can get a false high nitrate reading,,,,, and is .03 high for nitrates
 
No .03 is not high at all for nitrates but for nitrites which is very harmfull to living animals in fresh or saltwater tanks it high.Should be at 0 before you add anything and you added way too much too fast too.
 
How did you acclimate? None of the animals you listed are sensitive to high nitrates, and nitrites are not toxic in saltwater. High nitrates can cause a problem with long term exposure, but not immediately or just overnight.

I'd suspect either the animals were already ailing on purchase, were not acclimated gradually enough (30 minutes works for most, but if there's a huge difference between your conditions and the LFS, it's not enough), or the tank contains copper--this being the least likely, since the hermits would be dying as well it that was the case.
 
OrionGirl said:
How did you acclimate? None of the animals you listed are sensitive to high nitrates, and nitrites are not toxic in saltwater. High nitrates can cause a problem with long term exposure, but not immediately or just overnight.

I'd suspect either the animals were already ailing on purchase, were not acclimated gradually enough (30 minutes works for most, but if there's a huge difference between your conditions and the LFS, it's not enough), or the tank contains copper--this being the least likely, since the hermits would be dying as well it that was the case.
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Nitrites are toxic but nitrates are not as bad.


Nitrite is the result of the metabolism of ammonia by Nitrosomonas bacteria, which oxidize ammonia (NH3) and convert it into nitrite (NO2). This is a part of the nitrogen cycle. Nitrobacter species of bacteria take the process one step further and further oxidize the nitrites into Nitrates (NO3). Nitrite is fairly toxic and in a well-balanced, aged aquarium will always test at zero. It is unavoidable to have nitrite in a tank that is new, where the nitrogen cycle is not complete because there are not yet enough bacteria to treat ammonia and nitrite. As the bacteria populations rise, ammonia and nitrite levels both fall to zero. Provided you don't over-stock the tank or add fish too quickly, you will see little fluctutation in these levels. Nitrates are always present in most aquariums. They do not get removed through normal biological filtration. They are removed by algae which consumes them as food, by anaerobic de-nitrifying bacteria which occurr naturally inside of live rock, and by water changes (the most common way of reducing nitrates). Invertebrates cannot tolerate much nitrate, so it is best to keep the levels below 20ppm for reef tanks. Fish can tolerate a great deal more than invertebrates, but we would not advise letting nitrates exceed 120ppm in a marine fish tank.
Heres a link with more info on cycling:

link
 
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Nitrites are toxic only in the sense that they outcompete oxygen in the blood. NaCl (salt) prevents this from happening. Nitrites are not toxic in saltwater.

Nitrates are removed in a SW system that is setup with live rock and a DSB--the denitrifiers are anaerobic bacteria. Nothing abnormal about that. Neither my reef nor my FO have nitrates above 5-10 ppm. I do water changes to replenish trace elements and dilute toxins that can't be handled bacterially.
 
Yeah, but thats mainly pertaining to fish not inverts.Inverts are very sensitive ime.However I think Orion is on to something with the copper tank idea, but it would have to be an old tank.

Dsbs and live rock do remove some nitrates but not enough to get away with never doing water changes.Water changes are the primary method for nitrate removal in a reef environment and I couldnt advise otherwise.
 
It really depends on the setup--many tanks have very low nitrates through denitrifiers in the system. I certainly wouldn't encourage someone to avoid water changes--but doing them to reduce nitrates without tracking what nitrates average isn't any more helpful.

Nitrite toxicity is the same in inverts.
 
I dunno when theres smoke theres fire and when I see nitrites then I am looking out for ammonia. I dont think you nor I would add anything during the cycle even if the chance is slim........Btw, off topic but did you check out my macro thread in general Orion?
 
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