nano tank failures

[tenpaull]

Hello! I am keeping a nano tank Aqua One, about 8.5gallons which i bought from marina aquaria. It has a built in UGF with powerhead and an overhead filter. We overstocked it due to ignorance and lost most of our fishes within the first month. Now I keep a blue damsel with another fish about the same size, with a crab, a snail, a couple of scallops and a hermit crab. I have a brittle star(green) which I read here that is not completely safe, so I will remove it ASAP. After the consecutive deaths, I cleaned the tank completely. I also rinsed the gravel and the tubings of the powerhead. After cycling, I put the 2 fishes and the inverts back to the tank. After a month or so of good running, the tank had an algae outbreak[brown] evident on the tank sides and on the gravel. Along with this, one fish died this morning. How do I keep up with the algae? Is it responsible for my fish deaths? I do water changes every 2nd or 3rd day since I have no skimmer. I use seawater from marinaquaria. I feed twice a day, just a pinch before school and when I arrive home. Sorry but am I doing something wrong? I would love to know what to do because I just hate it everytime my fishes die

Thank you in advance for your help!

PS: any useful info in missed out on, please point it out so I can answer. thanks!

[MikeH]

[gindavid22]

bro i also have that kind of aquarium. ung haiyang ten gallons naman. what i did was i took of the under gravel filter. put a strainer sa inlet ng pump to prevent livestocks na mahigop. i replaced the filter floss from the overhead filter with activated carbon lang. my nitrates are reading 10ppm now. baka mataas nitrates mo. regarding the algae. get a lawnmower blenny na small lang maubos nya agad ung algae.

good luck.

[manmarine]

[jon v]

the problem w/ nanotank is even abit of change in water parameters, affected ang whole tank. i would suggest try not to change water too often, let your water mature and stabilize coz everytime na nag-change ka ng tubig, reset na naman ang tank mo due to the small volume ng nanotank. you wont believe pero there are times na i won't change water up to 2 months and the tank is actually thriving even better. also, not necessarily na nsw is good; di mo alam kung saan galing ang tubig. i would suggest try saltmix; usually 'aged' the water for a week or so in total darkness. this will hinder algae growth. aside from which, usual religious treatment like carbon, phosphate remover, dechlorine agents etc.

algae is inevitable in every reeftank; just proper maintenance is needed. i would suggest din na get a small hangon skimmer even those airstone type for your nano. lastly, control your feeding; i think once every 3 days or so is good enough so less pollutants can build up.

[tenpaull]

Thank you so much everyone for your help and insights. I don't think I can use a hang-on skimmer since the top part of the tank is covered with the OHF and the light contraption. If you guys are familiar with JEBO nano tanks, the ones you see in cartimar, it looks very similar to that.

gindavid22: I don't fully understand what you did with the undergravel filter, can you please rephrase for me? Some have advised already to take out the filter floss, also because of the nitrates, and I have followed this advice. I was thinking, My OHF has AC now and some ceramic tubes, would it also be advisable to remove the ceramic tubes as well? [I think they are for bio-filtration]. How long does the AC usually last? One last thing, I am new to the hobby and I don't know what a lawn mower blenny is, can you please explain?

Right now my LFS ran out of NSW so I'm am out to buy saltmix, any suggestions on what brand to buy? It would be helpful if there are prices as well, that is if you guys know them.

Am i right in thinking that less light=less algae? As of now that is only what i've done, I turn on the lights for much less time. Please advise.

Sorry if I have too many questions, I thank you guys in advance! This forum, and the forumers, have been a blessing and I find great relief that there are people out there like you guys that are willing to help.