Alot of questions about my fish...

mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
Anyway i just got a saltwater tank, and I know nothing about it. Its a 40 gallon that i put 2 Blue Devils Damsels, 2 4 Stripe Damsels, 1 Chomis, 1 Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel, and 1 Dogface Puffer. I put some 'live' rock in too, which is stupid because it looks prettty dead to me, whats it do anyway? I have a crushed coral bottom. Ive had them for about a month.
I feed the fish fish food, except for the puffer who gets shrimp pellets (he eats them from you hand). So anyway what else do i need to get??? I need corals i guess, what do i need to know about them? Any other fish/crabs i need?
 
kronnk7

kronnk7

Member
Ok, first your tank is to small for a coral beauty. They need a larger tank (55 gallon or bigger). The LR helps with filtation, and it adds good bateria that will help your tank. What kind of inverts do you have snails, hermit crab, or star fishes? Do you test your water and how often? The crushed coral bed probably isn't the best way to go. I would change it out for some live sand or sand. The cc tends to trap nitrate in it after time. If you are wanting corals someday lighting is very important. What kind of lighting and filter do you use?
 
mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
I added in all the fish a month ago when i set up the tank.... what is cyceled?
I have no inverts right now. I wanted to know what to get.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by MrScarface
I added in all the fish a month ago when i set up the tank.... what is cyceled?
I have no inverts right now. I wanted to know what to get.

Cycled is when you test your water and see a spike and drop in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates. This can take up to two months. Then you can SLOWLY add one fish at a time at 2-3 week intervals. How much LR (live rock) do you have? Do you have any live sand?
 
mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
Originally Posted by alyssia
Cycled is when you test your water and see a spike and drop in ammonia, then nitrites, then nitrates. This can take up to two months. Then you can SLOWLY add one fish at a time at 2-3 week intervals. How much LR (live rock) do you have? Do you have any live sand?
i have the crushed coral.. i think thats live sand, Its is? As for live rock i have 4lbsish maybe.
Edit: I took it to the guy to test it today and he said the PH was a bit low and gave me something to raise it (baking soda or somthing). The Salenity and some thrid thing were all good.
 
mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
Originally Posted by OMGsaltwat
Have you lost any fish yet? WOW! you need to do a lot of research and reading....good luck with your tank...

No i havent lost any fish... i just stumbled onto this site and evryone acts like this is some super hard science and i dont quite get it. I know nothing about this and have had 7 fish for a month or more now.
 
omgsaltwat

omgsaltwat

Member
Originally Posted by MrScarface
No i havent lost any fish... i just stumbled onto this site and evryone acts like this is some super hard science and i dont quite get it. I know nothing about this and have had 7 fish for a month or more now.
Well then Good luck to you...
 
mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
To make things even crazier i guess the origanl tank i had had a small crack i couldnt see becuase the day i set it up it was fine and later that night the tank had a bigger crack with a leak, so i dumped the fish into a picther and had to go get a new tank from walmart (only place open at 3am) and came home and had to start over. So i did it twice in one day even....
I am honestly curious as to what the hard parts are???? Am i just lucky?
 
mrscarface

mrscarface

Member
Originally Posted by alyssia
You are either very lucky or your tank is getting ready to crash (unfortunately).
Why would it crash? Thats what im not getting.... how do i stop it. They tested it today and said everything was fine. The only thing that was a bit off was the PH being slightly low.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
It may crash because you added too many fish too fast. The tank can't handle the bioload and will go into a cycle. I don't know of anything you can do to stop it. You should buy test kits for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph at the very least. Then you can check the levels everyday and post on here if anything starts to go wrong.
 
S

sinner's girl

Guest
not to be a pain, but please, define 'fine' for me. lfs tells my levels are fine, when they aren't...ask for numbers...half the time the workers on clueless 4/5 times they tell me my ph is high at 8.4...grrr.. say nitrates are fine at 40, told me 80 was fine for fw fish...will say .25 ammonia is 'safe'.
1. cc traps nitrates, it's a fact, you must vaccuume the cc with each water change.
2. cc isn't used with a reef tank
3. you can't have corals till your tank is esblished, lets wait 6 months on that one.
4. you need more lr, lr aid in filteration. 1-2lbs per gallon is good. Esp if you have reef tank (corals)
5. cc is NOT live sand, ls is live sand, cc is something different...live sand will have live creatures and such
6.
I feed the fish fish food
what kind? the flakes you get at walmart won't work long term, not heathly for sw fish
7. how often do you do water changes? are you using ro water.
8.
I put some 'live' rock in too, which is stupid because it looks prettty dead to me
Is is lr or base rock? lr will have stuff growing on it...feather dusters...sponges...other things, base rock is bought dry and well is dead. Lr will smell, often has hichickers (creatures) on it.
I believe the 2 Blue Devils Damsels, 2 4 Stripe Damsels, 1 Chomis, liveing through a cycle, but not the angel or puffer...
Read the thread that's posted at the top of this forum. Take a trip to a bookstore, get a coffee, read a few books. read some here.
 
octaviaoli

octaviaoli

Member
Originally Posted by MrScarface
No i havent lost any fish... i just stumbled onto this site and evryone acts like this is some super hard science and i dont quite get it. I know nothing about this and have had 7 fish for a month or more now.
this is like the best web site in the world because you get real live answer and comparison then any and yes it is rocket science because you have to do so many testing of the water in the first year and so on if you want to maintain a healthy environment for your animals
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by octaviaoli
this is like the best web site in the world because you get real live answer and comparison then any and yes it is rocket science because you have to do so many testing of the water in the first year and so on if you want to maintain a healthy environment for your animals
I quite agree, I stepped into this thinking it was no big deal as well. It isn't the hardest thing in life, but it does take alot of patience. You also have to be on top of your water levels. Listen to these people, they are here to help! Good luck to you
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by Stone
Do you guys EVER belive someone is lying? Your just too nice
lol well thanks for saying we are nice, and you can usually tell when someone is lying, their specs won't match up to their problems................hmmmmmmm guilty concience?lol j/k :jumping:
 
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