am i doing this right???

[errattiq]

I figured this might have happened, yup, get a skimmer very quickly. Do at least a 50% water change and treat your water with an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate detox solution (you can get them at your pet store). This isn't preferable to use all the time but for your case its necessary to save your livestock. Get that liverock in there asap. I can't technically spell the name of the brand skimmer I really like on the board because it will be blocked out but spell this word backwards and you'll have the name of it: aromeR C auqA.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by errattiq
http:///forum/post/2653379
I figured this might have happened, yup, get a skimmer very quickly. Do at least a 50% water change and treat your water with an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate detox solution (you can get them at your pet store). This isn't preferable to use all the time but for your case its necessary to save your livestock. Get that liverock in there asap. I can't technically spell the name of the brand skimmer I really like on the board because it will be blocked out but spell this word backwards and you'll have the name of it: aromeR C auqA.
No your ok to say Aqua C Remora....LOL

 

[shroomie2u]

ok we went and got a protein skimmer and a power head and also some detoxifying stuff.
we got all things in and going. the people at the first fish store really didn't think we needed a protein skimmer! so we went somewhere else and got one anyway! puffer is still alive tho. i know we shouldn't have em, but the LR isn't doing anything anyway, and i would rather give him back to the store then kill him. i will get rid of him but for right now he is ok. i'm going to check the levels in a lil bit, just waiting to see if things start meshing.
thanks for the advice as always, i am eternally grateful

 

[spiderwoman]

What do you mean by detoxifying stuff? I you can avoid adding any additives to your tank and get levels stabilize with water changes, that is your best approach. Additives are never good unless they are really needed and you've tested your water.

 

[errattiq]

I told them to get the additives because it was an emergency. The levels in the tank seemed to be horribly unbalanced and as a last ditch effort to save their livestock I recommended detoxifier. It seems to have had a positive effect too lol

.
p.s. Perfectdark thanks for pointing that out lol I figured all brand names were pretty much blocked out on these boards, i guess its hit or miss though

-josh

 

[shroomie2u]

we got a pad that u put by the filter to get all the bad stuff outof the water. all my levels came out perfect! got the skimmer working and the power head, and we got some garlic stuff for the food.
the tank seems to be in a lil better shape. but now the puffer has ich and i think the damsel is getting it too. so i am gonna start feeding them garlic with their food i hear that is supposed to be a good way to handle ich. any suggestions??
i can't believe that people would sell LR to a couple that said we have FO tank, 5 fish in it, and 1 puffer! seems like he would have advised againist the tang!!! sometimes i feel no one really wants to help us with this tank! we live out in the boonies and we have to drive an hour and a 1/2 just to go to a guy that we trust. we were slacking by going to closer places and this is what we got.

this message board is great! i mean really u guys answer questions and give advice and cheer people on, just to get them to have the rush of starting and watching ur tanks grow. it's beautiful and i mean it when i say that i appriciate ALL of the help! now lets just hope my wet pets and i recover from this real soon!

just one more ?????? (didn't think you'd get rid of me that easy did ya?!)
purple coral stuff??? should we or shouldn't we??
thanks

 

[rebelprettyboy]

what purple coral stuff? purple up?

 

[shroomie2u]

yeah
i don't know what to trust when i go to our LFS. some say to put it in and some say not to. so far the live rock still looks pretty much the same as when we got it.

 

[touchthesky00]

Originally Posted by shroomie2u
http:///forum/post/2654613
yeah
i don't know what to trust when i go to our LFS. some say to put it in and some say not to. so far the live rock still looks pretty much the same as when we got it.

dont put it in.
just have some patience and wait awhile for it to grow naturally

 

[jerryatrick]

Someone back me up here but should we advise him to stop attempting to raise his salinity while his fish have ich? I have read that keeping a lower salinity will help with disease in a FO or FOWLR.

 

[errattiq]

Shroomie, your problems weren't brought about due to your liverock, it was your bioload. Although the possible die off from the live rock could've cause a "mini cycle," the problem was definitely in your # and type of livestock. They were correct in selling live rock to you because it is a natural filtration element in a saltwater system, the problem with your situation is you didn't add the LR first. Doing so first without any livestock will cause a tank to cycle by itself and you wouldn't have to worry about losing any fish. Adding it down the road like you did has the potential of causing a spike in your system. So if anything, the liverock HELPED your system, not hurt it. Fish only or reef, liverock is extremely important for a natural and healthy environment. As for the liverock looking the same, it will for a loooooong time. It takes a while for that pretty pink coralline algae to grow. Ich is definitely a pain. Search the forums I'm sure there are a million so called "remedies" for it, just be sure its ich and not micro bubbles sticking to the fish from your new skimmer! New skimmers are known for that and I thought my hippo tang had ich before i looked very close. If your convinced its ich,since you have a fish only tank, you don't need to worry about higher salinity for coral keeping so you can do something called hyposalinity in your tank. Essentially, this is just slowly dropping the salinity in the tank below what cryptocarion (marine ich) can survive in. Im no means an expert in hyposalinity, but like i said, read the disease section of the boards and you'll find good help there. Keep us posted and tell us how your tank is going.
P.S. How long a time period did you wait before adding each fish to your tank when you had them all? Was it done all at once? Also, do you have a quarantine tank setup? This would make sure any new fish in your display would be disease free because you could watch them for a few weeks after buying them and treat them alone if necessary, just a thought for the future!
-josh

 

[shroomie2u]

ok i won't put anything else in.
i am pretty sure it's ich cause he was al spotted before we hooked the skimmer up. it's only been a day since we got it. as far as raising the salinity, i haven't since that first day, didn't think it was nessasary at this point cause i think by me messing with the tank i am just stressing them out even more.
and josh i understand that the LR helped but i feel like the tang is the reason it crashed. he knew how big our tank was and how many fish we had. just makes me mad thats all. my BF and i are going to get more LR when we can but for right now this will have to do, but i know that it will beneifit our tank overall.
we waited a while between each fish. we had them for a good 5 months with no problems at all. we are going to seperate the puffer into the QT which we are gonna put tank water in.

 

[perfectdark]

Raising your salinity will also raise your chemical levels in your tank, including calcium. I wouldnt add anything including purple up until your tank is stable and running without issue. Purple up is just a calcium additive and should be used with caution. The main benefit of calcium in your tank is for coral health, growth and propagation. If you do not have corals in your tank your calc level is fine. If you want to keep corals then keeping your calc at an ideal level of 400 to 450 is key, however you should also test for magnesium. As, calcium is useless to corals with out the proper magnesium levels. Keeping a lower salinity in a FO or a FOWLR is only saving you a bit of $$ in salt cost. As far as keeping the ICK parasite at bay it will not do, until you lower your salinity to 1.009 or 14ppt. Unfortunatly this cant be done in a tank with inverts as they cannot live in a salinity that low. Seeing as though ICH is an invert this is a proven method in killing it. Raising your salinity is not going to stress your fish out if you do it slowly. Once a week when you do your water changes bring it up a little. hth

 

[shroomie2u]

well we are crashing, their is 3 fish left, one damsel and 2 clowns. the damsel and one clown are already covered. my QT will prolly take a few days to finsh the cycle, so we pretty much just have to sit by and watch.
ph 7.8
ammo 0
nitrates 0
nitrites 0
ak 2.0
temp 78
sa 1.021

nothing to do but laugh! at least we learned our lesson and next time will not trust the LFS and go with our gut. we are gonna stick with the small fish and try to grow some cool things from the LR. and we also know to keep that QT running even when all is good!
good news is that our lil crabs are going strong and the LR is all ugly looking and actually starting to have things hangng from it. looks like it's changing.

we are gonna let the QT finish doing it's thing and then put the LR and crabs in it while we lower the SA of the main tank. (that's ok right?)
i'll keep yall informed and please let me know if i'm crossing that line again!!!!
BTW i was just asking bout the purple up. i don't have any, i just saw people talking botu it on here and was wondering if it helped the LR thats all.

 

[shroomie2u]

here's pic of the bubbles in my tank i don't know if they are from the power head or the protein skimmer.
sorry these pics suc they are from my cell
(if u look close u can see the spots on the fishes i think)

 

[errattiq]

Not sure where the bubbles are from, if they are from the powerhead, then you probably attatched the supplied aerator tube that came with the powerhead with a tiny looking filter cap on it right? If you didn't attatch the aerator, than its coming from your skimmer. I'm putting $20 on it being the skimmer, which kind of skimmer did you buy?
-Josh

 

[shroomie2u]

it's a fission made for nanotanks (only thing we can afford). we got it to fit in the third chamber of the aquapod but it is down kinda far and a pain to get too. might have to rig it a different way.
we are down to 2 clowns left. they are in the QT and they seem a lil happier. the main tank is running and the crabs are all over it. planning on keping the clowns in there for 3 weeks. the damsel died within a 1/2 hour of being placed in the QT!! but so far all is good. now we can mess with the MT and that skimmer within stressing the fish.

 

[joshr]

Live sand is a must

 

[shroomie2u]

well that is something to aspire to in the furture !LOL we just spent like 2oo$ on those little buggers and they all died except 2!! LOL

but as far as the lil clowns go...they are still alive!!!!!!!!!!!!
and eating!!!!!!!!
and swimming around!!!!!!!!!
we seem to have recovered from our crash. got tthe ain tank going although it still has bubbles blowing in it. can't figure a way to situate the skimmer in the tank. but other than that i think we are set for the next few weeks!

 

[chroniccoral35]

yeah Im not suprised your clowns didn't die, I made a few bad mistakes on my 10g and my clowns lived, I sadly killed a firefish and a cleaner shrimp due to the wrong readings of my hydrometer, I bought a Refractometer the next day, now my SG is steady 1.025 , and I bought a yellow watchman goby, so thats 3 fish in my 10g...but a lot of rockwork, they all get along really well tho and look really healthy, i'd really advise refracto over hydro