Another new guy to the hobby. Need suggesstions.

[tthemadd1]

Good advise so far. Take your time and remember planning goes a long way and saves a ton of cash.
I had a yellow tang in my 55 gallon with a 20 gal fuge for years. As long as there is enough food and you manage your system properly it's a hardy fish that can do well.
I bought mine at 2" and it was 4-5" when I got rid of the tank. Moving across country makes for tank travel impossible.
It's all a out balancing your long term goals with how much you want to spend. If you strike up a good relationship with your LFS and the people are knowledgable you should be able to work out deals.
My local gives me stuff and I give it back when it doesn't fit my situation. Ie I started back with a fish only with live rock and switched to a reef and vice versa.
There are some great stores in Cleveland area I used to live in Kent years back and had some great shops around.
Never a stupid question!

 

[mmyuki]

Did a small 5 gallon W/C last night, I have crushed coral so while I was doing that change, I was using a larger gravel vac and really getting into the crushed coral bed of about 3" really just pulling out some really nasty stuff. I usually clean the glass, blow off all the rocks with a turkey baster then gravel vac the crushed coral when I do my water changes. Well woke up this morning and turned on the lights but noticed that one of my clown fish, my black one was acting very weird..swimming directly into some rocks, and the glass basically had no clue where he was at all... he is by far the most aggressive fish in this tank and I was a bit worried so I fed the tank a small pinch of food, none of my fish ate but since I just turned everything on I was not surprised.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
Salinity 1.023 - a little low, when I did the W/C I used water that was 1.028 to 1.030 to bring it up a little.
Temp - 81.5 - May be a bit high, cannot seem to bring it down, and its mid winter here in Ohio
pH - 8.0
Any suggestions?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MMyuki http:///t/382927/another-new-guy-to-the-hobby-need-suggesstions/460#post_3511624
Did a small 5 gallon W/C last night, I have crushed coral so while I was doing that change, I was using a larger gravel vac and really getting into the crushed coral bed of about 3" really just pulling out some really nasty stuff. I usually clean the glass, blow off all the rocks with a turkey baster then gravel vac the crushed coral when I do my water changes. Well woke up this morning and turned on the lights but noticed that one of my clown fish, my black one was acting very weird..swimming directly into some rocks, and the glass basically had no clue where he was at all... he is by far the most aggressive fish in this tank and I was a bit worried so I fed the tank a small pinch of food, none of my fish ate but since I just turned everything on I was not surprised.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
Salinity 1.023 - a little low, when I did the W/C I used water that was 1.028 to 1.030 to bring it up a little.
Temp - 81.5 - May be a bit high, cannot seem to bring it down, and its mid winter here in Ohio
pH - 8.0
Any suggestions?
Do you mean you think your fish is blind? When you turned everything on...what were you not surprised at seeing? Why would you think an overly aggressive fish needs a pinch of food to keep it from diving into rocks and the glass? Did the other fish eat yet?
The parameters look good, but not all fish woes are the result of the water quality.

 

[mmyuki]

Well everytime I feed he is the first to mow down anything in the way to get food, and no, no fish ate, but after an hour or so he was doing fine, swimming around and all. May have been light shock like he was sleeping I have no clue.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MMyuki http:///t/382927/another-new-guy-to-the-hobby-need-suggesstions/460#post_3511689
Well everytime I feed he is the first to mow down anything in the way to get food, and no, no fish ate, but after an hour or so he was doing fine, swimming around and all. May have been light shock like he was sleeping I have no clue.
Yes, sudden lights will do that. You might turn on the actinic lighting a half hour before the main lights. LOL....I always wait an hour before I feed the fish after lights on, because seahorses wake up slow, once I see them swimming around I know they are hungry and ready to eat.

 

[mjtech12]

Welcome to the Hobby, Get ready to empty your wallet Hahaha
Powerheads are for water flow or water movement in the tank do not use a bubbler or diffuser its not good for a saltwater tank think of the ocean and whats in it it's wavy right, I would buy 2 power heads probably rated at least 450 gallons an hour or less
will your new tank be fish only or do you plan on doing reef later then live rock will be excellent to put in add it all now so the cycle can start along with about 6 damsels and I know you will hear on here that using fish to cycle is no good but I have never had any problems and for now its the least expensive. Good luck bro and ask a lot of questions
PS Lower the salinity to about 0.19 you run the risk of Ick and other stuff that your fish can get
Lower the temp to 79
bring your ph up to 8.2

 

[mmyuki]

Im not going to keep my salinity that low for starters, secondly this thread is around two years old, why would you think I dont have power heads, or havnt cycled my tank yet? and the temp is fine for now, what I have in this tank thrives with temps even reaching 85 degrees, never had it near that high but it wouldnt hurt them unless it was a sudden change. And pH has been steady at 8.0 for over a year, I cannot get it to move either way.

 

[mjtech12]

didn't know this thread was old you also don't have to be cocky about someones advise I was just telling you what has worked for me over 20 years when you get that much time under your belt come see me

 

[mmyuki]

Not trying to come off cocky just pointing out the obvious

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MJTech12 http:///t/382927/another-new-guy-to-the-hobby-need-suggesstions/460#post_3511713
didn't know this thread was old you also don't have to be cocky about someones advise I was just telling you what has worked for me over 20 years when you get that much time under your belt come see me
I didn't know this thread was old either... I wouldn't keep my SG that low, but it wouldn't hurt anything. The ocean is higher and I try to match that as much as possible. I have 30+ years of experience with fish tanks, does that rank? LOL...now lets all hug and be friends.
Oh, and just to put it out there...ich is a parasite, a tiny little critter that hitches a ride on an infected fish, not the result of the temp, PH or SG

 

[mjtech12]

Hey I didn't mean to strike back at anyone here it just seemed a little cocky how it was presented to me im new here on these threads but not new to the hobby ive had all types and sizes of tanks over 20 years and that's what works for me as far as the SG level I have always run mine at 021 but I have recently asked my LFS and stores and they run all of theirs at 019 and I was told it was to keep down parasitic problems weather it is true I don't know, as far as RANKING here one who has 10+ years more than me you do as far as less time you all RANK also, I didn't mean to say years of experience has a RANK who the Hell am I to Judge.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MJTech12 http:///t/382927/another-new-guy-to-the-hobby-need-suggesstions/460#post_3511803
Hey I didn't mean to strike back at anyone here it just seemed a little cocky how it was presented to me im new here on these threads but not new to the hobby ive had all types and sizes of tanks over 20 years and that's what works for me as far as the SG level I have always run mine at 021 but I have recently asked my LFS and stores and they run all of theirs at 019 and I was told it was to keep down parasitic problems weather it is true I don't know, as far as RANKING here one who has 10+ years more than me you do as far as less time you all RANK also, I didn't mean to say years of experience has a RANK who the Hell am I to Judge.
LOL..You need some thicker skin. Sometimes what is posted looks snotty, but that's because you can't see a smile, or the tone of a voice. It's all good. Actually the "rank" thing was my attempt at a joke.

 

[mjtech12]

Hey I have thick skin I like a joke as good as the next guy I wasn't the one who replied somewhat irritated and I fully understand why that's why I apologized

 

[mmyuki]

New additions around the tank! So I ordered a new test kit since my API kits were so off I couldnt trust them, so I went with a SeaChem basic kit for now... here is what I have...
Salinity - 1.026
Temp - 82.0 F
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates -20 (Doing a 15% WC in about 2 hours, waiting for RO to heat up a bit)
pH - 8.2
Alkalinity - 3.5 (Is this a good number or no?)
Also ordered some Joes Juice and a new Timer for my lights while I was ordering the test kit! Just threw on some Joes Juice about 2 hours ago and havn't seen the monster aptasia back out yet, hopefully I got them good enough to get rid of them, there are still some more in the tank, but those are what I could get when I was in there without my black clown nipping at me.
Just ordered new light bulbs for my T5 HO fixture, 2 10,000k daylight and 2 acintics... Running them for roughly 4 hours a day right now for about a week.
Also next week I will be adding some new additions, roughly 3-5 pajama cardinals, is this to many to add at once? or to many to have in this tank?
Here is current livestock:
1 orange clown
1 black clown
2 green chromis
maybe 10 turbos
1-3 peppermint shrimp
maybe 10 or so hermit crabs
I think that is all the updates right now but I will post some pics soon enough.

 

[collin98]

Hello MMyuki!!
Well first Welcome to the Hobby! This is a great hobby to get into. Always a beginner question! "Where Do I Start!" Well I'm glad you asked! I would recomend you to get about 1-2 small pieces of live rock for your 30 gallon aquarium. This will set a good Biological base for it. Next, to start the Nitrogen Cycle get a few beginner fish! Damsels(Clownfish), Cardinalfish, Hawkfish, or Blennies would be a great start! I would recomend you to get 2 Clownfish, and one Hawkfish to start your cycle. Many people start with the mistake of putting expensive or excessive amounts of fish in an uncycled aquarium, causing their fish to die. The fish I mentioned are all very hardy. The basics of the Nitrogen Cycle are , the fish will eat and then excrete waste. This waste will turn into Ammonia, then to Nitrites. Then these Nitrites will turn into Nitrate. The final stage of the Nitrogen Cycle. After your tank has been running, your Nitrates should be less than .5ppm. You may need to assist your Nitrate removal by purchasing a product that will remove these. Also, getting Live-Sand will help with the cycling. You will have an algea outbreak which is normal, this is just the effect of the Nitrates. During the cycle, be sure to test your PH, Salinity, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Your PH should be around 8.1-8.4. Salinity 1.021-1.025. Ammonia at the end of the cycle should be 0ppm, and Nitrites 0ppm. Nitrates should just be less than 5ppm, but 0 is ideal. After this you are well on your way to being able to get more expensive, and water-quality demanding fish! However, I wouldn't recomend you get any territorial fish in a 30 gallon tank such as yours. This will lead to aggression, and your fish will be very stressed. I hope my information helps!!! Good Luck MMyuki!!!!!