Azfishgal New Tank Diary!
- Thread starter azfishgal
- Start date
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by ScubaGuy
Your tank is looking awsome. How do you like your nassarius snails, I am thinking of getting a couple for cleaning the sand.
I love them. As stated above they are fun to watch and move pretty fast for snails. They do a good job keeping the sand mixed up.
I highly recomend them. The cerith snails have done a great job cleaning the rock and they are now doing a great job cleaning my refuge. It was pretty gross when I got back from vaction as I didn't have any of the cerith snails in there, so the walls were pretty messy. It's now looking much better. The only draw back to the cerith snails, is if they get themselves turned over, they can't right themselves back up, so I have to turn them over if I see one on it's back. The nassarius snails though have no problem turning back over.
Your tank is looking awsome. How do you like your nassarius snails, I am thinking of getting a couple for cleaning the sand.
I love them. As stated above they are fun to watch and move pretty fast for snails. They do a good job keeping the sand mixed up.
J
jrthomas40
Guest
that is pretty awesome ...looks like it is coming along well
azfishgal
Active Member
saltn00b
Active Member
az - now you see why i do what i do 
any fish i get if it is a type of fish that can easily get or is known to be sensitive, i dont ask questions and start hypo immediately. i just got a copper banded BF and he went directly into a QT tank and hypo process began. the whole process takes pretty much that 1 month of QT anyway, pLUS you are guaranteeing no ick enters your tank. the process does not harm the fish at all.
have you had to dose for alkalinity? or do water changes to keep up with ammo / trates ?
any fish i get if it is a type of fish that can easily get or is known to be sensitive, i dont ask questions and start hypo immediately. i just got a copper banded BF and he went directly into a QT tank and hypo process began. the whole process takes pretty much that 1 month of QT anyway, pLUS you are guaranteeing no ick enters your tank. the process does not harm the fish at all.
have you had to dose for alkalinity? or do water changes to keep up with ammo / trates ?
azreefgirl
Member
Glad to hear that everyone survived your vacation. Those feather dusters look great! They look familiar. I think I saw 'em at lfs, but they look so much happier in your tank! :cheer:
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
az - now you see why i do what i do
any fish i get if it is a type of fish that can easily get or is known to be sensitive, i dont ask questions and start hypo immediately. i just got a copper banded BF and he went directly into a QT tank and hypo process began. the whole process takes pretty much that 1 month of QT anyway, pLUS you are guaranteeing no ick enters your tank. the process does not harm the fish at all.
have you had to dose for alkalinity? or do water changes to keep up with ammo / trates ?
Ammo trites and trates are good, but I have to watch the pH and alkalinity. I've had to do a few more water changes than normal to keep the pH from dropping to low. Last week tested it and it got down to 7.8. :scared: Did a water change and added Proper pH. The alkalinity is what seemes to confuse me the most on how to get that balanced. It's normal, but on the low normal side. Nemo and Marlin havn't shown any signs of stress so I guess I'm ok. They eat like sharks and love to come up and great me when I get close. I did add a buffer before I left on vacation, not sure if it worked or not, but everything looked good when I got home. I do have to keep a closer eye on it with it being in hypo, but like you, I think I'll just start hypo as soon as I get my fish, even though it's a bit more work. Finding ich after 2 1/2 weeks in QT really stunk!
I learned my lesson.
az - now you see why i do what i do
any fish i get if it is a type of fish that can easily get or is known to be sensitive, i dont ask questions and start hypo immediately. i just got a copper banded BF and he went directly into a QT tank and hypo process began. the whole process takes pretty much that 1 month of QT anyway, pLUS you are guaranteeing no ick enters your tank. the process does not harm the fish at all.
have you had to dose for alkalinity? or do water changes to keep up with ammo / trates ?
Ammo trites and trates are good, but I have to watch the pH and alkalinity. I've had to do a few more water changes than normal to keep the pH from dropping to low. Last week tested it and it got down to 7.8. :scared: Did a water change and added Proper pH. The alkalinity is what seemes to confuse me the most on how to get that balanced. It's normal, but on the low normal side. Nemo and Marlin havn't shown any signs of stress so I guess I'm ok. They eat like sharks and love to come up and great me when I get close. I did add a buffer before I left on vacation, not sure if it worked or not, but everything looked good when I got home. I do have to keep a closer eye on it with it being in hypo, but like you, I think I'll just start hypo as soon as I get my fish, even though it's a bit more work. Finding ich after 2 1/2 weeks in QT really stunk!
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by AZReefGirl
Glad to hear that everyone survived your vacation. Those feather dusters look great! They look familiar. I think I saw 'em at lfs, but they look so much happier in your tank! :cheer:
Thanks, but they are not coming out as often as they did the first day. My water levels are all fine, but still, I'm doing a water change and yesterday I ordered some Kent Marine PhytoPlex to feed them once a week. Maybe that will perc them up. The shrimp are doing fine though, and they seemed to have buddied up, as they stay pretty close to each other. I'm sure my first shrimp is glad to have a friend.
Glad to hear that everyone survived your vacation. Those feather dusters look great! They look familiar. I think I saw 'em at lfs, but they look so much happier in your tank! :cheer:
Thanks, but they are not coming out as often as they did the first day. My water levels are all fine, but still, I'm doing a water change and yesterday I ordered some Kent Marine PhytoPlex to feed them once a week. Maybe that will perc them up. The shrimp are doing fine though, and they seemed to have buddied up, as they stay pretty close to each other. I'm sure my first shrimp is glad to have a friend.
saltn00b
Active Member
2 1/2 weeks is a lot better than an hour before the 30 day mark was up and you already had the acclimation bucket set up when you see the first spot of ick. oh yes, that has happened.
you can have some swings in pH and Alk, but try to keep them up as best you can. Alk you want to buff for everyday if it is not up to par. if you are buffing, then you should be testing every day too. i will tend to check alk every day of hypo, thankfully it is such an easy and quick test. i check ammo and trates every 3- 7 days, depending on how large the fish is, how large the QT is, and how much food he ISNT eating. when doing the water changes i take a minute to vaccuum out as much scum and un -eaten food as i can because there are no clean up crews, just me the tank janitor!
you can have some swings in pH and Alk, but try to keep them up as best you can. Alk you want to buff for everyday if it is not up to par. if you are buffing, then you should be testing every day too. i will tend to check alk every day of hypo, thankfully it is such an easy and quick test. i check ammo and trates every 3- 7 days, depending on how large the fish is, how large the QT is, and how much food he ISNT eating. when doing the water changes i take a minute to vaccuum out as much scum and un -eaten food as i can because there are no clean up crews, just me the tank janitor!
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
2 1/2 weeks is a lot better than an hour before the 30 day mark was up and you already had the acclimation bucket set up when you see the first spot of ick. oh yes, that has happened.
OK, I gues my case could have been worse. :hilarious
I use a turkey baster to suck anything out, but to be truthful there is not much to get out. I'm really careful how much a I feed. I literally stand there and watch them eat it all, only adding enough for them to consume in 2-3 minutes. I'm sure my sitter who had to put the dixie cup of food in the tanks thought I was starving them, but in my experience it's always better to feed less than more.
I do need to get a better buffer, mine came with my Red Sea test kit and from what I understand, not the greatest. Someone (maybe it was you) told me about another one that you can add daily. I'll have to do my research (or you can tell me again) and buy that one to have on hand, since Hypo is going to be a regular thing in my house until the DT is full. OH, QT is a 10 gallon nano tank, was told 12, but in reality it only holds 10 gallons.
If I had more money I'd buy the 20 gallon long, but this will have to do for now.
2 1/2 weeks is a lot better than an hour before the 30 day mark was up and you already had the acclimation bucket set up when you see the first spot of ick. oh yes, that has happened.
I use a turkey baster to suck anything out, but to be truthful there is not much to get out. I'm really careful how much a I feed. I literally stand there and watch them eat it all, only adding enough for them to consume in 2-3 minutes. I'm sure my sitter who had to put the dixie cup of food in the tanks thought I was starving them, but in my experience it's always better to feed less than more.
saltn00b
Active Member
yea with clowns you should be fine on the un eaten food stand. i am dealing with a CBBF as i said before, and he is a bit of a different story.
yea i believe it was me that was telling you about that red sea. they say to buff with that garbage once a week or something, but that probably is only meant for regular saltwater tank, and not meant for use with your QT, which in reality a Brackish tank for a period of time, where the alk will swing too dramatically, too fast. so you need something that you can buff everyday. i have used 2 times before, the Kent Marine Super carbonate hardness buffer (or something to that effect.) which buffs both pH and Alkalinity. you simply mix like a teaspoon into a glass of RO and pour it in. I am currently trying another brand right now called Natureef SeaAlk which is a liquid that does the same thing. i had it from a while ago and never used it, but am giving it a try right now. funny thing is, i looked at the bottle last night and it is made in my city, my zipcode, only a few blocks from me hehehe small world.
yea i believe it was me that was telling you about that red sea. they say to buff with that garbage once a week or something, but that probably is only meant for regular saltwater tank, and not meant for use with your QT, which in reality a Brackish tank for a period of time, where the alk will swing too dramatically, too fast. so you need something that you can buff everyday. i have used 2 times before, the Kent Marine Super carbonate hardness buffer (or something to that effect.) which buffs both pH and Alkalinity. you simply mix like a teaspoon into a glass of RO and pour it in. I am currently trying another brand right now called Natureef SeaAlk which is a liquid that does the same thing. i had it from a while ago and never used it, but am giving it a try right now. funny thing is, i looked at the bottle last night and it is made in my city, my zipcode, only a few blocks from me hehehe small world.
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
yea with clowns you should be fine on the un eaten food stand. i am dealing with a CBBF as i said before, and he is a bit of a different story.
yea i believe it was me that was telling you about that red sea. they say to buff with that garbage once a week or something, but that probably is only meant for regular saltwater tank, and not meant for use with your QT, which in reality a Brackish tank for a period of time, where the alk will swing too dramatically, too fast. so you need something that you can buff everyday. i have used 2 times before, the Kent Marine Super carbonate hardness buffer (or something to that effect.) which buffs both pH and Alkalinity. you simply mix like a teaspoon into a glass of RO and pour it in. I am currently trying another brand right now called Natureef SeaAlk which is a liquid that does the same thing. i had it from a while ago and never used it, but am giving it a try right now. funny thing is, i looked at the bottle last night and it is made in my city, my zipcode, only a few blocks from me hehehe small world.
Thanks, I wrote it down this time and will pick it up next time I'm at the lfs, or order it. Thanks again for all your help!
yea with clowns you should be fine on the un eaten food stand. i am dealing with a CBBF as i said before, and he is a bit of a different story.
yea i believe it was me that was telling you about that red sea. they say to buff with that garbage once a week or something, but that probably is only meant for regular saltwater tank, and not meant for use with your QT, which in reality a Brackish tank for a period of time, where the alk will swing too dramatically, too fast. so you need something that you can buff everyday. i have used 2 times before, the Kent Marine Super carbonate hardness buffer (or something to that effect.) which buffs both pH and Alkalinity. you simply mix like a teaspoon into a glass of RO and pour it in. I am currently trying another brand right now called Natureef SeaAlk which is a liquid that does the same thing. i had it from a while ago and never used it, but am giving it a try right now. funny thing is, i looked at the bottle last night and it is made in my city, my zipcode, only a few blocks from me hehehe small world.
Thanks, I wrote it down this time and will pick it up next time I'm at the lfs, or order it. Thanks again for all your help!
kevin34
Active Member
Since you are doing hypo now I hope you dont mind if I ask a few questions. How long does a fish need to stay in hypo to be disease free? I have read 6 weeks but it looks like you are doing less than that. Also how hard is it to raise and lower the salinity and keep the pH and alkilinity at the right levels? And I know how you lower the salt level but have always wondered how you bring it back up. Do you just do water changes with a higher salinity and slowly increase the salinity like 1.015 one day then 1.020 the next? Or do you start out adding water with a salinity of 1.024? Tank is also looking great! All of your hard work is definately showing. Cant wait for more pics!
azfishgal
Active Member
Originally Posted by Kevin34
Since you are doing hypo now I hope you dont mind if I ask a few questions. How long does a fish need to stay in hypo to be disease free? I have read 6 weeks but it looks like you are doing less than that. Also how hard is it to raise and lower the salinity and keep the pH and alkilinity at the right levels? And I know how you lower the salt level but have always wondered how you bring it back up. Do you just do water changes with a higher salinity and slowly increase the salinity like 1.015 one day then 1.020 the next? Or do you start out adding water with a salinity of 1.024? Tank is also looking great! All of your hard work is definately showing. Cant wait for more pics!
Well, I'm definitely not an expert on the subject, but I'll share my experience so far. I have read and been told three weeks in a lower salinity (1.009) is enough to rid your fish of ich, for the simple fact of the life cycle of this parasite. So the minimum you want is 3 weeks, but 4 would be even better. I think it's a personal preference to go to 6 weeks, certainly won't hurt. Dropping the salinity is pretty easy and you can drop it faster than you should raise it. However, I found dropping it took longer than I thought. All I did was take out a 1/2 gallon of water and replace it with 1/2 gallon of RO. I did this in the morning and then again at night, waiting about 12 hours between adding more RO. It was taking a while for the salinity to drop so I started to do the water change more often, about 5 times during the day, but only 1/4 gallon at a time. Raising it I'm just going to start adding 1.025 salt water, same way I did the RO water, but slower. I will test the water several times to make sure I don't raise it to fast. Again, I have found it's hard to lower it fast, so I'm thinking raising it will be just as slow. Keeping the pH and the alk level has been a bit of a challenge, but it's good I'm working with clowns right now, so when I get more delicate fish I should be much better at it.
Since you are doing hypo now I hope you dont mind if I ask a few questions. How long does a fish need to stay in hypo to be disease free? I have read 6 weeks but it looks like you are doing less than that. Also how hard is it to raise and lower the salinity and keep the pH and alkilinity at the right levels? And I know how you lower the salt level but have always wondered how you bring it back up. Do you just do water changes with a higher salinity and slowly increase the salinity like 1.015 one day then 1.020 the next? Or do you start out adding water with a salinity of 1.024? Tank is also looking great! All of your hard work is definately showing. Cant wait for more pics!
Well, I'm definitely not an expert on the subject, but I'll share my experience so far. I have read and been told three weeks in a lower salinity (1.009) is enough to rid your fish of ich, for the simple fact of the life cycle of this parasite. So the minimum you want is 3 weeks, but 4 would be even better. I think it's a personal preference to go to 6 weeks, certainly won't hurt. Dropping the salinity is pretty easy and you can drop it faster than you should raise it. However, I found dropping it took longer than I thought. All I did was take out a 1/2 gallon of water and replace it with 1/2 gallon of RO. I did this in the morning and then again at night, waiting about 12 hours between adding more RO. It was taking a while for the salinity to drop so I started to do the water change more often, about 5 times during the day, but only 1/4 gallon at a time. Raising it I'm just going to start adding 1.025 salt water, same way I did the RO water, but slower. I will test the water several times to make sure I don't raise it to fast. Again, I have found it's hard to lower it fast, so I'm thinking raising it will be just as slow. Keeping the pH and the alk level has been a bit of a challenge, but it's good I'm working with clowns right now, so when I get more delicate fish I should be much better at it.
azfishgal
Active Member
I haven't seen the feather dusters come out all day.
I know they are alive because when I touch them I can feel the worm jerk back. I did all my water tests today and this is what I have:
Temp 80.9
Salinity 1.24
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0.05
Nitrates 10
pH 8.2
Alk 1.7 (Saltnoob, will that buffer help with my alk? I was surprised this was low with my pH being good.)
Calcium 300-350ppm (will this go up with my water change?)
Phosphate 0.1
I did a 5 gallon water change (I know I need to do larger ones, but it's all the water I had mixed up) and cleaned out my filter sponge (boy was it dirty :scared: ). I also added a "Y" to both loc to add water flow to the back of my tank, going behind my rock. I ordered some Kent Marine PhytoPlex to add to my water to feed my feather dusters, but I havn't gotten it yet. BUT, with all the messing around I was doing with my water flow and changing the water, I would imagine there is a lot of food floating around for my feather dusters if they'd just come out. Any ideas on why they would be staying inside their tubes?
Temp 80.9
Salinity 1.24
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0.05
Nitrates 10
pH 8.2
Alk 1.7 (Saltnoob, will that buffer help with my alk? I was surprised this was low with my pH being good.)
Calcium 300-350ppm (will this go up with my water change?)
Phosphate 0.1
I did a 5 gallon water change (I know I need to do larger ones, but it's all the water I had mixed up) and cleaned out my filter sponge (boy was it dirty :scared: ). I also added a "Y" to both loc to add water flow to the back of my tank, going behind my rock. I ordered some Kent Marine PhytoPlex to add to my water to feed my feather dusters, but I havn't gotten it yet. BUT, with all the messing around I was doing with my water flow and changing the water, I would imagine there is a lot of food floating around for my feather dusters if they'd just come out. Any ideas on why they would be staying inside their tubes?
saltn00b
Active Member
feather dusters can finicky, expecially when they are newly introduced to a system, with a changing params, etc. if i remember right, they would sometimes stay inside their tubes for 1/2 a day or a whole day to clean off the nutrients / food on their crown, then should come back better then ever. also, make sure they did not eject the crown, otherwise it might be a week before you see a new one start to emerge.
as for the alk, yes the same buffer you are using for the hypo will work in this case. this situation is what they are all geared for. you can try the red sea alk, and let me know if it works for you, how long it takes to react, etc. or just go right to the kent powder, which will pop your pH up to 8.4 anyway.
as for the alk, yes the same buffer you are using for the hypo will work in this case. this situation is what they are all geared for. you can try the red sea alk, and let me know if it works for you, how long it takes to react, etc. or just go right to the kent powder, which will pop your pH up to 8.4 anyway.
azfishgal
Active Member
Thanks saltnoob. My dog woke me up at 3:30am this morning needing to go out. So I took a peak inside my tank and both feather dusters were out!
I havn't seen them today, but my husband said he saw one of them open this morning. So maybe they just need time to adjust. I will try the Red Sea buffer to see what that does to my alk level in my DT.
In regards to my QT, I tested the water (yesterday) and my nitrites were up, 0.2, so I did a water change. My pH was 8.0 and my alk was 2.2, which on the test strip says normal. Is that correct? I will test the water again today to see how much of difference the water change did.
In regards to my QT, I tested the water (yesterday) and my nitrites were up, 0.2, so I did a water change. My pH was 8.0 and my alk was 2.2, which on the test strip says normal. Is that correct? I will test the water again today to see how much of difference the water change did.