Azfishgal New Tank Diary!

[addicted2]

hi

Your tank looks great! I haven't had a chance to post and tell you. I started mine up on Dec. 31 2006...and I absolutely love it! Looks like yours is comin' right along. The only trouble I have had with mine is the diatoms! I hate them! I even added a a phos reactor and periodically blow off my rock until the problem is solved. I am ording the koralias too. I know I don't have enough flow. How about yours?..they look nice in your tankk..do you like them? do you have any diatoms? ..I only have a 75 and was thinking about ording the koralia 2's..that would gice me 17X turnover. Keep up the nice work..it looks great!

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by addicted2
hi

Your tank looks great! I haven't had a chance to post and tell you. I started mine up on Dec. 31 2006...and I absolutely love it! Looks like yours is comin' right along. The only trouble I have had with mine is the diatoms! I hate them! I even added a a phos reactor and periodically blow off my rock until the problem is solved. I am ording the koralias too. I know I don't have enough flow. How about yours?..they look nice in your tankk..do you like them? do you have any diatoms? ..I only have a 75 and was thinking about ording the koralia 2's..that would gice me 17X turnover. Keep up the nice work..it looks great!
Thanks, I'll have to look around to see if I see your pics (might already have). Diatoms became pretty heavy about a two weeks after I started everything up, it was all over my rocks, sand and was even starting on the glass, I wasn't able to even see the purple corline anymore. I added a clean up crew (certh and nassarius snails, cleaner shrimp, and three emerald crabs) and when we got back from our week long vacation I was amazed. They cleaned it like a shiney new penny!

I do think flow helps though, as the center of my tank still had a little diatoms on the sand, but not bad at all. It was the least flow spot. I love my Koralia powerheads, they have a nice wide flow and it's easy to change the direction. I have two #3s in my tank, one on each end. I also think if you reduce your lighting that will help. While we were on vaction I only had the lights running for 6 hours. Now that I'm home they are on for 12 hours, no more. I personally think the Cerith snails is what did most of the work on the diatoms, but my emerald crabs did a great job on the hair algea and other stuff I had growing on the rocks. Of course the Nassarius snails keep the sand mixed up. Good luck with your tank!

Edit: Oh, make sure you are using RO water, but RO/DI is even better.

 

[addicted2]

thanks for the ideas! I do use RO-DI water and I have lots of cleanup crew..I"ll have to look at the cerith snails tho..I don't have any of those. I am about ready to get a toothbrush out!

But I know I just have to be patient. I want to get the koralias..there is no place I have found that has them in stock right now

But I keep watching. I want the 3s like yours. I think they will be nice for my 75. I hope not too much flow..but they are easily redirecte..soo..why not. I know what you mean about waiting to put fish in..it's painful! I had a little push to get mine in..I have a 30 gal that developed an unrepairable slow leak...soo..the fish in that one had to relocate too. kind of threw my bioload up a little too quick..but I had no choice. Good luck with those clowns..they are so cute!

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by addicted2
thanks for the ideas! I do use RO-DI water and I have lots of cleanup crew..I"ll have to look at the cerith snails tho..I don't have any of those. I am about ready to get a toothbrush out!

But I know I just have to be patient. I want to get the koralias..there is no place I have found that has them in stock right now

But I keep watching. I want the 3s like yours. I think they will be nice for my 75. I hope not too much flow..but they are easily redirecte..soo..why not. I know what you mean about waiting to put fish in..it's painful! I had a little push to get mine in..I have a 30 gal that developed an unrepairable slow leak...soo..the fish in that one had to relocate too. kind of threw my bioload up a little too quick..but I had no choice. Good luck with those clowns..they are so cute!
I got my Koralias from the doctors.

I think the #3 should be find for you, I kind of wish I would have gotten the #4s and still may order them in the future. How long are you leaving your lights on? After talking with you I actually started to notice some more diatoms on my rock

, so I think it's how long I've been keeping the light on, to long. So I actually just turned them off and will turn them on again in a few hours. Instead of 12 hours a day I'm going to cut back to 8 hours and see how that works.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
sounds good so far, you are doing a great job! reef tanks may need slightly higher Alk, but fish are fine in lower amounts as long as the alk is not 0. when hypo is almost over, start trying to match the alk to your DT , so the acclimation will be easier.
OK, I'm looking around for that buffer you told me about and I'm having a few that look like the one you talked about. You said to get the Kent Marine Super Carbonate hardness buffer and I couldn't find that exact thing, but these are the two I did find:
Kent Marine Pro Buffer dKH (Enhanced Pro-Buffer dKH with coralline accelerator raises alkalinity or buffering capacity and works automatically to control pH. (this one is a tall skinny bottle)
Kent Marine SuperBuffer-dKH (adjusts pH of saltwater aquariums to approx. 8.3, and builds KH. (this one is a fat short bottle)
I also noticed SeaChem Reef Carbonate. Would one of these work? I'm going to use what I have and see how that does, but sounds like the daily buffer would keep things more balanced than a weekly buffer.
Thanks!

 

[saltn00b]

Kent Marine SuperBuffer-dKH
is the one i have, and i know a bunch of other people use. good product, sorry for confusion on the names, i was doing them by memory before and i guess it isnt so good lol.

 

[azfishgal]

Thanks saltnoob!

Looks like my one feather duster is nocturnal.

At least he is coming out I guess. The other one is coming out now and stays out most of the time though. Maybe the other one will come around eventually.

 

[nemo_66]

looks great

 

[azfishgal]

OK, no pics but some interesting things happened over night. First let me say what I did yesterday. I added 3 tsp. of Kent Marine Liquid Calcium because my calcium level was 350ppm, and then I also added 4 tsp of Kent Marine Superbuffer-dKH because alk was low (1.7) and pH was 8.0. Well this morning all levels are still the same :notsure: , but one of my shrimp has molted (had no idea they molted their antanas), one hermit crab in the sump is out of it's shell dead (now being eaten by the others) and one hermit is out of it's shell, but still alive hanging out in the cheato. I'm pretty sure this little guy is dieing because he's lost a leg and there is spiderweb like tracks over the rock and some on the side of the sump, I think that's coming from the dieing hermit. I tested everything else and this is what I came up with:
Calcium 350ppm
Phosphate 0.1
pH 8.0
Alk 1.7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.05 (I think this may be a false reading, because it's never read 0)
Nitrate 10
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.6
So what do you think, just a coincidence and the cycle of life, or something else might be wrong? According to the directions on the calcium I'm supposed to add some every day, but how do I get it up to the level that I need. I should have it up to 450ppm, right? And the Superbuffer sais to add daily until I get the levels of pH and alk that I need then add weekly. Is that right?
On another note, I'm starting to raise the salinity in my QT today!

So if I don't find any conclusive evidence that something is wrong with my water in my DT, my first fish will be added in a few days, FINALLY!!!

 

[saltn00b]

trites are a false value from the red sea kits.
pH and Alk are low, and calcium is low too.
i dont think the pH is low enough to kill inverts, but it is getting there.
keep your dosing up and watch closely, taking these tests daily until you get a really good feel for it. i am in a similar boat. i have been dosing calcium and alk / pH to get to optimal levels, then going to look into kalkwasser dripping for the first time.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
trites are a false value from the red sea kits.
pH and Alk are low, and calcium is low too.
i dont think the pH is low enough to kill inverts, but it is getting there.
keep your dosing up and watch closely, taking these tests daily until you get a really good feel for it. i am in a similar boat. i have been dosing calcium and alk / pH to get to optimal levels, then going to look into kalkwasser dripping for the first time.
Someone said I need to add 8 oz of the liquid calcium to go from 350ppm to 400ppm. Is that true? That would mean my entire bottle. Is there a limit on how fast I can raise the calcium or does it matter?

 

[saltn00b]

if you dose too much, it will come out of solution and precipitate calcium. this is not good and you want to avoid it. different calcium brands are dosed differently, so i cant tell you what you need to do with that product, sorry! i would say read the intructions it comes with.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
if you dose too much, it will come out of solution and precipitate calcium. this is not good and you want to avoid it. different calcium brands are dosed differently, so i cant tell you what you need to do with that product, sorry! i would say read the intructions it comes with.
It just says to add 1/4 to 1 tsp per 50 gallons each day, based on animal load. So to me that's a maintaining direction not directions to increase it to 350 to 400. One person said to add 8 oz over a three day period. I'll take a little longer just in case and test daily if not twice daily to make sure I don't go to high.

 

[azfishgal]

I started to raise the salinity in my QT (was doing Hypo), it's now up to 1.013. Yesterday I did clean out the tank because it was getting pretty gross, I cleaned off the sides and then took out the fake anemone. I was going to clean it, but it wouldn't come clean so I tossed it. I also cleaned the two PVC pipes. This evening I have noticed the larger one (I'm assuming female) is harrasing the smaller one (male?). It's gotten to the point where she has chased him into a corner behind the powerhead and is not letting him come out. When he can he puts his tail on the pump and leans against the glass as if he's resting (I hope not dieing). I'm worried he's going to get stressed out and die! :scared: I put food in to see if he'd come out and he did, but of course he was harrassed, but at least the larger one started eating and allowed him to eat. But when the feeding was done the harrasing started again and back in the corner he went. I can't move them into the DT yet because I'm still raising the salinity and it's not high enough yet. If my larger clown causes my smaller one to die JUST before I'm getting ready to put them in the DT I"ll be furious! I'm going on week six now, PLEASE little clown, hang in there!!!!!

 

[kevin34]

Maybe you could build a temorary dividing wall out of acrylic or something from a hardware store. The fighting may be from being in the tiny QT for such a long time. Hopefully the fighting will stop once they get to finally stretch their fins in the wide open DT. :happyfish

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
Maybe you could build a temorary dividing wall out of acrylic or something from a hardware store. The fighting may be from being in the tiny QT for such a long time. Hopefully the fighting will stop once they get to finally stretch their fins in the wide open DT. :happyfish
Not sure I could do that, but you gave me an idea, using some type of screen devider. :thinking: I need to do something fast because I'm not sure how much more this little guy can take. She's being really mean and not letting him out! What about sticking him in a pitcher for a short time, just to give him a break, or taking HER out? I don't have an air stone though, so it wouldn't be for long. OH, why did they have to start this now.

They are very small and many people have clowns in the Nano tanks and never have problems. :notsure:

 

[kevin34]

I hanvt heard of many clowns fighting either. If I were you I wouldnt remove one of them from the tank because it may just lead to more stress. I would go with some kind of divider if you have anything. Maybe the rising of the salinity is causing stress. :notsure: I hope everything works out ok.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
I hanvt heard of many clowns fighting either. If I were you I wouldnt remove one of them from the tank because it may just lead to more stress. I would go with some kind of divider if you have anything. Maybe the rising of the salinity is causing stress. :notsure: I hope everything works out ok.
Well yesterday morning it was 1.009, then I did a 1/2 gallon water change and added water that was 1.025, bringing it to 1.011. Last night I did another 1/2 gallon change and brought it to 1.013. This morning did another 1/2 gallon change and brought it to 1.014. Fighting began. This evening I did another 1/2 gallon change and it's 1.015. Is that to fast?

 

[triga22]

When you add the clowns to the DT your going to get some pics right? lol

 

[kevin34]

Im not a hypo expert but from what I remember the salinity should be lowered over the course of 48 hrs and raised over the course of a week I think, so it seems like you are on track. Im not sure what the problem could be. I would try a divider and see what happens. Just make sure whatever you use is clean.