cheeseballhaggis
New Member
I bought a house 8 months ago, and out of what the previous owners left behind, the saltwater fish tank is the most complicated to deal with. (The bed was a weird thing to leave behind, too.) I'm essentially a beginner, though I have learned a lot about basic things I need to do.
Anyway, according to the previous owner, this 29 gallon tank was started about 15 years ago with no plans to continue it for this long. He said the fish in it are 10 to 15 years old. There were two yellowtail damsels and two silver monos. One of the monos has since died, but all the rest remain. I added a lawnmower blenny about a month ago. This is a fish only tank, so that's good for a beginner, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.
When I started, the tank was pretty gross. The previous owner told me that there was no need to clean the tank because it would take care of itself. There was nothing to test the water with, and all of the decorations were covered in slime. I started by taking all of that out and cleaning it. I put maybe one third of it back in the tank, which helped a lot, but I still want to improve it.
Within the past few months, I have replaced the heater with a new one I trust more, and I now have a hydrometer, pH test strips, and an in-tank ammonia monitor. The substrate is coral gravel, and I have an AquaClear 70 filter in addition to an undergravel filter. (There's also some weird stuff in the closet that I don't know if I need.) Everything seems fine except that the pH strips show a "dangerous" level of nitrate. I was told by a pet store person to do a fifty-fifty water change to lower the nitrate, which I did, and I also took out all of the old substrate and replaced with the rest with what was left in the bag in two installments. The nitrate level is still dangerous.
Considering that this guy told me not to clean the tank, I have to imagine that the underground filter is quite dirty. It definitely works because when I have taken out the tube connecting the filter to its powerhead, the tube has been full of disgusting stuff every time. My concern is with the fact that the nitrate level is so high that even a fifty-fifty water change did not affect the level on the pH strip.
Should I take out the UGF and replace it with a new UGF, clean the UGF that I currently have, or use a different filtration system? Obviously the fish have survived this long with rough water conditions, but I hate to think that they are not as healthy as they could be.
Should I use a different type of substrate? I did purchase some live sand a few weeks ago but haven't used it since I realized I have a UGF. I have tried to look these things up online, but since my tank is already established, a lot of the beginner level articles don't apply. Since I don't know what I'm doing, it's hard to follow some of the other articles. I feel like the previous tank maintenance makes my situation different than the others I've read about.
Sorry for the long post. I wanted to make sure I gave the info that you guys might need.
Tl;dr: I have an established tank that needs help beyond what I understand, especially regarding filtration and nitrates. Here are some pictures of what I've done.
Anyway, according to the previous owner, this 29 gallon tank was started about 15 years ago with no plans to continue it for this long. He said the fish in it are 10 to 15 years old. There were two yellowtail damsels and two silver monos. One of the monos has since died, but all the rest remain. I added a lawnmower blenny about a month ago. This is a fish only tank, so that's good for a beginner, but I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.
When I started, the tank was pretty gross. The previous owner told me that there was no need to clean the tank because it would take care of itself. There was nothing to test the water with, and all of the decorations were covered in slime. I started by taking all of that out and cleaning it. I put maybe one third of it back in the tank, which helped a lot, but I still want to improve it.
Within the past few months, I have replaced the heater with a new one I trust more, and I now have a hydrometer, pH test strips, and an in-tank ammonia monitor. The substrate is coral gravel, and I have an AquaClear 70 filter in addition to an undergravel filter. (There's also some weird stuff in the closet that I don't know if I need.) Everything seems fine except that the pH strips show a "dangerous" level of nitrate. I was told by a pet store person to do a fifty-fifty water change to lower the nitrate, which I did, and I also took out all of the old substrate and replaced with the rest with what was left in the bag in two installments. The nitrate level is still dangerous.
Considering that this guy told me not to clean the tank, I have to imagine that the underground filter is quite dirty. It definitely works because when I have taken out the tube connecting the filter to its powerhead, the tube has been full of disgusting stuff every time. My concern is with the fact that the nitrate level is so high that even a fifty-fifty water change did not affect the level on the pH strip.
Should I take out the UGF and replace it with a new UGF, clean the UGF that I currently have, or use a different filtration system? Obviously the fish have survived this long with rough water conditions, but I hate to think that they are not as healthy as they could be.
Should I use a different type of substrate? I did purchase some live sand a few weeks ago but haven't used it since I realized I have a UGF. I have tried to look these things up online, but since my tank is already established, a lot of the beginner level articles don't apply. Since I don't know what I'm doing, it's hard to follow some of the other articles. I feel like the previous tank maintenance makes my situation different than the others I've read about.
Sorry for the long post. I wanted to make sure I gave the info that you guys might need.
Tl;dr: I have an established tank that needs help beyond what I understand, especially regarding filtration and nitrates. Here are some pictures of what I've done.
