could i be the grim reaper of fish?

keish24

keish24

Member
woke up today and looked at my tank as always....low and behold one of my false percs was AWOL. found it dead behind a rock. i bought it about 3 weeks ago with another wild false perc. i guess the one that died would have been the female because it was the larger of the two. anyways....my other one seems to be doing fine and i have a molly which also seems to be doing fine. i also have a rbta.....looks and acts fine. i bought a couple of clowns when i bought my rbta (about 5 weeks ago) and they died the next day. i chalked it up to poor acclimation because i followed my lfs advice (stupid on my part) and did a float and add water method over a half hour period. learned to drip acclimate after that ordeal.
anyways.....so i am wondering what could have happened to my big clown. my water specs are as follows:
ph-8.3
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates-15
spec. gravity-1.024
temp-78
she seemed to be fine last night. hadnt noticed any strange behavior in her. any opinions what could have happened? am i missing something??
 
keish24

keish24

Member
i have another clown and a molly that are still alive. the smaller clown (which is the one i still have) swims kind of erraticly you could say. tonight he seems to be acting a little funny. i am ordering a refractometer tonight cause i read on here that the hydrometers are junk. right now i have 1 maxijet 900 powerhead. i am thinking maybe i need something more. so i was thinking of ordering another powerhead tonight as well. how many gph do you suggest in a 55 gal??
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
for a FOWLR or FO, inside the tank flow , after calculating head loss should be at the minimum 10x the tank's volume in turnover, spread throughout the tank so there are no dead spots. if you add corals it goes up from there.
so a 55 would mean you want at least 550 GPH of flow. the more the merrier.
also most people end up taking out the fake ornaments, they are more for FW applications, and will end up getting covered in coralline anyway.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
if the fish are swimming erratically, then you might have stray voltage. do you have a grounding probe?
 
keish24

keish24

Member
how much flow do you recommend for a reef tank? that is what i am shooting for in the long run. i know the ornaments arent for everyone. this tank is kind of a family effort and my little guy really likes them. i dont have a grounding probe. i will look into ordering one of those as well. also....i have 2 emporer biowheels for filtration. do i need a sump to do corals or will the biowheels be ok?
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
what kind of corals are you looking at getting into?
most people progress slowly through the difficulties , as i recommend for you too.
softies->lps->sps
for a softy tank you should really have 15-25x i am thinking. biowheels are more fore FW applications but will work in small SW tanks. for a 55 reef, they really wont cut it IMO. you would be worlds better off with a sump / refugium for a variety of reasons.
 
keish24

keish24

Member
ok....well i was guessing i was probably going to have to look into a sump/refugium because it seems like everyone on here has one :) i bought my whole setup (equiptment water and sand) used from a guy who had it as a fwlr tank, which is where i am now but i want to make it into a reef. any recommendations on a sump / refugium or where i can get some good info to learn more about them? i feel like i ask tons of questions on this forum but we dont have a good lfs anywhere near where i live.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
not sure of brands, i bult my last one. a lot of people make there own from basic tanks and gluing in dividers. take a look in the DiY section.
 
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