johnnyreb
New Member
Hey y'all,
Since I'm new, a little background on my history with fish. I have successfully kept and bred freshwater angels for the last several years. I recently gave away all of my freshwater fish and decided to give salt water a try. I've got a 120 gallon tank that's been running for almost 3 weeks now. The salinity is 1.023 and the ammonia appears to be right around .5ppm. Week one, I set the tank up, put in 2 40lb(I think) bags of Carribsea aragonite and one 20lb bag of live sand, filled the tank and added Instant Ocean then monitored the salinity and ammonia for one week. Week two I added 5 blue damsels that appeared to be thriving. Week three (this past tuesday) I added some crabs and snails. All appeared to be going well. One of the two fluval 404 filters (given to me by a friend) developed a leak around the lid a few days ago and after reading up on possible causes, I decided to lube the big o-ring in the lid. From the research I did online, it seemed that using petroleum jelly to lube the o-ring was iffy as to whether or not it was aquarium safe however, most people agreed that silicon grease (like used in plumbing) would be 100% safe. I picked up some silicon grease at Home Depot, lubed the o-ring, and that solved the leak problem. 24 hours later, all live stock still seemed to be doing well. I just got home from being out of town for 24 hours and flipped on the light on the tank to check in on everybody and all of the damsels were "crashed" on the bottom except for one that's hanging around the top of the heater. Of course I checked the temp and it's still at 75 degrees (right where it's been all along). I'm wondering if A. I introduced some disease when added the crabs and snails, B. There's something toxic in the silicon grease or C. I'm over reacting. I tried to see if the damsels would eat and one or two would take a bite and spit it right back out (this was only after the food had made it's way to the bottom). I remember when I was raising angels that the juvies would "bed down" on the bottom after things got dark so I'm wondering if I just caught the damsels in snooze mode. Their fins don't seem to be clamped or anything and the crabs and snails are moving around a lot soooooo? I don't know. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give as many details as possible. Can someone please advise?
Thanks
David
Since I'm new, a little background on my history with fish. I have successfully kept and bred freshwater angels for the last several years. I recently gave away all of my freshwater fish and decided to give salt water a try. I've got a 120 gallon tank that's been running for almost 3 weeks now. The salinity is 1.023 and the ammonia appears to be right around .5ppm. Week one, I set the tank up, put in 2 40lb(I think) bags of Carribsea aragonite and one 20lb bag of live sand, filled the tank and added Instant Ocean then monitored the salinity and ammonia for one week. Week two I added 5 blue damsels that appeared to be thriving. Week three (this past tuesday) I added some crabs and snails. All appeared to be going well. One of the two fluval 404 filters (given to me by a friend) developed a leak around the lid a few days ago and after reading up on possible causes, I decided to lube the big o-ring in the lid. From the research I did online, it seemed that using petroleum jelly to lube the o-ring was iffy as to whether or not it was aquarium safe however, most people agreed that silicon grease (like used in plumbing) would be 100% safe. I picked up some silicon grease at Home Depot, lubed the o-ring, and that solved the leak problem. 24 hours later, all live stock still seemed to be doing well. I just got home from being out of town for 24 hours and flipped on the light on the tank to check in on everybody and all of the damsels were "crashed" on the bottom except for one that's hanging around the top of the heater. Of course I checked the temp and it's still at 75 degrees (right where it's been all along). I'm wondering if A. I introduced some disease when added the crabs and snails, B. There's something toxic in the silicon grease or C. I'm over reacting. I tried to see if the damsels would eat and one or two would take a bite and spit it right back out (this was only after the food had made it's way to the bottom). I remember when I was raising angels that the juvies would "bed down" on the bottom after things got dark so I'm wondering if I just caught the damsels in snooze mode. Their fins don't seem to be clamped or anything and the crabs and snails are moving around a lot soooooo? I don't know. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give as many details as possible. Can someone please advise?
Thanks
David
