HUGE tank issues and 2 orders on their way

[shawna]

og god when any thing seems to go wrong it all does well I still have 0.5 amonia count after changing out a sand bed over the past week or so
well the stress just went 10 fold
here is what my step daughter has ordered to arive soon
jaw fish
white seabay anemonie large she thinks
pink tipped hation
rock anemonie
fla conda anemonie
a fancy red serpent sea star
4 pepermint shrimp
4 emerald crabs
6 line wrass
ok well she didn't tell me and now I've ordered
20 certh
12 bumble bee
12 neritesnails
2 mushroom ricordia pink
1 rock of 3 mushroom green
how the heck can I keep these all alive till this tank gets healthy enough to sustain and slowly add these things? how many galons of water does all of this require and can I even sustain this in a 90?
to make it worse we are going to get this all on friday morning
and we only have a 10 gal qt tank
please advise quick so I can make arangements not to kill them all

this is just not my week!!!!!!
shawna

 

[shawna]

along with this is the live sand that was to make the sand healthy that is to arive tomorow as well can I put that in with an ammo spike of 0.5???
tons of 4 letter words
please advise
shawna

 

[shawna]

please guys give me a clue here I can put the m.h.'s over a bunch of 10 gal tanks but what will get along? will all of these anemonies kill each other? I didn't even want 1 because they are so delicate but she's ordered 4 or 5 what can we keep together in a small qt tank till the display settles? how many 10's should I get (no room for bigger) please help
(his kid's got me into a jam!)

 

[dburr]

:scared:
What...
OK you have 4 different anenomes. I don't have any experiences with them, (nore do I care to)but I would say 4 tanks.
But, when was the sand changed? A week ago?
Is the test a good one? How long has it been .5?

 

[sirgunther]

You are in a world of $h17 ... lol.. . I would use some sort of de-toxin to drop levels.. your going to loose some of it.. there is no helping that.. maybe a couple of the anemone's in the ten with a couple small fish and moniter... then put the rest in the main and pray like hell.. the live sand will reseed your tank but that may take up to 6 weeks for everything to be finished.. spread it out among what you have and moniter everything daily..
I have had good experience with a chemical neutralizer called AmQuel+ plus made by Kordon... Dont try to rid the tank completely of everything, as you will need the ammo and stuff to complete the inevitable cycle. just make sure it has low numbers.. and this will actually delay your cycle from happening by about 2-3 weeks.. but the water wont be so bad that it kills everything..
The snails, shrimp, crab and mushrooms are actually prety hardy.. they could theoretically be placed in the tank as is.. but the anemone's will need seperate treatment.. I have no experience with a wrasse so i cant help with him.. if you have LR in the tank its going to help immensly..
I set up my tank and added my livestock a little earlier then i should have.. frequent water monitering and changes, along with that de-toxifier helped me to get over the "hump" without loosing anything.. Hopefully it will u too..
HTH, and best of luck..

 

[dburr]

The snails, shrimp, crab and mushrooms are actually prety hardy.. they could theoretically be placed in the tank as is.. but the anemone's will need seperate treatment..
I agree mushrooms are hardy, but if you place the snails shrimps and crabs in a tank with .5 ammonia(if it is that) you will lose them all. They will be dead by morning.

 

[sirgunther]

Yea hes right, i was a little confusing when i posted that i woudl use the AmQuel to de-toxify the water to at least half of that before putting anything in there....

 

[shawna]

well the good news is the anemonies aren't going to be here tomorow the live sand will be though and the other critters I think if at all posible I'm going to get a few 10's turn my parrish bench so that my hallogens will point over the display and also cast light to the 10's below I don't know if it will work but pray for me!!!! would you think the amoquel would be findable in the local stores ? I don't have any great fls around but a few supply stores. how can I keep that poor star from dying? how about the coral? the star if it makes it is just going to eat the shrimp I guess and I hope those lil green prehistoric looking crabs will be ok!! gosh guys never give your kids (soon to be ex step) your card # and say ok you get "something you like now" it has bit me in thee bumm hard!!
I'm going to search for that ammoquel
thanks any other feed back would be great.
do you guys know if those anemonies will fight? (if they live)
I know it's a stupid question but I never intended to get even one in fact there is a lil plastic fake one in the display so the clowns feel safe. (yea tacky I know but I'm not big on killing mother nature)
guys thanks millions for your help (again)

 

[shawna]

sorry one more question this tank is about 8 months old willl it really go through a ful cycle? just a lil freaking out as usual
the "experts said do water changes and so I have bien big time but I'm afraid to over do tthat as well and I might have ( most likely have ) already gosh all was going so good for like a month and a half well say a lil prayer the critters will need it!

 

[shawna]

I just re read your pots I have ~120 + lr in he 90 gal and 4 in sand bed that's to new squid said that the last part of the sand applie was anorobic and that's why the ammo spike hanks so much got the ammoquell.
now praying to the mermaid gods lol
shawna
thanks again!:nervous:

 

[msd2]

To address your concerns about the anemones fighting, yes they probably will. 3 or 4 different types of anemones in a single tank is really asking for trouble. I have two, a carpet and a long tenticle both setup on opposite sides of a 4 foot tank and have had no issues but 4 I would never even attempt. I would suggest taking and getting credit at the LFS for several of them. If they start walking around, which the will probably do and run into each other it wont turn out well.
good luck tomorrow
Did you change out the entire sandbed last week? did u go dsb, shallow? If you did do a full sandbed change then yes it will cycle fully. you get mini cycles when you add sand or disturb a dsb too much.
You might want to ask your LFS if they will hold your animals for a fee. Like others stated before survival isnt great w/a spike in progress. And trust me you dont want anemones to be dead in your tank, thats a sure way for a full system crash.

 

[shawna]

thanks I'll probibly need it!
I'll see if anyone will take them
shawna

 

[msd2]

thats the one drawback to getting stuff online, to make it cost effective you need to get a lot of animals instead of adding one or two at a time allowing the biofilteration to catch up.
BTW Im not sure why everyone states anenomes are such a challenge. I have found the opposite, that given good water parameters and adequare lighting they are very hardy animals especially carpets.

 

[shawna]

i don't think these poor things would survive because of the mini ammo spike currently I've bought a few 10's for them but there is no marked bacteria in them I'm sure left I've done water change after water change to get the levels down might have done more harm than good? frustrated this week next wek I'm sure I'll love the hobby again though
I hate to kill animals
shawna

 

[sirgunther]

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you..
Yes you can find that "AmQuel+ plus" made by "Kordon" at almost any lfs.. its not to bad on price for the job it does... It is designed to erase Ammo, TraAtes and TrItes, along with chlorine, and chloramine....
Like i said though, you dont want to rid the tank of all ammo.. if you do then all your doing is covering up the fact that the tank isnt cycled.. you have to maintain low level ammo in order to complete the cycle.. if your readins are .5 then i would live with half of that.. i belive you would add about 4 teaspoons... to bring your levels down to minimum range in a 90G..
The crappy thing for you is going to be putting all theses animals in un-cycled 10 gallons.. i dont know if thats actually gonna be better or worse than low level ammo in the 90... lol
If it were me in that predicament, i would go buy 3 tank dividers for your QT 10 and put all 4 anemones in there... and moniter the 90 and put everything else in there.. just a thought..

 

[shawna]

I bought a few more qt 10 gal tanks (disadvantage to a historical home no room
I'll do the best I can for them do you think if I put 10 lbs l.r. into the small tanks with some live sand that would help a little? I'm grasping at straws I know just willing 2 try anything at this point.

 

[sirgunther]

that should help a little better than just starting a brand new tank.. Any luck finding that AmQuel+ plus yet?

 

[shawna]

drove to a reef store down in philla the H. reef had it thanks!

 

[shawna]

sorry bout the fire ball I ment:joy:
shawna

 

[msd2]

one trick I have found for the anemones when your ready for them is to put some rockwork around them and then a 'water fence'. let me explain, most anomomes will cruize around the tank till they find the conditions they like the most, if thats possible great but in reality if u want to keep a reef u cant have it walking along stinging everything along the way. Most anemones really dislike strong currents I have found and will recoil from them quickly. So what I attempt to do is put high current on each side of him, giving him a little bit of room to walk but when he goes too far the stream blasts him and he walks back. This btw is a great way to get an anemone to move also put a direct stream on him and mine move within hours. Works amazinly well at containing them to a set location.
If one is particuarly troublesome (my long tenticle was for the longest time) I made a V formation of rocks and put a powerhead in a cave behind it. so the water would go all around the rock V and if he moved up, or side to side he got the stream.
Just an idea, I hope I made that clear?