New 10 gal help!

[thedragonfish]

I looked it up, they seem to live 2 years max but often will die earlier getting sucked into the powerhead or starving. They seem to accept nori however. I'm not sure. Any marine creature you look up and want to keep in your tank will have success stories and failure stories, and everyone has a different opinion on it. The one invert I have found whose success stories seem to outweigh the failure stories by a wide margin is the Blue Tuxedo Urchin. They are relatively peaceful, but the pick up everything they can find, so you need to secure coral frags. It eats algae and I've read that it will accept nori.

I know I've asked this a million times but all the inverts I keep finding always have something wrong with them according to someone. Anyway, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with Blue Tuxedo Urchins?
-thedragonfish

 

[thedragonfish]

Hi!
So I'm cycling my tank with LR and LS, and today some greenish brown algae has suddenly appeared all over my largest piece of LR and there is a little bit on my other rocks and spots on my sand. Can anyone help with an ID? Also. how do I get rid of it?
-thedragonfish

 

[cheryleggleston]

I have alot of it to and I don't have a clue how to get rid of it but I know it doesn't look pretty

 

[cheryleggleston]

But I have heard hermit crabs and turbo snails hits rid of it with ease but I have to wait tell my next pay check to get some I hope I help.

 

[grant778]

Those are most likely diatoms. Diatoms grow like crazy shortly after the cycle is completed. They will go away if you do water changes regularly and get those snails to eat it. Don't get hermits though because the hermits will kill the snails.

 

[cheryleggleston]

And I have a question I have a hammer coral and I have stock lighting in a 29 gal coralife biocube and will it be ok in there?

 

[thedragonfish]

So an update on my tank:
I started growing a TON of diatom algae and the guy at my LFS just said to turn the lights off for a week and it will die, so I did, and it's gone now I know I'll need algae later to serve as food for my inverts but right now, it's just a pest.
Anyway, I had my tank up and running for a week, making sure all my equipment worked, etc etc. The week after, I added some fish food to start my cycle, and it has been 8 days since I did that. I have a stable water temp of 77 degrees farenheit and a salinity of 1.024. My LR looks good and my heater (which I worried wouldn't be enough to maintain my temp) is working great.

Thank you guys for all your help, and if you've taken the time to read my posts. In trying to learn from you guys, I hope to help other people too

I'll post again when I get livestock!
-thedragonfish

 

[thedragonfish]

Update and a question-
I cycled with some fish food i put in the tank which decayed and it took about 2 1/2 weeks for the levels to all reach zero. Today, I got a blue-green chromis and he looks great, seems very happy in my tank I plan on getting an ocellaris clown, a royal gramma and a diamond goby. Any experiences/advice with these fish would be appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thread, I will post again soon!
-theragonfish

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by thedragonfish http:///t/396638/new-10-gal-help/20#post_3535926
Update and a question-
I cycled with some fish food i put in the tank which decayed and it took about 2 1/2 weeks for the levels to all reach zero. Today, I got a blue-green chromis and he looks great, seems very happy in my tank I plan on getting an ocellaris clown, a royal gramma and a diamond goby. Any experiences/advice with these fish would be appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thread, I will post again soon!
-theragonfish

Hi, You need some help with stocking your tank...

It's a 10g tank...it is already overstocked with just the green/blue chromis, which will grow to 3 inches, it already needs a larger tank...you can't add a clown or Royal Gramma both are 3.5 inch fish, and needs a minimum 30g tank, and the diamond goby will grow to about 6 inches, and needs a 50g tank. Your tank so tiny the only fish you should have is maybe 2 little yellow clown gobies, with two snails and a shrimp for a CUC.

You have to look at nano fish, tiny, tiny little critters....and two of those max it out.

 

[thedragonfish]

Quote:

Hi, You need some help with stocking your tank...

It's a 10g tank...it is already overstocked with just the green/blue chromis, which will grow to 3 inches, it already needs a larger tank...you can't add a clown or Royal Gramma both are 3.5 inch fish, and needs a minimum 30g tank, and the diamond goby will grow to about 6 inches, and needs a 50g tank. Your tank so tiny the only fish you should have is maybe 2 little yellow clown gobies, with two snails and a shrimp for a CUC.

You have to look at nano fish, tiny, tiny little critters....and two of those max it out.
Thank you for your advice Flower, but I have laid out a plan with the guy from my LFS. If the bioload becomes too much, I will add a HOB fuge. If the fish themselves become too large, I will take them back and get small ones again. I had to take back some of my cichlids in my freshwater tank because they grew too large.
Thank you,
-thedragonfish

 

[thedragonfish]

So, another update

Yesterday I got a Snowflake clownfish at my LFS, very reasonably priced, I'm really happy He's swimming all over the tank, and he and the chromis appear to be getting along so far. I'm feeding them Marine S pellets and frozen mysis at the moment, and will probably get some spirulina brine shrimp as well. Any thoughts on this diet would be appreciated.

Additionally, I got my CUC: two astrea snails, two nerite snails, and three tiny hermit crabs. They are already making progress on my abundance of algae.

My clownfish and chromis are extremely active, and both of them are eating both kinds of food (yay!)

Anyone with experience with this size tank, or these specific fish, feel free to leave some advice.
-thedragonfish

 

[thedragonfish]

Help!!!

I got an aquacultured snowflake clownfish about 3 days ago, and I don't think he is eating enough. I feed marine s pellets in the morning and frozen mysis at night. He will only eat about 3-5 pellets and then he just chases after them but doesn't eat them. With the mysis he eats a little bit, only the really tiny bits and then will chew some larger bits and spit them back out before he stops eating. Anybody have any experience with snowflake clowns??? It's so pretty and was at the top of my budget, I drip acclimated him for an hour and 3/4, doubling the water every 45 mins. He's extremely active, swims all day, is very responsive, gets along with my chromis. I don't know if they just have small appetites or what is going on. I read that almost all clownfish will accept live brine shrimp so I ordered a kit and some brine shrimp eggs.

Please help me!
-thedragonfish

 

[grant778]

It might be he is just a little stressed from his new environment. Keep an eye on him though.

 

[thedragonfish]

Hospital tank setup- help please!

I looked in my 10 gal this morning and my clownfish has ich First, I'm going to call my LFS where I got him and ask for suggestions (i.e. could i bring him there and have them hospitalize him) If they say no or don't have any good suggestions, I'm going to set up a bare bottom hospital tank to treat him with Mardel QuICK Cure, which I used in my cichlid tank and it worked well.

I don't know much about hospital tanks, but the back of the medicine says to put in a bare bottom tank if treating saltwater. I have a 2.5 gal AGA that I will fill with water from my main tank. I going to get a cheap 50W heater automatically set to 78 degrees and a HOB filter rated for up to ten gallons. I'll put a pad of filter floss in the filter because carbon takes out all the medicine as i found out in my cichlid tank. I'm going to put in an airstone for oxygenation and surface agitation.

Please lend me advice if you have any, I really want to cure my fish and not stress him out more by doing the hospital tank wrong.

Thank you in advance,
-thedragonfish

 

[grant778]

I don't think a 2.5 gallon tank will do it for a hospital. Ocellaris clownfish should really be kept in a 20 gallon in the first place and setting up a quarantine smaller than your display tank would certainly not be good in this case since your display tank is already so small. I would get at least a ten gallon quarantine. If I was in your shoes, I would get a 20 gallon tank and cycle it during this time and use your 10 gallon that you have already as a quarantine. If you go this route, I would take everything you have in ur 10 gallon that you want to keep out and put it in ur twenty gallon because the medication probably has copper which will ruin the materials for a future reef aquarium if you plan to make one. I would also add a couple more pieces of rock to the 20 gallon since it is a larger tank. By doing this, your 10 gallon is now an ok sized quarantine for one fish and you have a larger display tank.

 

[grant778]

The reason I suggested what I did is because Ich won't be cured with medication in one day, and being kept for a couple weeks in that small of an aquarium would really stress out the fish, weakening it and possibly allowing the Ich to kill the fish in its weakened state. If you choose to turn ur 10 gallon into a quarantine make sure you take out any filters and heaters you want to keep too.

 

[grant778]

Oh and regarding your stock list, The issue with the fish you are keeping is just as much aggression as it is size. Chromis and Clownfish are both territorial, aggressive fish and in a small tank like yours territory is limited, increasing aggression. I would take the chromis back as chromis also need swimming room that is lacking in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[thedragonfish]

Thank you for your advice grant778.

When I got home later today, I looked at my clownfish (still in my main tank) and could not believe what I saw. The scattered tiny white things that I had seen just a little while ago that looked exactly like ich were all gone! I am so confused. I probably won't update for quite a while. Thank you everyone for you help.
-thedragonfish

 

[grant778]

Hmm. Thats unusual.

 

[bang guy]

It's not really that unusual. The parasite has completed it's reproductive phase. Now is a perfect time to place the fish in a hospital tank until the Ick offspring starve out.