New Tank: food debris on bottom, first cleaning/water change...

[djboozealot]

hi, i have a new saltwater tank, 2 weeks old. this is my first fish tank of any kind, ever.
it's a 26 gal bowfront, i bought some crushed coral that came from a previously established saltwater tank, an 8lb live rock, 3 damsels.
i have a cascade 300 filter, one powerhead. i am feeding the fish twice a day (one small pinch of food), but i am getting a TON of ornage-ish build up on the bottom, food debris and waste from what i have read. is this normal for only 2 weeks? am i overfeeding the fish?
i bought a python no-spill gravel cleaning system, and began to clean some of the gravel, i took out maybe 20% of the water, and only got a portion of the gravel clean. so now i have to add more water, but how long should i wait before trying to clean the gravel again?
also, i am on a well(not city water!), but have a whole-house water treatment system(it softens water AND removes all chemicals, like an RO would). should i use the water straight from the well, being that it's not cholrinated, or use the water filtered through my water treatment system?
i have included a picture below of how the tank looks after i cleaned part of the gravel

 

[djboozealot]

 

[1journeyman]

Welcome to the forum.
First off, I suggest buying a good book such as "THe Conscientious Marine Aquarist" to teach ya the basics of aquarium keeping. You can learn everything ou need to from around here, but a good book would help you tremendously.
Second, you need to greatly increase water flow in the tank.
Third, decide what kind of tank you want. If you want a peaceful setup take the damsels out. They will get big and mean.
Fourth, do a search on these forums for "cycle" and read the basics on the Nitrogen cycle. Test your water for ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate to determine where you are.
Fifth, understand that ammonia is killing your damsels. Youmay lose 1 or more of them. Adding fish food to the tank can cycle a tank just as well as damsels, without the side effect of killing fish. Your pet store who sold you the fish is using the typical, and outdated method of cycling.
Sixth, research crushed coral. Many of us hate it as it offers no benefits to a tank and comes with a lot of negatives... many cc beds become Nitrate farms.
Sand is the preferred method.
Good luck to ya! Ask lots of questions.

 

[b bauer]

a whole house filter is not good enough.You can buy ro at walmart or a ro or di unit online.

 

[djboozealot]

Originally Posted by b bauer
a whole house filter is not good enough.You can buy ro at walmart or a ro or di unit online.
my water treatment system isn't a softener, just so you know... it's a $6000 unit that not only softens water, but removes all the chemicals in the water also, just like an RO does. my water is something like 99.7% pure, if i can remember the numbers correctly. an RO is *slightly* better, but not by much. mainly people buy an RO to use with a crappy water treatment system(or basic softener) for their drinking water, because the main system isn't good enough. with the system i have, the only reason one would buy and RO for their drinking water in addition to having the whole home system, would be if they had a medical condition that does not allow them to intake ANY sodium in their system, the RO filters out any sodium left behind by the salt used to clean the system. or you could buy potassium chloride instead of salt.
anyways, i used to sell water treatment systems(the one i have on my home now) and i am familiar with the difference. the system i have is nearly on par with the RO and i feel it's fine.
my question regarding the water used was, would it be better to use water that has not been filtered at all(again it's well water, has NO CHLORINE) because it has the mineral content and other natural particals from the ground, or to use the filtered water from my water treatment system.

 

[1journeyman]

Filtered is better.

 

[djboozealot]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Filtered is better.
thanks. i will look into getting sand to replace the crushed coral, but in the meantime(and in the future when cleaning the sand) how long should i wait before trying to clean the other half of the tank after doing a water change? does it matter?
what should i do to increase water flow? more powerheads? my cascade 300 filter is for a 100gal tank and is 300gal/hour(mt tank is only 26 gal), that creates quite a bit of flow in there from what i can tell. i do only have the one powerhead though.
how do i cycle the tank without the damsels? i am eventually wanting some type of reef/coral setup with a few fish, a nemo and and i have no idea what else at this point.
and do you think i am overfeeding the damsels?

 

[dragonzim]

It may be a good idea to pick yourself up a TDS meter just to double check the water coming out of your whole house filter. If it doesnt read zero then your filter is NOT good enough.

 

[redman1221]

I would say you don't have to feed them everyday, you can feed them like 2 or 3 times a week, thats just my 2cents. Good luck

 

[djboozealot]

really?? damn i was feeding them 2-3 times a day like it said on back of the fish food container! no wonder the tank looks the way it does

 

[maxalmon]

Originally Posted by DJboozeAlot
really?? damn i was feeding them 2-3 times a day like it said on back of the fish food container! no wonder the tank looks the way it does
Our last house had the "whole home" as you probably have, I was constantly having silicate issues until I installed a $200 RO system from Lowes.
.
Your CC bed doesn't look that deep, maybe 1"? Consider switching over to a LS bed with a little more depth. Best decision you could make would be to add 30-50 lb of LR, it'll make your tank so much easier to maintain. Jim

 

[b bauer]

besides the filter do you have any power heads?

 

[djboozealot]

i have one powerhead, on the opposite side of the tank as the filter. i have it placed about halfway down the tank with the suction cups

 

[jkcrumb]

I agree with the post above...........up your LR to 1 - 1.5 lbs per gallon and the live sand will also help reduce your nitrates............Whats your salt levels????? (ex. 1.022 - 1.026???).......the higher the salt levels the less algae bloom.........Also, what type of lighting are u using (total watts) and how long a day do u have it on for????

 

[redman1221]

Originally Posted by DJboozeAlot
really?? damn i was feeding them 2-3 times a day like it said on back of the fish food container! no wonder the tank looks the way it does
I really don't read the direction on the back of the food container. I feed my fish 3 times a week and sometimes I just feed them 2 times a week and they are doing fine.

 

[djboozealot]

Originally Posted by jkcrumb
I agree with the post above...........up your LR to 1 - 1.5 lbs per gallon and the live sand will also help reduce your nitrates............Whats your salt levels????? (ex. 1.022 - 1.026???).......the higher the salt levels the less algae bloom.........Also, what type of lighting are u using (total watts) and how long a day do u have it on for????

salinity is around 1.023, but i have a crappy swing arm hyrdometer, so i don't know how accurate that thing is. i just bought a refractometer online though.
my light is just a basic 19w flouresent bulb. i was told i need about 4w for every gallon and i am working on getting a better light setup, but i wasn't planning on spending as much as i have so far and will need to wait a little bit. the place i got my damsels and live rock said my light will be fine for now since i dont have and live corals, but it will just take longer for the tank to cycle. i am running this light 24 hours a day.

 

[djboozealot]

if i go to live sand instead of my crushed coral, should i reuse all the water i take out of the tank? or should i just start over with new water? i have nowhere to put 26 gallons of water if i take it out. i am clueless on how to change this out right

 

[uberlink]

If you use a sand bed instead of crushed coral, and if you have sufficient flow, you should never have to clean the sand. IN fact, cleaning it will be detrimental. I don't know how long you should wait before cleaning the crushed coral again; frankly, I wouldn't worry about cleaning it. I'd just remove it and switch to live sand. I think you'll be glad for the change in the long run. Much lower maintenance and easier on sand-burrowing critters.

 

[djboozealot]

Originally Posted by uberlink
If you use a sand bed instead of crushed coral, and if you have sufficient flow, you should never have to clean the sand. IN fact, cleaning it will be detrimental. I don't know how long you should wait before cleaning the crushed coral again; frankly, I wouldn't worry about cleaning it. I'd just remove it and switch to live sand. I think you'll be glad for the change in the long run. Much lower maintenance and easier on sand-burrowing critters.
ok, but should i reuse all the water i take out of the tank, or just start over with new water? how many pounds of sand per gallon should i be putting in there?

 

[jonthefishguy]

"A water softener acts very much like a deionization unit. Both attract and grab hold of ions in exchange for ions they give up. In the case of a water softener, it grabs hold of various ionic impurities and gives up sodium and chloride ions (sodium plus chloride equals common salt). Instead, a DI unit gives up hydrogen and hydroxide ions (combining those two yields just water).
If all you ran was a water softener you would have excessive amounts of sodium chloride in relation to the other constituents in saltwater. That is the bad news. The good news is a water softener improves the performance of RO membranes."