oh boy....

[xtech]

kinda sweatin things now.bout 20 years ago i was real heavy into fw.recently wife expressed an intrest in aquariums."except i want the pretty ones " so i went down to lfs and talked and bought.
90 g w/stand and canopy,260 watt pc light,30 lbs lr,100 lbs live sand,60 lbs agg.wet dry with bio balls,skimmer
lfs told me wait until 24 hours after setup to test water.i did. took sample down and they told me i was ready to add fish,so i got 6 damsels and 2 clown.so far so good. 2 weeks go by and i have added an anenome,3 feather dusters,decorator crab,sally lightfoot,anenome crab,and about 6 red hermit crabs. then i found this website and started reading and reading and reading.now i am worried ....am i in for a major crash by adding too much too soon or am i ok ?? all my readings are ok with the exception of sd which is at 1.028.
all the inhabitants of the tank act real healthy and very very frisky.my clowns spend much of the day swimming against the current of the power head.
any reccomendations are certainly appreciated.
bp

 

[cartman101]

WOW! You should have never added those fish, you lfs employee is such a retarded, you must let your tank cycle first,could take up to 4 weeks

 

[cartman101]

BTW your fish are living in unhealthy conditions

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by xtech
kinda sweatin things now.bout 20 years ago i was real heavy into fw.recently wife expressed an intrest in aquariums."except i want the pretty ones " so i went down to lfs and talked and bought.
90 g w/stand and canopy,260 watt pc light,30 lbs lr,100 lbs live sand,60 lbs agg.wet dry with bio balls,skimmer
lfs told me wait until 24 hours after setup to test water.i did. took sample down and they told me i was ready to add fish,so i got 6 damsels and 2 clown.so far so good. 2 weeks go by and i have added an anenome,3 feather dusters,decorator crab,sally lightfoot,anenome crab,and about 6 red hermit crabs. then i found this website and started reading and reading and reading.now i am worried ....am i in for a major crash by adding too much too soon or am i ok ?? all my readings are ok with the exception of sd which is at 1.028.
all the inhabitants of the tank act real healthy and very very frisky.my clowns spend much of the day swimming against the current of the power head.
any reccomendations are certainly appreciated.
bp
Your in for a tank crash. IMO I would take everything back to the LFS and make them refund your money. Then let your tank cycle with just LS and LR. You have too much too soon. You should get some books on SW and start reading.

Welcome to the board.

 

[tim_12]

Wow. I agree with Mikeyjer. Take everything back and wait until your cycle ends. You need Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and PH test kits. If you still want Damsels, make sure they will peacefully coexist with any fish you plan to get down the road. They can get very agressive. You'll have to wait until your tank is well established (at least 6 months) before you want to add corals and anenomes. Get your SG down to about 1.024. You'll need a refractometer if you plan to have a reef. In the meantime, keep reading. There's tons of great info on the FAQ Forum.

 

[robert dri]

yeah...you have big problems....please listen to the other posts and react very quickly...you were given bad advise

 

[dougai]

well, welcome to the board
and... try as hard as you can to catch those DAMsels
goodluck
hopefully the crash isnt too tough on you

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by dougai
well, welcome to the board
and... try as hard as you can to catch those DAMsels
goodluck
hopefully the crash isnt too tough on you
IT will be tough, once that anemone dies, it'll poison his tank and he'll lose everything.

 

[dexter]

i'm no where near an expert, however, from all i've read here and in half a dozen books tells me you should get everything out of your tank except the LR, LS and the damsels (if you don't mind haing damsels in your tank...read here for info on damsels)
Cycle you tank completely with the LR/LS, test once a week, once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, +/1 30 nitrates, do a 10% water shance with 24 hour aged saltwater.

Once that is done, you are safe to add your inverts (hermit crabs, snails, etc. cleaning crew) 2 weeks after that you should be ok to add 1-2 fish.
Make sure you are checking you ammonia, trites, trates, pH, alk, temp, salinity/gravity.
Above all, be patient, read here and get some books, and DON'T take your LFS word as accurate. some LFS are good, however, some are only looking out for their bottom line. And to sell you something they know will die will piss you off, however, if you are not educated, they know you will come back to them to buy again. Sad, but true.

keep searching there boards and keep learning. I started with a 30 gallon and have now purchased a 100 gallon that is cycling right now. This si a VERy rewarding hobby if you have the patience and the will to learn. These boards are the best start!

Welcome and good luck!

Dxtr -

 

[scubadoo]

There is a CHANCE you will not see a spike provided the live rock was cured. THe live sand and live rock may have provided you with enough bio filtration for your bioload..a crap shoot. The anemone requires a mature system...so it may not make it..your lighting is also an issue for the anemone.
You are not traveling down a successful path...but you may get lucky. As suggested, you should consider returning the fish.....or roll the dice.
I would monitor those parameters closely if you decide to keep the inhabitants.
Find another lfs or do not rely on them for advice/guidance. You also have to question if they are providing well maintained systems for all the creatures they are selling.

 

[danedodger]

See whenever you have organic wastes in the water they will cause the ammonia to go up which starts your cycle. When you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and as close to no nitrates as possible your tank is said to be "cycled". It's called "live sand" because it has the beneficial bacteria needed to break ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate. Live rock also has some of this good bacteria but it usually also has other living things on it like algaes. During shipping some of these living things are going to die so you should first cure the live rock (even if they sold it to you as "cured liverock" you should cure it yourself). We've had a lot of luck curing our liverock in a huge rubbermaid tub with a heater and powerhead for water movement, leave it in there several weeks and dosing with Purple Up to get a jumpstart on good corraline algaes. You can also cycle a tank with liverock by putting it straight into the main tank. The die off will raise the ammonia starting your cycle.
So you put liverock straight into the tank without curing it making the ammonia rise then put fish in it. Fish wastes (just good ole poop and pee!) will also cause the ammonia to rise. Ammonia is very toxic so too much ammonia = hurt or dead fishies. Test your ammonia yourself to see where it's at. If you need to you can add a product to reduce the ammonia or do small partial water changes to bring the ammonia down to managable levels. Your first problem is seeing to the wellbeing of those fish. I'm the only person here so far that I've seen that disagrees that a tank cannot be cycled with fish. I've done it myself often enough and seen it done a bazillion times. It's not my *recommendation* because of the potential danger to the fish but VERY carefully controlled you can cycle a tank with fish and not kill off your fish. But that entails daily testing, controlling the ammonia then nitrites very carefully either with chemicals (which I dislike adding to the water if there's an alternative) or small water changes, and being prepared to do this for possibly a very long time!! Cycling this way, if you're concerned about the fish you put in, isn't easy and takes longer since you have to basically "stifle" the amount of ammonia. (Flamesuit on

) You really are better off cycling with the liverock and/or ghost feeding the tank.
But then your next problem is the other critters you put in there. Again, more ammonia upping the danger to all of them. Plus in general invertebrates are at greater risk to poor water conditions like high ammonia and many anemones especially so! Most anemones usually need the most perfect water conditions to thrive and survive. Hobbyists advise waiting for at least 6 months to a year of having your tank running perfectly smoothly before trying anemones simply because they do require such careful attention to water quality and are one of the more difficult saltwater animals to keep.
1. At the VERY least I would definitely take that anemone back and maybe the inverts too. Maybe even the fish too depending on what your water tests read.
2. Get that salt down by adding fresh (hopefully you're using RODI water) water.
3. And yes, consider what kind of animals you'll be wanting in that tank because as they get larger those damsels are going to turn territorial and nippy. It seems like quite a few of the semi to aggressive fishes that might get along with the damsels later aren't going to be safe around inverts which it seems you'd like to have and the more peaceful, reef/invert safe fish aren't going to really do well with the damsels in there.

 

[1journeyman]

First off, welcome to the boards.
Second, don't leave the damsels in the tank if you want a peaceful reef tank. Damsels get big, aggressive and territorial (unless they are chromis)
What species of clowns? Some clowns get big and can be bullies.
The anemone is a time bomb waiting to go off.
I suggest taking all the fish and inverts back... While your tank is cycling, go out and grab Fenner's "A Conscientious Marine Aquarist". It is loaded with great info and will teach you enough to know when the local fish stores are selling you a bunch of nonsense.

 

[xtech]

1st off i want to say thanks for the input!!! wish i found this board a little sooner. the anenome is a florida condi, specs say moderate lighting ok. the live rock i have was cured so maybe that was a plus.nitrates and nitrites are right where they are supposed to be(at the moment) the clown is an osceleras .everything appears to be fine in the tank right now but i will closely monitor all water tests for the next few weeks...
thanks again
bp

 

[sweetdawn]

florida condi eat fish and your clowns wont host in them. one of my employees used to have saltwater and a florida conda ate her puffer fish

 

[1journeyman]

I have seen damsels host in them, however.

 

[ophiura]

Welcome to the board!
First things first...let's not rub salt into the wounds here. I think Xtech has basically admitted here that he has been reading the board and seems aware that there will be a negative response to the damsel thing and the rate of stocking. So lets fix what we can and not dwell on how stupid the LFS is or on impending doom.
Can you give us more SPECIFICS on the time frame here?
How many weeks since you've added the LR and damsels?
How often were you testing your water at that time?
What were your levels when you added the additional livestock?
How often and how much do you feed?
What is "60lbs agg"...aragonite sand??
It is entirely possible that you will not see a spike at all, as others have mentioned. And if you are not getting any readings on your water quality that is out of wack, then your fish are not, IMO, living in toxic conditions...but you may have dodged a bullet. And you may be up for trouble in animal choice and stocking rate, which is typically FAR slower than in freshwater. But I do not think you are on the verge of a tank crash immediately...just hold off on buying more things for awhile, and research what to get and when. Many fish and inverts will also not do well in younger tanks, until parameters (that we don't test for) stabilize. Your specific gravity is high, and if you want inverts should be 1.025-1.026.
I would consider removing the damsels just because they are not the nicest fish, as people mentioned.
Is this a standard 4' 90g tank? It is quite possible that your lighting will be insufficient for the anemone long term, as it is a deep tank to begin with....260W PC on a 90 is on the relatively low side, IMO.

 

[xtech]

tested water again tonite when i got home....all tests within specified parameters with the exception of sg. so i took out almost 10 gallons and put that in a seperate 20 gallon tank with about 15 more lbs of lr. will recheck everything again as soon as water clears.
its only been about 3 days since anenome went in,however i noticed that the clowns wont go near it,yet my 4 stripe damsels have no problem laying amongts the tentacles.
tommorow this setup will be 1 month old...damsels went in after almost 48 hours(6 total) clowns went in 3 days later....agg is aragonite....
thank you everyone that is helping me
bp

 

[ophiura]

Be real careful about dropping that salinity too rapidly...did you fill up the missing 10g with freshwater?? That can be quite a shock; not the best idea.
Condylactus anemones are not from the Indo Pacific and are not typical hosting anemones...but they are a hardier one requiring relatively less light. I don't recommend getting another type of anemone for that tank, due both the how young it is, and how low the light levels are. This is really important...adding too many animals, or the wrong animals at the wrong time, can definitely cause a crash. Additionally, some clowns, especially if tank raised, may not really take to hosting in the anemone.
I assume that you are feeding a reasonable amount, and that all in all your tank is not going to spike at this time...however, IMO, this means that you must stock very slowly, as you could overwhelm your biological filter. You did dodge a bullet all in all, but not a lot of room to go too wild

 

[xtech]

using a series of buckets i made a batch of water this morning(4am) and mixed enough salt in it to bring sg to 1.012...just tested the water and it reads a tic hi at 1.023 but i think ill be happy with that.being that i already had the water a little cloudy from the water change i decided to move some of my lr in such a way it will bring the amenome to within 8 inches or so of the surface to give it better lighting..........

 

[ophiura]

Just and FYI...1.028 to 1.023 in that amount of time is a bit much. With some invertebrates especially, that can be a problem (a fatal one). Adjustments to specific gravity should be made prertty slowly, for future reference.