Ok I am somewhat a nooB! Couple quick questions and comments.

[turningtim]

Luke when you do the WC add the salt to the desired salinity 1.025 to the mix water. This will bring it up slow. After a couple of WCs it will be where you want it.
IF you make it through the cycle as is that would be great! But After that happens I would give some serious thought to changing the substrate to just sand. What you have now may turn and bite you down the road. You could sift the sand you have and ditch the rest along with the UGF.
Good Luck!
JMO
Tim

 

[only]

Originally Posted by TurningTim
Luke when you do the WC add the salt to the desired salinity 1.025 to the mix water. This will bring it up slow. After a couple of WCs it will be where you want it.
IF you make it through the cycle as is that would be great! But After that happens I would give some serious thought to changing the substrate to just sand. What you have now may turn and bite you down the road. You could sift the sand you have and ditch the rest along with the UGF.
Good Luck!
JMO
Tim
How will it bite me in the {EDIT - language}? I will definitely take it into consideration, I would have to but live sand if I were to do that too! Correct me if I am wrong.
By the way have you or anyone on here heard of water ready in a box? ***** here in NJ sells it. It is saltwater already to go in 5 gallon bags in a box. Do you think this is any good? I was thinking of creating a new thread but I want to see if anyone reads this first.
Thanks again,
Luke
P.S. What does JMO mean?

 

[pallan]

There is probably nothing wrong with the premixed water. its just that i dont like to put anyting in my tank i did not mix, and i dont know what they mix the salinity to. Also just adding that to the tank is not going to do anything to help the cycle along other than lowering the levels to help the fish. much as any water change would do. The reason is the bacteria you need are not in the water colum they reside (once established) on the surfaces of your live rock, sand and filter media.
You have a mandarin in there? they are very difficult to feed they ussually only eat live pods that develop in well established tanks with Lots of live rock. should not be attempted in a newly established tank as they may take a month to starve. IMO
Also IMO wichever LFS sold you all this is highly irresposible and should not be in business.

I really hope it all turns out for the best i just have some doubts that you have seen your last fatality here.

 

[only]

Well the mandarin was eating the frozen brine shrimp we put in the tank. I have been keeping a good eye on everything all day everyday! I guess it was a perfect time for a job transition. I dont start my new job until April 3rd! Yeah!

:joy:

So I will be keeping a good eye on everything.
What about the orange algae? Any comments on that?
IMO? JMO? What do these stand for?

 

[happyhourh]

IMO=in my opinion
JMO= just my opinion
Be sure to keep updating on how everything is doing. What you are attempting goes against anything I have ever tried or read but I really do hope you dont suffer too much loss of life.

 

[only]

I understand, it's just that I am doing this for my fiance's mother. She doesn't want to move any of the fish out of the tank, she was in a rush to get everything changed over, so I am kinda at her mercy! Technically it is her tank, not mine. Granted, I should have done some more research, but I was figuring she knew what she was doing cause she had a 30 gallon salt tank for the past 6 or 7 years. However, I guess she never took good care of it!
I am guessing that the best thing to do right now is water changes. I havent done one yet but I want to make sure I get another approval that it is ok to do while the tank is cycling. So far 2 people have replied within this thread to do a water change. One more probably would convince me.

 

[teresaq]

I agree, do the water change. it will help clean up your water

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by only
How will it bite me in the ass? I will definitely take it into consideration, I would have to but live sand if I were to do that too! Correct me if I am wrong.
Like I said you can sift out the sand that you have and keep it. If you were short on sand you could get some dead sand and this will be seeded by whats in the tank. As long as your bio-load is light you could do the change w/o much complication after the tank has cycled for a while.
The issue that I see is that with the CC/sand mix and the UGF you will at some point end up with a trap for detrius/waste that will slowly build. This MAY result in a biuld up of gases and when the gases get large enough and the substrate can no longer hold it, it will blow. Then you can kiss your tank good bye. It may not be for a while but more than likly you will have a tank full of stuff and then it will be time to start over. At the very least I believe that you will have high nitrates that will be next to impossible to rid the tank of......
Again this is JMO, Do as you wish
Good Luck!
Tim

 

[only]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR OPINIONS! This is a very very big learning experience for me. Next time I know what to do and I will take it very very slow. Everyone has been such a help I can't say enough good things about this forum!
Thanks again!
Luke

P.S. I still have some issues but I am working on it.

 

[pallan]

Originally Posted by only
Well the mandarin was eating the frozen brine shrimp
the poblem is that ive heard that the brine shrimp will be eaten occansionally but has little if any nutritional value. I could be wrong on this but i know i wanted, and still do want a mandarin so i had done alot of research on them and as a general rule they do not survive long in a newly established tank. i will not even try one yet in my new tank that ive had up since jan and moved directly out of my old tank. which had been up since april.
As to the algae i have not experienced yellow algae so i dont know what it is. i assume it is deitus and is common in new tanks and should go away. but dietrus is ussually a brownish color.
If the fish must remain in there you have no choice but to do water changes and keep the ammonia and nitrites down other wise the fish will suffer/die. this may prolong you cycle but IMO is the best chance the fish have. the unstable water conditions will be harshest on the corals you have in there as they do not tolerate change very well. make sure to not clean your filters at this point as you need any bacteria living on them. and really limit feeding (make sure whatever you feed is getting eaten. so it does not spoil and add more to the bioload.
with the sand change your going to have coming up that Tiny Tim described anyway it is still my reccomendation to take critters out into an LFS to hold for you or for credit and tear tank down and start from scratch.the right way. Not what you want to hear I know and myabe youll pull thru this keep us informed. you asked for advice and this is what i would do in your place.
I continue to wish you good luck

also if you must clean filters due to to much wast accumilation wich can also be bad for you then make sure not to clean/replace everything at once. space out the changes to limit loss of bacterial filtration.
and if you still hve the corals and anemoies (sp) remember you do not have enough light for them you will need to get more light ASAP or they will not make it.