Please help

[leopard_babe]

did you put a declorinator in it? Also how long should I continue to run my carbon? It has been 8 days. My levels are all normal. I bought a maxi jet the other day. I have it about half way down my tank. Should it be 2/3 or no? When I get more live rock hopefully I can hid it.
For my birthday I got a new ballast with a blue and white bulb in it. The blue lights look so cool. I also have a single with a blue. I have the blue on first then the blue white. then the blue white goes off at night, with one blue on for about an hour. then lights out.
Tony what do you know about UV sterilizers?

 

[soupysteve]

1st - Sorry to hear about your deaths. I know I have seen you pop in and out with questions very similar to mine. I think we started our tanks about the same time, etc...
2nd - I have used the "reef epoxy" as well - and ALL my inhabitants of my tank seemed to be "upset" by me doing so... My Xenia "balled up", my zoanthids closed up, my feather duster slid inside his tube, my polyps all shrank, my clowns swam in place by my powerheads - the snails even stopped grazing for awhile. Only my crabs seemed to be OK with it. My protien skimmer bubbled LIKE CRAZY and it wasn't until I did a 25% "emergency" water change and turned my lights off for awhile (36hrs) that everything went OK.
3rd - Taking off my lids to my tank was the BEST thing I have done. I have ordered some stilts for my PCs. I didn't think that doing this would make such a difference, but once I took my hoods off (before I even had got my PCs), the tank flourished!
4th - I am just as new to this as you, but I would put in some cheap hermits (if you don't have any already) and see if they survive. I'm not one who enjoys seeing creatures die, but I think you could handle seeing a $2 critter perish easier than $30 ones...
Sorry to hear about your loss, but from what I understand, things that you wouldn't even suspect can destroy a tank. I read in a Aquarium Magazine once that some gal who had a skin condition adjusted her heater - next day EVERYTHING was dead in her tank - the cream she put on her hands had cortizone in it - somehow it obliterated everything.
I just pretend like I'm the professor on Gilligan's Island when I do ANYTHING to my tank.

 

[leopard_babe]

I am usually very careful what goes in my tank. I am SUPER careful now. I wash my hands in HOT water, no soap. No lotion, nail polish ect. I might try adding a couple of hermits. Just to clean a little. My tank is still a mess from when I finished cycling. It would be nice to have it cleaned up. I'll have to post a pix. It is looking alright, just kind of empty. I might go and get a little fish today and see if the tank is still "polluted". I think that it is fine now. Back to square one. However I am slightly pondering a uv sterilizer. thanks for your input!!!!
leopard

 

[tony detroit]

I really wouldn't worry about what is on your hands that much. I come home with oil and grease and paint stains on my hands all the time and reach in and pick up chip clips that came unstuck off the glass, or move powerheads, stuff like that.
Daniel 411 has a 9watt Custom Sea Life double helix UV he'll probably sell you pretty cheap. He only ran it maybe six months, it's been in the basement for a while now. He ran a 90gal tank off it, so you should be fine.
Yes, I always add dechlorinator to tap water.

 

[tony detroit]

Originally posted by Leopard_babe
LFS. The vending machine thing at meijer gave me bad water one time. I asked them the last time they changed there filter, and hey said it was so long that they didn't know. That is a great thing to tell a paying customer. My LSF water is reliable. I haven't ever had a problem.
Stop wasting your money. If you're going to be keeping fish only all you need is tap water..........let me put it this way, I know a guy at Tropicorium. Tropicorium uses tap water in all of their tanks, need I say more
Unless you're going reef you'll be fine with tap water. The tap water at Tropicorium comes from the same plant as the tap water on GI.

 

[leopard_babe]

If I deside to keep my tank, I will use tap water. earlier I was putting a powerhead in my tank, and there he was in the powerhead when I came back in the room. I was trying to get it all positioned and when I can back over there he was. So I unplugged it, and he puffed. now his face is red, and it looks like he might be blind. I am a fish killer. I might give that hobby up.

 

[daniel411]

No need to give up, we "all" have these things happen, especially while first starting out. If you don't have a guard on the suction of the power head, you can try placing a bio-ball there. The suction will hold it in place. "I've personally lost" a mandarin, a clown, and a shrimp before I learned that.
It's all worth it once you've got it up and running healthy though. Trust me. If you want a uv sterilizer, you're more than welcome, I have no use for it anymore.

 

[007]

Originally posted by tony detroit
Stop wasting your money. If you're going to be keeping fish only all you need is tap water..........let me put it this way, I know a guy at Tropicorium. Tropicorium uses tap water in all of their tanks, need I say more
Yeah, and tropicoriums tanks look beyond horrible. Ridden with cyano and hair algae as far as the eye can see. Sure . . . they got some nice stuff, nothing that I would pay for. $30 per polyp for ricordia . . . . and thats "on sale" No thanks . . .

 

[wyldgunz]

I know a lot of ppl will diagree but it sounds almost 90% like marine velvet. I lost my first batch of fish to it and the store i bought it from lost everything in one of their big diplay tanks that i bought the fish from.
I dosent take hrs to kill it can take 3-5 days.
First youll notice little patches of white on them and a day later they will fall off ( i know this from watching it all happen in my tank) Then it comes back a day later or so but more... it clears up comes back ect ect ect... The whole time youll notice their gills are moving rapidly and they are less active but will still eat.
Finally they haze over and turn almost an eerie white and lose the eyes turn a light pink thats the last day my fish made it in quaruntine .... i lost a couple while they only had spots and didnt look too bad.
What pissed me off is i got them out about 5 days after noticing the spots and they lasted 4 more days in the Q-tank with copper treatment . The tang lasted the longest and was sad to see it perish with all the effort i made .
MV has a 30 day cycle if you keep your tank fish free for a good 6 weeks it will all be dead dont try to treat it its a fish only parisite and will die on its own without a fish to host it every 3-4 hrs the parisite lays eggs and then dies thats why you only see a little bit at a time untill theres billions of them running around looking for a fish ... And copper did not help at all the fish looked better while they were in the tank with no treatment.

 

[leopard_babe]

I was just a little peeved the other night. I didn't kill my fish. He looks slightly blind in his eye, and some of his little qulls are bent on his face. his lips are ok today. he still won't eat. I have krill and those shell things, concha, or however you spell it. It appears that he is gonna be alright. This hobby can just be slightly frustrating.

 

[007]

Originally posted by Leopard_babe
This hobby can just be slightly frustrating.
Thats an understatement . . . .

 

[tony detroit]

Originally posted by 007
Yeah, and tropicoriums tanks look beyond horrible
Post a picture, I guarantee they look better than yours.

 

[stillfrodo]

Leopard I lost my clown and possibly my royal gramma to a powerhead. Now i use maxi jets with the gates. Live and learn.

 

[007]

Originally posted by tony detroit
Post a picture, I guarantee they look better than yours.
Sure they do . . . . if you like the look of cyanobacteria and microalgaes in your tank. Furthermore, using fiberglass roofing is not my idea of a "natual" reef tank. Secondly, have you looked at their "display" tanks? Not the vats they have around the place, I mean their actual display tanks. I have never seen so many dilapidated corals in one tank before. Nothing is fully expanded, most corals have skeleton exposed and/or tissue recession. I mean seriously, you would think that a place that clearly has the available resources would have an unbelievable reef tank set up. I am yet to see on there. I mean come on, they use undergravel filters and airstones in their holding tanks, ceramic pots as decor, and hermit crabs with shells covered in metallic paint.
Now don't get me wrong, I think that what the Perrin's have done in the field of aquaculture is amazing. The advancements that their research has afforded the captive breeding of marine animals is remarkable, especially for clownfish, tridanca's, cardinalfish, anemones, etc. I applaud their work and the progress they have made. Not to mention their botanical work.
So if it makes you feel good to bash my tank, then please by all means go right ahead. It really doesnt bother me becuase I could really care less what you, or anyone else for that matter thinks of my tank. Especially when the attack is coming from an ignorant individual who makes claims without factual reference.
And no, I will not grant you the satisfaction of posting a picture of my tank. I feel no need to justify myself to you. Sorry to disappoint you.

 

[007]

My apologies to the original poster for straying from the topic.

 

[tony detroit]

Keeping a place with 30,000 gallons of tanks stocked with RO water, wet dry's , and everything else would cost a ton of overhead. From a business perspective they are doing fine. The put in the minimum amount of dollars, and get the maximum back. They know what they're doing from a business perspective. Why do you think they have been around so long? Why do you think so many fish stores go out of business? You can't have everything perfect at a fish store. Your fish would cost hundreds of dollars or the owners would make very little money.
Of course there are some things I would change if I was running the show, however from a business perspective it would mean making less money.

 

[tony detroit]

Anyhow before you hopped in to bash me, I was telling leopard babe that RO in my opinion for a fish only tank is a waste of money. For a reef tank and/or sensitive fish RO is a good investment. I assure you drinking water on grosse ile is very good quality. I have an RO unit myself. We have no idea what kind of maintenance schedule their units are on when we get our RO water from somebody else.

 

[leopard_babe]

I have a damsel in my tank. He was an experiment, to see if my tank was ok. Now I have a puffer in QT. Now I just need to deside what I am going to do. I originally wanted a dwarf lion, but i like the puffer way more then I would ever like a lion. I want the puffer to have a lot of room. I might get a small school of something. i have no idea. Anyone have any thoughts???