To: FlyDan !!!

[khengchuan]

FlyDan,
What's your email address? In order for me to send my 29 gallons tank image to you.
I got my live rocks and sand from beach as I mention earlier and don't know how much live rock
do I have.
I setup my 29 gallons tank 2 months ago, with live rocks and 3 clowns that I added gradually.
The clowns are fine. I did not use tester during the setup time at all, just an hydrometer.
Two weeks ago, I bought 3 testers - nitrate, Ca and KH.
I did research about live rock act as biological bacteria.Therefore I didn't purchase ammonia tester.
I assume ammonia 0, nitrite 0,. as the theory goes ammonia->nitrite->nitrate. I didn't own any supplements
till now.
I make a mistake about the "dead sand" actually I got it from beach side which are dry type.
So the dry sand are added to my tank with no organism.
what is calerpa? Do you have the image?
I'm a tropical fish hobbyist for 3 years, and currently interested to setup a small marine tank.
I will be moving to new house which are much more smaller. Therefore I decided to keep
a marine tank of (24" x12"x12") which are pretty small compare to my 29 gallons. With live rocks, 2 shrimps,
snails,etc. if no fish, will this reduce alots more of nitrate and much easy to maintain and save more cost?
I do not own any skimmer till now.
Tropical fish that I keep before and currently.
- Red Tail Golden Arowana
- Discus
- Betta
- Frontosa Cichlid
regards,
kheng chuan

 

[flydan]

Hey,
My e-mail address is flydan@aol.com
I'll try and help as much as I can. I've just never heard of anybody taking sand from the beach and putting it in their tank. I have to assume it's not as clean or as "dead" as you think it is. You say you also got your live rock from the beach? Wow! Your live rock wont work as a filter of any kind until it becomes "live" with coraline algae and small critters. Right now it's just a place for detris to accumulate.
Another little piece of information for you. Try and keep a journal of everything you do with your aquarium. What you add and how much, plus any water tests that you do.
I'll take a look at your photo when it comes. Let me/us know what equipment you have running such as wet/dry filter, skimmer, lighting, heater. The more information we get the better.
Calerpa is a type of algae and comes in many varieties. It generally looks like a plant that you might find in a freshwater tank.
Take care,
Dan'l

 

[@knight]

sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. the reason I say that is reef tanks are extremely succeptable to pollution. and the shore line is full of pollution. there is no telling where that sand came from. if you do go collecting your on lr and ls, you should do it at leasst 5 miles off shore to avoid contamination. I wish you the best of luck though, let us know how you do.

 

[flydan]

Hi!
I got your picture. You have a good start to your tank but you are still cycling. It is a very sterile enviornment right now with no benificial bacteria and no algae at all that I could see. Since you already have the clowns in there be very careful that you don't over-feed them. I'm very nervous about giving advise since you've already got what looks like 3-4 inches of "beach" sand and 30 or 40 lbs of "beach" rock in there. This is unknown territory for me. I would suggest you take a water sample to your lfs and test for everything they can think of to make sure your water is ok. If that test is good, I would add 10lbs of live sand. (Sold at the lfs in plastic bags. One name brand is Natures Ocean.) Then I would get a good skimmer. I'd let all this settle for at least, at least, a month. Keep testing your water and look for algae to start growing. Once the algae is visible you could start to add clean-up critters such as turbo snails and hermit crabs.
Just my humble opinion. Go slow and read as much as you can. It really helps.
Take care,
Dan'l

 

[flydan]

Hi!
I got your picture. You have a good start to your tank but you are still cycling. It is a very sterile enviornment right now with no benificial bacteria and no algae at all that I could see. Since you already have the clowns in there be very careful that you don't over-feed them. I'm very nervous about giving advise since you've already got what looks like 3-4 inches of "beach" sand and 30 or 40 lbs of "beach" rock in there. This is unknown territory for me. I would suggest you take a water sample to your lfs and test for everything they can think of to make sure your water is ok. If that test is good, I would add 10lbs of live sand. (Sold at the lfs in plastic bags. One name brand is Natures Ocean.) Then I would get a good skimmer. I'd let all this settle for at least, at least, a month. Keep testing your water and look for algae to start growing. Once the algae is visible you could start to add clean-up critters such as turbo snails and hermit crabs.
Just my humble opinion. Go slow and read as much as you can. It really helps.
Take care,
Dan'l

 

[flydan]

Ooops. Page is so slow I didn't think it posted the first time.