pebbles
Member
:jumping: Hi, as you can tell I too am new to this. I started my tank 2-26-05 I have a 40 gal aquarium w/ about 33 lbs of live rock 30-40 lbs of live sand I have a skilter, 1 marine glo light 18000k & 1 daylight & rio 800 powerhead I've had my tank up and running since 2-27-05. The only problems I have are ph 7.8 (I added buffer) and nitrates 40ppm. Ammonia is 0.00 ppm & nitrite is 0.00. My brother (who has a 120 gal tank) talked me into adding 3 black & yellow chromis (when all my levels were normal) 1 of the fish died (it got picked on by the other 2 it lived 2 days I couldn't find the body even though we took the whole tank apart to move it) the ph went down before the fish died. the nitrates went up after it died I have tried to research nitrates & where it comes from & can't get a clear answer was it because of the dead fish??? anyways to the real question once I get my levels bake to normal. What should I put in my tank first & how long should I wait to add it or how do I know when my tanks ready for living things??? I'm not in a hugh hurry (unlike my brother oh took the chromis to his tank). I will tell you what I want in my tank. 2 clown fish, 1-2 anemones, 1 royal gramma, 1 blemmy or goby, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 brittle star, crabs, snails, 1 yellow tang, leather coral, mushrooms, and polyps. Accept for the clowns I would like to get small fish etc... Sorry for the book but I figure if there's someone out there that can help me I might as well give you all my info. I would also like to say it's not that I havent read about this stuff I have 8 books that I have read on this subject but most of them cancel each other out and to be honest I"M OVER WELMED!!!!! & CONFUSED by all the info I've gotten. Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!!!
BTW everything I've read says the bigger the tanks the easier it is to care for I believe this 100% it makes since, I could only talk my husband into a 40 gal I wish now that I would have tried harder to convince him to let me get at least a 55 gal but then I would have needed a better filter system etc so I guess I'll deal with what I have.
BTW everything I've read says the bigger the tanks the easier it is to care for I believe this 100% it makes since, I could only talk my husband into a 40 gal I wish now that I would have tried harder to convince him to let me get at least a 55 gal but then I would have needed a better filter system etc so I guess I'll deal with what I have.