Have I Done It Right?

[francesanna]

Hi
I am just starting my little tank. It is an AquaStart 500.
Added most of my Live Rock last Sunday,but brought 3 more pieces today which I have also added.

I did water tests on Mon 22nd May and it shows as follows.

PH 8.0
Amm 0.50
NitrIte 5.0
NitrAte 80

I know that these readings are not yet right and that also adding more rock today will change them again.

I will not be adding anything including the Cleaning Crew until the end of June,if my tests show ok.

I have put a lot of LR in my tank,althought the pics don't show it clearly there are lots of swim throughs and overhangs on there,so there are plenty of places to put coral on.

We only intend to add the following to the tank

2 Seahorses
1 Mandarin
1 Pipefish


2 Blood Shrimps
2 Crabs

I have added lots of LR as every little tank we have seen has been full of LR.

I have noticed on one on my pieces 2 little tiny white balls,as in photo can anyone tell me what it is.
And just now I noticed a fan like thing on top of a piece of rock I got today,as I lifted the lid to take a closer look,it started to shrink back into the rock,does anyone know what it is?
Also some of my LR seems to be going brown in colour is this normal and part of the process?

How long do you think the cycle will take to complete,and will the readings spike first to give me an indication of this.

Thanks in advance
Francesanna

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

It sounds like your off to a good start, flippin heck you aint joking about the LR are you?! Looks like loads in there

You've been told about your intended livestock additions

We only intend to add the following to the tank

2 Seahorses
1 Mandarin
1 Pipefish

IMO this is a disaster just waiting to happen

Seahorse, IMO are not a good beginner fish, they are very sensative & extremelly picky eaters

Manderins & pipefish need to be housed in tanks with a large quantity of MATURE live rock that is crawling with Cocepods, a nano tank just wont do & they will slowly starve to death

Many Experienced reefers stay away from Manderins for years to give there tank time to mature so that it can support a manderin, the pipefish need even more specilised care

I have a pair of Pipes & a Manderin in my setup, all relatively newcomers to my reef but my tank is vry mature with an excess of 60kg of Fijian LiveRock

I also add a bottle of TiggerPods every month

In short none of the fish on your list will survive long in a 55L Nano

 

[Chac]

The advice I gave on your original post & that Dan has added above is my experience & if you are willing to go ahead with this stock list you will (well your livestock) have problems

JMHO

 

[bunjiweb]

You could maybe have a Blue stripe pipefish, which grow to about 7cm max and I have had one in my 15Gallon nano for about 6-7 months.

How big is the tank?

Personally I would not go for a seahorse or a mandarin in that sized tank.

Ben

EDIT: I forgot to say make sure you have ALOT of copeopods in your tank before you add a pipe-fish, you may not be as lucky with feeding as I have been. Mine eats frozen brine shrimp, plankton and the odd bit of tetra prima, as well as picking a things on the LR.

 

[andywg]

I would be very wary of seahorses or mandarins, with an exception, those that are captive bred and/or will feed on frozen.

It is possible (though extremely rare) to get Mandarins that will feed on frozen; most will not and thus starve on smaller tanks. The general rule I have seen is to allow 50kg of LR to keep a Mandarin happy.

Sea Horses are not too dificult if you can get captive bred as these are far more hardy and will feed far happier. Wild caught specimins really should be avoided unless you are prepared to give over plenty of time and care as well as specialist equipment.

 

[steelhealr]

I URGE you not to add pipefish or mandarins to your tank. The majority of mandarins will starve to death in a nano tank. The volume of water in a nano tank is miniscule and it DOES NOT ACT like a regular marine tank. SH

 

[flamingonhot]

2 Seahorses
1 Mandarin
1 Pipefish

Just having those three together tells me you aren't even close to ready for a seahorse or pipefish. Infact mandarins are harder to keep than seahorses.

Btw about the pipefish and copepods, not all pipefish actually need them, or even go after them. If you want a pipefish eventually don't go for a bluestripe, jan's pipefish, or the like which feed on copepods non-stop. Other's like guilded pipefish may go well as long as you read up on them first. The only real thing that deters me from saying go ahead with the pipefish is the size of your tank, and that behemoth mountain of live rock, and the fact you even considered putting pipefish and seahorse together. Not trying to be mean here at all, but I know I might sound like it.

Keeping seahorses and pipefish together is wrong for many reasons but here's the main reason why not to:

One of the main reasons people buy captive bred seahorses is the highly reduced chance of getting diseases like gas bubble disease, encountering vibrio (a nasty little bacteria), and the like. By adding pipefish you basicly cut that part out. Almost all (probably over 99%) of all pipefish offered today are captive bred. And since pipefish are in the same family and are basically seahorses they have very similar diseases, which in turn will spread to the seahorses.

Also, seahorses wouldn't do so hot in that tank and all that live rock taking up all the room

Try going for mainly inverts and a small goby or other tiny fish.