My First Nano!

[seffieuk]

Cheers Seffie
Another quick question, am I better drip acclimatising CUC/Corals/Fish or doing the half a cup of water every 15 mins, emptying 1/3 and repeating method?
I'm thinking I may have a problem with using the drip method due to the fact I have a horrible two year old son and a 9 month old daughter who is at the "investigate everything" stage LOL But whatever is better for the wee guys, I'll somehow work round it. If someone had a link to setting up a drip method, would be great too

You can do either but first check the sg of the water, you never know if you are lucky it will be very close to your tank stats and you wont have to acclimatise at all

Seffie x

 

[xweeqtx]

Well, the 1.025 was told by the lfs I'll be using
No idea on fish at all, haven't thought that far

-- Wait, do you mean if the SG is the same as mine then the corals/fish can just go straight in? Would have thought PH difference etc would have affected them or is it good enough to match the temperature then put them in if SG is the same.. confusing myself now

 

[seffieuk]

what we are trying to avoid is osmotic shock, that is when the sg varies, so for example the lfs runs their tanks at 1.020 and your tank is running at 1.025 - now that is quite a difference so you will need to acclimatise so that the fish/corals can get used to the extra salt slowly (many lfs run their tanks at this level, it cuts down on things like whitespot)

IMO i would be happier with the fish and corals in the tank straight away, as long as the sg is more or less the same. This morning i took delivery of a fungia - he was mostly out of water as the bag had leaked, i quickly tested the sg, it was running at 1.025, I run my tank at 1.025/1.026 - so i put him straight in

I have to say though that some people acclimatise everything for hours, but I can see no reason to do this if the sg is the same.

Trod bought a lion fish - his water was at a staggeringly low 1.015, we were both unaware that actually at that level of sg it would take something like three days to acclimatise a fish, we now know, unfortunatly he died. Neither Trod or I would buy a fish or coral kept at so low an sg again

Seffie x

 

[daveo_irl]

Holy crap that was a low SG!!

 

[xweeqtx]

Crikes, that was low!
Guess I should hit it lucky then, hoping to get all my stock from the one place.. it's quite far away, but there's no GOOD shops stocking marines about here at all. Good to know the acclimatising shouldn't be too traumatic, I was worrying about all the drip things

As for the tank, it's starting to come alive finally. I've spotted a few red wormy things(I assume bristle worms), few beasties, a yellow sponge, and quite a few other coral-like things growing out the rock. Suppose that can only be a good sign, eh?

 

[seffieuk]

Indeed rock watching is great

Seffie x

 

[xweeqtx]

Just saw some shrimpy things and a wee white starfish stuck to the glass!

 

[daveo_irl]

Just saw some shrimpy things and a wee white starfish stuck to the glass!

The shrimpy things could be your "pod" population starting to grow, look up copepods and amphipods in google. Also be careful with the starfish, it could be Asterina, which I believe can chow down on corals?

http/www.garf.org/STAR/starfish.html

 

[seffieuk]

Asterina are usually safe - they are algae eaters, just keep an eye on them, the only thing they may doo is eat your coraline, just watch and wait - I have several of them cleaning up in my tank

Sefie x

 

[xweeqtx]

Hopefully it won't cause any problems, I was quite pleased with having a starfish!
Saw a few crabs, one normal looking one you'd expect a crab to look like but another tiny one that has hairy wee legs and a ball shaped black body? Looks like a spider! I think these both have to be removed? But what do I do with them.. there's no sump for them to be rehomed in

 

[daveo_irl]

Hopefully it won't cause any problems, I was quite pleased with having a starfish!
Saw a few crabs, one normal looking one you'd expect a crab to look like but another tiny one that has hairy wee legs and a ball shaped black body? Looks like a spider! I think these both have to be removed? But what do I do with them.. there's no sump for them to be rehomed in

Your LFS might take them off you for their sumps. The problem might be catching them in the first place!

 

[xweeqtx]

I'm itching to do another testing, but I know I'll be disappointed LOL

 

[daveo_irl]

I'm itching to do another testing, but I know I'll be disappointed LOL

When I first started testing mine I was all over the place and it used to take me ages to get it done. But after not too long you sort of get a good routine going. They way I do it now is lay out the various test kit in order of how long it takes to develop the results, then fill up all the vials, add the solutions and by the time I have done the last test the first one is ready to be checked.

What annoys me about the testing though is that it is messy. Usually I have to clean my tanks glass afterwards because of drips of water on it.

 

[xweeqtx]

The tests are a pain LOL. I never thought about putting them in order, but then I have small hands about with the ability to grab!

 

[xweeqtx]

Tried you're way Daveo with just Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Was easier, and faster LOL. Didn't have the patience to work it out for all the tests this morning though haha. Think my results are getting better, when should I expect a spike to do a water change?

Ammonia: 0.05 mg/l
Nitrate: < 1 mg/l
Nitrite: 0
SG: 1.025
Temp: 26 degrees celsius