My Nano Reef Set-up/diary (upgraded 45g) Step-by-step

[littleme1969]

Its highly unlikley he may have a parasite problem, its clown fish being clown fish. They are known for not eating and talking sometimes upto 10 - 14 days to settle and start to eat. Try live food!! its the only thing that got both of mine to eat. Getting some food into him at this point is more important, try adding a little garlic to his frozen mix. And as i said before when you move him to the main tank, you will have the same not eating issue again, though he will probably get over it quicker. When they get really run down they can develop infections very quickly like Ich too.

 

[1entra]

I went to my LFS on Friday and started speaking to the owner really seems to know what he is talking about and has got several marine tanks set-up. Well anyways I told him about my clownfish not eating and asked for advice so he recommended if it had no physical signs of stress/disease, then the best thing to do would be to add it to the main tank. This is way the other clown eating should persuade it to also eat. He also advised I should get some frozen brine shrimp with garlic mix to feed the clowns as this is what he uses in the shop to get new fish to start eating if they are picky!

He also advised ro keep a close eye on both clownfish after adding it to the main tank in case they started to fight as things may get nasty!

Well anyways after getting home from the LFS, I acclimatised the clown from my QT tank for over an hour beofore adding it to my main tank with mu first clown. We0ll anyways both fish seemed to get along fine and not a single bit of quarraling was noticed by myself! They even started to swim around the tank together!

But then... when the lights went out in the tank, my first clownfish moved down to the bottom of the front right corner of the tank where he seems to spend his nights. And when the other clown came anywhere close to this corner, the first clown kept chasing it away! And a bit of squabbling started to go off untill the second clown decided to give up and moved away and the first one went back to his little corner.

Well I end up going to work a while after and when I came back several hours later I saw the first clown in his usual corner but could not see the second one anywhere, but didnt take much notice of it as it was still night!

Anyway all day today I have searched for the second clown but it seems to have completely disapeared and I just cant seem to find it anywhere! I have even seached all the area around my tank (as it is open lid) to see if I could find it but its nowhere to be seen!!

So what could have possibly happened to it as There is no dead body on the floor around the tank but I cant see the fish anywhere in the tank. Surely something cant have eaten the clownfish up? Do you think it may still be hiding in the tank somewhere??

I will take a params readin in the morning to see if I have had a spike in anything in case it may have died behind/beneath some LR somewhere?!!!!!

 

[fiskkeeperpro]

well, you have quite a lot of live rock, could he be hiding in the crannies and holes in there?

Will

 

[littleme1969]

That was bad advise from the fish shop!, The fish that was not eating was already stressed and weakened from lack of food, so it never stood a chance. You should have tried the live food as I suggested first and got it eating and healthy again before considering adding it. My first clown took almost 10 days before he started to eat, and then only because I added live food, this was recomended by quite a few people on this forums who have kept clownfish and have been in marine for a long time. It worked for me and with another 2 weeks the clown was eating well and starting to eat a mix of frozen and flake food, amazing as I considered the fish to be on its last legs.
As for the body, From what Ive seen of my own clowns, when I first added them to the main tank, one was healthy and one was struggling(after transit). They where both added at the same time and seemed fine at first, but then the stronger of the 2 attacked the weaker one and with one swift blow against a rock the other was dead , even though i saw it happen , i still took me a while and I had to strip down the tank as it got wedged under some rock. Within minutes of it being dead my cleaner shrimp and hermits where on top of it trying to eat it So if its been a good 24hrs and you have lots of clean up crew, you may not find it.
Your QT tank is only about 8 gallons which is a bit small IMO and this will stress out the fish even more so I would scrap it as QT tank, and only use it as a last resort to treat fish with meds that are not reef friendly. Add any new fish straight to the main tank. With the exception of tangs and a few other wrasps etc that known to cause Ich outbreaks I would not isolate a healthy fish . Its different for people with huge tanks full off thousands of pounds of fish, then you cant risk loosing the whole lot , and they tand to have large established QT tanks set up just for the job.

 

[1entra]

well, you have quite a lot of live rock, could he be hiding in the crannies and holes in there?

I really hope it is hiding but things don seem to be looking good as I still have not seen any sign or trace of it. It really has vanished!

You should have tried the live food as I suggested first and got it eating and healthy again before considering adding it

I tried feeding it live brine shrimp but even then it just was not interested and just simply kept swimming past without any interest. What the shop keeper aid seemed to be a good idea at the ime but I regret having done it now!

I considered uprooting my whole tank to try finding the body but I think this may cause more harm and stress to the rest of my inverts/corals as alot of them are established in their locations.

But im going to let this be a big learning curb for me and hopefully not let the same mistakes happen again.

Your QT tank is only about 8 gallons which is a bit small IMO and this will stress out the fish even more so I would scrap it as QT tank, and only use it as a last resort to treat fish with meds that are not reef friendly. Add any new fish straight to the main tank.

I am going to take your advive here littleme and add any new additions straight into my main tank from now on but keep the QT tank in case of disease or illness so I can treat any infected fish straight away away from the main tank so treatment does not affect my corals/inverts!

little clownfish

 

[littleme1969]

Its sad when you loose a fish, I learnt lots with my first few, mainly to keep perservering and not to panic, Ive heard of clownfish goings weeks before they finally decided to eat. I put up similar posts to you about my fish not eating, and was lucky and got back some really good advise quickly When you are new to it, you do tend to panic a bit when trying to save a life. Clowns can be hard work alround, mine still sulks for a few days and does not eat if I move any rockwork in the tank lol I found newly hatched baby brine shrimp to be a winner everytime. Its got about 3 of my non eaters noshing in no time
Fingers crossed for any new fish you get

 

[1entra]

Its sad when you loose a fish, I learnt lots with my first few, mainly to keep perservering and not to panic, Ive heard of clownfish goings weeks before they finally decided to eat. I put up similar posts to you about my fish not eating, and was lucky and got back some really good advise quickly When you are new to it, you do tend to panic a bit when trying to save a life. Clowns can be hard work alround, mine still sulks for a few days and does not eat if I move any rockwork in the tank lol I found newly hatched baby brine shrimp to be a winner everytime. Its got about 3 of my non eaters noshing in no time
Fingers crossed for any new fish you get

Thanks Littleme, your advice is really appreciated. It is hard work being a newbie to the marine game and its all miss and go as there are no defo answers so you have to experience it and learn from your mistakes! And already I am beginning to learn!

I think I might get another clownfish from the same shop I bought my first 1 from in a week or so and add it directly to the main tank and hopefully I will have better luck with it this time round!

 

[1entra]

Ive got a LEAK!!!! ​

Ive been observing my main tank very closely for the last few days especially as I have been looking for my missing clownfish, and noticed my salt creep on the bottom trim of the tank is getting worse and everytime I press it water drips out from behind the trim. This to me says I have got a small crack or something somewhere at the bottom of the tank which is causing salt water to slowly leak out as there is nothing else to justify the water dripping out from beneath the trim!!!

Just fantastic hey!!! Things dont seem to bet getting any better, first my clownfish and now this!!! Really am having a bad start to turning to the marine side!!!

Just as I thought things were going right and my corals all looked happy and are open everyday!

The salt crep and water drip is entirely on the front right corner and right side/face of the tank and the water seems more drippy near the bottom of the joint where the 2panes of glass meet!

So does anybody have any ideas on how I should go about dealing with this leak/crack? I dont know where it is or the size of it so any ways of finding where it is without having to drain/empty my tank out?? Would ordinary aquarium sealing be adequate to patch it up once found?

 

[1entra]

PS. Still no sight of my second clownfish, I'm assuming its defo passed on to fish heaven!

 

[fiskkeeperpro]

I have no idea of this would work, i will wait for other members to correct me but could you silicone around the trim of the tank to stop water leaking out? Or/and silicone anothe rpiece of glass/ acrylic to the bottom of the tank so if it does split nothing will happen?
(Dont take this word for word its just my idea on something that might help.)

Will

 

[1entra]

Thanks for your ideas fishkeeperpro but I do not this would wrk as I would still have to empty the tank out and also the crack may be at the bottomw of one of the sides and not on the base itself so cant be sure!

 

[littleme1969]

Well you have a few choices, leave it and hope it does not get any worse and risk losing everything...
Transfere everything to another tank/ containers empty, dry the tank and see if you can find and reapir the leak....
Or just buy a new tank and start from scratch... Depends on how much time and spare cash you have.
I had to do a strip down and keep stuff in buckets/other tanks overnight when I upgraded to my now 25G as it needed to go in the same place as the old 15g. having done it once I wouldnt have any isuues with having to do it again in an emergency. Its not as hard as you would think.
As for repairing the tank... as you have trims on, this will make it harder as there will be some kind of adhesive on the glass where the trims where. This will have to be stripped off before you can attempt to seal it. It could be a join problem, in which case re siliconing the area should not be 2 much of an issue. But if its a crack then you have to replace the pane i'm afraid. I wouldnt risk a patch on a marine due to high cost of the contents. I had to replace an entire bottom of a 3 ft tank once and with a bit of advise from here it went fine with no leaks

If it where me, Id buy another tank, cut out all the hassel. I bought mine second hand off e.bay and it cost me about £40 I added extra braces to the top for light supports and to add extra strength for peace of mind. I hope you get it sorted soon, sounds like a bit of a headache you could do with out.

 

[1entra]

Hey Littleme thanks for all the advice it is highly appreciated.

Ive decided to not cut any corners so went up to Pinxton aquatics just outside of Nottingham and asked them to make me a tank which is a little larger than the one I have already. I was looking to upgrade anyway and so might as well do it now whilst this is going off.

I paid them a depoist and they should hopefully have a tank 32"L x 18"H x 18"W ready for me by weekend. I also took your advice and asked for "extra braces to the top for light supports and to add extra strength for peace of mind"!!! The tank is also comes with a 5year no leak warranty/garantee! (for extra peace of mind!)

Although I've had a few problems with the leak being part of the latest, I am quite excited to be getting the is new bigger tank!

Just not looking forward to moving all the livestock over to the new tank. By the way can you give me a few tips on how to move all my stuff over? Did you add newly mixed water into your new tank first or did you add all your old tank water and livestock to the tank before adding the fresh mixed water??? All advice and tips will be appreciated.

 

[littleme1969]

Hi
I always find things happen for a reason, even leaks..lol
How you do it depends on wether the tank is going in the same place or not, and its best to have the new tank set up about 12 to 24hrs before you your fish/ inverts in, as salt levels and temp can vary until the tank settles. Just give me a few pointers on where tanks are going etc and i'll pass on what I learnt from my little exploit

 

[1entra]

Well I plan on putting the tank in the exact same spot my curent tank is placed, so I will have to empty my original tank out before I can move the shell and thus add the new tank. I plan on using loads of buckets to place all my livestock and water in whilst moving the tanks about.

What I want to know is how should I go about adding all my livestock back into the new tank? As the new tank is bigger, should I add and mix saltwater init straight away, let it settle and then add my old water to top it up and then add my livestock or should I add my previous/old saltwater in the tank first, let that settle and keep adding new made saltwater over several hours?

what about my live rock and live sand. Should I add them straight away to the new set-up soon after adding water or should I let the tank water, SG and temperature settle first?

This is really starting to confuse me! Lol