Newbie To Forum

[mollymandarin]

Hi all

I have just joined the forum today, so I am just adding a little bit about myself.

I got into fish keeping about 4 months ago when I bought a larger tank for my goldfish...this escalated from one thing to another and I now have
a 6g tank housing 10 tropical neons,
a 20g tropical tank with mollies, swordtails, barbs and corys.
a 25g coldwater tank with 5 biggish goldfish/shubunkins.
and finally I have recently set up a 40g marine which currently is housing a few hardy damsels, chromis and CUC.

I added a couple of common clowns and a coral beauty at the weekend and they seem to be doing fine.

The marine has been cycling for a couple of weeks.
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is between 5-10ppm

There is approx 14kg LR and 12kg dead rock in the tank, the filter system is Marysis 240 with an extra powerhead in the tank.

What else can I add to the tank with regards to fish? I would like to add a yellow tang and a regal tang, but I have read they need more room and I am not sure if they can be in together anyway.

I would also like to add some corals eventually, but being a newbie to marines I would like some suggestions on this.

Thanks for reading

Molly )

 

[mollymandarin]

Oops forgot to mention, I think I have had what is called the Diatom Bloom when the LR all turned brown but the CUC seem to be taking care of that.


my CUC consists of 10 tiny hermet crabs, 2 large blue leg hermits, 2 cleaning shrimp, and 2 crabs, 1 is an anenome crab not sure about the other one.

I also purchased a feather duster at the weekend which never opened, after reading about them on the web yesterday, I picked the tube up to gently see if the worm was still in there, as I did there was a gush of reddy brown fluid came out of it, some dispersed into the tank and the rest went behind a rock which I can't see......does this mean its dead?

Thanks again for reading

Molly

 

[ox5477]

Hi Molly,

well you certainly did dive right in didnt you... let me ask first, is the feather duster the first thing that has died?

When you bought the rock, was it fully cured?

When you say the tank has been cycling for a couple of weeks, does that mean persay that the tank has been running for 3 weeks with everything added the first day and just have just watched the cycle go?

Did you acclimate the feather duster before adding it? If you dont know what Im talking about, then that was prob the problem... marione animals cannot stand drastic changes in water chemistry over a short time... by taking an organism from a bag of water, from the lfs and placing it directly inyour tank with no acclimation, then the duster prob went into shock, and shriveled and died.

What is the pH of your tank? and what brand of salt are u using?

Cover those for starters

Ox

 

[seffieuk]

to the Salty side. I'm a newbie myself so will not answer your question about the Feather duster, but doesn't sound good

just wanted to say hi and welcome and maybe slow down....................

Seffie x

 

[mollymandarin]

Hi Molly,

well you certainly did dive right in didnt you... let me ask first, is the feather duster the first thing that has died?

When you bought the rock, was it fully cured?

When you say the tank has been cycling for a couple of weeks, does that mean persay that the tank has been running for 3 weeks with everything added the first day and just have just watched the cycle go?

Did you acclimate the feather duster before adding it? If you dont know what Im talking about, then that was prob the problem... marione animals cannot stand drastic changes in water chemistry over a short time... by taking an organism from a bag of water, from the lfs and placing it directly inyour tank with no acclimation, then the duster prob went into shock, and shriveled and died.

What is the pH of your tank? and what brand of salt are u using?

Cover those for starters

Ox

Hi Ox

Yes the feather duster is the first and only problem so far.....it was acclimatised over about an hour adding tank water to the bag at 5 min intervals.

Yes the rock was fully cured.

The tank was set up a couple of weekends ago and we added the damsels/chromis etc after about 5 days of cycling, water was checked beforehand and ammonia and nitrites were nil.

I am buying RO water that is mixed with salt from my local store in 25lt bottles.
PH is 8.3
Salinity is 1.024

Anything else you need to know just ask

to the Salty side. I'm a newbie myself so will not answer your question about the Feather duster, but doesn't sound good

just wanted to say hi and welcome and maybe slow down....................

Seffie x

Hi Seffie

Thanks for the welcome and yes maybe I should slow down lol

 

[ox5477]

might wanna invest in a alkalinity test as well.... you dont have any corals as of yet... but with a low alk, your pH can swing pretty rapidly in just 24hrs if things like ambient temp increase creating a heat surge... also a large amount of evaporation can cause the salinty the rise and therefore mess with your alk level... thereby messing with your pH... pH imbalance is the only thing I can think of as there is no way 5-10ppm of Nitrate should of hurt the feather duster...

Are the stats of the water from your own personal testing, or is that what the container is labeled? Is it the boxed stuff that you get at like the big box stores, or is it a small mom and pop shop that mixes their own and then fills containers right in front of you...

Ox

 

[mollymandarin]

might wanna invest in a alkalinity test as well.... you dont have any corals as of yet... but with a low alk, your pH can swing pretty rapidly in just 24hrs if things like ambient temp increase creating a heat surge... also a large amount of evaporation can cause the salinty the rise and therefore mess with your alk level... thereby messing with your pH... pH imbalance is the only thing I can think of as there is no way 5-10ppm of Nitrate should of hurt the feather duster...

Are the stats of the water from your own personal testing, or is that what the container is labeled? Is it the boxed stuff that you get at like the big box stores, or is it a small mom and pop shop that mixes their own and then fills containers right in front of you...

Ox

Yep I will get an ALK test.

The stats are mine taken with an API test tube kit.
I am in the UK and the store is World Of Water, not sure about all the time but when we bought the water it was mixed there and then while we were waiting because we needed 7 bottles.

Cheers and any other advice will be gladly welcomed

 

[n3ont3tra]

As for the fish, I wouldn't add fish for a few weeks to make sure everything is stable. Definitely no tangs.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Tangs are really susceptible to marine ich, it's usually best to wait and add them to a mature tank.

 

[ox5477]

As for the fish, I wouldn't add fish for a few weeks to make sure everything is stable. Definitely no tangs.

Tangs are really susceptible to marine ich, it's usually best to wait and add them to a mature tank.

+1 for both

It would have been better to wait a month or so before adding fish and I would wait 3-5 months for the tank to "mature" before adding corals.... this is roughly what I did when starting out with my 30G... worked out for the best. But now that you have fish in there... just have to check up on it more often to make sure things stay stable. Good to hear your fish are doing well. Keep us updated.... and pictures are always enjoyed by all

Ox