Feather Duster Help

[AquaMan91]

Hey guys, well i got this feather duster last night at about 6o p.m and it is 11:00 a.m right now and the duster has yet to come out. heres a pic of it. any ideas?????

[crvz]

Sometimes it can take a few days to get comfortable and acclimate to the new tank. How did you acclimate it to the tank? Inverts can be a bit sensitive to salinity changes as well.

[AquaMan91]

The pet store guy told us to just throw it in, i now realize it was the wrong thing to do now after furhter research. i am now going to go purchase a drip siphon for further corals.

[aquawolf]

Hopefully it will come out later on for you and was not too shocked by the change. Sorry about the ill advice you got of just dumping it in the tank.

Best of luck with it. The drip acclimation stuff will be your best piece of insurance for many of the more delicate critters you want to add to the tank.

[AquaMan91]

Yeah. another question. i purchased some calcium powder to supplement my corals and some of it has collected in the bottom of the tank. it looks like snow on the bottom. will it eventually dissolve?? if not i will just remove my inhabitants, turn the sand, then put inhabitants back. Is that a good idea? will it tramatize my system, otherwise i am okay with just letting it dissolve.

[aquawolf]

You may try to stir it to get it to dissolve, but there is a more important issue here.

Why did you add it to the tank in the first place?

Did you check your calcium level and find it to be low? What about your alkalinity? These things go hand in hand. A very good rule of thumb is to not dose anything to the tank that you are not testing for. Raising your calcium level too high can cause problems, especially for pumps and things that get deposits in them.

[AquaMan91]

**** you fish store people!!!!! im not going to believe anything they say anymore. what are some ways that i can see if my tank is okay, i dont have any cash or anything to buy a reef test kit.

[aquawolf]

Sorry, but you are learning a valuable lesson through all of this. Unfortunately there are some LFS out there whose sole intent is to make money and they will tell you whatever they need to in order to sell products. There are many stores that actually care about the animals and what it takes to properly care for them, but it sometimes takes a little while to find them, especially when you are first starting out and do not know what you need.

How much of the calcium additive did you put in the tank? Chances are it wasn't enough to cause any serious problems right now. However, if you continued to dose with it then it would continue building higher levels. I would not use it anymore until you can get a test kit that will test your calcium and alkalinity, aka dkh.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with your system so I need to ask some questions to figure out where you stand right now.

What size tank is this? Larger tanks can dilute things much better and the old saying goes "dilution is the answer to pollution".

What inhabitants are in the tank? If you do not have any sps corals or clams then there is a chance that you will never need to dose calcium. This is because your system may maintain adequate levels just from normal water changes.

Of course, the only way to be sure is to use a test kit and figure out where your water currently sits. To learn more about the interactions of these items in your acquarium you may want to read this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm It is an oldy but a goody.

[raereefer]

I'm betting it just needs time.

I cringe when I read "The pet store guy said..."

[AquaMan91]

Okay wolf the inhabitants are two black and white striped clowns, one feather duster, 3 turbos, some zoos, shrooms, one sun coral, and some green star polyps. if you go to my thread in the nano reefs section- My new 8 gall biocube you can see some pics of my tank. any advice will greatly be accepted.

and on the other issue at most i only put three or four teaspoons of the stuff.

ohh and its an 8 gallon biocube system with a built in wet/dry filter.

[aquawolf]

Okay, so nothing that will really suck the calcium level down quickly.

Since it is an 8 gallon tank you may want to do a water change on it just to be safe. I would do at least a 25% if not a 50% water change when you get the chance. It may not be necessary, but if I was in your situation without a test kit it would make me feel a whole lot better.

[Loverotties]

I have a question for you!If you don't have any test kits,then how do you know if your tank has cycled?Your water mite not be good and is why your feather duster won't come out(but I bet it only needs a couple day to get use to your tank).

[AquaMan91]

i do have test kits, ive got the API saltwater, my params are;
pH; 8.2
Nitrite; 0
Nitrate; 5
Ammonia; 0

[AquaMan91]

alright im planning on doing a huge water change today, possibly 50% ill update you guys soon

[AquaMan91]

well i did the 50% change and its still the same. im just going to give ot some time and never use this stuff again!!!