New Kid in Town

[Swordfish]

I just joined the hobby five months back and have made way too many mistakes. I stumbled across this forum and thought it would be a great idea to learn from all of you.

I doubt I will make it to many/any meetings but hope you will let me hang out, ask questions and maybe even buy something from someone.

I live in Lakeville and have two tanks. The main is a 90 gallon reef tank and I also have a 30 gallon sitting next to it. The original idea was to use it for either a hospital tank or for fish that perhaps wouldn't get along with the inhabitants of the 90.

I recently started moving some of my corals to the 30 as I think the six yellow tangs and a bi colored angel have been nipping at them to the point that they won't open.

I had nitrate problems (40-80) for weeks and now that is past history. I did weekly 20% water changes and put some Purigen in my Tidepool 2 wet/dry filter. Now my nitrites have risen to around 3. I am having trouble keeping my PH about 8 without daily adding of SuperBuffer. I read one member's thoughts about Reef Crystals. That is what I use as well.

I add calcium twice a week but would like to purchase a calcium reactor.

I think I have come a long ways but have had more casualties than I would like. I have been advised to slow it way down, ask questions and learn from others before doing anything more.

Most of my livestock has come from LiveAquaria with the exception of my cleanup crew which I buy from ReefTopia.

There you have it!

[Petunia]

Welcome! You'll love the club and this forum... lots and lots of help from both. Many super-duper people in both.

[mtfatwork]

Welcome. If anything is nipping at your corals, I would guess that it is the angel. Also, how big are the tangs? Your nitrate problems may be attributed to the bio load in your tank. It may be a bit much for the water volume, but I could not say for sure without seeing it, and how big the fish are. HTH

Mary

[carman34l]

Originally Posted by Swordfish

I recently started moving some of my corals to the 30 as I think the SIX yellow tangs and a bi colored angel have been nipping at them to the point that they won't open.

First let me say welcome, the club is a variable dictonary of information at your fingertips so use it often and sont be scared to ask a question.

Second, 6 tangs in a 90 gallon is alot. I am suprised they have not killed each other. one maybe two would be ok for a 90 gallon. IMO.

Keep up the good work!!! hope to see you at meeting sometime.

[DevilBoy]

Originally Posted by Swordfish

I had nitrate problems (40-80) for weeks and now that is past history. I did weekly 20% water changes and put some Purigen in my Tidepool 2 wet/dry filter. Now my nitrites have risen to around 3. I am having trouble keeping my PH about 8 without daily adding of SuperBuffer.

first off welcome to TRT. The ECRC and TCMAS has a bunch of wonderful ppl that you can learn alot from. This part of your message is what really caught my attention.

Your Nitrates are not terrible high. High for a reef tank, but a fish only tank that would be ok. You say your NitRITES are at 3? The only time TRITES should be above zero is during the cycling process. How quick did you add everything? Did you add any new live rock? The Trite reading could also be the reason why your corals are closed up.

I am just wondering if your tank has not started to cycle again.

[JS_racer]

welcome

[epidemic]

Wet/Dry filters are nitrate factories! The aerobic bacteria convert ammonia in to nitrate and the nitrate builds up until a water change or further metabolic degradation (anaerobic bacteria in Live rock) I would ditch the media in the wet/dry and just use a filter pad. Just a suggestion.

[eswebster]

welcome to the group!

[Swordfish]

Originally Posted by carman34l

First let me say welcome, the club is a variable dictonary of information at your fingertips so use it often and sont be scared to ask a question.

Second, 6 tangs in a 90 gallon is alot. I am suprised they have not killed each other. one maybe two would be ok for a 90 gallon. IMO.

Keep up the good work!!! hope to see you at meeting sometime.

I read that there is a formula that can be followed of one inch of fish per gallon of water as I recall. I have tried to keep that in mind as I have added fish and corals but I obviously have not done a good job.

The tangs are doing really well and chase each other occasionally but that has been the limit of their aggression. I read that yellow tangs should either be limited to two or six plu (if added at the same time) and that is why I went with the six. They have grown probably an inch in the time that i have had them. The only problem I had with them was red streaking during the time my nitrates were high. As soon as I started up with the water changes the streaking went away.

I have in the 90 the following: six yellow tangs, a big (gift from a friend which is probably around five inches) domino damsel, bi color angel (four inches), five green chromis (I used these to start cycle) and four yellow tailed blue damsels (also used to start the cycle) as well as a lawnmower blenny.

I have 260 watts of compact fluorescent lighting and that is something I would like to change. It works well for mushrooms but I have had poor luck with LPS. A candy cane more or less dried up - wilting and turning dark. Other things have done very well. I have a yellow gorgonian (which I am told is fairly difficult to keep) which has been in the tank since April and has loads of polyps that come out during the day. I had a gorgeous red chili coral that has shrunk and no longer puts out much of anything for polyps and has developed blackish areas at the tips of the fingers.

[Swordfish]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

first off welcome to TRT. The ECRC and TCMAS has a bunch of wonderful ppl that you can learn alot from. This part of your message is what really caught my attention.

Your Nitrates are not terrible high. High for a reef tank, but a fish only tank that would be ok. You say your NitRITES are at 3? The only time TRITES should be above zero is during the cycling process. How quick did you add everything? Did you add any new live rock? The Trite reading could also be the reason why your corals are closed up.

I am just wondering if your tank has not started to cycle again.

I put the tank together using RO water and reef crystals. To get it started I used 120 pounds (I later realized this was excessive) of sand along with 20 pounds of live sand. I added a couple of rocks I had purchased from Something Fishy. I waited a week and added a couple of green chromis and three yellow tailed blue damsels.

I bout 90 pounds of Fiji live rock from Live Aquaria and let it cure for a couple of weeks an a clean garbage can. I kept the water around 80, had a pump in there to keep the water moving, had PH of 1.025 and changed water every few days. I then added the rock to the tank.

I don't know that my tank ever spiked as I confess I did not check the levels daily. I perhaps checked them weekly.

I added fish at an alarming rate after around a month.

My yellow tangs started to develop red streaks and I noticed that my leather mushroom stopped extending its polyps. I did some research and discovered that nitrates might be the problem. I tested the water for the first time in a month or two and discovered my nitrates were at 80. I had never done any partial water changes (I know - let the lectures begin!) and did 10-20% waters changes every few days. During this time the nitrates would drop to 40 after the water changes but then creep back up to 80. I spoke to a friend who told me to back way off the feeding. I did so and also bought some Purigen packs that i put in the bottom tray of my wet/dry filter. I also got rid of the carbon at his suggestion and started using polyester fiber fill to do a better job of filtering the fine stuff. A couple months later now the nitrates are gone (the test strip is white) but the nitrites are around 4.

I have purchased some crushed coral and am going to put in a filter bad and place in one of the trays. I have been told that this should help and also help maintain a higher PH reading. My tank seems to want to be just under 8 unless I continually add SuperBuffer.

[rihanssu]

sword fish

welcome =)
that 1 inch of fish per gallon of water is a freshwater rule, for larger fish and salt you can't go as many. think about what a 90 gallon tank would look like with 10 -9 inch pacu in it =)

[Nemo's75]

Welcome!! Youll love it here!