New Hobbyist, Help!

[loren]

I have a 29 gallon marine tank.
it's only 2 month old,
in it I have live send, 20 lbs live rock, and 3 damsels.

I seem to have plenty daiatom algea going,
but it's under controll for the most part,
I try to clean the tank every other week.
my live rock has alot of algea on it,
I want to know if I can take it out of the tank
and rinse it in the sink,
or is it a no no ?
I perches drinking water for the tank,
shuld I use distilled water or drinking water ?
I do not like to use tap water.
I have a realy good Ehaim filter,
but still interested in getting a skimmer,
would the skimmer help with the daiatom ?
do you think the UV sterilizer is a good thing for marine tank ?

[Doug1]

Are you testing for ammonia, nitrite,nitrate and phosphates?
The diatoms sound normal, algae on the rock tells me you have nitrate/phosphate issues
3 damsels in a 29 is a max fish load IME , trade them back before selecting what you want to keep in their, a skimmer would definatly be a good idea, if you have no sump you should seriously consider a Remora Pro

[loren]

hey thanks for the qweek reply,
I am testing the water for amonia and ph.
it seems to be fine.

you did menssion sump, what is that ?

regarding the 3 Damsels I feel bad to just get rid of them, I have a small 7 gallon tank that I am srarting, can I transfer them there,
or is it to small for all 3 ?

[Deuce24]

7 gallons is a pretty small tank, and depending on how much Live Rock filtration and whatnot you have in there, you could put one of the damsels in there safely. Any more would most certianly overload the little system. You may want to consider a different single fish for your 7 gallon though, unless you've become really attached to the damsels, as most find other fish to be much more interesting, etc.

[Fish Lips]

First off,
Welcome to TRT,
I have 2 clarkis,1 fox face, 1 blue damsel, and 1 brittle star in my 29g. it has only 5lbs of LR and 25lbs LS/CC. It has UG and HOB filters. I vac the bottom every 2-3 wks or so, and give it a 25% WC at that time. Seems to be running fine been up an running for 1.5yrs now.
Glad to hear from you,
Lips

[loren]

I find other fish to be much more interesting then the damsels that's for sure.
it just that they have been thru sooo much,
my tank has been thru alot it almost crush at one point , I put the little guys thru alot.
I made many mistacks. (maby i am attach)
my tank almost crush at one point, and I had cuple of fish died on me it was very sad.
it's a along story......

lets say that I do end up keeping tham all.
in the 29 galon,
how many more fish would i be bale to ad when my tank is ready for more ?
and why is that I was told that every fish for every galon, that sound like to many dosn't it .

[Fish Lips]

I know this quite the load but routine WC's seem too keep things in check. One thing you will want too keep up on in this addiction/hobby is routine WC's keep happy reefs.
Lips

[loren]

I sure will, it keeps me busy, I Love it.

[Deuce24]

yeah, a fish per gallon is WAY too much. (I've always wanted to use the "Big Eek, and you just gave me my reason!) Like Doug said, you probably want to limit your 29g. to 3-4 fish max. The less fish, the happier the others will be, especially since you don't have 'that' much live rock in your tank (generally at least 1lb/gallon for good bio filtration). Either keep the 3 damsels, or return them and get 2 or 3 new fish. I wouldn't recommend mixing them with your next fish, as they will already be territorial, and super aggressive to your new fish.

EDIT: If you end up getting 3 new fish, it isn't suggested you add all 3 at once, as this will stress your system a lot. No more than 2 at once I would guess.

[Fish Lips]

Also, you said you had some fish die. I hate too tell you this, but, if you had more than the three damsels during cycling. you were asking for something too die. Most cycling in a tank that size is done with 1 damsel maybe 2. Hey, unfortunatley, we end up learning the hard way. Hopefully by the time you end up buying a $60.00+ fish you will have it figured out by then. Even then you can still have fatalities.(Major bummer)SW fish are very tempermental.
Best of luck,
and again WELCOME!
Lips

[loren]

I want to have a good Skimmer, my main thing is that it will not make any noise while it's on.
the tank happen to be next to my bed,
any kind of noise keep me up.
so...would the remora pro be a good choice for me ?

you all are grait, thanks for all the help!

[reefworried124]

well, whatever you do, I guess, don't get the seaclone skimmer. Remorea pros are rated one of the best if you look at some surveys. By the way, are you typing like that on purpose? If not, sorry I asked.

P.S. this site is great for info

[ballvice]

curious about why "no" on the seaclone...I have one (borrowed from a buddy of mine) that has been running for 5 days and seems to be running 100% as advertised. It did almost flood the basement, but a quick lube of the O ring fixed that.

I have been impressed with the little bugger, and I have seen a lot of people that set their tanks up at the same time complaining about their skimmers.

Help me out on this one..I am new to the hobby..what am I missing on the seaclone?

Frank

[Dingo]

Bottled drinking water is not good enough. It can still contain all sorts of things that are fine for you, but will cause algae. You need to use Distilled, RO (Reverse Osmosis), DI (Deionized) or RO/DI (first RO, then DI) purified water.

[Dingo]

Originally Posted by ballvice

Help me out on this one..I am new to the hobby..what am I missing on the seaclone?
Frank

From what I've read, they work, but not as well as some others. There are some posts on how to modify a Seaclone to get even better performance.