[ErinGoBragh]

Well with my water looking like crap, I am now down to a percula, a feather duster, and a cleaner shrimp. If I went to a more aggressive water change schedule would I end up killing all the inhabitants? I don't want to put the inhabitants through more stress than I need to, but I was thinking maybe 10% twice a week? Any Ideas?

 

[H20cooled]

10% should be ok, you just want to avoid large water changes. But it sounds like you need to figure out what is causing your water to go bad..

Rich

 

[ErinGoBragh]

10% should be ok, you just want to avoid large water changes. But it sounds like you need to figure out what is causing your water to go bad..

Rich

The consensus here has been that My live sand is not really alive. Thats why I added the live rock. Hopefully I can get it figured out before I end up with another Cichlid tank. That could be close to a year though.

 

[H20cooled]

I see. Do you really only have 8lbs of LR in your 75G tank. That could be a big part of your problem, most reccomendations are 1 to 2 lbs LR per Gallon.

Rich

 

[ErinGoBragh]

I see. Do you really only have 8lbs of LR in your 75G tank. That could be a big part of your problem, most reccomendations are 1 to 2 lbs LR per Gallon.

Rich

There is only 8 lbs. It was added to innoculate the sand. I will be getting about 100lbs in the future, but I want to at least get the water in better shape before I spend a ton of money. I would hate to have to end up starting the tank over and finding a place to put all the rock while I am replacing everything.

 

[Turlington]

Hi,

I'm new to this hobby. My situation is the opposite of yours. I set up my tank on 2/3/05 and so far nothing has developed/changed a lot. I did a test yesterday and everything is 0 (ammonia, nitrite) except nitrate which is at 5 ppm, pH is at 8.2, salinity is 32 and s.g is at 1.023. There is brown film algae on the back of the tank but very thin, water is very clear, coralline algae is starting to show but my concern is whether or not my tank is developing good bacteria. I keep the lights on from 7am to 11 pm. I keep waiting for a major spike in ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and algal bloom.

My tank specs are 58 gal, eheim canister, bak pak skimmer, 70 lbs of live rock, 80 lbs of live sand. I added a starfish and some hermits and snails last week, maybe this was too soon?

 

[ErinGoBragh]

I never had an ammonia spike either. all was fine for about 2 months and then my tank just completely clouded up and I got tons of algae. I think with the live rock you have in there you already have the benificial bacteria, and your bio filter should be in good shape. I am sure you will get better input, as I am still on the learning side as well.

 

[skeety]

Hopefully I can get it figured out before I end up with another Cichlid tank.

NO! Don't do it! hehehe hang in there!

I think it's just a case of since you have such a small amount of LR compared to the size of your tank...it's just taking longer to cycle. (but I know you said your'e ammonia's never spiked..wierd).

I'm taking it you've lost some fish, thus your frustrations with the tank? What did you loose? Maybe it's your LFS? have you purchased from multiple LFS's?

 

[H20cooled]

Turlington,
Did you add anything to the tank (besides Live Rock) to get your cycle started? Most people will add a couple of dead raw shrimp to kick off the cycle. If your LR is from a LFS most likely it did not have enough die off to kick the cycle off. But you might not ever get a cycle. I would start off VERY slowly with adding fish and give your tank time to adjust to the added waste.

ErinGoBragh,
From the sound of your tank you do not have enough biological filtration to handle the waste in your tank. I would reccomend adding more LR as you can and keep testing the water, if you see your Ammonia or Nitrite going up do a water change. I would avoid adding any fish or inverts until you get your LR up to the reccomend level.

Rich<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_406100", true); </SCRIPT>
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[skeety]

also..you say your water is "looking" like crap.

Do you mean chem levels? or physically, to the eye, it looks like crap?

if it's the later...sounds like a definite filtration/skimmer problem. Maybe you're skimmer isn't working? Or maybe your pumps pointing at the sand/LR, thus constantly sturing things up? Or something...some how, you need to get the detritus filtered out of your water, or stop stirring it up into the water. one or the other.

 

[ErinGoBragh]

Turlington,
Did you add anything to the tank (besides Live Rock) to get your cycle started? Most people will add a couple of dead raw shrimp to kick off the cycle. If your LR is from a LFS most likely it did not have enough die off to kick the cycle off. But you might not ever get a cycle. I would start off VERY slowly with adding fish and give your tank time to adjust to the added waste.

ErinGoBragh,
From the sound of your tank you do not have enough biological filtration to handle the waste in your tank. I would reccomend adding more LR as you can and keep testing the water, if you see your Ammonia or Nitrite going up do a water change. I would avoid adding any fish or inverts until you get your LR up to the reccomend level.

Rich<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_406100", true); </SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_406097", true); </SCRIPT>

I am not planning on adding anymore inhabitants to the tank unitl It gets straighteded out. I was under the impression that my filter provides a bio-filter as well as the sand, and as far as the bio-load, it is really low, 2 snails, 1 shrimp, and a clown. For feeding, the ammount I put in the tank actually has me worried that the inverts might not be getting enough food. I put small ammounts of food that the clown eats before it reaches the bottom of the tank every other day, so there really aren't any leftovers. nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia have been at 0. So I will just keep changing the water and leaving the lights on for a short period of time until it clears up so I can start adding to it again.

 

[H20cooled]

The bio-filter might help a little but it is in no way as good as LR. Do you run Carbon in your filter? It has been known to help polish the water and make things look cleaner.

Rich

 

[ErinGoBragh]

I run carbon, change 50% of it bi-weekly opposite week of bi-weekly water changes.

 

[H20cooled]

I honestly think that most of your problems are from the lack of LR, once you get it up to a good amount work on removing that Fluval 404. Have you done any reading on reefcentral.com? There is a TON of very good info on there.

Rich

 

[Turlington]

H2OCooled,

I did not put anything to the tank to help cycle it. I think I posted it before whether I need to do or add anything to cycle faster and was told not to add anything. The live rocks are pre cured, both the live rocks and live sand were bought from the LFS.

 

[H20cooled]

You should be fine then, just add fish very slowly and watch your tank peramiters.

Rich

 

[ErinGoBragh]

H2OCooled,

I did not put anything to the tank to help cycle it. I think I posted it before whether I need to do or add anything to cycle faster and was told not to add anything. The live rocks are pre cured, both the live rocks and live sand were bought from the LFS.

I am not really sure if I am in a position to give advice on this matter, but my percula seems to be pretty indestructable. I wouldn't add more than that though, as I do have that experience. so far I have lost 2 damsels, a heniochus, a camo shrimp, a camel shrimp, and had to get rid of a hermit (he was generally evil, and may have had a part in the death of the heniochus.)

As far as live rock, I should be albe to get it this month coming up, we'll see.

 

[Turlington]

What should I get first, fish or coral? and how much/many should I get?

 

[ErinGoBragh]

What should I get first, fish or coral? and how much/many should I get?

I would go fish first, they are more tolerant than corals for the most part. There are obvious exceptions of course. just do a lot of research before you buy anything. I jumped the gun a little in the beginning on this tank and have paid the price.

 

[H20cooled]

Turlington,
You should check out liveaquaria.com, they have a lot of cool pics of fish there with lots of good info. Pick out some fish that you like that fit the tank size you have and then buy one locally. Also you want to start with the least aggresive fish first and then go from there.

Personlly I think the clown gobies are really neat and they are tiny, so you could probably get away with adding a couple of them.

Rich