Diary of my first saltwater tank...Awesome.

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I wish people would keep to themselves when it comes to this. Or at least ask more questions before coming to a conclusion about somebody across the country or world who you don't even know.

Oh look here, I just happen to be setting up a 125 gallon www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=87755
Sorry, can't do it when I see improper husbandry of livestock. I think it is great that you are setting up a new tank, however, I believe the proper tank should be in place BEFORE the purchase. This would be a very poor site if people "kept to themselves" about important issues.
 
Plus what would you rather have happen? Me buy the tang and give it as best a home as I can provide, or either it sits in the tank at the crappy lfs and dies, or somebody who has absolutely no idea what they are doing buys it and it dies.

or another option...someone else comes along that has a 175 gallon tank or so and buys it. hmm

We WILL continue to comment on bad husbandry practices when we see it happening. It is part of our job. Just for the record, your fish may only be three inches, but it still likes to swim and needs swimming room.
 
That's your purgative Hara. I suppose we are all entitled to say and do whatever we want, think or feel.

But then again it's not at all that being criticized is offensive to me. I don't really care at all. What does matter to me is that we've now flamed what I and several other people thought was a good, informative, and educational thread for beginners. Now there is a huge break in the information where we've begun a tangent, and people starting up a new tank will have to read all this crap I'm typing about nothing important, then get bored with it and go somewhere else when they could probably learn something, when it could have been prevented simply by asking if I was planning on upgrading soon. Or just reading the thread a couple lines down called "Getting another 125 gallon reef tank....wooo hooo." Common sense is genius.

I'm a pretty reasonable and very rational person, and I'm sure this is the same for most of us. Thus I do plan on setting up my 125 as soon as possible, and transferring him to it when it cycles.

Anyway...Can we get off this tangent and back to the subject at hand. How much algea do I need to feed? I've been putting in a strip about 3"x 2" every day or so...Is that too much too often or just about right for one herbivore.
 
we've now flamed what I and several other people thought was a good, informative, and educational thread for beginners.
It is due to those beginners that we point things like this before some of them get the wrong idea about the appropriatness of your fish choice.

As for MY common sense, I have plenty of it and as such wouldnt have bought the fish until I had a tank ready for it. Please watch your insults. Further comments and personal attacks will get you kicked from your own thread.

As far as your question regarding the algae, if the fish eats it in a short amount of time, you need to be adding it more often. My tangs get greens daily. It lasts about an hour before it is gone.
 
Speakerman said:
What does matter to me is that we've now flamed what I and several other people thought was a good, informative, and educational thread for beginners.

That statment would be true perhaps if you changed the titile of the thread to "A few things not to do when starting a new tank"....You have a laundry list of shortcuts that have caused you many problems, including the death of your clownfish, and putting a tang, much less that type of tang, in a small tank, even though you know better, no matter how long he will be housed.

You didnt want to ask for advice from others, you simply wanted to follow your own agenda first and ask questions later....and when you post things that are clearly wrong when setting up a reef, dont get all upset when people come at you for very poor husbandry pratices.

I have never met anyone ho will buy a MH light for thier tank, but yet cheap out on LS and powerheads and stuff......you need to take a serious look at you plans for reef keeping, make your plan final, and then stick to it!

Listen man, everyone wants to help you, but this is called aquarium advice....if you dont want advice, I would suggest going elsewhere, like an LFS that will tell you anything you want to hear in order to make a buck or two!
 
Okay well I will start a new thread called "**** ups from a newb." Then tell about all the screw ups I had. I'm not afraid to admit it. We all make mistakes. They say when you stop making mistakes, your dead. And I'm still typing.

At least now I know what I need to do to make my new 125 really awesome.
 
I wish you luck but you do know you can't stolk it even close to what you did to your freshwater right?
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I stated this in the begining of your thread because you overstocked your F/W tank and didn't want to listen. Then we try to help and you lash out at people and use inappropriate lang.

People at AA unlike other places usually say what they say because they WANT you to suceed and the living animals to be happy and healthy, not because they enjoy arguing with you.

Let this go and you will learn a lot more because their is alot more to learn. I have been researching and reading over an 1hr-2 a day for over a year and I don't think I have even touched the surface. People here can teach you alot.
 
I've done let this go a few posts back.
Speakerman said:
Anyway...Can we get off this tangent and back to the subject at hand.

But it seems like everybody here wants a peice of Speakerman cause I have a tang. Big deal. Why can't we just drop all this mess and get back to the whole my first saltwater tank thing. I've made a lot of mistakes on this tank, and don't plan on making them on the next tank. And when I get the big one set up I am going to redo this tank with the right kind of live sand, RO/DI water, overflows ect. Those were my biggest mistakes so far. Besides using these aquaclear 70, which I had no idea would suck up a fish until it happened.

Hara, I was not insulting you, nore anyone else.
"Common sense is genius" because everyone knows that asking a simple question yeilds more positive reactions than negative comments.

Sure I may have made a bad choice by getting this tang without my new tank set up, however I do plan on transfering it as soon as possible, and it is one of the fish I've wanted to keep in the 125. And to be honest with you. I've wanted one for a long time and got this one for 40 bucks off. Which I couldn't have got again most likely. Was this a good choice? I still think so, yes.

I understand everyone's concern here for the well being of their fishy friends, but you must realize I feel the same and care about all of my pets. I would not of purchased a tang if I hadn't honestly known I could provide a larger tank in the near future.

For example. I started out with 10 gallon tank and bought 2 Oscars for it because I didn't know any better. Now I have a 150 gallon, 125, 55, 37, 20 and two 10 gallons.

Needless to say, I will upgrade if the need arrises.

As of now, I'd appreciate it if we could drop the whole thing and get back to helping, teaching, and sharing a hand with our skills and knowledge.
 
As of now, I'd appreciate it if we could drop the whole thing and get back to helping, teaching, and sharing a hand with our skills and knowledge.
Good point. There has been some vey good information passed out in this thread. However, you need to take the good with the bad. Helping, teaching and sharing knowledge is what we do. As part of that, we do call people out when bad choices are made. Everything here seems to have been done in a respectful manner...you took offense becasue you did not like the message.
 
get back to helping, teaching, and sharing

I like that too. Glad to hear you sound like you're able to accept criticism in support of the teaching we do. Folks had different opinions and experiences and shared'm. Glad you've calmed down about it. I'd like to see you hang around the site and continue to share. Identifying mistakes is a huge part of "helping, teaching & sharing".

So hang in there. 8)
 
I have a question.

There is a film almost at the top of the water. It's almost like microbubbles that have not popped... Is this because my skimmer is not working right? I can't quite figure it out.

My skimmer isn't really creating bubbles that get caught in the cup, so I don't know if it's working or not. Does anybody know a way to adj the Seaclone 100 to make it skim better?

I don't know what else it could be.
 
I had film that I took care of by placing 1 of my PH higher to create ripples. But the bubbles could be the skimmer. Have you added any additives to the tank? I hear this can affect the skimmer.

Even though many people are not to fond of the SeaClone it should be producing bubbles in the chamber and some foam to the cup. Nothing at all? Is there an adj. dial for flow ar anything? Maybe someone who has one will be able to help. A lot of skimmers have diofferent ways to adjust. I will search and see if I can fin anything.


EDIT: I found this thread when I googled it from another forum. I think this may help

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=959366&highlight=&sid=02d894eaef630d371fca69949cd611ad

I also found this that someone had to say. I am not to good with DIY so maybe you can understand better:

"1. Go to Lowes or home depot and get a different air vaulve that is less sensitive
2. Cut out a bioball and fit it around the impeller to make a DIY needle wheel skimmer
3. Drill another hole on the cap for the collection cup and run air tubing throught it down to the bottom of the skimmer into an airstone

You can get a seaclone to work pretty well if you take the time."
 
Do you have a surface skimmer?...you have to if you have a sump right?

That usually takes care of it, or as mike stated, more surface flow may be needed....this will help you pH too!

The back to teaching stuff is a good idea for sure!
 
I do have a powerhead up high and the water has quite a bit of agitation...but apparenty not enough so I need to do something about it.

As for additives, I've been using prime to detoxify the tap water before I add it. So that might be a problem. I NEED AN RO UNIT!!!! dang it.

Well I don't quite understand what he means about cut out a bioball and fit it around the impeller...but then again, I havent taken the maxijet 1200 apart to see.

I think that might be a good idea though to make the seaclone into an airstone skimmer. I've got tons of pumps and airstones.

The surface skimmer would be the overflow, and the seaclone is stationed down inside my sump right now with the PH connected directly to the skimmer...none of that feeding tube stuff. I got rid of that.

I think I might try drilling a hole for an airstone.

Thanks.

EDIT:

WOW guys...I modded the seaclone a nd set it up with an airstone and a very powerful dual output airpump...and oh my lord...lol...It works like a dream...I can't believe the change in output...It's crazy...wow...awesome...not even kidding...Anybody with a seaclone needs to mod it for an airstone and get rid of the air injection lol...it makes a huge difference.

Not that I think about it. I moved the skimmer down to the sump and thats when it stopped working. Then like a day or so after I started getting the Diatom bloom...I think that might be my problem. I hope I see a reduction in diatoms soon.

Thanks for the help bro. I appreciate it a lot.
 
Make sure you are using an inline redulator so you dont have a flood and also use coralife limewood airstones, if you want realy preformance!
 
That is good to hear. Hopefully it will do the job until you upgrade your tank and I am sure it will you just may have to adjust it a little hear and there.
 
well I scrubed the diatoms off the glass, and kind of brushed them off the rocks. That was a couple days ago and they haven't came back. I also see some new growth in purple coraline. I think fixing the skimmer really helped solve my problem. It's working soo good right now lol. When I first modded it, it was skimming like crazy cause all of the stuff in the water, so it was overflowing. But now it's slowed down and the skimmit is very dark, the way it should be.
 
Cool Cant wait to see it at its best again, and when we go back to Aquarium World and get the show quality Anemone.
 
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