a variety of noobie questions

[pat8you]

The sand we bought is pretty fine and its getting down into our sump. Is this normal? any way to keep the sand out of the sump?

 

[Innovator]

redirect flow?

 

[pat8you]

hello all-

Its been a while since i posted here we have been setting up the tank and had a long wait on some live rock. As you suggested we ended up with a mix of live rock and base rock. Put 60lbs cured live rock and about ~35lbs base rock (base rock weighed dry so probably more then that wet)

We started cycling the tank with the shrimp a couple weeks ago and our levels are as follows now.

ammonia 0.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.2 ppm
Nitrate 80 ppm
SG 1.021-1.022
PH 8.5-8.6
Alk 1.6-1.7

I know we have to wait for the nitrite to be 0.0 (which i'm hoping will be soon cuz we are really getting excited about putting some fish in). The nitrate is pretty high but i read that you weren't sapposed to do water changes while the tank is cycling. What is an acceptable Nitrate level? Our ph is a little high and the Alk is a little low. How do we fix those? In the alk/ph test directions they talk about needing buffer to keep the ph stable. There are some buffers in the salt mix right? Do we need to add more buffers then are in the mix? (red sea salt mix)

We have a 90gal tank 4' x 2' x 18" This is what we were thinking about starting with for our first fish.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=755
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1114
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=2625

It said to put in the clowns together to avoid aggression. From what i read on that site they should all be pretty compatable though. Any thoughts?

Last question i promis. What is a good amount of fish to put in that size tank?We were thinking about maybe adding corals later but not to many and thats down the line a bit when we know a bit more what we are doing and the tank in nice and broken in. So on top of the three clowns how many more fish?

Thanks so much for all the help this forum has been a huge help. Sorry i tend to ask a butt load of questions all at once.

Pat

 

[lando]

Sounds like you are getting near the end of your cycle. Wait until NO2 is a zero and then a 50% water change with aged SW. Wait a couple more days and retest all levels. If NH3 and NO2 remain at zero and NO3 is below 10 then you should be ready. The large water change will help buffer the Ph and other levels (ALK, CA...)

I would not recommend mixing clown species in a 90gal tank. Get two of the same species, ideally that have already paired off.

What is a good amount of fish to put in that size tank?

It depends. In a new tank you do want to be careful to add livestock slowly so the tank's biological filtration can catch up with the inccrease in bioload. Now is the time to get together a fish wish list. Start with one "must have" species and build the rest around that. Keeping in mind agression, reef-safe, etc. We can then offer comments once we know what you are interested in and offer advice on which order to add them.

We were thinking about maybe adding corals later but not to many and thats down the line a bit when we know a bit more what we are doing and the tank in nice and broken in.

If you are interested in corals and other light-dependent inverts they researching lighting will by your next step...but that is a whole different thread.

 

[pat8you]

We are going to do a big PWC and hopefully that will even out our levels.

I read through about the clowns on the liveaquaria.com site and it said that the three types of clowns would be ok together if they were all introduced at the same time. I'm certenly not disregarding your advice lando just asking more questions about the topic. Is a 90gallon just two small for that many clowns? are they teritorial at all? Anyone else ever tried to mix clowns or have any experience with this?

the wish list is a good idea. we have sorta and idea about what we want to put in the tank but i just have no clue how many fish we can have. Can you give me just a real rough number so i can put around that many fish on the wish list?

Do corals add to the bioload? Are they considered just as much a bioload as a small fish?

When is a good time to get a cleaner package ( snails crabs ect.) we have been holding off becuase i figured since the tank is so new there probably isn't enough growing in the tank for them to feed on.

 

[tecwzrd]

Clowns can be very territorial against their own kind and certain clowns like the Maroon can be nasty to other fish as well. It's always a risk when you mix species of clowns. Getting a pair would be best if possible as Lando said.

As for total adult length of fish the general rule is 1" per 5 gal and I wouldn't get any fish that exceeds 10" IMO. So you're looking at about 18" of total fish length. As the tank matures and depending on the quality of your filtration i.e. 1.5+ lbs of lr per gal and a high quality skimmer that total length can be slightly extended.

Corals to not add to the bioload directly but feeding them (if needed) needs to be monitored closely to keep from fouling the water.

Clean up crew such as snails and hermit crabs can be added as soon as your cycle is finished. IMO it's best to wait 3+ months for shrimp and 6+ months for Sea Stars to give your tank time to stabilize. A small clean up crew i.e. 1 snail/hermit/ect.. per 2-3 gal can feed off the rock.

All clean up critters need a nice long 2-4 hour drip acclimation, fish can be dripped for as little as 1-2 hours depending on much of a difference there is between ph/sg from where you purchase your stock and your tanks ph/sg.

Will you be using a QT?

 

[pat8you]

Thanks.

I will try to get together a list of stuff we wanna put in the tank.

These will be our first fish so we will not be using a QT. Thats mostly becuase we havn't gone out and bought a tank and supplies for a QT and the budget is tight after spending all the money to set up the tank. After we put our first fish in we will be waiting a while before adding anything else and will hopefully have a QT set up by then.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Thanks.

I will try to get together a list of stuff we wanna put in the tank.

These will be our first fish so we will not be using a QT. Thats mostly becuase we havn't gone out and bought a tank and supplies for a QT and the budget is tight after spending all the money to set up the tank. After we put our first fish in we will be waiting a while before adding anything else and will hopefully have a QT set up by then.

I'd strongly advise folks to get a QT. My first fish went into a QT and immediately got some bacterial infection under his eye. Short story is that after a few weeks, he didn't make it. If that had been my main tank, I'd have been wringing my hands wondering if I'd just introduced some disease into my main. But since it was a QT, it just got emptied and cleaned, and I hustled down to the LFS to try again.

Just a scenario that I had that made me darn happy I bought a cheapo 10g tank, a heater, and a biowheel.

 

[tecwzrd]

Ditto on the QT. Think of all the money you spent on the main only to possibly ruin your investment by infecting the main when around $50 or less could have easily prevented it.

A 20 gal tank and HOB filter is all you need (and cycled media). This is how I do mine. (scroll down a couple)

Checkout this article on QT as well for more info.

 

[pat8you]

here are a couple of pictures of the tank just for kicks. Thanks for all your help.


.... scratch that i guess the images didn't attach. i will have to mess with it later. sorry

 

[Innovator]

If the clownfish you are speaking of are the 3 links you posted on the first page, then they are all the same specie, Amphiprion ocellaris, but just different color patterns. You would not be mixing species, just color pattern within a specie. Amphiprion occellaris and percula can also be housed together since it is not uncommon for them to interbreed. In regards to bioloads, anything you add to the tank that produces a waste adds to your bioload, which includes corals, fish, inverts, etc.

 

[pat8you]

The web site where i got the links made it sound like it would be ok to put them in there together but others have been sayings it bad to mix different clowns. I don't know much about them but now i've got all different answers? I can see the logic in both. Anywhere i can research this to get some solid answers? I do think i will stay away from the maroon clowns since one person said they can be nasty towards other fish.

Any suggestions for a cleaner package? The rock looks like its starting to grow stuff so as soon as the levels are right i wanna get a cleaner crew in there before things get out of control. I had heard from other posts that crabs can get mean when they get big and are opertunistic eaters which can include fish or corals if they get a chance.

Thanks for everyones help