First Salt Water Tank Questions

[InfernoST]

.25 is where the ammonia starts to affect the fishes health. Try to keep below that as best as you can until you get the fish out of the tank. Are you using a liquid test kit? If not get one, strips aren't accurate or reliable. Nitrates are a little high and shouldn't be allowed to go much higher with fish in the tank. Once the fish are out of the tank I would I only check ammonia once in a while then nitrites when ammonia readings reach 0 then for nitrates when the nitrites get to 0. After your nitrites peak then drop back down to 0 your tank is then considered cycled at which point you would do a 50% water change, wait a couple of days for the tank to settle, make sure all of your parameters are good then start adding fish a little at a time. Do you have the live rock yet?

 

[ddeans]

.25 is where the ammonia starts to affect the fishes health. Try to keep below that as best as you can until you get the fish out of the tank. Are you using a liquid test kit? If not get one, strips aren't accurate or reliable. Nitrates are a little high and shouldn't be allowed to go much higher with fish in the tank. Once the fish are out of the tank I would I only check ammonia once in a while then nitrites when ammonia readings reach 0 then for nitrates when the nitrites get to 0. After your nitrites peak then drop back down to 0 your tank is then considered cycled at which point you would do a 50% water change, wait a couple of days for the tank to settle, make sure all of your parameters are good then start adding fish a little at a time. Do you have the live rock yet?

InfernoST,
Yes I have a little over 100lbs of live rock in there. I bought some pieces that were already covered in the purpley stuff. I am using a liquid test kit, and the ammonia was between 0 and .25, but closer to .25 so that is why I listed it at .25

They sold me some bacteria stuff, that on the bottle it says to add 1 tsp for every 10 gallons every other day until the ammonia is 0. Should I try some of that until I can get the fish back?

 

[InfernoST]

I used raw shrimp and wouldn't consider bacterial additives to help boost the cycle. Maybe it's old fashioned but my belief is to let mother nature take her course know matter how long it takes, usually when mother nature creates something it usually sticks. I like those directions, they are telling you to put the bacteria additive in until the ammonia reading reaches 0 which will probably take 1 to 2 weeks anyway with or without it. It's up to you if you want to use it. I've heard both good and bad things about those products, IMO the use of them contributes to instability down the road.
It's good you have the LR this way you are cycling/curing at the same time.
Liquid test kit.

 

[thominil]

Don't test PH during the cycle as it will be all over the place. I agree with everything Inferno said, especially with "letting mother nature take her course."

 

[Andreaey]

Just wanted to say that this post was a great deal of help for this newbie!

 

[ddeans]

Just wanted to say that this post was a great deal of help for this newbie!

Glad my questions helped, and thanks to all the people here that responded and helped. 3 days of testing and my ammonia and nitrites are 0 and my nitrates are .5, so I'm going to put a fish or 2 in and a cleaner crew and see how they do.

 

[Zer0]

Remember that you need to be careful how you put in fish. The more aggressive fish go in last. First come the generally peaceful fish. Also, depending on the size of the fish, and how messy of an eater or pooper it is, you will want to take it slow on adding fish. If they are big fish, that are taxing on the tanks bioload, adding 2 of them before your tanks bacteria can keep up with the bioload from the fish, would end in disaster, and more ammonia spike. Then that ammonia turns in to nitrites and so forth. If they are small fish like clowns or blennies, or gobies.. then adding two would not be that big of a deal. They have very little bioload on our tanks. Two days after my tank cycled i added two ocellaris clowns. Didn't see a single point of ammonia. As well as when i added my third fish which was a firefish, 3 days later. So just remember, small fish with small bioloads, you can add in quantity, within reasoning of course. But fish like puffers, triggers, eels, etc.. all are messy eaters/poopers so they put a heavier bioload on the tank. HTH.

 

[ddeans]

Remember that you need to be careful how you put in fish. The more aggressive fish go in last. First come the generally peaceful fish. Also, depending on the size of the fish, and how messy of an eater or pooper it is, you will want to take it slow on adding fish. If they are big fish, that are taxing on the tanks bioload, adding 2 of them before your tanks bacteria can keep up with the bioload from the fish, would end in disaster, and more ammonia spike. Then that ammonia turns in to nitrites and so forth. If they are small fish like clowns or blennies, or gobies.. then adding two would not be that big of a deal. They have very little bioload on our tanks. Two days after my tank cycled i added two ocellaris clowns. Didn't see a single point of ammonia. As well as when i added my third fish which was a firefish, 3 days later. So just remember, small fish with small bioloads, you can add in quantity, within reasoning of course. But fish like puffers, triggers, eels, etc.. all are messy eaters/poopers so they put a heavier bioload on the tank. HTH.

Zer0, thanks for all your help so far. I got 5 snails, 12 mini hermit crabs and a clown fish. I will test the ammonia and see if it spikes tomorrow and the next day. I am hoping not. I also bought a digital camera tonight so when I get home ill take some pics and try to get them on here tonight.

 

[Zer0]

If your tank cycled properly, dont worry because it won't spike. One clownfish is hardly a bioload even on something like a 20G and you have a 30G. You'll be fine.

 

[ddeans]

I have a 125G

 

[thominil]

Keep some extra shells in there for the hermits, even with them, they still may go for the snails shells when they feel it is time they need a new/bigger one. Might want to add more snails seeing as they do a better job than hermits IMO.

 

[ddeans]

I bought a bag of like 500 little shells for the hermits that I am going to rinse out with hot water and scatter them through out the tank. Also, I thought that the hermits served a different purpose then the snails?

 

[Zer0]

Err.. 500 is a quite large amount lol. Also, you do know that like everything else, hermit crabs grow right? Once all of the hermits outgrow the size of all the shells you just put in the tank, then what? You will have hermits that want new shells.. and none of those shells will fit them. Then the battle between snails and hermits begin. lol.

Also, hermits and snails do the same thing. Hermits eat detritus, algae, etc.. and snails eat the same thing. Both are part of clean up crews for those reasons.

 

[InfernoST]

Hermits and snails pretty much do the same thing, however the snails just do it better as thominil stated. Emeralds also do an awesome job as well.

 

[Zer0]

+111111!!!!

I love emerald crabs lol. They're so freakin fun to watch. When you come up to the glass they get all bugged out and scatter back in to the rocks. Haha.. i love those things. But yeah, i would definitely agree that snails do a better clean up job. Right now i only have astreas, and they are really doing a fabulous job. Believe it or not, they have been able to keep the algae on my front glass panel down considerably. Get a cleaner shrimp. They're awesome.

 

[ddeans]

Err.. 500 is a quite large amount lol. Also, you do know that like everything else, hermit crabs grow right? Once all of the hermits outgrow the size of all the shells you just put in the tank, then what? You will have hermits that want new shells.. and none of those shells will fit them. Then the battle between snails and hermits begin. lol.

Also, hermits and snails do the same thing. Hermits eat detritus, algae, etc.. and snails eat the same thing. Both are part of clean up crews for those reasons.

I was told that these hermit crabs I bough were going to stay little, they would get a little larger, but not much. Is that not true?

 

[Zer0]

I don't have hermit crabs.. so i don't, from experience, know. But what kind of hermit crabs are they? I can do a little research and find out, for both yours and my knowledge.

Also, if the shells you obtained are a good size to fit a fully grown hermit, then you wouldn't have a problem. But you really never know. I was just stating that 500 is a little overkill don't you think? Having more shells in your tank, won't stop the hermit from going after a snails shell if it feels like it. That's all im trying to say. For all any of us know.. they may never touch your snails, and will stick to the ones you threw in there. But only time will tell eh?

 

[thincat]

I like the extra shells because it's so much fun watching the hermits change shells, then switch to another because there are so many shells for them to choose from. Like a kid in a candy store!!!

 

[ddeans]

Okay, so I added in the 6 catseye snails, and a dozen mini hermits. I also have a foxface fish, clown fish, arrow crab, brittle star fish and a maroon and gold clown fish. I went away for 4 days and I returned today to find that everything in the tank is covered in brown hair algae. Should I add more clean up crew? I have the lights on timer putting half on for 12 hours, and the other half for 6 hours, which overlaps the second half of the first set of lights. Should I cut back on lights or more clean up crew? Even the coral bottom is brown now.

 

[austinsdad]

Cut back the lighting to 8-10 hours total in my opinion. I'm lazy sometimes and didn't read your earlier posts, but all new tanks get diatoms. Look that up.