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lkkmateo

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
27
Location
Vernon, AL
Hi all!, I'm new here. I've read and researched for about 4 months before picking up my tank. It's a 55g, approx. 50 lbs of "ROCK" because most is no longer "Live Rock". Did have a 300w Visitherm that started shooting grey clouds of mercury into the water, making it smell like burnt rubber and bad eggs! The lighting is well i'm not going to say because its only temporary. The skimmer I have is a Sea Storm 70 by Sea Life? I think? Its not skimming :confused: Have two Rio Plus 400's in the mail along with a test kit. LFS has neither. Would just like some feedback on how its coming along, with some tips on how to fix the skimmer and where to get the bang for my buck on lighting! (Want corals later!) The first is about week 3, the second picture is about week 5-6.
 

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Well i know a skimmer is supposed to produce bubbles which is how it grabs the bacteria. But after having it turned on for a week, nothing happened. it just sounded like the pump was "Trying" to pull water in. I broke it down and nothing seemed to be malfunctioning.
 
I'm not familiar with that skimmer brand. take the pump and run it in a bucket full of water without the skimmer. Is it pushing water when turned on? Also, the skimmer pump will probably have an airline connected to it somewhere to mix air into the water. Is that there?

as a side note, I sent you a PM about the light I'm selling. It would be perfect for your system if you want corals
 
Ahh yes. I disassembled the skimmer and then the pump (Rio 800) and was able to dislodge some fragments of salt, or crushed coral, that had dried up. But that didn't seem to completly fix it. The pump will push a small amount of water but is irritatingly noisy. I figure a new immpeller or a new pump all together. And i found some descent t5 lighting right before i got your message.
 
Well when you say cycle i assume you mean the ammonia and nitrate cycle? well all of my test have come up 0ppm, nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia, the pH is a tad low about 7.8 - 8.0. does that answer your question? or what is filtering the water? a penguin 350 and hopefully a fixed skimmer :D
 
Yes, what did you use to do this? Did you add an ammonia source? What was it? How much...etc Don't worry about your PH level right now...
 
Well i dunno i didn't do anything. I just put everything in the tank (rock, substrate, saltwater and left it. I finally got most of the die off cleaned up. But i didn't do anything. And i was told by some people at the LFS that as soon as everything was stable for about a week or two everything would be fine.
 
Now even if you only used LR to cycle your tank you would endup with some nitrates. You may not have had enough ammonia to account for a meaningful cycle. Sprinkle a little fishfood and let that go a couple of days and test your paramenter again and see if you get any readings. I am mostly concerned wtih you at least having some nitrates to confirm that the process is taking place as it should.
 
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Would it matter if i used freeze dried baby shrimp or will i need to use fresh shrimp? I got the water, LR, and LS from the person i bought the tank from. since it was cycled i thought it would be alright to put fish in given i left enough time for a mini cycle. (I.E. when i got everything it was done cycling but at half a tank full of water.) i've given almost 7 weeks of my personal attention in that it was me that watched over the tank. I didn't get everything that i own with the tank but most of the SW equipment is from it, the tank, skimmer, LR, LS, and stand. everything i bought and paid for and watched over myself.
 
before i got it. the person that sold me everything said it had been cycling for almost 3 months when he decided to go with a bigger tank.
 
Any sort of fishfood would be okay. If you got a mini cycle you would still have to add stock slowly to allow your bacteria to "catch up" to the "Load". Try a little fishfood...whatever you have on hand...just a little and see if you get a reading of nitrates. If not then it may be okay to add "A" fish or at least your CUC "cleanup crew".
 
Lol. ok i was under the assumption that the water perameters should be the same for inverts as well as coral becuase they relied on the same thing? i was hoping to get some snails, some hermits, and mabey a shrimp and clam or somthing.
 
Go easy and pass up the more expensive inverts (like clams) for now. You don't want to lose a lot of moneys worth in a sudden tank crash. Be wary because of the quick cycle. If you have all of them alive in two weeks then keep slowly adding things like fish and corals. Don't add a heap at once! You'll have a crash because of the sudden increase in bio-load and your tank won't be able to cope. One fish every 2-3 weeks is safe IME. Same for corals. Good luck and post pics!
 
Alright. I think i'll be getting my first fish at the end of next week or so. Im in the process of getting 3 powerheads (Hopefully!) cause all i have atm is 1 Rio plus 400 was supposed to be 2. I followed some over advice about putting the fish food in the tank to see if something happened with the nitrates and ammonia etc. If anything happened at all the ammonia etc.. if it could even do that. So what now? like i said before i was under the assumption that the less ammonia i had the better?
 
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