new site member

[Harry Gross]

Hello A/A !!
I am a new salt water coral reef owner.I've recently inherited a selfcontained reef of approx. 100 gallon size and quite frankly I am somewhat intimidated by it.
In the past I've had numerous freshwater tanks which were quite spectacular in and of themselves.Throughout those days.....(building and upkeep of a freshwater)...being on the outside looking in I've heard some of the stories about how complicated a salty can be.
But it was die-ing were it was....and being as how I've helped break down and move this particular tank 3x's now since first seeing it at the ORIGIONAL owners house....along with me being the only available canidate who has any knowledge of fishtanks....well it just seems as though ME having it was meant to be.
So here I am.
As of right now theres only 2 clownfish living in it....along with the coral of course.But the ballist in the lighting system was allowed to go out so therefore it looks as though the tank is dead or die-ing.Algie has accumilated.....no grasses growing.(ugh!!)
At one time I saw this tank alive and thriving w/ snails and crabbs and damsels and all kindsa' stuff going on so I know that theres alot of potential. I just don't know where to begin and desparately hope to find a mentor or two or three here in this chatroom. My name Is Harry......my address is :nimagah@yahoo.com..................and I anxiously await any response and input I can get. Thankyou

 

[goisles1]

Hey Harry... Welcome to AA.. Glad you found Us... You;ve def come to the right place...

I've only been on the site a few months now as my SW tank is brand new. However, I've learned a lifetime of stuff here already and avoided most of the big mistakes made by newbies in this hobbie thanks to advice I received here.

So.. I'm def learning alot.. I'm pretty sure I know what the experts 1st piece of advice might be:

1) TEST YOUR WATER parameters and post the results here.
2) The Key to a healthy tank is Water maintenance.. So I would get going on Partial Water Changes (PWC) ASAP!
3) Get that Lighting fixed for the health of those Corals.
4) for specific Species advice you may need to post some pics of the corals and these guys will teach you how to care for them
5) Lastly. Could you explain what type of Filtration this tank uses?

Again..Welcome!

How am I doing guys?? Sound like a pro yet?

 

[melosu58]

Frequent PWC`s and fixing the ballast should be the first order of business.

 

[sooju]

How am I doing guys?? Sound like a pro yet?

I'm impressed!
-fellow newbie

 

[Harry Gross]

Wow !! I'm Impressed w/the timely response !! Thank you !! ...... A coupla qiuck questions : "testing water parameters"- ????(whats that pertain to )?
PWC = removing say 1 gallon from the tank and replacing w/freshly made NEW water(??)...correct ?? (in doing this are there temperature issue ig. does the new HAVE-TO-BE the same temp. as the exsisting tank ??
As far as the filtering system......(I havent actually moved the tank yet.Tomorrow being saturday a few friends and I and the soon-to-be-former-owner will be breaking down to tank/separating the corals etc...and moving it all over here.)...I anticipate that I'll be getting a crash course on my tank pumps and filtering system.....SO I'LL BE ABLE TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS...at that time.

 

[bawel]

Hey Harry,

Wow you're in big bear
Water Parameters means you should check for the Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH and Salinity. If you have corals, you should check for more such as Phosphate, Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity. Go to LFS and get the Test Kit and test the water. The results are called the parameter.
PWC is not just a gallon, it's about 20-25% of your total gallon size and temperature has to be about the same. If you read the article in the Sticky topic in the Getting Started page, you should get the idea of what I was talking about.

I hope that helps

 

[goisles1]

Testing means - Use a Saltwater Testkit to check for Bad things in the water (ex. Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites. You also test the PH levels. Those are the basic tests. You "should" also test for Calcium , Alk, and other things. However, I only test for the basics at this point.

Waterchanges - You should do 10-15% water changes on a weekly routine. If the tank is really established, I think you can get away with bi-weekly. You'll Need SaltMix to prepare the NEW water before you to the PWC. I have approx 50gallons of water in my setup (45gal Tank +10Gal Sump minus Rocks/sand). So I do 5gallons a week. It takes me 10min MAX to do them each week.

So.. I assume the guy who is giving you this tank will most likely have a test kit and Salt Mix and other goodies. Just let us know what you get with it.

 

[Harry Gross]

Thankx guys for the (again) very timely response...(goisles 1, and bawel ) !!!!
The soon-to-be-former owner HAS all/or most all of the salt mixes test kits etc that are needed....( I'm sure of that)
See he once upon a time >loved the tank but a recent marriage....step kids...business etc demand too much of his time sooooooooooo he offered to pass it on to me. ( It is my assumption that other than the lighting issues there will be little else I'll need to actually purchase at this stage)....so now that I've established myself on this chatroom...and made some new friends whom I can reach out to..."TOMORROW" is the big day !! I'll imeadiately touch bases as soon as we're all settled in and my bebies are home. How much fun is this !!!! Those of you who are interrested enough...can WITNESS the rebirth of this tank and the growth step by step as it all transpires! Good stuff !! (to me anyway)...Look for me tomorrow K ??

 

[bawel]

Yeap yeap, you're welcome to ask question here and we always help you to the best that we can . Btw, off the topic a bit, I always go to big bear for local snowboarding , too bad lately there's no good snow yet

Good luck with the tank and as for the lights, try to buy online, it's cheaper than buying it locally. Yeah keep us posted and take pictures, we'd love to see it! Before and after would be great

 

[ccCapt]

Looks like everyone has you covered...for now.
You do want to work on getting the lights fixed. What type of lighting does the tank have? Normal fluorescent, power compact, T5HO or metal halide?

 

[buddha_red]

If you have no idea on what type of light take a picture of the light and maybe we can tell from that.

 

[Harry Gross]

Good Morning everyone. Todays the big day !!
A few quick responses: to ccCapt-the lights ARE fluorescent.They extend the full lenght of the tank.( my buddy sez that the manufactorer might even replace the ballists for free...being as how he'd just bought new-a few months ago.
To bawel.....no snow ????
wellllllllll thats not exactly the truth. We've had enough natural snow to establish a good enough base....and the colder temps have made snowmaking possible.My wife works @ Bearmountain so we've pretty much got our finger on the pulse of all of that....so feel free to get at me any time you may be contemplating coming up to ride.(might wanna use my e-mail adress=nimagah@yahoo.com though...as to be respectful to this sites members.)

 

[goisles1]

How'd it go Harry?

 

[Harry Gross]

It was a nightmare !!!
The tank was soooooooo overgrown w/salt deposits...(inside and out) and fungi and algies that simply breaking things down etc.-there were chunks of all of the above...falling off all over the place !!The interior of the tank was black w/fungus. Ugh !!! to the point of turning your stomach !! There was NO WAY (!!)...that I was about to put that nasty thing in my house...nor was I about to put it back together in such a neglected state.
So I put together a 10 gal.(temporary apartment )for the two surviving clownie and one blue guy...set it all up in the kicthen...and commenced to ripping the 100 gal. and all it's pumps...brine tank....scimmer...completely apart.
All of the corals are dead !! So I put 'em all out on the patio and blasted all the poop setiments etc off of them...for use as a base for re-building a LIVING reef.
There were only three thing which survived the neglect of things...the fish.
"BUT"...I still inherited all of the mechanical systems of what was once a very nice unit so all is not lost.
To date the tank itself is comepletely cleaned..and the lower cabnet cleaned and in the house. I spent three days flushing sand and corals skelitons (sp?)...saved 20 gallons of the origional H20...(for the alkalines etc),,,and have also installed said to the tank.
I was so overcome by the state of the tank that I comeplety overlooked taking any photos for a photojournal until 3 days into the cleaning process...but used my cameraphone since so as time progresses and more steps comepleted I'll figure out how to get the photos from my phone computer-site-album to this site...then I'll post 'em.
I still need to acquire a ballist for the lighting system...and make approx. 60 gallons of new H20....get it all balanced...and then put the fish back into there new "extreme-make-over-house".(too bad I did'nt think to call discover channel so we could film a T.V show...>> "FISHTANK EXTREME MAKEOVER"<<< snik)
Any how my friend(s) thats the progress thus far.(if your of the frame of mind...and its within the rule parameters of this chatroom....please feel free to post this message...for anyons who's been wondering what happened to me over the past few days.Lord knows I could use all the input I can get...and be grateful for it.)
Til next time PeaceOut to all H.Gross BFC

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Since you stripped down the tank and cleaned off all the rock, you're going to have to recycle the tank. If you just put new water in and put the fish back in, the fish will end up cycling the tank. Read in our "articles" section about fishless cycling. Also... is there some type of biological filtration in the 10g tank the fish are currently in? If not, you should be checking the ammonia levels there since there isn't anything in place to process the waste, and do water changes to keep the levels in check.

{Edit: I just reread your post about "flushing sand"... For as little as sand costs (in the big scope of things), I wouldn't reuse old sand. Even cleaned, you still don't know what all its absorbed.}

 

[Harry Gross]

Thank You for your input to my last post.
I have certain barriers-of sort in place when concidering REPLACING anything.....that being that I live in Bigbear California.(way up in the mountains)
There are two pet stores up here but neither handles anything to do with saltys.Tipically to travel "DOWN-THE-HILL" often equaites simularly to leaving state.
So unfornunately in certain areas I'm somewhat stuck.
The 10 gallon tank does not have any sort of filtration system.It was origionally supposed to be only temporary..>>to the effect of maybe one or two days.Given that it will be / has been longer I am keeping close tract of H20 clarity and fish activity and the amount of days they've been there w/out cleaning.( it is my intention to completely replace most H20 approx. every 2 weeks until such time as the transfer to the 100 gallon is made.)(will this be adequet enough to ensure the three of them make it ??)
I DO know that the exsisting sand was recently replaced...therefore fairly new.It cleaned up quite nicely.....Plus I only used about 1/2 of what was there.
I'm currently only part time employed so money-is-funny....the economy is bitting us all....Especially tourist communities like ours-so it's all gonna be slow going.(I've even contemplated turning it (the tank) into a freshy....but I'm not THAT ready to give up yet. I'm attempting to not only save the tank....as well as salvage the ORIGION splendor and effort which was put forth by the origional owner) If it Gods plan....then it'll happen.
I'll be contacting "THE DONAR" today......and hopefully getting him to come by and show me HOW TO reassemble all the sumps-pumps-skimmer-brine tank-heaters etc etc....at which time I'll be making approx. 75 gallons of brandnew salt water and slamming this badboy back together. I'll leave it run and cycle through for a coupla days...b-4 I put the clownies back in and begin the next stages.

How am I doing thus far folks ???? Hows our saltwatertank future look ????
Til next time.......H.Gross

 

[goisles1]

Future is bright my friend!

Stick with the SW, it's so worth the effort.

And get some pics taken so we can get an idea of what your dealing with UP there.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Fish in a 10g, with no biological filtration, will most likely not be too happy if you don't change the water for 2 weeks. That's assuming that they're still alive. Watching the "clarity" is not going to help them... you need to be testing for ammonia and nitrites and doing 3 gallon water changes if the levels start nudging above 0.5-1.0 ppm. You should also be testing your main tank for ammonia and nitrites so you can tell when the cycle in there is complete. Or if it's even started.

I understand that money is tight, but that's even more reason to research, read our articles section, and go into this understanding what you're getting in to. That will save you from throwing money down the toilet.