New tank questions?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
I'm soo confused about what I want to stock. I came back to this hobby wanting a pair of clowns (any kind really, except skunk clowns) and now i'm torn. I have the GS, which has grown on me alot and don't want to put him through the stress of adding another GS maroon. My lfs has 4 new true percs that came in last week and look great. Also looked at some really nice looking tomato clowns, a true pair. Decisions...
 
If you add a pair, you should ask the LFS to take your other clown back for some credit. Your 38g will not support three clowns. One will be killed. It may not be big enough of two. Only time will tell...
 
TC I thought about this as well. I found another bigger GS maroon today. I was thinking about removing the existing clown, aquascape to break up his territory, and after acclimating I would add both at the same time. Turn off the lights for the night, and hope all goes well through the night.

Sound like a good idea ??
 
If I add the other GS maroon tomorrow, can I add the 6line also at the same time ?? Do you think my bioload will support this ?? The last thing I want is my tank to crash, and i'm willing to wait if I have to.

GS maroon will be in the tank for 3 weeks this coming Sunday.
 
Yea, you should be fine. Just monitor your levels as normal to be sure. Cut back on feeding them for the first week or so as well.
 
Well went to a new LFS (minutes from my house for a year and didn't know anything about it until I went to my reef club) and found a Mcloskers flasher wrasse. Very pretty fish, but I decided that instead of taking on a new fish at this time, I was going to battle my hair algea and my little nitrate problem.

I've been turning the lights off at around the 4 hour mark for the past week and it seems to help alot. I feed every other day so i'm sure thats helping. But I did manage to get my nitrates to 0ppm (they are usually around 10-15ppm). I do a 6 gallon water change each week and vaccum my CC substate. I'm sure my skimmer and my xenias are also helping get my 'trates to 0ppm.

As long as I can keep this up (the battle with HA and 'trates) i'm going to look into a wrasse, either the 6line or the Mcoskers.
 
Good plan, don't be fooled by your test kit reading, chances are your HA is taking up more of your nitrates then anything else. It's nasty nasty stuff. Next water change take a clean toothbrush and scrub as much off as you can while your siphon hose is right above sucking it all away. The only way i have found to combat the stuff, along with what you are doing.

Also consider getting some phos-ban or similar product. Thats the other thing HA feeds on.
 
Thanks Jimbo, I noticed I only have HA on 2 rocks. What i've been doing is taking those rocks out and scrubbing them with a tootbrush in the water i've siphoned out. It seems to work alittle, but I have to do it next time I siphon.

I was using phosguard to remove the silicates in my water that I used tap on to fill my tank up. I believe its a similar product to phos-ban right ??
 
Try replacing those rocks with some base rock. xenias are animals not plants so they give off nitrates like the rest of your corals.
 
I thought I read somewhere that xenias help absorb nitrates and thrive in tanks with a high ph balance ?? Maybe I was dreaming or something..
 
It was once thought that they helped controlled nitrates, or would only pulse in high nitrate systems or blah blah blah. just recently have we really found out more about these animals. TC's link has some good info.
 
Some new pics of tank..

Not much going on really. Just added some small frags.

Xenia frag was only about 1" when I got it. I know alot of people don't like them, but I enjoy them.

img_1126490_0_6e1c43595eb1c3f2135a0baed24af2ab.jpg


Small mushroom frag. Nothing big or spectacular.




img_1126490_1_fd47f335190dfc98aed6fc40ee3f9a19.jpg


Some greenish zoas

img_1126490_2_0f66f673ab1d4357e5e7e658ba287f9b.jpg


Clove polyps, had a hard time getting these boogers to stay on the rock.

img_1126490_3_42d3c34b3695d7693efae0d5727a9c1d.jpg
 
Some times you have to put the frag in a small tupperware like container with some rubble rock and put some kind of netting on top so the frag don't float away and let the frag anchor itself or you could use a rubberband too. looks like you are on your way to a nice tank.
 
I was at the LFS yesterday, kicking myself because I didn't buy a 40 gallon breeder instead of my 38.

TC, yeah that rock was real pourous, so I kinda just smashed them into one of the holes. It took very well and attached itself in about 4 days or so. I kept alot of the flow off that rock so it wouldn't blow away.

LFS also had a really nice Fu Manchu lionfish. Very pretty fish with nice coloration. I can't feed it live fish, so thats out of the question right now.

I did add 5 scarlett hermits because I hear they love to eat HA. I have a total of 8 hermits and 2 snails. Somone said they have 5 hermits for each gallon in tank, is that too many ??
 
Imo, more then a couple of hermits is to many. It is far better to have more snails then hermit. I have more then 100 nerite snails in my tank and just 3 Hermits.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
Algae Problems
Replies
3
Views
374
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
M
Is it even possible to have an Uncycled SW tank?
Replies
2
Views
766
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
J
New Freshwater tank setup
Replies
5
Views
654
Big Ron
B
R
Tank and Gravel Question
Replies
1
Views
370
Andy Sager
Andy Sager
B
About to move to new town, need advice please
Replies
4
Views
147
Andy Sager
Andy Sager

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom