Question for beginners

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mathew86

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 3, 2010
Messages
1
i have a 20 gallon that me and my girlfriend have been building up and we are very proud of it so far sometimes ill wake up and catch her staring into it wich is funny because i catch myself doing the same but enough said we are very into our tank we have followed the directions of the salt water store coral reef in perrysburg Ohio wich i suggest to anyone in the area they have been more than polite helping us get started but i figure its never bad to have to many sources in my tank i have the typical white caribsea sand a 6 lb live rock one decently sized piece of white coral and a couple little pieces of coral from wen my dad first started wen he was my age. now my first question is about the coral its pretty old we never had a problem with it before but now its been in there for about a 3 weeks now and is starting to grow like a cheeto orange algae on it or at least i think thats wat it is just wondering if thats good or bad haha. now the equipment im running is a marineland emperor 280 with a bio-wheel and an aqueon heater all the living creatures in my tank are 2 damsels wich ive had since the day after the setup along with 10 blue crabs to keep the tank clean then about 2 days ago we bought a clown fish a manderin goby and some coral thats like grass with a light green tint to it the main question i have is my clown fish ive been feeding brine ship since day one the goby picked right up on this and is eating happily with the other fish until my ticker pods come in but the clown fish just wants to hover on the side of the tank about half way down just hovering there letting the brine shrimp just float by the other fish will swim over and try to play with him but he kinda just mopes the wierd thing that kinda got me concerned was how wen i turn off the light wich is still a freshwater light my light is ordered but still hasnt come in yet but im straying if the lights out he swims the the top of the tank not on his side or anything just like he does when hes swimming around hes very enrgetic in bursts he did a back flip earlier haha a couple suggestions ive had are that the current might be too strong and that i should turn off my filter wen i feed or that he needs a friend cuz it kinda seems like hes chasing his reflection haha all together my tank is going very well i take my water to the store weekly to get it tested and they are very prompt on letting me know wat my tanks ready for and wat it needs theyve told me my tank is done cycling so im wondering wat i can do to get him to eat ive also heard garlic may help any help at all is welcomed my dad is a great help as well but he had his tank in the eighties and first told me i had to buy some anenames and let them die in the tank to build bacteria haha wich i know is old school saltwater tank keeping
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The damsels will get aggressive,specially I see in the third picture you have a 3 stripe damsel wth are among the most aggressive in my experience,also don't buy bottle garlic from your fish store,by the way.When you get the moment observe the behavior closely,if he is getting chased away by any of the other fish.By the way welcome to the Hobby!:wave:
 
The orange stuff on the coral looks like detrius (sp), and is not harmful. You can use a brush to take it off when you do a water change (in the diry water). I use a unused bottle brush I got when my son was born. I have some on a rock we bought from the LFS. When we got the rock, it was pure white (bleached corraline) and now it is a beautiful golden color with some purple and pink corraline growing from the supplements we use. Depends what you are going for...
 
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