Need advice BEFORE I set up!

[Grizz]

Yes you should dose, I try to keep the ammo level as close to zero as i can That alone will stress your stock a lot Burns there gills making it harder for them to breathe

[Callen]

My anemone won't stay put!


My DT has been lying fallow while I moved my fish into QT to treat ich. All have died except one blue devil damsel

Anyway, the DT is so beautiful and looks empty with OT my red starfish and two turbo snails. My lazy hermit crabs are nothing more than decoration at this point! Over the weekend I purchased a sebae anemone and a tuxedo urchin. I thought the anemone had found a happy place, but it moves every 2 days or so. Actually it isn't moving, but appears to have let go of its rock and the water flow has moved it to another spot in the tank. It ends up in the same place every time and isn't attached to anything there. Ill reach in and rescue it and place it back on a rock where it will attach and stay for a while. I've put it in a different place each time, hoping to find something it will like.

I've fed it once with a turkey baster ( cool to watch) and I'm putting microvert in the water. It appears healthy, just won't stay put.

Any suggestions for a good location?

[Greenstreet.1]

Well they like good flow and your levels have to be on point how long have your tank been running now ?

[Dav3]

Tank is way too new to be adding anemone(s) barely 3 months since you started your cycle. You need to wait another 9 months. You should take it back. The fact that it is actually disconnecting from your rock to float away means it isn't happy at all and will probably die. Slightly unhappy they will move around manually not attempt to float away.

[TheTodd]

+1...9-12 months before adding anemones is a pretty standard rule.

[Callen]

Well, shoot! Not sure if the store will take it back, but I will look into it. I went in for some corals and they told me my tank hadn't been running long enough for them. Funny they didn't say the same for the anemone.

For the sake of learning more myself, and hopefully letting a few others learn from my mistakes, can y'all tell me a little about why 9-12 months is the norm? After the initial cycle, what happens in the tank over time to make it "mature?"

[Gregcoyote]

Tanks continue to cycle throughout their lives, it's how they process organic wastes. The first cycle a tank does is extreme usually and why having livestock present isn't a good idea. The cycles then even out and the peaks flatten out. To fully "mature" a tank to reef quality and stabilize it takes a bit of time. I don't think you can hurry the process. I tend to equate it to gardening, where you prepare the soil a long time in advance for certain crops. Maybe a bad analogy but this seasoning process seems real and most folks adhere to it.

Fish stores are in a hurry to stock you up. If you want to be really successful at this, be patient and select your livestock purposefully rather than a quick decision at the LFS. But that's almost impossible to do! So at least carry a smart phone with LiveAquaria.com running on it and use their guidelines. Better than guessing.

[Dav3]

I would consider finding another lfs if you can. They gave you bad info in all regards. Anemones need more time but you can stock some easy corals pretty early.

If it's not a small lfs ask to speak to a manager. You were given bad advice and they should take back the anemone with a full refund.

[Callen]

What about power outages?

Thunderstorm just came through and we lost power for about an hour. One of the boys asked if the fish and inverts would be ok, which got me to thinking: How long can a tank go without circulation?

[Dav3]

You need to get oxygen in the tank. If you don't have backup power then you can take a clean pitcher or other container and dip it in the tank to fill it and then raise it above the tank and poor the contents back in. There were a couple of threads on here in the past week discussing power outage options

[Gregcoyote]

Gas exchange is part of the problem, but if you have coral it is lack of flow that can kill them. Corals need constant flow in order to "breath."

[Callen]

Is algae really that bad?

While my fish have been in the QT all I've really managed to do was grow some algae. Seems like one day there wasn't any and the next day it was everywhere! I've been dropping in a little fish food every 3 days or so to give the ammonia eating bacteria something to work on. I went to local hardware stores and wasn't able to find pure ammonia.

Is this what I should be doing right now? Or do my few critters produce enough waste to keep the system in check? I've got 2 turbo snails, 2 red hermits and about 3 of the aforementioned lazy hermits that came from the gulf. Then there's the tuxedo urchin, the red star and the controversial sebae anemone ( couldn't take him back) but pleased to report that he has found a happy place, appears to be healthy and is eating well. Fingers crossed.

[Gregcoyote]

Algae and seawater go together, so no, it's not always a bad thing. I use it in a algae scrubber to filter my tank. Many use it in their sumps as nitrogen absorbers. It's when it chokes out corals and covers everything that it becomes a nuisance. But even then I have seen healthy corals push algae back. You have to remove the algae and the organics the algae thrives on, not just depend on any CUC to do the job. They just recycle the wastes for the most part. But having some algae is pretty much part of the whole reef thing.

[Sniperhank]

Algae can be one if the biggest pains in your tank, but it is also save you money. If it is in your display tank it is ugly as sin...for the most part. It can also easily overtake corals and smother them.
I'm constantly battling this in my tank with this red hair algae. Stuff is like a bristle on a wire brush. Like stated above, I run a light in my sump to grow it in there to prevent growth in my display. Eventually will build an algae turf scrubber, but that'll be a ways away.

[Callen]

A few questions for the day:

Q1: still wondering if I need to add an ammonia source to keep the bacteria happy. I'm not putting any type of food in the tank. Is the urchin and snail poo enough of a source?

Q2: speaking of poo: do I need to siphon it out somehow? I've got diatoms too and between the two my sand looks dirty.

[Sniperhank]

I keep the shrimp in until you have no reading on ammonia or nitrite. Water change to bring the nitrate down, and them add a fish after taking out the shrimp. The bacteria will continue to be fed by the fish waste, so no need for the shrimp.

[Callen]

My tank is already cycled. I had to take the fish out because of ich. I read that you need to keep an ammonia source going or all of the beneficial bacteria will die off because they don't have anything to feed from. I was just dropping fish food in every few days but I stopped doing that because my nitrates were climbing. I had done a great job of keeping them under 5 when i had fish. Then they got up to 20 or maybe more without fish. I still had the inverts in there though and don't feed them anything. They are all algae eaters except the anemone which I target feed a few times per week. So that is the reason for my question. If I have a 75 gallon tank with 2 red hermit crabs, 2 "lazy" hermit crabs, 2 turbo snails, 1 small ( 2 inch) star fish, 1 tuxedo urchin, and 1 anemone (3-4 inches), are they producing enough ammonia to keep the BB fed?

[Grizz]

I would keep feeding the tank The bacti level will keep pace with the ammo source, if you let it die off your gonna get a spike when you put the fish back in there.

Add the fish slowly so the bacti can adjust to the load. Keep up with the PWC's as if there were still fish in the main tank.

[Callen]

Any recommendation on what to feed and how often to do it? We don't have pure ammonia locally so vie been guesstimating w frozen fish food cubes

[Grizz]

I used flake. (every other day) any type of fish food will work as it will break down and feed the BB The CUC will consume some so it all dont go to waste.