Nervous Newbie!

[Edmonton Eskimo]

Well I have made a few posts here and got some good advice and now I need more advice. My tank has been up for 6 weeks now and I had 2 ocellaris clowns but now I have one. I also have a coral beauty angelfish,a fire goby,a cleaner shrimp and a few hermit crabs. My tank is 50 gals. I have about 20 pounds of live rock,some honeycomb rock,some lace rock,1 piece of lava rock and one piece of slate rock. I have an emperor bio-wheel filter with phosphate sponge,filter floss and a little activated carbon. I also have one powerhead(can't remember what kind but it is rated for up to 70 gals). I have been up on checking all my parameters and my salinity is 1.024 ammonia,nitrite,nitrate are all at 0. My ph is 8.2. The reason why I am a little nervous is as I said earlier is that one of my clowns just died right out of the blue. Last night he was fine. I spend a lot of time watching them and I didn't notice anything different at all. Do I have proper filtration,water movement? Is the rock that I have in there o.k? I don't want to lose any more fish. I know it's only one fish but is a sign for bad things to come? Any expert advice would be awesome.

 

[Atari]

I've heard some bad things about lava rock.. never used any myself so can't confirm but you might want to do some searching around on google.

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I just did a quick search and all the websites say lava rock is ok. Lava rock is also used as a filter media isn't it. I did here that lace rock was bad but they didn't know why. Does anyone know?

 

[Atari]

I think it has to do with contamination from heavy metal deposits.

 

[phases99]

That slate rock could be leaching something. I wouldn't take the chance with it.

 

[Mr. R]

That slate rock could be leaching something. I wouldn't take the chance with it.

If there is actually something wrong I would say that this is probably most accurate. Of course, there is that fact that saltwater fish are just kinda iffy. That's why pet stores have no guarantee on them. I had two clowns die for no apparant reason before. Those were perculas. I had heard they weren't shipping well so that may be it.

 

[austinsdad]

Edmonton, are you you sure the good bacteria has established well enough in just 6 weeks for that fish load? I guess you'd have seen some chemical problems if so, huh? QTing fish too, right?

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I've got three fish why is that a big fish load?

 

[austinsdad]

I guess I wuz reacting to the 4 fish and the fact that you said the tank was "up" for 6 weeks. Thought "up" was from the time you took it out the box. I see now you meant cycled and with fish. OK.

 

[nodoubt471]

it could be the metals leeching from either the slate or the lace rock. i dont think its the lava rock either, ive used that as base rock in my tank and ive never had a problem with it.

Mr.R also had a point that clowns dont always ship well, do you know how long the dealer had him in their tanks? if it was just a short while perhaps stress related to shipping was the reason.

as long as the rest of the fish are looking good and eating well i wouldnt worry so much about it.

HTH

 

[Guest]

If your readings are all well then chances are the fish just died , nothing more but I do have a question for you
why do you have your salt level so high ,in a just fish / live rock tank 1.020 to 1.022 is where you want to be
I keep mine in the middle at 1.021 ,also I hate to mention this to you but angel fish are hard to keep in captivity ,I've been doing this for a few years and never had luck with them ,there beautiful fish but not one to keep, do the research ,I did and found that angel fish, butterfly fish do not do well at all
try to stay with hardy hard to kill fish like groupers (check out the panther grouper) cool fish, puffers-box fish-triggers-certain tangs are ok, stay away from yellow and blue hypo, they always seem to get ick ,the nasa tang, sail fin and unicorn are ok, the clown tang also hard to keep
Do the research before buying the fish, these fish stores just want to sell to you ,they don't tell you what does well and what does not
Also heres a little something for you to do before you buy the fish, look him over well ,if you see any discolor or spots that don't belong as well as sores or a cloudy eye ,stay away
Also I make them feed the fish for me before I buy it ,any healthy fish will always eat, if it does not then move on another fish or wait until you find a healthy one

 

[Atari]

why do you have your salt level so high ,in a just fish / live rock tank 1.020 to 1.022 is where you want to be
I keep mine in the middle at 1.021

Actually NSW salinity is 35 ppt which equates to a SG of 1.025. There's no reason not to keep it at this level.

 

[Guest]

Not really sure ,I know I was told if your not going to do corals then 20 to 22 is where you want to be, in fact when I was thinking of using water from the ocean that they now sell at the fish store I asked about the salinity since it is higher, I was told if not doing corals lower it , dilute it down
also I was told lower salt level is better in the prevention of things like ick, not sure if thats true or not

 

[steve-s]

also I was told lower salt level is better in the prevention of things like ick, not sure if thats true or not

Lower than NSW levels will not benefit anything or help with prasitic problems unless lowwered much more to an actual treatment level. Maintaining lower salinity levels long term can actually cause internal organ damage over time and shorten the life span of your fish.

What you have been told is a complete myth.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Guest]

Wow I'm confused now because all the stores and fish people out here say between 20 and 22 and that's how I've been doing it for about four years
Does in very from state to state? and does it matter weather you have corals or not?

 

[Atari]

I don't see why it would vary.. if the salinity in the reef is 35 then it wouldn't matter if you're keeping fish or corals or whatever, they all live in the same salinity in the wild. It's pretty easy to understand how not using natural levels would be detrimental. It is for humans.

 

[steve-s]

Wow I'm confused now because all the stores and fish people out here say between 20 and 22 and that's how I've been doing it for about four years

Popular thought does not make something correct, just easily accepted. The main reason it got started was a way of saving money and a misunderstanding of parasite biology. Neither of which are true or beneficial.

I will search for a decent article on the subject as far as overall fish health and post one if available. As far as C. irritans is concerned though, it has been quite well proven that with the most common variety, only a salinity of 16 ppt will begin to affect it's lifecycle but preferabley 14 ppt.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Guest]

Thank's for the info, I wonder if it makes a difference in where the fish came from like the red sea or ect or are all oceans pretty much the same

 

[steve-s]

red sea or ect or are all oceans pretty much the same

Most reef area's will be at the same general salinity for the most part. You'll find that some will be even higher depending on rain fall. It affects the salinity quite a bit more when your talking about closed bodies of water. If you where to set up a "region specific" tank with animals only harvested from a particular area, then it would be a benefit to find out what you can.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Guest]

I here what your saying, just wish it was cut and dry ,I read a few more articles that state 1.023 to 1.026 so it tends to very