First Tank need advice,

[mike1988]

So as you can see I have a new hobbie! My first salt water fish tank. Its a fish only tank. I purvhased it from someone who had it for a month, so I was already a month into the two month cycle, because when I purchased the tank, filter, light, and everything else he had, I showed up with great bear jugs, and took his water also. I have the tank for two weeks myself, but my Nitrate, and Nitrite are not dropping. My PH is holding steady in the middle, and my Ammonia level is at 0.

My question is, will the Nitrate & Nitrite drop by themselves? If so how long will it take to drop. They are right in the middle of the chart for the last week.

My second question is, when and how often do I change my filter pad? My filter is a Pro Clear Aquatic System. Its clear, the water comes in throught the syphon hose, throught a pad, down through bio balls, over a flow level and back up into my tank.

Another question I have is, when do I vaccume the tank? Do I do that when I do my water change?

I have some Damsels in there and they are doing fine, I mean they loook healthy, and I never heard them complain! lol.

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciate!

Thank You!

Mike

 

[pat8you]

will the Nitrate & Nitrite drop by themselves?

The nitrIte will drop to zero if your tank is cycled. The NitrAte will continually build up in your system and is a large part of the reason you need to do water changes to maintain a healthy tank. I would suggest reading this article on the cycle.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/3/1/Cycle-your-salt-tank/Page1.html

when and how often do I change my filter pad?

I would clean the pad once a week. Don't buy a whole new pad every week unless it is one of those cartridges that has activated carbon sandwiched in between. If that is the case, clean once a week and change once a month. If it is just a pad or sponge then it only needs to be changed for a new one when it gets really nasty or falls apart. Cleaning each week will be fine. It is actually providing a good amount of surface area for the bacteria that cycles your tank to grow.

when do I vaccume the tank? Do I do that when I do my water change?

You should not need to vaccume the tank at all unless you have crushed coral or gravel. You should change about 10% of the volume of the tank about once a week.

I have some Damsels in there and they are doing fine

Damsels are tuff cookies. If they have survived so far they should be ok. Go to the articles section of this forum on the toolbar at the top. It hads a lot of articles that will answer some questions for you and be a big help. As far as advice, the only key to success in this hobby is patience and research. I would post the specs of your tank up here so people can get and idea of what your working with.

filter details
lights
size of tank
amount of rock
type of substrate
type and number of fish

That was people will be able to look it over and offer some tips. They may see a problem or offer advice depending on your set up.

 

[thincat]

Good advice...If you are doing a fish with LR tank you can keep the bio-balls and use the as a wet/dry filter, just do PWC's to reduce the Nitrate level. If you will be doing a "reef" system, get rid of the wet/dry filter as your Lr and sand will be your main filter. Also pick up a protein skimmer to help get rid of DOS in your tank.

 

[melosu58]

If you read that article that Pat gave you you`ll see what the fish are going through. That article is a must read for all SW starters.