3Poodles&Fish2
New Member
Hello,
I am in Ohio, and I just started my tank about 3 weeks ago. I am new to saltwater, but not freshwater. I have been out of the aquarium hobby for about 20-ish years. I have a 60-gallon cube with water that I made with a RO/DI system I purchased. After running with eighty pounds of live reef rock for about 10 days, I added twenty-five saltwater mollies to help me get through the first cycle. I noticed that the water had clouded up a little (gotten hazy if you will). My tests are running well. Ammonia is spiking (2.45 is the highest reading so far) and as of yesterday my nitrates are starting to register. Temp, salinity, etc. all is in acceptable ranges.
I use a 20-gallon sump and currently, there is just a heater and one-pound of carbon in mesh bags as this is what my LFS recommended – no mechanical filtration or skimmer. So questions that I have are, when do you put the sock filters back in, when do you start considering water changes, and when do you add a skimmer? I plan on using one of the sump sections as a refugium, so is a skimmer necessary?
The day after adding the fish (they were already acclimated to saltwater by the store), I had noticed a little fry that was swimming around and then I did not see him anymore, so I thought it got eaten. I figured it got scooped up and was not noticed by the store. Surprise, surprise, the little guy got into my sump, and he doubled in size in about a week's time. Yesterday, I had a little fumble accident installing a new mesh lid (in lieu of the glass lid that came with my tank) and I knocked over a few rocks. When fixing and restacking, I noticed about 10+ little baby mollies go swimming away from under one of the rocks. They are hiding under the rock and inside the holes of the rock. I had to look it up and found out that mollie give birth to live fry and not eggs like other fish. I read that at this point they are big enough not to be eaten by other mollies in the tank, but I am a bit skeptical if that is true…
Are they safe in the tank? I have no clue how to find and get them out into a nursery tank. They are about 1/4 to 1/2 inches long and there was a "cloud" of them that darted out from under a rock. Part of me is hesitant to disturb all the rock to track them down. To me that seems like a stressful event for everything involved.
I am also noticing a lot of debris on the bottom of the tank on top of the sand bed. At what point should I consider adding the cleanup crew?
I am thoroughly enjoying this so far, especially with my 2-year-old niece that is extremely excited about fish. I started her a 3-gallon tank with a few tetras and guppies. It’s her first order of business when waking up or coming home – got check on her fish!
I am in Ohio, and I just started my tank about 3 weeks ago. I am new to saltwater, but not freshwater. I have been out of the aquarium hobby for about 20-ish years. I have a 60-gallon cube with water that I made with a RO/DI system I purchased. After running with eighty pounds of live reef rock for about 10 days, I added twenty-five saltwater mollies to help me get through the first cycle. I noticed that the water had clouded up a little (gotten hazy if you will). My tests are running well. Ammonia is spiking (2.45 is the highest reading so far) and as of yesterday my nitrates are starting to register. Temp, salinity, etc. all is in acceptable ranges.
I use a 20-gallon sump and currently, there is just a heater and one-pound of carbon in mesh bags as this is what my LFS recommended – no mechanical filtration or skimmer. So questions that I have are, when do you put the sock filters back in, when do you start considering water changes, and when do you add a skimmer? I plan on using one of the sump sections as a refugium, so is a skimmer necessary?
The day after adding the fish (they were already acclimated to saltwater by the store), I had noticed a little fry that was swimming around and then I did not see him anymore, so I thought it got eaten. I figured it got scooped up and was not noticed by the store. Surprise, surprise, the little guy got into my sump, and he doubled in size in about a week's time. Yesterday, I had a little fumble accident installing a new mesh lid (in lieu of the glass lid that came with my tank) and I knocked over a few rocks. When fixing and restacking, I noticed about 10+ little baby mollies go swimming away from under one of the rocks. They are hiding under the rock and inside the holes of the rock. I had to look it up and found out that mollie give birth to live fry and not eggs like other fish. I read that at this point they are big enough not to be eaten by other mollies in the tank, but I am a bit skeptical if that is true…
Are they safe in the tank? I have no clue how to find and get them out into a nursery tank. They are about 1/4 to 1/2 inches long and there was a "cloud" of them that darted out from under a rock. Part of me is hesitant to disturb all the rock to track them down. To me that seems like a stressful event for everything involved.
I am also noticing a lot of debris on the bottom of the tank on top of the sand bed. At what point should I consider adding the cleanup crew?
I am thoroughly enjoying this so far, especially with my 2-year-old niece that is extremely excited about fish. I started her a 3-gallon tank with a few tetras and guppies. It’s her first order of business when waking up or coming home – got check on her fish!
