LeslieB
New Member
Please bare with me as I get you caught up to where I am currently with my saltwater adventure. I am a newbie and made a lot of mistakes getting started. First thing I did wrong was went to a pet store and talked to a sales rep about what I wanted to do. Not knowing that I should have went to an actual fish store. I was told what all I need to get and purchased a tank, and canister filter. I also got fake live rocks, fine sand and the only thing I probably got right was the Reef mix salt. I also used the Dr. Tim's ammonia to help the cycling. Then my biggest mistake was not researching what natural light would do to a tank, so I put it right in front of the window. The only good thing was it was on the north side of the house so hardly any sun came through the window, but apparently it doesn't have to be a lot of natural light to total mess things up. (but that wasn't figured out to later.
I found a LVS (hopefully I used the right term) store and they helped me with the proper bacteria to get the tank to fully cycle, and a protein skimmer. After the tank cycled for 5 weeks I started with 2 clowns, then a couple weeks later added a blue hippo tang, then I started to build my clean up crew. 2 Fire Shrimp. Then I got new tank syndrome. To help with this I added an emerald crab. The sand and the rock started to get really brown so I was told to get an emerald crab to help out the shrimp. Then green bubble algae start and it was suggested to get snails to help clean. 4 turbos and 10 Assassin Snails. And another fire shrimp. I am testing daily and water changing every two weeks. My PH started to vary from 7.75 to 7.9. I can not get it back 8.4.
Adding all of my fish and inverts was over 3 month period. All of my perimeters where staying in the normal range. Phosphate 1.5, Nitrate 10, KH 161.1. I have a meter in the tank that is on my phone that keeps me up to date every 30 minutes NH3 varies between .001 and the highest I have seen it is 0.010. When it gets above .007 that is when I do a water change. It also tells me the temperature and PH. I keep my Salt at 1.024 - 1.025. When it evaporates down it gets up to 1.026-1.028 depending on how much has evaporated.
After visiting the fish store and reading a lot and visiting different threads on newbie to saltwater aquarium , it was determined that my filtration system was not adequate to keep the tank clean. I was told that I purchased a fresh water system and that if I wanted to be successful that I needed to get a sump tank. I truly want to be successful at this. I love my fish and inverts. I want to eventually add corals. So I purchased a whole new sump tank, coarse crushed coral, removed half of my rocks from the old tank and throughly cleaned them, soaked them down in peroxide and made sure all of the Dinos and bubbles were gone. I am praying that they don't reappear. I set the new tank up on the opposite side of the room, used the reverse osmosis system and made 90 new gallons of salt water. I put the turbo 900 bacteria in and it has started the process of cycling. Of course nothing from my old tank would work in the new tank so everything is new. I am thinking it will probably be around the 4 - 5 week mark again before the new tank is cycled.
My question is, how do I transfer all of my babies from one tank to the other? I do not want to move everything at one time and the levels go out of whack. Do I move them a couple at a time. I am still fighting the Dinos, bubble algae and the ph in the current tank. So far I have only lost one of the shrimp who didn't make it through the molt. It was his third time in 3 months and for some reason did not survive the last one. Sorry for the long post.
I found a LVS (hopefully I used the right term) store and they helped me with the proper bacteria to get the tank to fully cycle, and a protein skimmer. After the tank cycled for 5 weeks I started with 2 clowns, then a couple weeks later added a blue hippo tang, then I started to build my clean up crew. 2 Fire Shrimp. Then I got new tank syndrome. To help with this I added an emerald crab. The sand and the rock started to get really brown so I was told to get an emerald crab to help out the shrimp. Then green bubble algae start and it was suggested to get snails to help clean. 4 turbos and 10 Assassin Snails. And another fire shrimp. I am testing daily and water changing every two weeks. My PH started to vary from 7.75 to 7.9. I can not get it back 8.4.
Adding all of my fish and inverts was over 3 month period. All of my perimeters where staying in the normal range. Phosphate 1.5, Nitrate 10, KH 161.1. I have a meter in the tank that is on my phone that keeps me up to date every 30 minutes NH3 varies between .001 and the highest I have seen it is 0.010. When it gets above .007 that is when I do a water change. It also tells me the temperature and PH. I keep my Salt at 1.024 - 1.025. When it evaporates down it gets up to 1.026-1.028 depending on how much has evaporated.
After visiting the fish store and reading a lot and visiting different threads on newbie to saltwater aquarium , it was determined that my filtration system was not adequate to keep the tank clean. I was told that I purchased a fresh water system and that if I wanted to be successful that I needed to get a sump tank. I truly want to be successful at this. I love my fish and inverts. I want to eventually add corals. So I purchased a whole new sump tank, coarse crushed coral, removed half of my rocks from the old tank and throughly cleaned them, soaked them down in peroxide and made sure all of the Dinos and bubbles were gone. I am praying that they don't reappear. I set the new tank up on the opposite side of the room, used the reverse osmosis system and made 90 new gallons of salt water. I put the turbo 900 bacteria in and it has started the process of cycling. Of course nothing from my old tank would work in the new tank so everything is new. I am thinking it will probably be around the 4 - 5 week mark again before the new tank is cycled.
My question is, how do I transfer all of my babies from one tank to the other? I do not want to move everything at one time and the levels go out of whack. Do I move them a couple at a time. I am still fighting the Dinos, bubble algae and the ph in the current tank. So far I have only lost one of the shrimp who didn't make it through the molt. It was his third time in 3 months and for some reason did not survive the last one. Sorry for the long post.
