Beginner in reef keeping need suggestions

[knight]

I am new to this reef keeping. I have had my tank up since Christmas. Right now i have 23lbs of live rock and 30lbs of live sand for a 29gallon biocube. i have 4 fish: a yellow tail damsel fish, a six line wrasse, a ocillarus clown fish, and a green manderin fish. I also have a bta and a bunch of mushrooms/ricordeas , and some polyps. I have a descent clean up crew with 5 blue leg hermit crabs, 2 scarlet hermit crabs, one zebra hermit crab, 5 turbo snails, 6 cerith snails, a emerald crab, and a sand sifting sea star. I have modified the filter for a extra sponge and filter floss. I also added a extra power head. I need to know more about feeding and if i am going to fast. Any other suggestions would be helpful to. I am going to try and put up a picture.

 

 

[LaceySaysMeow]

I'm new myself, but I'll try to help you. (welcome to nano-reef!)

You're in the wrong forum, which is maybe why no one has replied... (picos are tanks under 5g)

but here goes

Take your mandarin back to the store. He'll starve. They only eat copepods and there's no way your tank has enough of them yet (unless he's eating frozen mysis, then you might be ok)

You seem to be moving pretty fast with everything, did you let your tank cycle before adding the fish/anemone/corals? How long have you had them?

If you added all those fish at once it might have shocked your system so definitely make sure to test your water.

And I'm not sure what the stock lighting is on the biocubes but I don't know that it will be enough for the anemone to thrive...

Your tank does look nice though, just remember, go slowly and research everything before you add it!

[mmelnick]

 

 

enough said.

[Weetabix7]

I'm new myself, but I'll try to help you. (welcome to nano-reef!)

You're in the wrong forum, which is maybe why no one has replied... (picos are tanks under 5g)

but here goes

Take your mandarin back to the store. He'll starve. They only eat copepods and there's no way your tank has enough of them yet (unless he's eating frozen mysis, then you might be ok)

You seem to be moving pretty fast with everything, did you let your tank cycle before adding the fish/anemone/corals? How long have you had them?

If you added all those fish at once it might have shocked your system so definitely make sure to test your water.

And I'm not sure what the stock lighting is on the biocubes but I don't know that it will be enough for the anemone to thrive...

Your tank does look nice though, just remember, go slowly and research everything before you add it!

 

+1, well put.

[adinsxq]

dude.... you have a cup in your tank.

[masterbuilder]

Lacey is right. And...yes...you are going fast. Return the mandarin and the bta...they wont make it. The remaining fish will just about eat anything, variety is the key and don’t feed more than every other day. I would get rid of the sponge all together and just use the floss. If you have the bio-balls in there get rid of them too. Change the floss at least once a week. Be sure to do a 20% water change EVERY week and NEVER miss one... that’s the whole trick to nano reefing (other than reading every thread you can on this forum). Things look good.

 

Best advise I can give is to read this thread from front to back,,,,its very long but you will have many of your questions answered. If you do what Steelhealr did you will be OK.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...hl=submersible#

 

Mark

 

p.s. The sea star make me worry too…maybe someone with more info on those will speak up.

[lakshwadeep]

I have modified the filter for a extra sponge and filter floss. I also added a extra power head.

 

I agree with everything the previous posters said. I think you should "modify" your filter even more by getting rid of the sponge and all filter floss. They will just become excess nitrate factories because the bacteria in them are all aerobic (which means they need oxygen and will convert fish waste from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate). Nitrate (NO₃⁻) is much less toxic than NH₄⁺ (ammonia) and nitrite (NO₂⁻). However even though nitrates can be tolerated a little above 0 ppm, they are much harder to eliminate because the bacteria that convert nitrate to nitrogen gas (N₂ which will dissolve into the air) are anaerobic (they live in very low oxygen level areas). Anaerobic areas are hard to find in an aquarium (basically in deep rock crevices and the bottom of the sand), and the addition of your filter media exacerbates the situation.

[knight]

thx for all the help guys. The Bta has found himself i nice spot at the top of the tank and is thriving there. The manderin fish has so many coepeopods he can't eat them all. I am still getting them in my filter. I did some water tests and all of the results for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are 0ppm. The sponge i think i will keep because it pushes all the bio-balls down into water which makes them more anaerobic. My lighting system is stock lighting which is 10,000k and actinic. The lighting seems to do just fine for all the corals. They are all starting to split and the cup is our nursery for corals to attach to rocks because we bought frags. The bta was an accident because he is real small and we thought he was a ricordea but he is a bta and i like him and he seems to have found a spot and we feed him 3 times a week. Thanks for all the posts i am still learning so all help is appreciated.

[Pinner Reef]

It may look as though you have a lot of pods ATM but the manderin can wipe out a highly populated 29g in 5mos or less depending on how fast they are reproducing. That gives you about two months of time before you watch your fish die a slow and horrible death.

 

Anerobic bacteria thrives in stagnate water at the bottom of deep sand beds and deep within the LR, any oxygen will wipe out the population. Your probably thinking of areobic bacteria in which case bioballs will help for a while however in due time these become nitrate factories as the anerobic bacteria have no place to populate. Your best bet is to swap out the bio-balls with LR rubble as this allows the aerobic bacteria to thrive on the outer surfaces with anerobic bacteria deeper in the rubble preventing build up of nitrates.

 

As your sponges are in high flow areas as well they make good filters (both Mechanical and biological) for about a month before they become another nitrate factory for reasons stated above. Rinse them out with the hottest water possible or swap them out with dry ones every month to prevent this from happening.

 

Keep an eye on that BTA as stated. If you see it lighten up any take it back as this is a sign of light starvation. Nems need more than just meaty foods to survive.

 

Your sand sifting star is in the same boat as your Manderan he will litterally eat himself out of house and home within the next few months.

 

HTH

 

-pinner