Johnny's Waterbox Peninsula 15G

[Tritone]

1 minute ago, johnnyvega252 said:

I currently buy my water. My tank is so small. I might end up just buying distilled water and mixing my own. The LFS I go to is highly regarded and they use Tropic Marine Marine Pro Reef Salt. 

Ok, keep it simple then for now and buy your mix and Rodi. But do check the mix every time to be on safe side.

[Tritone]

PS

During cycle keep lights off. Don’t have neither carbon nor floss in filtration and a temperature of about 24c. No higher. 
This in my personal experience to reduce risk of unwanted algae/Cyanobacteria 

[johnnyvega252]

23 minutes ago, Tritone said:

PS

During cycle keep lights off. Don’t have neither carbon nor floss in filtration and a temperature of about 24c. No higher. 
This in my personal experience to reduce risk of unwanted algae/Cyanobacteria 

Yeah lights have been off and no filter floss is being run in the system. Do you think I should switch test kits? 

[johnnyvega252]

So getting ready to head to class and I decided I would test the tank before I left. As @Tritone suggested only tested Nitrite and Ammonia. Tested Nitrate after Nitrite read 0ppm

[Tritone]

12 hours ago, johnnyvega252 said:

Yeah lights have been off and no filter floss is being run in the system. Do you think I should switch test kits? 

No, stick to API. 

[Tritone]

11 hours ago, johnnyvega252 said:

So getting ready to head to class and I decided I would test the tank before I left. As @Tritone suggested only tested Nitrite and Ammonia. Tested Nitrate after Nitrite read 0ppm

Keep dosing ammonia to 2. And see how long it takes to go down again. When it’s processed in 24hours it should be cycled.

[johnnyvega252]

8 hours ago, Tritone said:

Keep dosing ammonia to 2. And see how long it takes to go down again. When it’s processed in 24hours it should be cycled.

Okay so today I tested again and got the same readings zero ammonia and zero nitrate. As @Tritone suggested I dosed ammonia one more time to 2ppm and will be testing again tomorrow at around 1:00pm. I guess my only other question is I really dont want to add fish until my new lid comes in. I think its going to take a couple of weeks more. Can I sustain the bacteria fishless or should I add my clowns and risk them jumping out ?.

[Murphs_Reef]

1 minute ago, johnnyvega252 said:

Okay so today I tested again and got the same readings zero ammonia and zero nitrate. As @Tritone suggested I dosed ammonia one more time to 2ppm and will be testing again tomorrow at around 1:00pm. I guess my only other question is I really dont want to add fish until my new lid comes in. I think its going to take a couple of weeks more. Can I sustain the bacteria fishless or should I add my clowns and risk them jumping out ?.

Yeah don't rush at it dude. Get the lid first. Half the fun is waiting for the reward no? 

 

[Tritone]

56 minutes ago, johnnyvega252 said:

Okay so today I tested again and got the same readings zero ammonia and zero nitrate. As @Tritone suggested I dosed ammonia one more time to 2ppm and will be testing again tomorrow at around 1:00pm. I guess my only other question is I really dont want to add fish until my new lid comes in. I think its going to take a couple of weeks more. Can I sustain the bacteria fishless or should I add my clowns and risk them jumping out ?.

Let us know your reading tomorrow and we’ll advise accordingly.

By the way, I’ve forgot to ask if you have a skimmer… keep it off. If you have a purigen, take it out. 

 

Just now, Tritone said:

Let us know your reading tomorrow and we’ll advise accordingly.

By the way, I’ve forgot to ask if you have a skimmer… keep it off. If you have a purigen, take it out. 

 

Where are you keeping the Clowns?

[johnnyvega252]

22 hours ago, Tritone said:

Let us know your reading tomorrow and we’ll advise accordingly.

By the way, I’ve forgot to ask if you have a skimmer… keep it off. If you have a purigen, take it out. 

 

Where are you keeping the Clowns?

Im not keeping any clowns lol. Just looking forward to having them. I tested water today after dosing ammonia yesterday and I am at 1ppm. So cycle isn’t quite done. I will wait and test again tomorrow. No form of Filtration media or skimmer are being used. Sorry no pics today I was running late for work.

[Tritone]

4 hours ago, johnnyvega252 said:

Im not keeping any clowns lol. Just looking forward to having them. I tested water today after dosing ammonia yesterday and I am at 1ppm. So cycle isn’t quite done. I will wait and test again tomorrow. No form of Filtration media or skimmer are being used. Sorry no pics today I was running late for work.

Ok, excellent. 

[Tritone]

Any news?

[johnnyvega252]

22 hours ago, Tritone said:

Any news?

I tested today and I am at 0ppm ammonia but nitrates are .50 ppm. Should I dose ammonia again? Also there are some brown spots on my rock which I think are diatoms not sure super small specks that were not there before. I have been running this tank without a light. Either way I think I am going to wait for my lid to come in from The Kraken Reef it was ordered last week so It might be a couple more weeks before I add any fish. I'm too scared of them jumping out. Especially since I want to go with some nice Picassos or Snowflake Clowns.  

[M. Tournesol]

When you will be done cycling your tank, you could simply go for a CUC and add pods. 2 weeks after adding your snails or/and hermits, if nobody dies, a fish or a pair of fishes shouldn't pose a problem 😉.

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by M. Tournesol

[M. Tournesol]

When you will be done cycling your tank, if you see a cheap 10-20$ easy coral at your LFT that you like, don't hesitate. At worse it will be your first sacrifice, at best it will tell you that your tank is ready for more corals 😉.

Edited September 6, 2021 by M. Tournesol

[johnnyvega252]

5 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

When you will be done cycling your tank, you could simply go for a CUC and add pods. 2 weeks after adding your snails or/and hermits, if nobody dies, a fish or a pair of fishes shouldn't pose a problem 😉.

 

 

 

Yeah I was looking at Poseidon's Feast Copepods from Algae Barn. I was thinking of ordering that tonight. What do you think? Too soon? 

[M. Tournesol]

Copepods are very, very, very bulletproof animals. Should be no problem. Just don't forget do feed your tank a little with algae pellet (or dead/alive phytoplankton) if your tank does not have enough algae.

Edited September 7, 2021 by M. Tournesol

[Tritone]

15 hours ago, johnnyvega252 said:

I tested today and I am at 0ppm ammonia but nitrates are .50 ppm. Should I dose ammonia again? Also there are some brown spots on my rock which I think are diatoms not sure super small specks that were not there before. I have been running this tank without a light. Either way I think I am going to wait for my lid to come in from The Kraken Reef it was ordered last week so It might be a couple more weeks before I add any fish. I'm too scared of them jumping out. Especially since I want to go with some nice Picassos or Snowflake Clowns.  

How’s your Nitrite?

[johnnyvega252]

8 hours ago, Tritone said:

How’s your Nitrite?

My bad it was a typo my Nitrite was at .50 ppm.

[johnnyvega252]

I tested today and Nitrite and Ammonia were both 0.0ppm. Should I dose again and see if the tank can process the ammonia down to 0.0ppm in 24 hours? 

[Tritone]

It is the best way. Remind me, did you use dry rock?

If you used, live or liferock then you probably won’t need to and you can go ahead 
like M. Tournesol suggested putting some cleaning crew and feed them as there’s nothing to clean. Start checking Nitrate. In a weeks time check all 3 parameters. If Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and Nitrate is about 10-20ppm then go ahead with Clowns.

 

[blizzardscout2]

The aquascape looks excellent, nice job. 

[johnnyvega252]

On 9/7/2021 at 5:15 PM, Tritone said:

It is the best way. Remind me, did you use dry rock?

If you used, live or liferock then you probably won’t need to and you can go ahead 
like M. Tournesol suggested putting some cleaning crew and feed them as there’s nothing to clean. Start checking Nitrate. In a weeks time check all 3 parameters. If Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and Nitrate is about 10-20ppm then go ahead with Clowns.

 

I used dry rock. So I ended up adding an assortment of snails and hermits on Tuesday. I have fed them mysis shrimp and ammonia today was at 0.0ppm and nitrite was 0.05ppm.   I will test nitrate tomorrow. 

[johnnyvega252]

So a lot has happened since I updated last. This past Wednesday I added two clowns to the tank. On Monday my ammonia was 0ppm, ph was 8.0, nitrite was 0.0, and nitrate was 20ppm. I did a 70% water change Monday before adding clowns. My LFS called me to tell me the snowflake clowns were in stock and went to pick them up. I bought two clowns and drip acclimated them for 45 minutes using the IM acclimation tool. I made sure to double their water volume twice over to have them adjust to the new tank water. 
 

On Thursday I noticed one of them was being bullied by the other clown and sure enough it had what looked like ich, velvet, or brookynella on him . I went ahead and ordered some stuff from petco to setup a hospital tank. I was going to dose cupramine but by the time I got home last night the fish had passed. What is odd was the fish never really had trouble breathing. There was ever only two maybe three specks of what I thought to be a parasitic infection. Eventually I noticed a lesion on him that looked like a wound and by the time I tried to help him he passed. The other clown is doing great eating like a pig but he hates fresh frozen food only likes new life spectrum Thera+A. I’m debating on moving him to the hospital tank to quarantine and risk him getting stressed. I think I’m going to wait to see if he begins to show symptoms of infection.

 

I think I’m going to hold off on adding any more fish for a while. Maybe add my cleaner shrimp don’t know yet. I will begin to add some coral this week to test the waters just waiting on my coral dip to come in. 
 

Sometimes no matter what you do can prevent failures in life and in this hobby. In retrospect I could have set up a quarantine tank but in the past I’ve had parasitic infections happen even after quarantining fish for upwards of 8 weeks. I have come to the realization that you win some and lose some. I think we always lay blame to our selves and our lfs when we think they can’t handle fish. From doing research I have seen people who go all out and do everything by the book and then some and others who just wing it in a sense, and both styles have seen great successes. I’m really trying not to get discouraged here… So I think I’ll begin to add zoas or mushrooms for now and hold off on adding critters. Also I ordered some coralline algae spores and pods from Algaebarn over the Memorial Day sale to see if it was worth it. Sorry for lack of pictures I am writing this from work don’t tell my boss haha 😁!

[Tritone]

13 hours ago, johnnyvega252 said:

So a lot has happened since I updated last. This past Wednesday I added two clowns to the tank. On Monday my ammonia was 0ppm, ph was 8.0, nitrite was 0.0, and nitrate was 20ppm. I did a 70% water change Monday before adding clowns. My LFS called me to tell me the snowflake clowns were in stock and went to pick them up. I bought two clowns and drip acclimated them for 45 minutes using the IM acclimation tool. I made sure to double their water volume twice over to have them adjust to the new tank water. 
 

On Thursday I noticed one of them was being bullied by the other clown and sure enough it had what looked like ich, velvet, or brookynella on him . I went ahead and ordered some stuff from petco to setup a hospital tank. I was going to dose cupramine but by the time I got home last night the fish had passed. What is odd was the fish never really had trouble breathing. There was ever only two maybe three specks of what I thought to be a parasitic infection. Eventually I noticed a lesion on him that looked like a wound and by the time I tried to help him he passed. The other clown is doing great eating like a pig but he hates fresh frozen food only likes new life spectrum Thera+A. I’m debating on moving him to the hospital tank to quarantine and risk him getting stressed. I think I’m going to wait to see if he begins to show symptoms of infection.

 

I think I’m going to hold off on adding any more fish for a while. Maybe add my cleaner shrimp don’t know yet. I will begin to add some coral this week to test the waters just waiting on my coral dip to come in. 
 

Sometimes no matter what you do can prevent failures in life and in this hobby. In retrospect I could have set up a quarantine tank but in the past I’ve had parasitic infections happen even after quarantining fish for upwards of 8 weeks. I have come to the realization that you win some and lose some. I think we always lay blame to our selves and our lfs when we think they can’t handle fish. From doing research I have seen people who go all out and do everything by the book and then some and others who just wing it in a sense, and both styles have seen great successes. I’m really trying not to get discouraged here… So I think I’ll begin to add zoas or mushrooms for now and hold off on adding critters. Also I ordered some coralline algae spores and pods from Algaebarn over the Memorial Day sale to see if it was worth it. Sorry for lack of pictures I am writing this from work don’t tell my boss haha 😁!

Sorry to hear.

Do treat your other clown though.

Cross out that shop from your list. Before buying anything, visit the shop and satisfy that their tank are spotless and see if their live stock looks well looked after. 
See if you have other hobbyists near you and network for advice etc.