HkySk8r187 Posted July 19, 2005 Author Share Posted July 19, 2005 Todays water parameters are: ammonia 0 nitrite 0.2 nitrate .25 ph 7.9 temp 80.1f SG 1.024 Link to comment
Cholesterol Posted July 19, 2005 Share Posted July 19, 2005 It's normal for it to get that brown. Parameters definitely getting there! Link to comment
revkev6 Posted July 19, 2005 Share Posted July 19, 2005 yep, I would say it won't be very long until you are ready to add your cleanup crew. biggest thing now is to keep at that PH. mine went from 7.8-8.2-3 with only about 3 spoonfulls...... or three days worth. pretty much stayed there after that. I used distilled water though. I do add a spoonfull every once in a while when I do a water change though. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted July 21, 2005 Author Share Posted July 21, 2005 New test reading from tonight: ammonia 0.2 nitrite 0.15 nitrate 1.25 ph 7.9 temp 82.6f SG 1.024 Looks like ammonia going back up? Is that weird? Also I still haven't seen a single form of life from my rock (pods, worms, etc). Only lots of little tiny featherdusters. Is it normal not to see pods durring this phase? Seems that everyone else sees thousands of em durring their cycle. I hope I have some and they haven't all died somehow. Link to comment
revkev6 Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 don't worry about not seeing pods yet, I didn't see any for at least a month. Even then it wasn't until I added some chaeto that I had significant amount of them. as far as your slight increase in ammonia, has anything died off in your tank? you may just be getting a little secondary die off. Like that sponge you mentioned. Oh, and featherdusters are worms...... Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted July 22, 2005 Author Share Posted July 22, 2005 Originally posted by revkev6 Oh, and featherdusters are worms...... Right, I know that. Should have clarified what I meant by worms though. Seems that other people see bristle worms and other types of sand worms come from their rocks. Anyhow, I wont worry about not seeing pods yet then. Chaeto is the green macroalgea that uses nitrate right? You have to have a sump to have it? Also how does having Chaeto help with pods? I'm going to test my water again tonight and see where it stands. I haven't noticed any die off really, everything looks the same as it did a week ago. Should I maybe just rip the sponges off with some tweezers or something to speed up their dieoff since they probably wont live anyways? Link to comment
revkev6 Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 as far as bristle worms, you will see some eventually. they are pretty much inevitable. chaeto is a good form of macro algae to keep in a small aquarium as it grow quickly, doesn't require alot of light and like all types of macro, requires nutrients in the water to grow. the algae will actually use the nutrients before they have a chance to become waste. IN my tank I have the middle back chamber setup as a fuge. when you put your algae back here it creates a nice safe haven for your pods to grow in. that way nothing will eat them and they will have a place to breed. (this is why they call it a refugium)there are a couple of things that I did to stop the chaeto from going all over your tank though. take some of the filter material that came with your cube and cut it up so that it fits between the 2nd and 3rd chambers. right at the top of the plastic barrier between them. in my tank water has a tendancy to overflow here, letting the chaeto flow into the third chamber and be pumped into my display area. make sure if you do keep any filters in that you wash them once a week religiously. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted August 6, 2005 Author Share Posted August 6, 2005 Ok, so I think my cycle is done, but I'm going to give it another week or so to make sure. I was wondering, how fast can I start adding corals? Can I keep adding them or do you have to wait a while between each one? Also would it be better to put my fish in there or do some corals first? I have about 8 books now about different species of fishes and corals so I've been researching about some of the easier fish/corals for smaller tanks. Anyhow, any help is appriciated. Link to comment
xsamx Posted August 6, 2005 Share Posted August 6, 2005 Originally posted by HkySk8r187 Ok, so I think my cycle is done, but I'm going to give it another week or so to make sure. I was wondering, how fast can I start adding corals? Can I keep adding them or do you have to wait a while between each one? Also would it be better to put my fish in there or do some corals first? I have about 8 books now about different species of fishes and corals so I've been researching about some of the easier fish/corals for smaller tanks. Anyhow, any help is appriciated. I wouldnt go crazy with the corals just yet! You should be able to add some hardy corals like shrooms and some zoos. But dont start adding dozens and dozens of corals or you'll go though another mini cycle and things will surely die off. I would add a cleanup crew before anything. They'll take care of the brown algae. After the clean up crew, i would add a very hardy fish and see how he does, if he lives, throw some corals in.. GL Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 Well, I recently added a clean up crew. 6 red leg hermits, 6 cerith snails, and 6 astraea snails. They have been in there for a good 2 weeks and have done a good job cleaning up. Everything seems to be doing well, all water parameters are looking good. My Alk was a little high but since putting in the clean up crew it has dropped to normal levels and stable for the 2 weeks. Today I went to my LFS and got a fire shrimp, torch coral, and muchroom. They are pretty small frags so I'm hoping I'm not adding too much today. I drip acclimated both corals and the shrip for about 2.5 hours and then finally put them into the tank. I think I may move the torch coral closer to the bottom of the tank though, what do you guys thing? Anyhow, any input is appriciated. Here are some pics of my additions today. (Oh yeah I also redid the aquascape a couple weeks before getting the clean up crew. Man I haven't posted in a while Link to comment
shao-lin nano Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 I like the aquascaping. Looks like a fish will have lots of fun swimming around in that setup. Looks like all the brown alge has subsided. I had the same problem, it was bad and covering all the coraline and smothering them. Your tank should start coloring up with coraline even more. I'm looking to add a fish sometime soon...my tanks been up for almost 2 months. What kind of fish did you have in mind? Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 Well I really want to get a yellow watchman goby, so unless anyone can give me a good reason not to I think I'll pick one up in a week or so assuming I think the tank can handle it. I also like clownfish so maybe eventually I'll get one of them too. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 4, 2005 Author Share Posted September 4, 2005 Everything seems to be doing good. The torch has opened up a bit more durring the day, and the muchrooms open up pretty big while the lights are on now. One of the muchrooms actually came off the rock it was on and floated over to the other side of the tank and was resting on the sand. It was face up so I just left it. I hear this is normal when they get crowded? I noticed I was starting to get bubble algea so I went to the LFS and got a emerald crab. So far he hasn't touched the stuff but I'll give it time. I've read that they are good bubble algea eaters. While I was at the LFS I picked up a small false percula clownfish and a pretty decent size hammar coral. The clown is acting a little weird, maybe he's stressed out about the new tank so I'm going to wait and see what he looks like tomorrow. He defenatly has lots of energy but he's not moving around much and he's breathing a little hard. All water params are good so I'll just check on him tomorrow. The hammer coral looks good in the tank but didn't open up much today. Like the torch, it may take a few days to fully extend out. I'll post some pics sometime this weekend. My girlfriend has my digital camera right now in the bahammas. Link to comment
shao-lin nano Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 My girlfriend has my digital camera right now in the bahammas. Yup, we're haven a great time here ...j/k I think a yellow watchman goby is on the top of my list as well. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 4, 2005 Author Share Posted September 4, 2005 Ok well I woke up and went to check on the clown. Can't find him anywhere. It's only a 24g tank how hard can it be heh. He's not in the back chambers and I looked evreywhere I could in the rockwork. I guess I'll have to pull a few of the rocks out and see if he's back there somewhere. Where could he have gone? There is no way he could have been eaten is there? I mean wouldn't there still be some remains? He seems to have just vanished. I hope he's ok but I have a feeling he died I'm going to look for him right now. Link to comment
shao-lin nano Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Any luck? Your hood was completely down right? If not I would look for it on the floor too. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 4, 2005 Author Share Posted September 4, 2005 Ok well I removed a couple rocks so I could see the entire tank and I found him dead on the bottom getting eatten by a hermit. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 PH 7.8 (dropped from 8.2 after water change) Alkalinity 10 dKH Calcium 450 Phosphate 0 Temp 78.2 Specific Gravity 1.024 The only thing that changed is the PH. It was 8.2 when I went to the LFS. Soon as I got home I changed 5 gallons of water while the fish was in the bag. After the water change I started acclimating him to my water for 2 hours, then dropped him in. He imediatly started breathing hard and then eventually died. Does anyone know why he may have died so soon? Could the ph fluxuation kill him? He also liked to hang out near the top of the tank, maybe there isn' enough oxygen in my water? Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 5, 2005 Author Share Posted September 5, 2005 The mushrooms and torch coral have been opening up a lot more now, I think they are not stressed from the move to the tank and are now fully opening. One of my mushrooms broke off the other day and drifed to another part of the tank where it's trying to attach to the sand. This is normal right? Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 6, 2005 Author Share Posted September 6, 2005 Here is the torch that has opened up a lot more. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 6, 2005 Author Share Posted September 6, 2005 Not sure if I mentioned it already, but I purchased a hammer coral, and an emerald crab on Saturday. So far the hammer has opened up niceley and seems to be doing well, and the emerald has been peaceful towards the coral but hasn't touched the bubble algea yet. If he doesn't get to it soon I'm going to place him on top of it and make him eat it lol. Link to comment
HkySk8r187 Posted September 6, 2005 Author Share Posted September 6, 2005 And yes, as you can see in the picture, I have a colt coral as well now. When I was at the LFS I saw the colt and thought it was a good addition, so I got it plus a sun coral. The sun coral is pretty small and was cheap so I picked it up and we'll see how it does. I guess I'll be having to target feed the sun coral misid shrimp right? Link to comment
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