rookie and his nano

Hmm... this photo has spawned a mini-thread

New-b... I hope you realize that the comments here might sound harsh, but in all honesty they're not really lying to you. Reefkeepers are not judged by how happy their fish act, but by how well the tank as a whole matures. Things do not always happen quickly in a reef environment. Many times a fish/coral will appear perfectly normal for several months and then just die for no apparent reason. Life on a reef is harsh so the animals have adapted as such. Signs of weakness = death, so it's not uncommon for them to hide signs of weakness and act perfectly normal until they can no longer support "the act" & perish.

Have you been able to read the beginner guides in the Nano-reef library? What about the sickied threads in the beginner forums? I'm not dissing you, your GF, or your LFS, but something is wrong because this setup is far from a beginner tank. I'm not going to say that everything will die because that's not 100% true. I'm sure there are people who would be able to maintain a tank like this, but the real truth is that they would likely have a phd in reefing and devote hours to the tank each day. As a beginner I wasn't willing/able to devote that sort of time to my tank, so I started off small, where 1-2 hours per week was sufficient. As I got better, I could increase the amount of life in my tank and maintain it within the 1-2 hours I was before.

Here's your assignment. 1) Read all articles in the beginner forum. For now focus on the nitrogen cycle. Read it until you understand it. Every experienced reefer on this forum or any other will tell you that the long-term success of your tank depends on how you start it! 2) Read the stocking guide stickied on the beginner forum. Also, ask your LFS (or online) what kind of tang you have and how big it is fully grown. 3) Review previous "Tank of the month" entries (in the library). Do you want a tank like that? Of course you do! So ask questions! Many of those same people will answer your questions.

I can assure you that I am not trying to make you out to be an idiot. I want you to succeed at your new hobby, so feel free to PM me any time and I'll do what I can to help.

egh, i must say this is how my 12g aqua pod looked when i was a noob.

to OP (original poster) you either take the advice and get the tang out while you can, or scoop it out and flush the money. if you have a local forum, i'm sure there will be someone willing to take it off your hands and put it into a good home, probably give you cash or some frags, or hell even better lighting.

We all know that your tank is fairly new, if you look some 3month old tanks have a purple algae growing on the back called coraline. This really helps to determine how old your tank is and the sand as well. only new sand is that clean, especially with no CUC (clean up crew).

Your lighting is highly minimum, you NEED to get better lights if you want to keep anything but brown zoas and algae. This could be done for as little as $50+some DIY wood work. I know it may sound harsh but if your not going to take our comments and use them, then you'll end up spending a ton of money and wasting organisms.

the above posters assignment is good but the first thing should read return the tang. believe it or not, baby tangs need at least 3' of swimming space, you have 20".

Good luck

lots of great advice here...

My LFS is great, and just to confirm, the Manager, just as a general, general rule (for shallow tanks) he tells people starting up as far as lighting, 3-5 watts per gallon (he was concerned with my 3 Gal Pico but that has a 17 watt).

So, if yours is 10 Gal - well do the math...

See if you can find more LFS - I went to 4 different ones until I found the one that seems very friendly, and knowledgeable (I acted dumb when I first walked into them all).

As StevieT stated earlier ... dump the whole watts-per-gallon rule ... it's outdated and doesn't determine anything ... 156W of T-5 is NOT the same as 150W of MH etc.etc.

Wow this is a lot of posts for a picture ... lol ... You seem to have caught everyone's attention!

Personally, I would return it all and start over.

well thanks everyone for all the advise. i took my condi anenomy back to the store so that is a start. and as you said gkarris, i also went to tons of different LFS's and found the one i trusted. i have been doing business with these guys for a while. i have had nothing but success with their advise so far. they have never steered me wrong before. yes i made a dumb descision with the tang, my bad. they left me with the choice and told me that with the tangs size right now, it would be ok in my 10 for a little while but i would soon have to either upgrade my tank size or turn it in to a bigger tank. i chose for now to buy the tang. and i know some about the nytrogen cycle, i have had them along with some of the users on this forum explain it to me. i know the cycle is to build up the beneficial bacteria in the tank to control waste and convert to nitrite and then to nitrate, (i think i said that right). the way i started my tank is with 10 lbs of live sand, about 7 lbs of live rock, and i used a product that i have had nothing but success with in the past called fritzyme. it has the precultured beneficial bacteria and i added that in there. so i added the bacteria straight into the tank. basically a jump start. i used what i trusted to start it. i know freshwater is different then saltwater, but i started my 3 tanks and about 5 other tanks i have set up all with this product and they are all doing fantasticaly. my oldest tank i have is about 2.5 years old and still has the same fish i started with. i know freshwater tank pretty well now and i know this one is different being saltwater and all but i didnt see why the same idea would not work since it always has in the past. so far it has worked. i have been testing the water and all seems to be staying stable.

I'd be wary of any products used to jump start the cycle. At best, they won't do any thing harmful. There is only one way to cycle a tank:add the rock and let nature take its course. I suppose you could do a soft cycle, but thats a whole different topic.

Your tank is very young. What is stable now won't be next week. Particularly with so many fish producing waste in the system. It's a recipe for disaster, and no one here wants to see your tank crash. Take stevieT's advice. Just start fresh, and later on add a fish suitable to your tank. No matter how small the tang is physically right now, it still needs room to roam. Freshwater fish generally live in small bodies of water, so it's okay if there in a fairly small tank. The tang swims in open water in the ocean. So....you know.

My 2 cents.

^^^ Yes, you need to think about that Tang.

Also, your freshwater tanks may be all doing fantastic. But salt is different - you can just fix it with a partial water change..

Consider getting rid of the Tang and a couple of the other fish and let the tank run a couple of more weeks before getting something else...