Newbie mistakes corrective game plan !

[nanshaw2001]

Hi again all! Started this as a new thread...hoping some of you who were kind enough to reply to my last post might come back !!!

First plan of action was to move the dragonette to my 15 gal qt. Water parameters have tested good and there is no other livestock in there other than a piece of lr. I have brine shrimp eggs on the way and have made a hatchery for them. Figure I can add some copepods, too. Not planning to add anymore livestock ( so she will have no competition for the food) to either tank until I can get a regugium established.

Second- I have a line on some used powerheads....will have to wait on the skimmer. Financial restraints. If there is anything I can do to manually replicate some of the actions of a skimmer...I'd welcome the advice!

Thirdly.....I am about a month into the daitom bloom! Remembering I've only had the hob filter for circulation and guessing thats the culprit! But....bought several mexican snails and 1 turbo for clean up and have only had them a couple of days and it appears they are dying!!!!! What to do now? Move them to the qt or somewhere else until things calm down? Water paramters for the 55 have been good, too

Fish seem to be thriving....more advice please and many thanks! Nancy

 

[returnofsid]

I must have missed your last post. How many pounds of live rock do you currently have? The 15 gal QT won't be very healthy for the Mandarin, however, a newly set up 55 isn't either. Adding copepods will definately help.

Adding several power heads to increase flow will help out tremendously. When able to, get rid of that HOB filter, or at least take the media out of it. I'd recommend only using it for flow and carbon filtration. Load that thing up with carbon, that'll help.

In place of a skimmer, about all you can do is more than usual water changes. Use good quality water and do LOTS of water changes. If your snails appear to be dying, I'd suggest rechecking your water parameters and maybe taking your water to have tested to verify if your test kits are any good. Is there a chance that there's ever been copper used in the tank? That would explain the snail issues and would futher limit your use of this tank in the future.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Hi again all! Started this as a new thread...hoping some of you who were kind enough to reply to my last post might come back !!!

First plan of action was to move the Dragonet to my 15 gal qt. Water parameters have tested good and there is no other livestock in there other than a piece of lr. I have brine shrimp eggs on the way and have made a hatchery for them. Figure I can add some copepods, too. Not planning to add anymore livestock ( so she will have no competition for the food) to either tank until I can get a regugium established.

Second- I have a line on some used powerheads....will have to wait on the skimmer. Financial restraints. If there is anything I can do to manually replicate some of the actions of a skimmer...I'd welcome the advice!

Thirdly.....I am about a month into the diatom bloom! Remembering I've only had the hob filter for circulation and guessing thats the culprit! But....bought several mexican snails and 1 turbo for clean up and have only had them a couple of days and it appears they are dying!!!!! What to do now? Move them to the qt or somewhere else until things calm down? Water paramters for the 55 have been good, too

Fish seem to be thriving....more advice please and many thanks! Nancy

Hi Nancy, having jumped the gun, you will be playing catch up for quite some time and it might not be fun. If you can return the seabae anemone and the Dragonet or at least have them hold it until your tank has finished settling, you might be happier. In the current set-up, they will probably die before the tank has finished cycling. The other damsel fish and cleaner crew will be fine. Do you have just a little live rock? If not, perhaps adding some red clay flower pots could help. Until there is enough live rock that has matured and cycled with the powerheads circulating water, the tank will not be suitable for inverts nor advanced specimins like the Mandarin.

The QT is just as bad a home if not worse for the Mandarin.

Do not delete the only filtration you currently have until the system is ready to upgrade.

Need to take a step backwards on livestock and a step forwards on equipment. The skimmer though needed can wait. If you have a diatom bloom, today would be a good day for a water change and use RO water if possible. Borrow some used equipment from the live fish store you bot your stuff from or from a friend. Pehaps post a want to buy or borrow ad on local craigs. Keep at it and you will get it to stabilize but need to get the basics in first.

Good Luck pal!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I think herefishyfishy has said it all pretty well, although it's probably not what you want to hear.

Regarding the diatoms, that's the normal part of any tank cycling and I don't think it has anything to do with lack of circulation. It doesn't help... but it didn't cause it either. Not sure what your snails are doing that make you think that they're in the process of dying, but snails will just lay around and do nothing for days sometimes. They could be just "taking a break." How did you acclimate them? Whatever the answer, I'd just leave them in the tank they're in now. More changes will just stress them more.

 

[dj tryrd]

do you have a refugium?
or any plant you could add?
both of those will help aid the water quality tremendously, also look very nice, if done right.

 

[busdriver]

If you can, goto: www.garf.org and order some of their "garf grunge" It is supossed to help cycle tanks fast, b/c it is made w/ bits of LR and critters...
and of course what other people said.
if you can't do RO water you might be able to get away with making your own filter using poly fitler or rowaphos and carbon, but it might be cheaper to buy RO water...
try to tank the manderian and make the 15 into a refugium... ther are loads of DIY plans for overflows, or make the tank the same hight as the other one. even if it looks bad having another tank next to it. it might look better than what is going on in your tank already...
just my .02 C
Stephen

 

[gary shandling]

Dragon fish are listed as expert hobbist only. They are not really hard to care for but it takes a mature tank with minimum amount of LR and up and running fuge. Some even put dragon in the fuge if its big enough.
Live food like pods are there only food source and can clean a 15 gallon in a few days and only starve to death.
Many of the pods they eat cant be seen with naked eye.

The food chain is microscopic starting with beneifiacial bacteria. This bacteria is the main reason you need to cycle. Your building a new supply and this takes time.

Slow and easy. Goto book store and get something like this , GL..

http://www.amazon.com/New-Marine-Aq...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205050392&sr=1-1