looking for advice

[Doug M.]

I started off on the wrong foot. I thought that I could collect my own live rocks and sand from near by islands. It has proven to be a bit of a mistake. I got most of the sand out and replaced it with some crushed coral about two inches worth. I don't want to mess with the fish that are in there already but I have to get things set up right on limited funds so here it is.
This is my entry for my tank log for today. Take a look at it and let me know what you think. There maybe better quicker ways but with this plan I will be able to afford the rocks and fish and stuff on time. BTW the tank is a 70 gallon bow front with a wet/dry filter underneath. The lighting is sketchy. It consists of a balasts that will hold four floresent kind of "U" shaped tubes. It has one fan in it and does add to the heat of the tank. The tank also sits outside on a covered patio in FL. That area gets a couple of hours of direct morning sun but for the rest of the day it is diffused. Needless to say there would have to be a pretty drastic storm for any rain water to get to this area of the patio. Eduard came through a couple of weeks ago and that part of the patio stayed perfectly dry. He wasn't very windy though. I have a protein skimmer in the sump. After the water leaves there it goes through the pump and is piped through an UV sterilizer. Anyway take a look at my log entry:


Sept. 13
AMMONIA 0.25
NITRATE 15-20
NITRITE 0.5
PH 8.2
CALCIUM 450
PHOSPHATE 2+
TEMPERATURE 85
SPECIFIC GRAVITY 1.020


New plan: Run tank for six weeks adding at the most a few snails, red and blue legged hermit crabs, and some sort of substrate cleaners. I may also get more substrate now but maybe I will wait. After that the rock I collected should have cured. The tank will definitely have cycled. I will then remove the bioballs that have kind of gunked up from decaying plant material that came outof the sand I took of a near by island, and replace them with some of the rocks that are currently in the tank. If I haven't added the new substrate by then I will do that. Also I will get 50# of good live rock. The goal is to add a total of 70# but I will save the extra 20# for some rocks that I can't live without. After adding the new live rock I will turn off the UV sterilizer and let the tank rest and catch up to it's new bio-load. This should take (?) 4-6 weeks. During this time if there is a rock I can't live without, chemistry permitting, I will by it. After this time I will look for a pair of clowns and an anemone that they would like. The anemone must be an easy to care for type. I'll need to research this. I can also start looking for a few more fish to add; about one every two or three weeks depending on the chemistry. After all this I can start to add some corals. Mid January is the time that I will be shooting for. I will also need to collect some buckets and such for moving the tank in case of a hurricane next year. I also will need to look into some temperature control equipment; heaters this winter and a chiller for next summer.


Any additions suggestions or changes?

 

[Anonymous]

howdy,
i am somewhat confused. you have live rock now and are going to get more? or you only have sand that you threw away and replaced with crushed coral?

anyway, it seems you are in a hurry. i think you should take a little more time putting your system together before putting more livestock in.

here is what i suggest.

find a place for your fish that you have already obtained.
if you have no LR as of yet empty the tank and replace crushed coral with at least 2.5 in. of aragonite. look up DSB through search here.

pull out bioballs in sump.

add new water. bump your specific gravity up to 1.025 or so.

get all your equipment running. no need for the UV sterilizer yet, some would say you don't need it at all, myself included.

after water has circulated for at least 24hr and temp is 80ish, you may add live rock. i suggest all of it.

add no other life until water parameters are acceptable. 0 nitrates 0 nitrite and 0 ammonia.

at that point you may add a fish or two, possibly the ones you already have, make sure they are a species that don't need a mature tank to survive (mandarin, anthias, etc.) clowns should be fine. the anemone, however, is a different story.

your lighting will need an upgrade to keep one. i also believe a tank needs to be mature to house one, but i will defer to an opinion more experienced than mine.

lastly, i recommend you to ask the advice of this board, before adding a specimen that you are not experienced with. this will save you money and headaches. just make sure you attempt to research the question at hand before asking.

good luck

 

[Doug M.]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the confusion. Here is what I did and where I am at:
I set up the tank using canal water, I live right off of the gulf in central Florida (mistake #1).
I then collected some of my own rocks and sand from a near by Island (mistake #2).
Then, around July 4th, I put a couple of small local fish in it. A small, 6", sea bass and a 4" sand perch. (mistake #3). I wanted to cycle the tank with them.
After a couple of months I took out the fish and replaced them with a few damsels and the beginning of a clean up crew. I also got more rock.(mistake #4)
All of my Turbo snails and my hermit crabs died. The fish however did fine as are the emerald crabs. The little black damsel started toget an ich-like disease, white spots, but got over it a the next day. He now is the healthiest looking Domino Damsel that I have ever seen.
I replaced the snails. They didn't seem too happy for a couple of days. Now thet are cruising around the tank and eating and seemed happy. I did some expirimenting whith this last group of snails and found that there was something about the sand that was killing them. I took as much of that sand out as I could and replaced it with some crushed coral to a depth of about 2".
The tank has been like that for a 5 days. I found this website during that time. After reading through some of the posts and links I decided that there is no way I could go with this set up and put corals in it.
The reason I was thinking of going with my "New Plan" is that I want to set this thing up to accept live corals. I know there is no way the current situation would be acceptable. Even after some maturation. I do love my little fish and crabs that are there. I thought that maybe I could slowly re-do the set up over the coarse of a few months. This might not upset everybody that is in there too much.
I wasn't planning on adding the anemone for three months but I want it to find it's location before I put any corals in.
Thanks again for the reply.

Doug