Pooties Tank Thread

[Pootie]

Lol, hi guys!

my name is Jonathan and i am new here. I live in Midtown Manhattan and i have always had Freshwater tanks that have done very well. (maybe because it's easy to maintain).

Last year my wife wanted a tank in our new apartment. I figured "what the heck why not try a saltwater tank" .<~ Big mistake!:headache:
............
Well i quickly learned that i am a total noob when it comes to Saltwater. and now i need a lil help!!

The Tank & Plans: 55g long with plans of having a semi-reef with a few compatable fish that won't outgrow the tank yet still be intresting.
what was done (i spent X amount of $ on tank and supplies)
*55 gallon long
*50lbs of Reef Crystals Sea Salt Mix
*Instant Ocean hydrometer
*(2) power heads
*Eheim Pro 2 (wet/dry)
*40lbs sand substrate mixed with about 40lbs Live Sand from a friend's tank that was sifted and partially washed.
*heater,lighting,water conditioner,test kits etc
I then placed the sand in with a plastic bag overtop(as sugested by a friend) and begain to fill the tank with tap water.

Well i filled the tank with tap water and mixed in a few cap fulls of Stresscoat to condition the water. ( once the tank was about 3/4 full). Then mix a 5g bucket with warm water and mixed in the salt mix and gradually added to the tank checking with the hydrometer about ever gallon added or so. Till it was good salinity as the hydromoter said.

The tank sat for about 2 months b4 i got about 50lbs of liverock

Then sat for another 3 weeks ( then i added a few cultured rock pieces)

Then came what i figured would be the fun part, Fish timeee!! ( i got a 3 spot Damzle as a test fish..it didn't die).. so i got a few more fish, some crabs and 2 cleaner shrimp.. and then the die-off started

Weird part: both my Porcelian Crab dropped their claws within an hour of entering the tank (and i dripped the bag with small amounts of the tank water b4 letting them in and they seemed good in the bag )..

Well after that i kinda stopped buying fish for a few months, and had a bad alge outbrake . the only fish that are still in the tank is the
*3 spot Damzle (1)
*Yellow Watchman Gobies (2)
*Small Pest Starfish (15-18)
*and a few worms in my Christmas Tree rock
...........................

My Question/Problem..
*why did some fish die off and others lived? ( besides the obvious fact that some are more hardy than others)..
*Almost ever fish in the tank was eating well

i am at work right now but i will have curent water paramters later when i get home.
Paramaters: http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/48857-help-3.html#post510921

and also for a tank like this what kind of water #'s should be correct to keep most fish and invertebrates happy? (this way i can compare with the #'s i will collect tonight/tomorrow)

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR THE HELP!!!!

Few pix...

few random pix during set-up!

 

[DontXtripNfall]

First, welcome to MR. You live so close to me, so hi neighboor! I'll let the guru's answer your die off questions.

 

[Pootie]

First, welcome to MR. You live so close to me, so hi neighboor! I'll let the guru's answer your die off questions.

hidy ho Neighbor:thrash:


i'm midtown west.. thanks for the welcome!!

 

[Killerdrgn]

Well first things first, you probably shouldn't be using the venturi on the maxijets there. You had a hair algae outbreak because you used tap water. Your hydrometer is probably off unless you calibrated it to a refractometer. You should probably check the water temp since recently all the stealth heater's i've bought have gone bad really quick, and plus your supposed to put them in areas of high flow.
And we would need exact specs of your lighting, and water parameters. And if you've treated the tank with anything.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Welcome to MR. Stop using tap wate and either used distilled water, premade water available at petco or LFS's around the city or buy yourself an RO/DI unit to filter out the water you need to use in the tank. Stop using chemocals as they tend to mask problems within the tank and some have even said products like stress coat also lowers the disolved oxygen content of the water in the tank but I am not so sure that is true. Get yourself a phosban reactor and run that along with a protien skimmer and do a large water change. Change out your carbon once per month and make sure you have good test kits. Yes and bubbles are not really needed stop with the venturi.

Top offs are supposed to be freshwater remember that please.

 

[duke62]

how come i cant see his post

 

[Lenny718]

how come i cant see his post

Same here

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Needed to be re-approved by a mod because it was edited by the original poster.

Should be visible now.

 

[Pootie]

Well first things first, you probably shouldn't be using the venturi on the maxijets there. You had a hair algae outbreak because you used tap water. Your hydrometer is probably off unless you calibrated it to a refractometer. You should probably check the water temp since recently all the stealth heater's i've bought have gone bad really quick, and plus your supposed to put them in areas of high flow.
And we would need exact specs of your lighting, and water parameters. And if you've treated the tank with anything.

well the maxijets are off, well one is on and it points in the direction of the heater to keep the warmer water moveing around so it dosen't sit in one corner.

and i think the alge outbrake is because the tank is near a window, and the outbrake was mainly on just that side. after i kept the window closed and limit the amount of lighing the tank got , it cleared up.

 

[Pootie]

Welcome to MR. Stop using tap wate and either used distilled water, premade water available at petco or LFS's around the city or buy yourself an RO/DI unit to filter out the water you need to use in the tank. Stop using chemocals as they tend to mask problems within the tank and some have even said products like stress coat also lowers the disolved oxygen content of the water in the tank but I am not so sure that is true. Get yourself a phosban reactor and run that along with a protien skimmer and do a large water change. Change out your carbon once per month and make sure you have good test kits. Yes and bubbles are not really needed stop with the venturi.

Top offs are supposed to be freshwater remember that please.

Thanks for teh welcome.
lol, yea i got the memo in our convo in the chat yesterday.

and i'm a noob , so some of the terms you use are a lil comfuseing to me still. but i will learn.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You might also want to increase water changes to 5 gallons per week after that large water change to get some of that tap water out of there and then after a month do another large water changes.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

LOL Sorry LFS = Local Fish Store. RO/DI unit is a reverse osmosis de-ionization unit

 

[Pootie]

You might also want to increase water changes to 5 gallons per week after that large water change to get some of that tap water out of there and then after a month do another large water changes.

on the list of things to do. ( but could it be the tap water that is causing my problem).

 

[Killerdrgn]

well the maxijets are off, well one is on and it points in the direction of the heater to keep the warmer water moveing around so it dosen't sit in one corner.

and i think the alge outbrake is because the tank is near a window, and the outbrake was mainly on just that side. after i kept the window closed and limit the amount of lighing the tank got , it cleared up.

You don't have to turn off the maxijets, you just have to pull out those airline hoses you have attached to them. And hair algae doesn't just grow because of light, it also needs phosphates and nitrates, which are heavily present in tap water.

 

[Pootie]

LOL Sorry LFS = Local Fish Store. RO/DI unit is a reverse osmosis de-ionization unit

kool, well i'll check out some of the LFS. as of now, there is a Petco on 14th street. other than that i go to Queens and Brooklyn.

i used to live near Brooklyn Zoo and got a few of my freshwater fish from them.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Tap water could be contributing to lots of things. The pipes are copper and the water comes through it depending on the age of the pipes you could have copper readings in your tank, it contributes to high phosphates, and due to this nitrates could be high. Also keep in mind that the chemicals added to the tank might actually be more harmful than good in a saltwater tank.

 

[Pootie]

You don't have to turn off the maxijets, you just have to pull out those airline hoses you have attached to them. And hair algae doesn't just grow because of light, it also needs phosphates and nitrates, which are heavily present in tap water.

ahhhhhhhhhh well when i have the maxijets on low, there are no

but i will pull the airhoses.

and as stated b4 i had a weird thing where my Porceline Crabs dropped their claws within minutes of entering the tank, could that be because of a high level of phosphates and nitrates?..
like they didn't die, they just dropped calw, then hid for a day or 2 , then started coming out and filterfeeding as normal just clawless. (stressed maybe ?)

 

[Pootie]

Tap water could be contributing to lots of things. The pipes are copper and the water comes through it depending on the age of the pipes you could have copper readings in your tank, it contributes to high phosphates, and due to this nitrates could be high. Also keep in mind that the chemicals added to the tank might actually be more harmful than good in a saltwater tank.

note to self "chemicals can be bad"

 

[Killerdrgn]

Probably stressed due to water conditions. Or did you net them? Their claws could have gotten caught on the netting causing them to abandon claws.

 

[Pootie]

Probably stressed due to water conditions. Or did you net them? Their claws could have gotten caught on the netting causing them to abandon claws.

no net.. i watched one of them literally grab one claw with the other and pluck it off.. then with his back legs he was grooming himself a lottttttt!!