sharuq1

In your tank keep dosing Prime (use "emergency" dosing instructions), put on a filter full of carbon and do water changes. You could try filling up an alternate "tank" with a heater and air bubbler (a large bucket, a rubbermaid container, a clean spare tank) with clean fresh mixed saltwater and acclimating the clowns to this water, then putting them in there. If they perk up in the new clean water, it's the water in your tank. Nitrite is very toxic. Did they have any black spots or bubbles at the store? Are you certain your specific gravity measurement is accurate? I'm afraid I don't know much about diseases in saltwater fish as I haven't had experience with that problem. Try googling "black ich" or "velvet" or "marine ick" and see if any of those things looks like what your fish have. The bubble I am afraid I don't know. Could be an injury/disease/infection/pressure behind the eye or even an osmotic reaction to a drastic salinity change. Try asking on canreef, hopefully someone there will be able to help you. Random thing I found googling "saltwater fish diseases" to try to help

Love the aquascape! Fantastic job. :thumbs: You might want to reconsider the rubble in the back there, looks like it would be a pain in the bum to clean detritus out of there. That's just my humble opinion though. Also, you might want to turn the lights out while you're cycling, or at least reduce how long they're on, just helps to keep that pest algae from taking hold during the "deliciousness" of the nitrate close to the end of the cycle. Also, the output of your T5's really depends alot on the type of reflectors they are housed in. Google "Tek" or "Aquactinic". These reflectors with T5HO you can pretty much do anything with. Even regular T5s will benefit from a good quality reflector. Regular T5's with ok reflectors you might want to go with a softy tank, which can be gorgeous. (eg. include xenia, toadstool, other leathers, mushrooms and other "softies") Zoos would probably be alright too, gsp is almost bombproof and possibly even some of the easier LPS like frogspawn might just be ok, but may not show the same coloration as they would with a higher output T5/better reflector. Just place anything that needs more light closer to the top. Sometimes things can surprise you. There is a recommendation for everything, but the corals don't read the books. Have you got any other equipment? Skimmer etc? Also like thegrandpoobah said, the brown diatoms will fade in time, it's all part an parcel of the tank finding its balance. As to the anemone, while it might not be recommended that doesn't necessarily mean not possible. Perhaps 6 months to a year down the road when the tank is stable you might be able to add one of the "easier" nems if it is small, like a bubbletip anemone (assuming your lighting can support it at that time, you may have upgraded by then). I bought a small one while I had my 48g, and it thrived in there. It can really be the luck of the draw. While I don't recommend it, it can still be done. I definitely wouldn't put a carpet anemone in something that size though- for comparison. I know people that have though.

Looking good

What type of cowrie is it?

My khulis don't mind the gravel at all, they dive right in and hide there most of the time. Not sure they are trustworthy with shrimp though?

Christine insisted we post pictures! :smokey: Thank you to Lori for the mollies, from Christine & Jacen!! -ham-

So the kids got some mollies for Christmas this year and are thrilled about it. They've expressed an interest in saltwater and we'd like to setup a small saltie tank for them. We were going to go tropical fresh, but the kids convinced us otherwise, lol. Hopefully they eat algae too, like some of the mollies I have read about. Then I can give them some of the live rocks that have it for grazing on. I put them in the overflow of the 120g for now, they are so tiny! We have a 20g I was thinking about setting up with just xenia and mushrooms, a few LR's from the sump and a pc light, heater and maybe throw on the old AC110 fuge with a filter pad and go with regular water changes for filtration. Just need to buy a heater (will have to wait a bit, we are terribly broke at the moment). My daughter will be in charge of the tank maintenance (with supervision, of course). Anything else you think would be good to add, and cheap?

Welcome to the forums Lori !

I purchased some. They got here mouldy and the shipping took forever. Nothing hatched, but not surprised due to the condition of the eggs. Would not do again.

O_O Please please don't boil your LR. That would make it very...very..dead rock and therefore useless if you want it for biofiltration. Usually people add the clean up crew before the fish and the LR before either. I would give it one to two weeks before adding the clean up crew depending on your test results, personally, but others might have a differing opinion. With only three damsels, your tank is not overstocked so I wouldn't worry too much. Since you have live sand, that helps as well. As far as coral goes, patience is the key. "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank". Frequent water changes will help, but too much and it will prolong your cycle. Use your best judgment, do your regular weekly water changes. If your tests are 0 for nitrite, ammonia and hopefully 0 for nitrate for 2 weeks consecutively after your cycle is done you should be able to slowly begin adding coral. If you want an example, I left my first tank 3 months without coral when it was started and added slowly afterwards starting with "easy" corals. I don't know what type of lighting you have, but good starter corals that don't require uber lights are mushrooms and most leathers. For nitrate, anything under 5mg/L is generally considered safe, but 0 is best. Hopefully someone more experienced will chime in here. canreef.com has a lot more "old salties", so I'd advise going over there and asking a million questions. Also there are lots of great posts about just starting out and links as well.

Welcome to sw and to albertaaquatica! Salt is addictive

Nice steal! You might not want to add the LR directly, as there is a possibility of spiking your tank due to die off. Many people buying new LR will cycle it somewhere else until it is ready (a large rubbermaid bin works, with a heater and powerhead). Of course, if you get it from somewhere that has had the rock for a while (say they have like a 2 year old reef and they are getting out of the hobby and you keep the LR submerged and warm for transport), this might not be an issue, but if you get fresh LR from the store it likely will. That being said, does your tank have anything at all that would add to bio-filtration? Did you keep the water when you moved the tank? The sump really won't do much for you as far as filtration is concerned besides add water volume and oxygen to the tank if there isn't anything in it. I would advise running some carbon in the meantime (that would work best if you run it actively through say an aquaclear rather than passively in a bag) and do regular water changes to keep those fish alive. Do you have test kits? What are you planning for this tank? If it's a coral reef, there are many lighting options to choose from, depending on what you'd like to put in it.

I used mops with my killies with success. Just get some yarn (dark green works great), make a mop and boil it for about 10 mins before using it. This gets any leftover dye and such out and also sterilizes it. Don't use cotton, it rots. I just took a piece of cardboard, wrapped yarn around it until I had a bundle, slid it off, tied off one end, cut the bottoms and voila, instant mop. The eggs harden and you can just pick them off. Also, the killies seem to really appreciate it dark when they are breeding. I wrapped 3 sides in spare background I had lying around and also put a piece on the front about halfway so they had a dark corner to breed in. It might also help to have one floating mop on top and one sunken mop. Some pairs like the floaty ones some like the sinking ones, and some like both. Either way it gives them a place to hang out and hide. I tied my sunken mop to a small clay pot from wal-mart to make it sink. A small tank works better for breeding killies than a large one. I used a 2.5g for my killie breeding tank and changed out half the water every day (usually with RODI because I have it anyway). I also used an AC70 on the back dialed down for filtration. Killies don't tend to like a whole lot of water movement, but they do like really clean water.

In short: buy as much equipment and LR and so forth from people instead of at the store. It's way cheaper, will save you a bundle and if the LR has been in a tank for quite a while chances are it won't be freshly rank with a long cycle like you will get with the stuff fresh from the ocean at the store. You might luck out and get practically no cycle if you take it from someone who's had it for a year or more and keep it submersed and don't let it get too cold before you stick it in. -Don't buy a damsel, they are usually mean to all the other fish and :cuss: very hard to get out of a tank full of LR without dismantling everything. Oscellaris are great starter fish and IMO so are royal grammas. -It's almost always more expensive than you might think, lol... - Buy a jug of prime so you always have some on hand. The stuff with aloe as an additive is nice for fw but it will make a skimmer go nuts which often equals a mess. Prime also detoxifies ammonia/trite/trate which can be handy if something bad happens. -Always have a bucket running with sw mixing in case of emergency and for your regular weekly water changes. I can't count the number of times that bucket has saved my butt. Ok, mostly I am bad with numbers which is why I can't count, but you get my drift. A great way I found to do this is to take a salt bucket, put a notch into the lid so you can close it even with two cords running into it, put an airline tubing sized hole in the top of the lid and put airline into it-attach airline to a powerhead and put a heater in there. This keeps it mixing and airated at all times, as well as heated so you can safely drop the water right in the tank. This keeps the water from getting dust and whatnot in it too, so even after a couple weeks it is still useable. Use the LR to start your cycle, not the fish. For my 120 recently I used a Brute garbage can for the same thing. Stuck it on wheels (brute dolly) and use the same powerhead to put water into the tank at change time and wow, easiest water change I have ever done. -I second buying the test kits, at the very least buy ammonia, 'trate and 'trite so you can tell where your cycle is. Even if they are the cheap hagen ones, something is better than nothing. -If you can afford it at some point you might want to buy a refractometer to judge your salinity. SO much easier to use than a hydrometer, more accurate too. The floating thermometer looking hydrometers are easier to use than the ones with the gauge that you put water into if you need something budget conscious. -Lastly, have lots of patience and when adding in livestock do it over a period of time so as not to shock the system. Really, you've been into fish for some time now, so I think you know the basic "fishy" rules; you should be fine. They apply to sw same as to fresh (the whole nitrate cycle and so forth), just the critters can be more sensitive to change.

Cyano doesn't usually look fuzzy..... Does it come off easily when you scrape it? If not, maybe it is just sponge growing. Try putting this question up on canreef, there is a wider base of knowledge for sw stuff there. Also, try looking at the hitch hiker info. they have posted and see if there is anything that looks like what you have. Melevsreef also has a good hitchiker page.

You might be able to get a new seal for it or new cover? Or you could try running a thin flat bead of silicone over the edges of the plastic cover and where it goes, let dry and put a bit of vaseline bewteen the two when you stick them together. Personally, i would just get a piece of glass cut, it's pretty cheap for a little piece. Then you could put any light over it, or you could rewire in a better ballast for a nicer bulb within the canopy for looks.

Not sure on exact counts but somewhere between 50 and 100

Oh and someone please pm me what would be a good price for it?

I'm thinking about selling off my cherry shrimp breeding tank with accessories and shrimp. It's a 7g, has a matching stand, black sand, a piece of wood, a filter, a heater, a really nice foam background, and a bunch of happy cherry shrimp. Lately, things have been so hectic and stressful, and we could really use the cash as things have gotten tighter due to a 110% rent increase. I just can't decide though.... Anyway, just figured I'd throw it out there that I am thinking about it. If anyone is interested in buying it, pm me. If anyone has an opinion on it that will help, please post it.

Looks fantastic! If I had the money I would be doing that to my cichlid tank. Great work!

If it's anything like the hobs they sell be prepared for it dying in a year or so

Welcome to AA Post a pic of your tank, it sounds lovely

Welcome here! Enjoy your stay

Beautiful little ones

That is really sad... I couldn't even watch the whole video.