Help
Hi everybody , im new to all this , i have been bit dissapointed along the way , as was told could have fish after 2 days , now i know that was rubbish , felt like packing it all in at 1 point . but dylan got me back on track and things are improving , well fingers crossed , thanks dylan
hello
#2
karnivor 
- Angelfish
- Group: Members
- Posts: 1,317
- Joined: 18-June 08
Posted 24 July 2009 - 08:46 PM
kari-anne, on Jul 24 2009, 08:45 PM, said:
Hi everybody , im new to all this , i have been bit dissapointed along the way , as was told could have fish after 2 days , now i know that was rubbish , felt like packing it all in at 1 point . but dylan got me back on track and things are improving , well fingers crossed , thanks dylan
Hi and welcome to the board. I guess you are the lady I spoke to with Dylan.
#3
TrevC
- Angelfish
- Group: Members
- Posts: 1,062
- Joined: 16-April 06
Posted 24 July 2009 - 09:05 PM
Hi and welcome to IR
TANK 48 x 24 x 24
NO LIVE ROCK WHATSOEVER
VORTECH MP40
2 x Tunze Nano
48 x 18 x 17.5 SUMP
NO LIVE ROCK IN HERE EITHER!
SCHURAN JETSKIM 150
SCHURAN JETSTREAM 1 Ca REACTOR
"GYRACTOR" running "BIO PEARLS"
EHEIM 1262 RETURN PUMP
FISH AND CORALS SUPPLIED BY
JASON's AQUATICS
NO LIVE ROCK WHATSOEVER
VORTECH MP40
2 x Tunze Nano
48 x 18 x 17.5 SUMP
NO LIVE ROCK IN HERE EITHER!
SCHURAN JETSKIM 150
SCHURAN JETSTREAM 1 Ca REACTOR
"GYRACTOR" running "BIO PEARLS"
EHEIM 1262 RETURN PUMP
FISH AND CORALS SUPPLIED BY
JASON's AQUATICS
) we know 
#7
jason@jasonsaquatics
- shark with HUGE teeth
- Group: Administrators
- Posts: 4,690
- Joined: 08-January 06
Posted 25 July 2009 - 06:06 AM
Welcome to I/R ,
Dylan is a good guy ,and i think he has save your future sending you to this board as a lot of local guys are on this forum and im sure there help get you back on track in no time .
Any question fire away as im sure we can help out
yours
jas
Dylan is a good guy ,and i think he has save your future sending you to this board as a lot of local guys are on this forum and im sure there help get you back on track in no time .
Any question fire away as im sure we can help out
yours
jas
.
#9
gray
- Trigger Fish
- Group: Members
- Posts: 763
- Joined: 23-October 08
Posted 25 July 2009 - 08:33 AM
welcome ,
great guys on here for advice , helped me all the time ,
still are 
great guys on here for advice , helped me all the time ,
still are
48"x36"x24" main tank 45"x26"x 26" sump
laguna 7500 return pump, ocean runner 6500
tunze ts 24 kit
Grotech hea 250 skimmer, deltec 601 calcium reactor tmc, controller-monitor
deltec fr509 reactor
2x 400 watt luminarc 10 k 2x 54 ati actinic , sanders 200 mg ozone . orp controller
ro auto top up & ball valve sp3000 kit
laguna 7500 return pump, ocean runner 6500
tunze ts 24 kit
Grotech hea 250 skimmer, deltec 601 calcium reactor tmc, controller-monitor
deltec fr509 reactor
2x 400 watt luminarc 10 k 2x 54 ati actinic , sanders 200 mg ozone . orp controller
ro auto top up & ball valve sp3000 kit
#12
kari-anne
- New Members
- Group: New Members
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 24-July 09
Posted 26 July 2009 - 08:39 AM
chriss, on Jul 24 2009, 10:10 PM, said:
Welcome to the forum!
Tell us a bit about what you got and where you are up to with it and I'm sure we'll keep you on the straight and narrow.
Chris
Tell us a bit about what you got and where you are up to with it and I'm sure we'll keep you on the straight and narrow.
Chris
thanks , i think i have been sold rubbish , being a beginner i didnt know what was good or bad , i have a 176ltr aqua one tank with a marisys filter etc , its been running about 6 and a half weeks , got live rock not sure how much though, i yellow tang , i yellow fish that go under the sand , 2 shrimps , some hermit crabs and 3 corals so far . have been havin a calcium problem the 1st time it was tested it was about 650 , it goes down with a water change but then it goes back up again the last test was about 440, dont understand what is going on .
kari-anne
#13
chriss
- Killer Whale
- Group: Administrators
- Posts: 3,497
- Joined: 14-December 06
Posted 26 July 2009 - 09:08 AM
For six weeks in as a first-timer, you've got quite a bit of stock for a new tank. I would hope the corals are 'softies', in which case at this point in the game, you don't worry too much about calcium and magnesium, they only really come into it when you start keeping stony corals (sps & lps).
The most important things in the early months are keeping everything as stable as you can as the system 'beds-in', you want to keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates generally as these are prone to creeping up in the early days with an immature filtration system and are what causes algae outbreaks. Regular water changes will keep most things in check, good and bad. What salt are you using and what are you doing about RO water?
With new sand and rock, it can soak up calcium and magnesium in the early months until it becomes saturated then readings can stabilise. Quite why yours falls then rises I'm not sure, could be related to your alkalinity, which is another worthwhile test to do.
Now, you will no doubt get some grief about one of your fish, your tang, presumably it's quite small so will be fine for now, but bear in mind they like lots of swimming space, so thats something to bear in mind for the future when you might need to think about re-homing it.
Finally, WHERE'S THE PHOTO?
Chris
The most important things in the early months are keeping everything as stable as you can as the system 'beds-in', you want to keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates generally as these are prone to creeping up in the early days with an immature filtration system and are what causes algae outbreaks. Regular water changes will keep most things in check, good and bad. What salt are you using and what are you doing about RO water?
With new sand and rock, it can soak up calcium and magnesium in the early months until it becomes saturated then readings can stabilise. Quite why yours falls then rises I'm not sure, could be related to your alkalinity, which is another worthwhile test to do.
Now, you will no doubt get some grief about one of your fish, your tang, presumably it's quite small so will be fine for now, but bear in mind they like lots of swimming space, so thats something to bear in mind for the future when you might need to think about re-homing it.
Finally, WHERE'S THE PHOTO?
Chris
#14
kari-anne
- New Members
- Group: New Members
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 24-July 09
Posted 26 July 2009 - 03:39 PM
chriss, on Jul 26 2009, 10:08 AM, said:
For six weeks in as a first-timer, you've got quite a bit of stock for a new tank. I would hope the corals are 'softies', in which case at this point in the game, you don't worry too much about calcium and magnesium, they only really come into it when you start keeping stony corals (sps & lps).
The most important things in the early months are keeping everything as stable as you can as the system 'beds-in', you want to keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates generally as these are prone to creeping up in the early days with an immature filtration system and are what causes algae outbreaks. Regular water changes will keep most things in check, good and bad. What salt are you using and what are you doing about RO water?
With new sand and rock, it can soak up calcium and magnesium in the early months until it becomes saturated then readings can stabilise. Quite why yours falls then rises I'm not sure, could be related to your alkalinity, which is another worthwhile test to do.
Now, you will no doubt get some grief about one of your fish, your tang, presumably it's quite small so will be fine for now, but bear in mind they like lots of swimming space, so thats something to bear in mind for the future when you might need to think about re-homing it.
Finally, WHERE'S THE PHOTO?
Chris
The most important things in the early months are keeping everything as stable as you can as the system 'beds-in', you want to keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates generally as these are prone to creeping up in the early days with an immature filtration system and are what causes algae outbreaks. Regular water changes will keep most things in check, good and bad. What salt are you using and what are you doing about RO water?
With new sand and rock, it can soak up calcium and magnesium in the early months until it becomes saturated then readings can stabilise. Quite why yours falls then rises I'm not sure, could be related to your alkalinity, which is another worthwhile test to do.
Now, you will no doubt get some grief about one of your fish, your tang, presumably it's quite small so will be fine for now, but bear in mind they like lots of swimming space, so thats something to bear in mind for the future when you might need to think about re-homing it.
Finally, WHERE'S THE PHOTO?
Chris
yes the tang is small , if the tang gets too big , then he will have to be rehomed , hopefully not for a while yet though . all the other tests that have been done are fine , its just the calcium that keeps creeping up . i will try get a photo on when i find out how to do it .not much to see though . i am using ro water now that i know about it , used tap water initally , as did not realise it was wrong . the corals are leathers or something , one looks bit like a tree and the other a mushroom and 1 that got daisy like flowers on it .am using tetra salt now , but was sold aqua one salt with the set up which iv been told isnt much good . at least the fish are seeming happy at the moment .
kari-anne
#15
dylan
- Angelfish
- Group: Members
- Posts: 1,400
- Joined: 16-April 07
Posted 27 July 2009 - 09:04 AM
it's a plesure to have helped it's part of my job but also what makes this hobby so interesting is to overcome problems and feel the satisfaction when u've achieved it,as i've said to you there's probally hardly a person on here that hasnt had a problem or two along the way no matter how experienced they are , that's why i was keen to get you on here i tell alot of people to join this board and they just dont bother, the fact that have joined shows how keen you are to suceed and the advice you get on here will no doubt give you the greatest chance , chris s will guide you on how to post a pic on here he explains it a lot easier than me,,
now to give you a bit of history of this tank
karie was sold this tank with the flow system that me and jas have looked at in the past and to say it aint the best is being kind,
the shop that sold it to her is not a million miles away , they sold karie £ 30 of lava rock some water treatments and told her to come back in 48 hours for some fish , this is criminal and is the 5th case i've heard like this in the last fornight and should be stopped!!!!!!!!! luckily she came to my store before she did it , we put 21 kilos of live rock in there and converted her onto a better salt and ro which she had not been advised on , i started to do some tests everthing was fine there was a nitrate spike from the live rock which i was expecting and that soon died down until i tested the calcium which was 620 so i tested it again still 620 , it must have come from the tap water , any way we did a series of water changes at 1.019 which i new would drop the sg and kh but it was the only way we were gunna get it down , the tank has very little evaporation, it took about ten days but we got there then we slowly bought the sg and kh back up whilst monitoring the calcium, the tank is now i would say at the 4th week stage not the 7th as im not sure it even cycled properly to begin with as it stands
sg 1.024
kh 9.4
mag 1320
cal 410
nitrate 5
ph 8.2
so as you can see things are sitting pretty normal
karie has introduced 3 softies a small clean up crew small yellow tang and a silver belly wrasse , i wanted the tang in there for grazing for the time being there's loads of swimming space ,
hopefully things can only get better from here on in i'll bring here to the next frag night where im sure she'll learn loads more
now to give you a bit of history of this tank
karie was sold this tank with the flow system that me and jas have looked at in the past and to say it aint the best is being kind,
the shop that sold it to her is not a million miles away , they sold karie £ 30 of lava rock some water treatments and told her to come back in 48 hours for some fish , this is criminal and is the 5th case i've heard like this in the last fornight and should be stopped!!!!!!!!! luckily she came to my store before she did it , we put 21 kilos of live rock in there and converted her onto a better salt and ro which she had not been advised on , i started to do some tests everthing was fine there was a nitrate spike from the live rock which i was expecting and that soon died down until i tested the calcium which was 620 so i tested it again still 620 , it must have come from the tap water , any way we did a series of water changes at 1.019 which i new would drop the sg and kh but it was the only way we were gunna get it down , the tank has very little evaporation, it took about ten days but we got there then we slowly bought the sg and kh back up whilst monitoring the calcium, the tank is now i would say at the 4th week stage not the 7th as im not sure it even cycled properly to begin with as it stands
sg 1.024
kh 9.4
mag 1320
cal 410
nitrate 5
ph 8.2
so as you can see things are sitting pretty normal
karie has introduced 3 softies a small clean up crew small yellow tang and a silver belly wrasse , i wanted the tang in there for grazing for the time being there's loads of swimming space ,
hopefully things can only get better from here on in i'll bring here to the next frag night where im sure she'll learn loads more
#17
kari-anne
- New Members
- Group: New Members
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 24-July 09
Posted 29 July 2009 - 04:15 PM
[quote name='dylan' date='Jul 27 2009, 10:04 AM' post='43781']
it's a plesure to have helped it's part of my job but also what makes this hobby so interesting is to overcome problems and feel the satisfaction when u've achieved it,as i've said to you there's probally hardly a person on here that hasnt had a problem or two along the way no matter how experienced they are , that's why i was keen to get you on here i tell alot of people to join this board and they just dont bother, the fact that have joined shows how keen you are to suceed and the advice you get on here will no doubt give you the greatest chance , chris s will guide you on how to post a pic on here he explains it a lot easier than me,,
now to give you a bit of history of this tank
karie was sold this tank with the flow system that me and jas have looked at in the past and to say it aint the best is being kind,
the shop that sold it to her is not a million miles away , they sold karie £ 30 of lava rock some water treatments and told her to come back in 48 hours for some fish , this is criminal and is the 5th case i've heard like this in the last fornight and should be stopped!!!!!!!!! luckily she came to my store before she did it , we put 21 kilos of live rock in there and converted her onto a better salt and ro which she had not been advised on , i started to do some tests everthing was fine there was a nitrate spike from the live rock which i was expecting and that soon died down until i tested the calcium which was 620 so i tested it again still 620 , it must have come from the tap water , any way we did a series of water changes at 1.019 which i new would drop the sg and kh but it was the only way we were gunna get it down , the tank has very little evaporation, it took about ten days but we got there then we slowly bought the sg and kh back up whilst monitoring the calcium, the tank is now i would say at the 4th week stage not the 7th as im not sure it even cycled properly to begin with as it stands
sg 1.024
kh 9.4
mag 1320
cal 410
nitrate 5
ph 8.2
so as you can see things are sitting pretty normal
karie has introduced 3 softies a small clean up crew small yellow tang and a silver belly wrasse , i wanted the tang in there for grazing for the time being there's loads of swimming space ,
hopefully things can only get better from here on in i'll bring here to the next frag night where im sure she'll learn loads more
[/quote
Thanks for explaining about the set up and what iv got (or havent) things seem to be settling down at last , no probs now for well over a week . just wish id of had this good advice in the 1st place , may need never of encountered all the probs we've had .
kari-anne
it's a plesure to have helped it's part of my job but also what makes this hobby so interesting is to overcome problems and feel the satisfaction when u've achieved it,as i've said to you there's probally hardly a person on here that hasnt had a problem or two along the way no matter how experienced they are , that's why i was keen to get you on here i tell alot of people to join this board and they just dont bother, the fact that have joined shows how keen you are to suceed and the advice you get on here will no doubt give you the greatest chance , chris s will guide you on how to post a pic on here he explains it a lot easier than me,,
now to give you a bit of history of this tank
karie was sold this tank with the flow system that me and jas have looked at in the past and to say it aint the best is being kind,
the shop that sold it to her is not a million miles away , they sold karie £ 30 of lava rock some water treatments and told her to come back in 48 hours for some fish , this is criminal and is the 5th case i've heard like this in the last fornight and should be stopped!!!!!!!!! luckily she came to my store before she did it , we put 21 kilos of live rock in there and converted her onto a better salt and ro which she had not been advised on , i started to do some tests everthing was fine there was a nitrate spike from the live rock which i was expecting and that soon died down until i tested the calcium which was 620 so i tested it again still 620 , it must have come from the tap water , any way we did a series of water changes at 1.019 which i new would drop the sg and kh but it was the only way we were gunna get it down , the tank has very little evaporation, it took about ten days but we got there then we slowly bought the sg and kh back up whilst monitoring the calcium, the tank is now i would say at the 4th week stage not the 7th as im not sure it even cycled properly to begin with as it stands
sg 1.024
kh 9.4
mag 1320
cal 410
nitrate 5
ph 8.2
so as you can see things are sitting pretty normal
karie has introduced 3 softies a small clean up crew small yellow tang and a silver belly wrasse , i wanted the tang in there for grazing for the time being there's loads of swimming space ,
hopefully things can only get better from here on in i'll bring here to the next frag night where im sure she'll learn loads more
[/quote
Thanks for explaining about the set up
and what iv got (or havent) things seem to be settling down at last , no probs now for well over a week . just wish id of had this good advice in the 1st place , may need never of encountered all the probs we've had .kari-anne
#18
BOM8ER
- Trigger Fish
- Group: Members
- Posts: 645
- Joined: 30-May 08
Posted 30 July 2009 - 12:02 PM
Quote
Thanks for explaining about the set up and what iv got (or havent) things seem to be settling down at last , no probs now for well over a week . just wish id of had this good advice in the 1st place , may need never of encountered all the probs we've had .
kari-anne
kari-anne
Unfortunately allot of people get bad advice mainly from there LFS when they are starting off in this hobby including myself and IMO its lucky that we have people in the trade like Jason/Lindsay and Dylan to put reef keepers on the correct track for the benefit of the reef keeper and the livestock, so don't feel to bad about it Kari-anne as it happens to the best of us
#19
kari-anne
- New Members
- Group: New Members
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 24-July 09
Posted 04 August 2009 - 05:25 PM
BOM8ER, on Jul 30 2009, 01:02 PM, said:
Unfortunately allot of people get bad advice mainly from there LFS when they are starting off in this hobby including myself and IMO its lucky that we have people in the trade like Jason/Lindsay and Dylan to put reef keepers on the correct track for the benefit of the reef keeper and the livestock, so don't feel to bad about it Kari-anne as it happens to the best of us
Thanks for your advice , things are getting better , with the exception of one coral , i think its a leather , a mushroom shape ,im not quite sure what its doing , it has been shut for four days and today it is open more than i have ever seen it , but it looks like it has shed a skin or something , is that normal ?
kari-anne
