New Tank Owners from Bear

[wds21921]

If your still in the process of cycling your tank, you may want to cut back a little on your feedings.

Most likely there is already enough backlog of leftover food in the tank to sustain them in between feedings already. 1-2x a day is enough. Many go with just once a day.

No need to get your levels too high and hang there for too long from overfeeding.

Welcome to "The World According to Gunk". Happy to see your skimmer is working for you now .

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7093533#post7093533 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wds21921
1-2x a day is enough. Many go with just once a day.

we feed once a week(when i remember)

 

[wds21921]

There fish are on the newest Oprah Ethiopian diet. JK

Actually the one thing I noticed about Chris & Barb's tanks were they were exceptionally clean of detrius.

I'm sure theres some in them but not nearly what you'd find in some medium to large size tanks. Plus they've got an incredible filtration system . And yes the fish are VERY healthy looking too.

 

[kaptken]

dang, i must feed mine too much. they get fed several times a day. two types of flake food to start in the morning. then a mix of frozen brine and mysis shrimp in the evening. they never stop eating.

 

[wds21921]

I think you've got a slightly larger load of fish than most tanks that size but they're very well diversified by species and the filtration seems adequate enough. Kudos on the species balancing too.

I love to hear people that say "they'll continue to eat until they blow up". If I had a nickel for each time.........I'd have a lot of nickles.
Maybe they've spent too much time watching Oscars blowing fish out of there gills at feeding time?

I don't think your having any problems with the quantity or amount of times your feeding Ken. I think watching your ammonia and 'trite and 'trate levels would tell you if you were overfeeding? Considering also, any delayed reactions or readings into the mix also.

I only advised OFT to keep it minimal because of the duration of the break in period.

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7099398#post7099398 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wds21921
There fish are on the newest Oprah Ethiopian diet. JK

every system is different!!!!!

what you need to feed your fish will not be the same as what we need to feed ours.

the main concern about feeding is, what type fish do you have,what do they eat and can your tank make that food on it's own?

with a new tank you will need to feed your fish more often. but be very cautious not to over feed.

our system has been up for over 2 years now. most of the fish we have eat pods. if you compare gallions to fish to live rock we have a very small fish load.

our live rock can provide just about all the food our fish need. we still need to add nori for our Tangs but thats about it

 

[kaptken]

Oh yeah, new tanks are different. but my 75 reef is 7-8 years old with an old plenum deep sand bed and lots o rock and corals to eat all the waste. Ive only got 14 fish in the tank, i think? 2 percs, 2 green gobies, 1 yellow gobie, 1 blue mandarin,1hawkfish, 1 damsel, 1 yellow tang, 1 misc. tang, 4 green chromis. i think thats all. anyway, they eat all that i drop in the tank. and the pods and micro stars and bacteria and stuff eat the rest. older tanks can handle more load it seems. but you are right , it takes a while to get there. i havent tested for amonia,nitrites or nitrates in years.

 

[Our First Tank]

We have algae!!!! Normally I would not be happy about this, but this is a good thing correct (as far as cycling goes)? It is a rust color which I am assuming is red algae. It is on one of the decorative plants and skimmer inside the tank driving my other half crazy!!

I am reading mixed feelings about this now, so I am relying on my trusty DRC members for truthful advice as usual Do we clean it off? Do we leave it alone?

 

[MadTownMax]

diatoms - if everything goes OK, it should totally disappear in a week or two.

It may make you feel a little "funny" but this is just part of your tank growing up, and yes, it is totally natural.

 

[wds21921]

LOL it's fcool how happy people get when they see 'something' growing in there tank.

I remember my first huge outbreak of blue/green algae in my old 30 gallon saltwater. I thought I'd created the first REAL alternative to astro-turf. Yeah it rubs off on your clothes but so what?

You're well on your way OFT, enjoy the scenery .

 

[wds21921]

LOL it's cool how happy people get when they see 'something' growing in there tank.

I remember my first huge outbreak of blue/green algae in my old 30 gallon saltwater. I thought I'd created the first REAL alternative to astro-turf. Yeah it rubs off on your clothes but so what?

You're well on your way OFT, enjoy the scenery .

 

[bloopbloop]

~snorty laughing at wds21921, then remembers that cool red slimey stuff she thought was a wonderful discovery in her tank~

~sits down and shuts up~

 

[Our First Tank]

Don't laugh at my diatoms!!!

Hahahahahaha, thanks for keeping it light guys


I still have the gunk though....grrrrr

 

[wds21921]

Patience grasshopper.

 

[Our First Tank]

Our hermit crab is sad

Seriously...he has been hanging out inside our decorative rock for 3 days now. What gives? We just did a water change on saturday. Could that have shocked him?

 

[bloopbloop]

Well, personally... I've never seen many pictures of Clapton where he was not sitting with his guitar. Maybe he thinks he is King Krab and owes no entertainment responsibility. Hey! Is he union? Maybe he is striking!

How much water did you change? Are you using anything copper based in the tank? Has anything been harassing him? Is he hiding wine and women inside the decorative rock?

 

[Shnabbles]

Hows your PH... Inverts become lathargic when the PH drops.

 

[Our First Tank]

its odd how I cam up with his name actually. whenever I hear the word hermit, I think of Herman's Hermits....which gets me thinking about Derick and the Dominoes....which it turn gets me started on Clapton. And as far as I can tell he has no naked pin ups in his rock keeping him occupied.

We changed about 1/3 of the water. I checked the PH last night and it is in between 7.8 and 8.2 which signified a drop. How do we get that back up? ( I have some powder stuff which i think lowers it) Also our ammonia is down to somewhere btwn 0 and .25 which is a good thing. There is nothing copper based in the tank. Our nitrates spiked, how do we get those down as well?

Oh, and bad news....we will not be making the meeting this evening. I have to work until 8

 

[bloopbloop]

Sorry you couldn't make the meeting! Hope to see yas next time!

 

[wds21921]

I wouldn't overly worry about your Nitrate spike so much right now. That could simply be a fluctuation in readings depending on how close that was done to your water change.

The pH though is a concern. The fluctuations in pH (IMO) can create a cycle of events that if not handled correctly and soon, will have slow ongoing effects that can make other parts of the breakdown cycle unmanageable, as well as effects to your inverts. Fish (for the most part) are a little more forgiving when it comes to the pH.
Test your water again to see if you get a similar reading first. If you do, and this is a concern to you, you may want to consider "SLOWLY" raising the pH up to the 8.3 - 8.4 range. 'Slowly' here, is the key word.

I've had better results (especially with reef) in a higher pH range of at least 8.4. Not only do the fish seem to do better but good algaes and inverts seem to fair better also.

One product you might want to consider to handle this is Aquarium Systems Sea Buffer. It will raise both your alkalinity as well as your pH. I've used it for many years and have always had good results. Keep in mind that you don't want to raise your pH any higher than .1 per day. In other words if you started today at say 7.8, your target for a 24 hour period would only be 7.9. You want to continue this .1 target per 24 hours, until you reach the desired level of pH. I know it sounds tedious but pH increases must be introduced slowly so you don't shock your animals.
Some people do fine with lower pH in there systems so I'd suggest reading up on it and then decide for yourself if this is even necessary.

Something else to consider is your perceived reading. A range of 7.8 - 8.2 is a pretty big gap. You may want to have that tested by someone else and then conclude an average. Getting a better fix on the actual number will be more helpful, i.e. 7.9 or 8.0 as the real number and not simply using a range.