Hello,
I attended and joined the last meeting. It was very cool however the lecture was a little over my head. I will sadly be unable to attend the next meeting because of my daughter's 1st birthday.
Here is my problem:
Setup:
34 gallon solana w/ 2 inches of sugar sand covered by 2inches of live sand from caribsea, 40lbs live rock, two masxi 600's and one koralia nano for circulation
Lights 150 watt metal halide, blue/uv actinic
sump-ten gallon hex tank w/ 3 inches of crushed coral covered by two inces of mud from an established tank then covered with sugar sand. A gravity flow with a 1200maxi jet handles the circulation
The tank has been up and running since 12/26/07. The sump has been up since 1/20/08.
Problems with fish store
I have been going through the fish store and have probably dropped about 1500 dollars.
3 weeks ago I went to the store w/ 2 dead snails. The store said my salinity was too high and that I need to get it down. Once I got it to 1.024 he said I was ready (4 days later) He said to start w/ cleaner shrimp and they do best when you have more than once. I put two shrimp in the tank. They seemed to do fine so I went back a few days later and asked if I could put anything else in. He said and I quote "I don't have anything in this store that your system can't handle" I bought the following
Orange and white starfish-40
Reef Lobster-70
Pacific LT anenome 50
Metallic Green Star polyps-70
Neon Green Zooanthids-60
I did not know any better. He said they would all do fine.
The starfish died the next day, followed by the lobster the day after that. The zoos developed a mucous after 3 days and then started to rot. The anenome never opened or found a spot he liked. The star polyps also never opened.
So there I was I killed all of them and the ones that remained didn't seem healthy
I changed fish stores and am now having someone from Wet Pets in Vernon come to my house to service my tank and teach me how do things. The guy from the prev. store only told me to add this, don't add that, test this etc. I need to know and understand the why's because I want to do it myself.
I noticed a very strong smell of cat urine coming from my tank. The odor was incredibly strong on the pieces of live rock. I don't have a cat and the ammonia is testing fine. I've also noticed a bright green growth on the live rock whatever it is it is hard and not a slime or anything. Photo below!
I placed the two survivors in a bucket w/ clean water a heater and a pump. They seemed to do fine for a couple of days when FEDCOPMIKE came by and took them to put in his tank. He said that I may want to add a fish to cycle the tank and that the green could be a green coralline algae.
What happened to my tank? Did it not originally cycle? The guy from wet pets has performed every possible test and says that it's fine. I'm at a loss. I teach SCUBA and have wanted a reef tank for years. I want to make a go of this and not sell it but at what point do I cut my losses. Now i pay a weekly maintenance fee! I feel like i've gone over my head.
I attended and joined the last meeting. It was very cool however the lecture was a little over my head. I will sadly be unable to attend the next meeting because of my daughter's 1st birthday.
Here is my problem:
Setup:
34 gallon solana w/ 2 inches of sugar sand covered by 2inches of live sand from caribsea, 40lbs live rock, two masxi 600's and one koralia nano for circulation
Lights 150 watt metal halide, blue/uv actinic
sump-ten gallon hex tank w/ 3 inches of crushed coral covered by two inces of mud from an established tank then covered with sugar sand. A gravity flow with a 1200maxi jet handles the circulation
The tank has been up and running since 12/26/07. The sump has been up since 1/20/08.
Problems with fish store
I have been going through the fish store and have probably dropped about 1500 dollars.
3 weeks ago I went to the store w/ 2 dead snails. The store said my salinity was too high and that I need to get it down. Once I got it to 1.024 he said I was ready (4 days later) He said to start w/ cleaner shrimp and they do best when you have more than once. I put two shrimp in the tank. They seemed to do fine so I went back a few days later and asked if I could put anything else in. He said and I quote "I don't have anything in this store that your system can't handle" I bought the following
Orange and white starfish-40
Reef Lobster-70
Pacific LT anenome 50
Metallic Green Star polyps-70
Neon Green Zooanthids-60
I did not know any better. He said they would all do fine.
The starfish died the next day, followed by the lobster the day after that. The zoos developed a mucous after 3 days and then started to rot. The anenome never opened or found a spot he liked. The star polyps also never opened.
So there I was I killed all of them and the ones that remained didn't seem healthy
I changed fish stores and am now having someone from Wet Pets in Vernon come to my house to service my tank and teach me how do things. The guy from the prev. store only told me to add this, don't add that, test this etc. I need to know and understand the why's because I want to do it myself.
I noticed a very strong smell of cat urine coming from my tank. The odor was incredibly strong on the pieces of live rock. I don't have a cat and the ammonia is testing fine. I've also noticed a bright green growth on the live rock whatever it is it is hard and not a slime or anything. Photo below!
I placed the two survivors in a bucket w/ clean water a heater and a pump. They seemed to do fine for a couple of days when FEDCOPMIKE came by and took them to put in his tank. He said that I may want to add a fish to cycle the tank and that the green could be a green coralline algae.
What happened to my tank? Did it not originally cycle? The guy from wet pets has performed every possible test and says that it's fine. I'm at a loss. I teach SCUBA and have wanted a reef tank for years. I want to make a go of this and not sell it but at what point do I cut my losses. Now i pay a weekly maintenance fee! I feel like i've gone over my head.
