Third attempt raising clownfish...
- Thread starter Kathy55g
- Start date
Crisis averted. Called Ed on the phone. We think that the test kit is bad but just in case got some RO at the store to dilute my display water.
I've calmed down now.
More advice from Ed was to connect my fry tank to a system with a biological filter. Going to do that asap.
ed gives good advice.
I've calmed down now.
More advice from Ed was to connect my fry tank to a system with a biological filter. Going to do that asap.
ed gives good advice.
What a horrendous day. I never did make it in to work and I've been fooling around with the fish stuff all day.
Ammonia. It's in the tap water, my RODI water, and so everything I make with it. Turns out my test kits were good. I went to the LFS and asked them to test my freshly made up RODI saltwater, and it came back at 3 mg/L!!!!!!!!!
My poor fish. I think another one is trying to die this evening. Another not quite metamorphoser.
I have set up a rinky dink sump-like tank with about 15 pounds of live rock from my display (2 year set up) and display tank water. Then I slowly aclimated the rock to 25 ppt with a drip of RO water from the grocery store (0 ammonia). Then I set up an aqualifter pump to trickle water from the sump to the tank and also set up a coffee filter siphon to get water from the tank to the sump. I have been pretty lucky getting the flows to match, but I'm a little nervous about going to bed tonight. I may have to turn it off when I am not watching it.
Given that I cannot make ammonia free unsalted water, I need to set up a system ASAP!! I need to figure out where to get tanks drilled, set up some shelving system and a sump for live rock and a pump to get water up to where it needs to go. I am clueless.
How big should the diameter for the bulkheads and the plumbing be...How much pump do I need...How to make an overflow. I will have to see if I can get some help locally.
If anybody wants to give me some advice on this, now would be a good time...
Wish me luck,
Kathy
Ammonia. It's in the tap water, my RODI water, and so everything I make with it. Turns out my test kits were good. I went to the LFS and asked them to test my freshly made up RODI saltwater, and it came back at 3 mg/L!!!!!!!!!
My poor fish. I think another one is trying to die this evening. Another not quite metamorphoser.
I have set up a rinky dink sump-like tank with about 15 pounds of live rock from my display (2 year set up) and display tank water. Then I slowly aclimated the rock to 25 ppt with a drip of RO water from the grocery store (0 ammonia). Then I set up an aqualifter pump to trickle water from the sump to the tank and also set up a coffee filter siphon to get water from the tank to the sump. I have been pretty lucky getting the flows to match, but I'm a little nervous about going to bed tonight. I may have to turn it off when I am not watching it.
Given that I cannot make ammonia free unsalted water, I need to set up a system ASAP!! I need to figure out where to get tanks drilled, set up some shelving system and a sump for live rock and a pump to get water up to where it needs to go. I am clueless.
How big should the diameter for the bulkheads and the plumbing be...How much pump do I need...How to make an overflow. I will have to see if I can get some help locally.
If anybody wants to give me some advice on this, now would be a good time...
Wish me luck,
Kathy
spk
Premium Member
Kathy,
Deep breath. Thinking of you and the struggles you are having. What ever you decide to go for you basically want the exit bulkheads to be twice the flow of the inlet diameter. |
Right now you do not need to worry overly much about the flow through the system as you need it to turn over the water through the filters more than anything else.
I am sorry that I am not closer to you as I could have lent a hand and some extra kit.
Good luck and will be watching how you progress.
Steve
Deep breath. Thinking of you and the struggles you are having. What ever you decide to go for you basically want the exit bulkheads to be twice the flow of the inlet diameter. |
Right now you do not need to worry overly much about the flow through the system as you need it to turn over the water through the filters more than anything else.
I am sorry that I am not closer to you as I could have lent a hand and some extra kit.
Good luck and will be watching how you progress.
Steve
Kathy,
I'm a little confused why your display tank doesn't have ammonia but since it doesn't why don't you use some of that water and dilute it with water from the lfs. It probably wouldn't take much. Of course, this would just be for the time being.
Just wondering when you can raise the salinity in the nursery tank?
By the way, I haven't decided to get on the roller coaster with raising dottyback babies yet. It's alot to consider (time & money). I also have a pair of clown gobies that are constantly making eggs. I check your progress daily.
Good luck,
Pam
I'm a little confused why your display tank doesn't have ammonia but since it doesn't why don't you use some of that water and dilute it with water from the lfs. It probably wouldn't take much. Of course, this would just be for the time being.
Just wondering when you can raise the salinity in the nursery tank?
By the way, I haven't decided to get on the roller coaster with raising dottyback babies yet. It's alot to consider (time & money). I also have a pair of clown gobies that are constantly making eggs. I check your progress daily.
Good luck,
Pam
Nice to hear from you Pam.
The display has no ammonia because it has lots of live rock bacteria that process the ammonia to nitrate and or nitrogen. It has been cycled for over 2 years.
I have been using the display tank water and diluting it with my own RODI not knowing that it had ammonia. Unfortunately, the LFS water has ammonia in it too. The only water that does not is the grocery store water, which probably comes from out of town and is RO treated.
I don't think you ever raise the salinity. My LFS keeps their fish only tanks at low 1.020 specific gravity, some of the fish I will sell to them. Helps keep them healthy I think.
Great to hear that you enjoy the thread. Say something once in a while so I know you are there!
Cheers,
kathy
The display has no ammonia because it has lots of live rock bacteria that process the ammonia to nitrate and or nitrogen. It has been cycled for over 2 years.
I have been using the display tank water and diluting it with my own RODI not knowing that it had ammonia. Unfortunately, the LFS water has ammonia in it too. The only water that does not is the grocery store water, which probably comes from out of town and is RO treated.
I don't think you ever raise the salinity. My LFS keeps their fish only tanks at low 1.020 specific gravity, some of the fish I will sell to them. Helps keep them healthy I think.
Great to hear that you enjoy the thread. Say something once in a while so I know you are there!
Cheers,
kathy
So I now have a sump for the babies with live rock, a powerhead, heater and a maxijet 1200 that pumps up to the tank. I have a second hand CPR overflow with Aqualifter that, once I figured out how the thing works, is working quite well. I taped some synthetic fabric over the inlet to the overflow so that the fish and brine shrimp would not get lost in the sump. I'll probably have to change that daily. There is also a lot more water now in the system, probably 25 gallons. I topped it up with display water diluted with grocery store RO.
The ammonia is the same, but the system has only been running for a couple of hours.
The fish seem the same, except bigger.
What concerns me is that they hang around at the surface, nose up, like they are sucking air all the time. I know this is not normal fish behavior, but is it normal for baby clowns?
Do they have permanent gill damage from living in low level ammonia?
The ammonia is the same, but the system has only been running for a couple of hours.
The fish seem the same, except bigger.
What concerns me is that they hang around at the surface, nose up, like they are sucking air all the time. I know this is not normal fish behavior, but is it normal for baby clowns?
Do they have permanent gill damage from living in low level ammonia?
The clown babies seem better this evening. More of them are swimming in the body of the tank, instead of clustering at the surface. I can really tell that they are eating because they are eating bigger particles and I can see them approach, and snap their mouths around it, and then its gone. I start their day with finely crushed Formula 1 flake around 5:30, and later cyclopeeze, and then baby brine shrimp just before I go to work at 8:30 - 9am. Their stomachs really turn orange and bulge. When I get home, they get some more flake and cyclopeeze, sometimes bbs if I have some left, I siphon their tank, and then lights out around 10.
The fish seem remarkably bigger today! Maybe it is because they are higher up in the tank since I raised the water volume. It is Day 18 for them.
The parent fish have spawned again, but I am going to pass on this batch as I have some work to do for my kids' schools, and I want to get a system set up to handle multiple batches before I hang myself again. I'm keeping a small collection of rotifers going, and I'll just refrigerate the excess phyto until I need to start up again.
Cheers,
Kathy
The fish seem remarkably bigger today! Maybe it is because they are higher up in the tank since I raised the water volume. It is Day 18 for them.
The parent fish have spawned again, but I am going to pass on this batch as I have some work to do for my kids' schools, and I want to get a system set up to handle multiple batches before I hang myself again. I'm keeping a small collection of rotifers going, and I'll just refrigerate the excess phyto until I need to start up again.
Cheers,
Kathy
Fish are getting bigger daily. Pictures this weekend.
I feed them some cyclopeeze every day, the frozen kind. The ignore the bigger bits and do seem to eat the tiniest pieces, but it is not the feeding activity that I see when I give them the NH brine shrimp. They just go on search and destroy! I may see if I can find the dried kind of cyclopeeze so I can mill it to a size they can use.
They do take flake food well.
Anyone else have experience with the frozen kind of cyclopeeze?
I feed them some cyclopeeze every day, the frozen kind. The ignore the bigger bits and do seem to eat the tiniest pieces, but it is not the feeding activity that I see when I give them the NH brine shrimp. They just go on search and destroy! I may see if I can find the dried kind of cyclopeeze so I can mill it to a size they can use.
They do take flake food well.
Anyone else have experience with the frozen kind of cyclopeeze?
