CMDemey
New member
The sand is live sand, the rock on the left is fake, there is actually a pyramid stack of live rock on the right that the top was already red/green/purple, the others were not there yet when I added them, but were turning and already had some bristle worms and polyp type things, now are light green/burgundy more and more daily. Like I said before, nitrites and nitrates perfect, at 0, ammonia at 0, only one that has been off and needed care was the pH. I used the reefmaster chemical test kit, not the test strips. I use live salt or whatever exactly it is called, the ine with all the good stuff in it. I have NO coral so the G coral you mentioned, I'm not sure what you were looking at, maybe the little fake thing all the way to the left by the white fake rock I have so the clown and blue dam have hiding spots they like. I do have a salinity hydrometer and my salinity is also on point. I only add it disolved already. I do feed a variety, and krill directly to the nem and seastar. I have no living corals or plants, fish, nem, sea star. I went with the Haitian reef nem because they don't have as high parameters needed. I did figure out that my lighting is saltwater fish lighting and not reef lighting. I was under the impression it was just a lower quality not incorrect for reef creatures all together. I will not be adding coral at any time to this tank because of our small size and the chocolate chip sea star would just eat the coral and for my daughter, the sea star is much more important. Thank you for your advice though. We have a simple tank that I have researched and chosen its inhabitants and what has gone in it for specific reasons. I did miscalculate on the light that came with my tank kit. I misunderstood the differences. I am still going low end of the cost and ability with the reef light I chose, but it should hopefully do fine for the small tank and single nem we are wanting to inhabit it. I do also think this nem may have already been declining when we added it to our inadequately lit tank, I have compared photos of the first days we had it to others thriving and the one I chose already had shorter tentacles and its foot was much paler than healthier specimens I've seen since. Our first week we also saw it purge a darker brown mix than its other normal purging and I read recently that it is purging the zoox if darker brown in color and a very bad sign that it is not healthy. I thought that was its normal waste out and didn't realize it was in trouble yet. With our set up, the only 2 things that made any sence for being wrong were the flow or light. I had good flow, the power head added a bit too much flow with the current we already had and the nem declined faster, that left the light which thanks to earlier posts and more research, I now understand that better. The hood we have came with our tank kit and has a saltwater led light strip that clips into it. That is why we have to get a different cover when upgrading our light. It is a folding glass one that the new led low heat light strip can sit above safely, still has a strip along the back to vent and leave our filter, dual air stone tubes, and heater cord access, but will protect the tank from dust, pet dander, or Siberian husky or cat hair from contaminating the water. We have indoor pets that go in and out of the house so I can't leave the tank wide open, not to mentione being on a farm with horses and goats, I always have horse hair on me, lol. I have a zoo it would seem. At any rate, I do appreciate your advice, and I know many of these things were described over many many messages, so I have tried to answer them again. We just don't have the inhabitants you mentioned for needing some of those things and actually do have and are doing some of the others. Sorry for the confusion. 
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