hello hello!

Our September Meeting will be at Grant's house at 6pm on Friday the 10th.

•    MCMAC 2009
•    Constitution
•    Bylaws

[Guest]

Welcome, Guest.
Please login or register.

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever

Login with username, password and session length

[sweet pea]

hi there....im new to this forum...and new to having a saltwater tank.  not real sure if this is an "appropriate" place to post this, but hopefully it will be ok 

my boyfriend and i have a 140 gal tank with a 20+ gal sump tank, great set-up, great lighting, etc (at least we think so), aquired it from a friend for a GREAT deal and have since tried our luck at creating a beautiful tank....i feel like we're struggling.  neither one of us have ever had a salt water tank but we've both had an interest so we figured why not?  we got the tank set up, threw in some live sand, let it circulate and establish itself for 3-4 weeks before putting in some "starter" fish...we have some damsels and cardinals and a couple other "cheap" fish.  we had those fish for a few weeks, then went out and bought some prettier/more expensive fish....(too soon in my opinion)...our tank hadn't yet really established itself and 3 out of the 4 we bought wound up belly up.

needless to say, we're coming across a few un-forseen problems.  first off...this "belly up" fiasco happened a month or so ago...and our tank got all scummy around the same time (i hear this is normal??)...a couple of days ago we went and bought a few more fish (less expensive, but just as pretty) and are trying our luck again.  they all seem great at this point in time, but im really worried that they are going to die.  our "starter fish" are still going strong, so how can we get to the point where the fish that we really want to live WILL live??   this leads to our next problem....these "starter" fish probably should have not been purchased....they are ugly and territorial, and downright mean.  i want to flush them....but cant catch them to save my life.  we have one imparticular that is a blue velvet, or neon velvet or something like that....its black with blue stripes.  anyways, he's mean as can be...and i'd love to get rid of him.  any tips on catching fish???

my last and final problem is the one im really hoping to have some help with....our tank is beautiful, but given that we have never had a tank, we don't have it set up very nice....to me it looks like the decor has just been thrown in and is really not that pleasing to the eye.  i was hoping to hire someone to come in and "set up" our tank as a surprise to my boyfriend for valentines day....any suggestions??  anyways, thank you for letting me join your forum and i really appreciate all the help i can get with this....as i am truly a total novice!!!!

[reefbegood]

i can bring over a trap, and would be glade to take him.

[Nate C.]

Welcome to MCSAC!  Grant's idea of a trap to cacth the fish is a good one.  And, if he's willing to give it a home, all the better!

As for the tank itself, have you been testing the water?  You should be monitoring ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.  Once all 3 get to safe values, you should be fine to add the other fish. 

I've talked with my wife Colleen, she and I would be happy to come over sometime and work on aquascaping (she did our 240 gallon herself - pictures at www.canfieldreef.com if you want to check it out), and we both know a lot about running tanks successfully.  We could take a look at your set-up and see if there's anything that stands out as an issue that may cause the problems you describe.  If you are interested, PM me and we can move discussion off-line to make plans for when will work.

Nate
MCSAC President 2010

[sweet pea]

the trap sounds like a great idea! I didn't even know there was such a thing haha....and, yes Nate, we religiously check all the levels, and oddly enough they have never been out of whack...that's kindof why we were so surprised when our fish started dying...but thanks for the tip! i appreciate the offers to help with the aquascaping as well

[jimbo]

hi jimbo here, welcome you have found a great place for info and help. if you want we just lost our meeting place for our feb meeting. don't know if you live in the tricities but if you do invite the club and you will get tons of ideas and meet some great people who all love saltwater and want the best for you and your tank. if not just show up at our next meeting   jimbo

[fogish]

What do you use to test your water, strips or an actual test kit? What were and are your levels? What fish were you adding? A "Scummy" tank could be part of your cycling and/or from the large spike in nutrients from the dead fish. The "Scummy" material is most likely a bloom of Cyanobacteria or Algae, a description or being able to see it will allow us to tell you what it is and how best to deal with it. Did your protein skimmer really increase the amount of skimmate produced?

What books have you read on keeping a saltwater tank? I am just curious what your basic knowledge level is of SW tanks.

If you are meeting Nate and Coleen on a weekend do you mind if I come look at your tank at the same time or even better, host the meeting like Jimbo suggested.

[sweet pea]

we do use a kit...i'll be honest, my boyfriend is the one who does most of that...although i've helped him a few times (he's color blind, so i always am the one to read the color and compare it to the card)  i really can't recall what the levels are,and i'm at work right now so I can't look it up.  as for books....well, i'd love to be able to tell you that we were good fish parents and read up...but truthfully, we haven't.  we did buy a (hold your laugh) saltwater tanks for dummies book....but have really only skimmed through it.

as for hosting the meeting, thanks, im flattered...but if you don't mind i'll hold off on hosting.  i'm a nurse, my boyfriend is a firefighter...so our schedules are pretty screwy and i just can't really commit to anything right off hand.  i'm definitly hoping to be able to come to some meetings though maybe in the future hosting would be an option for me

thank you all for your help and advice, and just an FYI...the 3 fish that we bought on saturday (2 clowns and 1 pink anthias) are doing great!

[Ed]

Welcome  Sweet Pea.   I hope and encourage you to go see someone elses saltwater aquarium. 
Many would love to help you if given the chance.   I look forward to meeting you. Ed