monkeydad

Hi all, I have a 14g nano reef tank. We are on vacation cruising the coast from Myrtle to St Augustine. Is it good to put in some "wild" sand into my tank? Thanks!

Posting at work:tongue: busted! ...psst lookout here comes Roz....

Quite right Origami-San! I just finished reading "Marine Chemistry" by C R Brightwell. This is a must read for all newbie marine tankers!!! The gyrations my water is going through is fascinating to watch, I can't believe how much the pH swings as the water goes through the denitrification process. I'm doing 10% water changes every other day, and feeding very sparingly every other day, while I wait and hope for stabilization and healthy water. Also, I bought a book that has plotting charts for the water parameters-way cool! I can see the whole process playing out on a graph by connecting the chart data plots. This helps me visualize the what is going on much better than reading numbers.

Jan, I think you are spot on. I had several issues after my initial LR cycle. My tank is so small, I don't think there is a predator because while there are some nooks/crannies, they are so small any predator in them would not be big enough-I think! Time will tell and I will keep an eye out. 1) I stocked faster than the beneficial bacteria could keep up to maintain zero amonia/nitrite/nitrate. I have learned that after each livestock addition, I need to allow the 'biofilter' to catch up to the new level of waste production/organic matter, then repeat. I now know that stocking tank can take months, not weeks. 2) I overfed. Massively overfed as it turns out..... 3) As Jan said, while my LR may have cycled, my tank needed more time to mature fully before adding any livestock. gmubeach, I think that is exactly what happened. I placed spare shells in the tank.

I had a water crisis, under topic "new to the hobby" please help water help please... I thought I would chronicle my nano life here. Stock BQ 14G with a Fluval heater. One additional small water jet mounted directly under the stock water injector blowing in the opposite direction. Fiji live rock, live sand. 1 Blue knuckle, three hermits, couple of snails. 1 plate coral LPS 1 frag green star polyp a few mushrooms 2 shrimp 1 percula 1 yellow tail blue damsel After the tank cycle initially, I started with cleanup crew. After a week, mushrooms. After another week shrimp (died). Another week, torch coral (returned-was not happy in my tank) and plate coral. Then the two fish. Deaths: Several hermits-a murderer in the midst. Removed. Snail. I had what looks like another "cycle" happen over the last two days. Still ongoing. I'm changing water, added some Cycle. Pic of what it looks like now below. I'm very glad to be a member and I can't wait to see how things progress. I'm looking forward to learning so much.

My nano reef so far

SOLD! I joined with auto-renewal. I feel very fortunate to live in such a vibrant area with so much breadth and depth of knowledge the many people in the DC area have on all manor of subjects. I got some Cycle to help with the "good" bacteria generation. My fish sitter will feed only every other day a very small amount, and I will observe and let the tank settle for the next several weeks. I thought I was going slow, but "slow" is a matter of great subjectivity! Evidently my idea of slow was too fast:blush:

DaveS, Thanks for the offer. We are leaving town for ten days tomorrow-hence my loosing my cool this morning. I'm normally not so hysterical....I feel very responsible though because all of these beautiful creatures are 100% dependent on me. zygote2k and Super-Pod, I had a talk with my lfs guy who said the same as you two. I agree completely. Too new of a bio-system to handle what I've done so far, and also, I think my bio ball/ filter rinsing and multiple water changing is actually slowing down the process of growing a bio-filter. I am aerating, and will feed very sparingly, all livestock is on hold, and I won't do a thing besides watch and wait for the next several weeks. My total fish capacity will not go over three, currently two. LFS cannot house my livestock, but feels that what I have should make it okay. I'll keep y'all posted, and thanks.

Just finished 2g water change (14g total cap) Rinsed filter media (tap....my mistake....tank water from now on) Rinsed bio balls in removed tank water Coral H Thank you very much, I will call my lfs and see if I can do that. My rock/sand cycled in about two weeks. I then started stocking. How long should a tank be settled before adding livestock? Right after the cycle, or wait xx days/weeks? Jan Thanks for encouragement-I was hoping someone would chime in with some! ;-) I have seen some worms. But not anything else on the sand....maybe I should add some more live sand? Thank you all so much!

Coral Hind Wow..that's a read and a half. I took one chemistry class in high school twenty five years ago! I've been reading about water chemistry in several threads and all are beyond my understanding at this time, and honestly, I didn't get into the hobby to be a chemist...or a light spectrum analyst... I can test stuff, and follow directions. Perhaps I chose the wrong hobby. I'm a KISS method man...

Great Falls VA LS about 1&1/2 in SR about 1/3 of tank volume (14g BQ) Stock bio cube. Added one sm circ pump and a Fluval digital heater set to 78 (down from 82). I tried a protein skimmer, a bio cube model, that I was unable to adjust very well and made more water than bubbles. I went back to the stock filter (matt with active charcoal). Last night I "blew" a lot od detritus into suspension so the filter could snag it up. It did. Would this add amonia and nitrites? I did have some deaths. Hermits were disappearing. One was murdering them. I thought I plucked him out, but I may have plucked the wrong one because two more are KIA as well as one of my burrowing snails.

I don't know what my dkH is. Hmm I don't know what it IS either... I am buying my water from a lfs I have ten gallons at my disposal. I don't have a way of heating it....I will add two gallons at a time and let temp stabilize between changes. I obviously stocked too quickly and overfed... Should I stop feeding for xx number of days? If so, how many days? Should I return the fish? How old should a tank be before adding livestock? I was under the impression that after the LR and LS cycled I was safe to stock up. Thank you! Erich

Hi all, I'm Erich, VERY new to reefing... 14g BioCube Fiji live rock Live sand hermits (started with seven, down to four...?) 1 fire shrimp 1peppermint shrimp 1 featherduster 1 emerald crab 1 YT blue damsel 1percula 1 circular plate coral (LPS) 2 above sand snails 2 burrowing snails (down to 1...?) I waited almost two weeks watching my water chem to cycle, and levels went to zero. started adding livestock. I overfed the fish with huge amounts of brine shrimp....rookie mistake... I then had an amonia and nitrite spike to .25-.50 and .25-.50 respectively. I did several water changes two gallons at a time with a few hours between each to let temp stabilize, totalling ten gallons. Water tested perfect last night. This morning, the chem is Amonia .25 Nitrite .50 Nitrate 0 pH dropped from .8.2 yesterday to .78 today Please, please! What is happening, and how can I investigate the cause and make corrections????