collettk

Tank has been up 6 months...nitrites. Ammonia at 0...nitrates are low...I'm running led...multi spectrum, multi timer/phases... I have had the clam about 3 weeks and it has been doing fine

The foot is not sticky...only the tenticles. Is there anything I can do? Also, how long should I go with the powerheads off...I don't think my clam likes it.

Its either free floating or resting on the sandbed but not attached to anything. I can pick it up no problem. one other question I have...should I be able to feel any reactions from this animal when I touch it or pick it up? I don't feel any voluntary movement.

I bought an LTA this weekend but have very little experience with them. It looks very healthy...foot in tact, stretched tenticles, vibrant color, mouth closed. When i added it to the tank I also added a skunk clown with it. What I'm a little concerned about is that it won't attach. I tried putting it in a sandy part of the tank and also tried using a small rock base with sand around it. It will stay there for a while (probably because I have the powerheads turned off) but eventually it ends up moving (probably because the clown is rubbing around in it). I've even found it upside down. Its only been in the tank for 36 hours. Is this normal? How long should I keep my powerheads off? I don't want the rest of my tank to suffer. I'm also not sure how responsive it is suppose to be. I can't really tell if it moves it's tenticles on its own or if it's the current moving them. I tried to feed it. The 1st time its mouth opened and it seemed to respond. The second time it wasn't quite as responsive and one of my wrasse went in and took the food right out the center of it (I thought these things were posionous). is there a guide out there about anemone body language? I'm just basically looking for some experienced input so I don't kill the thing. I had read somewhere to leave it be for a week and just let it roll around, dont try to feed it or anything. Again that seems like a long time to have my powerheads turned off and if i find it upside down in the corner somewhere I can't help but feel a little alarmed and maybe I need to intervene. one more note...the clownfish isn't always climbing over the anemone so it is getting a lot of time by itself. The anenome looks like this: http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productdetailcc.asp?did=11&cid=360&pid=9456

Just saw him yesterday. He's way more shy then ever before. He'll hide for days then come out for a few min to feed.

He was in there over a month. When I got him out the return and return him to the tank I thought he was going to die right there then he finally went into hiding and I haven't seen him since ( just a couple hours ago). I turn out the light to hope to calm everything down in my tank.

Update: been over a month now and everything seems to be doing well...I did lose two Athias but I think that the dominate one bullied them to death. I also thought I lost a wrasse but I found him today in my overflow...he didn't look to good but I got him out and put him back in the tank. I hope that wasn't a mistake. He was discolored and weak. I'm hoping he's just famished.

No...fish all look healthy.

Day 14 - added the last Kick-Ich treatment. All the fish seem t be doing fine. Nitrite still sits at .25ppm. I'll turn back on my skimmer, carbon, GFO, and UV sterilizer on Monday. Looks like the Diatoms might be dying off but now my water column is cloudy...I think I hit a bacteria bloom cycle because of all the dead diatoms (just a guess). Here pics of what it looks like today:

I always been fascinated by the Mantis shrimp, but I always figured they would be a headache to keep.

Day 12 - no real change. I think I still have a little bit of ammonia in my tank. Its hard to tell with these test kit between the yellow 0 and the yellow-light green .25ppm. My nitrites are still there :( . I figured it would be gone by now since it has been almost six days since I added Dr. Tim's One and Only. Thanks for the comments about my rock work. As many times as I had to redo it trying to get fish out it never seems to look as good as it just did before I disturbed it.

Thanks.

The bottle said 120g each.

Day 11 - Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite .25ppm (still) Nitrate 5ppm I guess my tank is hitting its ugly stage (diatoms and cloudy water) At least the fish seem fine. Corals look ticked off though. I'll keep you post on Day 13 (last application of the Kick-Ich). Hopefully my nitrite will go down soon...Thought it would be quick then this since I added 16oz of Dr Tim's. Oh well.

We want more!!!...we want more!!!...This entire thread was a great read.

zygote2k, Appreciate the advice. nice pics on your site btw. Day 10 - wife adding Kick-Ich this evening (I'm teaching class this evening)...I'll update you with how the tank looks when I get home or tomorrow morning. One more dose of Kick-ich to go before I can put my skimmer back on

Thanks Inevo and Origami, Everything you have said sounds spot on. There is a lot of moving parts to this hobby that someone new like me has to digest. Some things I might not even full grasp until I experience it myself. I appreciate all the input everyone's giving me in this forum, the LFS, and from friends I know in the hobby. I do need to get a QT set up fairly soon (though logistically I need to figure out how best to set that up as both space and money is fast becoming a drying up resource). As far as cheap 'flipped' fish. The only one we really took a gamble on was the Hippo tang (and we paid for that one). All the other fish we were at least told they had been at the shop several weeks before we bought it. Marine Scene and Blue Ribbon Koi have been especially helpful in ensuring we select the best fish for our tank. We almost bought a few fish from Marine Scene that they decided for us that it was a bad call and are very grateful we listened to them. The challenge has been trying to sort all the varying views we get at each stage of this process. I remember when I was first figuring out how to set up my sump, after seeing several designs we decided to follow a video we saw from New York Steelo. In the video we were told to put the skimmer in the 1st chamber but then we talked to someone from a LFS who told us we were backwards and it needed to be in the last chamber (return chamber). Then we were told by another person we had it right the 1st time....talk about confusing. Then another LFS owner told us we only need 80lbs of live rock for our 180g tank even though everything I read said I needed 1lb for every gallon. He said that was old school thinking. I didn't listen to him. It sucks we lost all the tangs (two died and one I returned to LFS) but it's hard to sort out what we were told because someone might be trying to sell a fish and whether were being overly cautious. And lets face it, how hard was it for you the 1st time you ever set up a reef tank to be patient and look at an empty tank after dropping thousands on equipment and filtration. We probably listened to what we wanted to hear more than things that weren't so appealing. Lesson learned now we're just trying to weather our mistakes. There's no way we're going to add another fish to my tank without proper QT and it will be a while before we add anything else.

Thanks YHSublime, I tested Ammonia and Nitrite this morning....Ammonia 0, Nitrite .25ppm....tank is still full of ugly diatoms....all the fish seem fine although I'm keeping an eye on the one wrasse that swims up and down the glass. I also have a favia and galaxy coral and a few button star polyp frags...the galaxy coral and star polyps don't look to happy right now (I'm thinking because of the nitrite lvls and possibly because I up the temp to 80F.

Although I appreciate your input, your presumption that I have not done any research before strolling into the LFS is misguided. I spent two months before even buying any equipment researching extensively. I had my tank built into a bar so I had to make sure it was something I wanted to commit to and I needed to ensure it would be built with the right dimensions and space to fit everything I needed to set this up. I read multiple articles, posts, books, etc about the cycling process and the multiple ways people get their tank to start cycling. A lot of what I'm being told by you and others I have read online and in books. I have also seen A LOT of contradictory information for just about every aspect of this hobby. Take the ich treatment as an example. How many post in this thread alone told me that the only way to treat ich is to remove my fish from the DT. Maybe that will me the case, but I found a lot of people saying that they swear by Kick-Ich. My point is, I started this post to get some ideas on addressing some issues I'm having and tap into some peoples experiences because mine at this point are limited. So if you wish to share those experiences, my ear are all opened. But please don't try to label me and keep your assumptions to yourself.