Hello! New to site, salt and our relationship :-))

[Ericandcasey]

Hey Everyone. No offense but we aren't getting rid of our fish. Our tank water is back to ideal. We took our water and had a professional give us advice and he said that our system set up is ideal and fine. Getting a more powerful light is recommended but as of right now we are fine. It seems that a few people want us to get rid of our fish but that is not an option seeming that our water is ideal. We've done water changes and it's cycled quite a few times. I know we are newbies people but we are not unintelligent. Our current parementers are ph is 8.3 water salinity is 1.023 ammonia is 0 nitrates are 0 as well as nitrites I'm sure this is hard to believe for people but we are doing good. =) We apprecite all the help. Luv ya guys!

[Bifferwine]

Okay, sounds good. Keep us updated. I just wanted to add that you say that your tank has cycled quite a few times... It's not supposed to do this, it's only supposed to cycle once. If your ammonia and nitrites spike whenever you add something new it means that the bacteria load cannot yet handle the increased waste from the new addition. That is why we recommend adding animals slowly, so that your tank does not cycle every time. Repeated cycles cause a lot of stress on the animals, and this can (and should) be avoided altogether. I don't think you're unintelligent, not at all. I don't think anyone has said that. It's just that a lot of people here have been through the same thing that you have, a lot of us have learned lessons the hard way, myself included (I lost a few fish in the beginning too, and I had the hardest time keeping, of all things, snails alive for some reason). We will try to help you along by sharing with you the lessons we've learned in the hopes that others can skip the mistakes that we've made. When I "joined" living reefs I had made a lot of mistakes, killed a lot of animals, and I learned a lot by hearing other people's experiences. That's why we're here, to share what we've learned, not to judge or criticize. Just to give advice. So I apologize if you go the impression that I was being hard on you. You're welcome to PM me if you want to talk more...

[bobby]

I'm very sorry if you got the impresstion that we thouht you unintelligent, believe me thats not what were going for, were just trying to help and avoid any possibale mistakes, and believe me no matter how smart anybody is there is probably going to be problems happen some time or another. So dont let that stop you from asking any questions, the only dumb one is the one not asked, and I've asked some pretty easy ones, but some times you just dont know. But then again thats what this hobby is about learning, learning, and some more learning.lol The reason your water is down to 0 again is probably from a mini cycle from adding something else.


The anemone will need a stronger light, they live off of it, they have a form of algae in there body which needs light to grow if they dont get that light they will slowly die and if unoticed like bifferwine said it will compromise your whole tank and have a crash which can kill all of the life in the tank, so just keep a good eye on him.

Like I said you dont absolutly need a skimmer but I know it will help alot. If you do decide to get one, before you buy it post the brand on here and somebody can tell you if its a good skimmer to buy, that way you dont waste your money on a junk one like I and many other hobbists have. I stared out with the seaclone and I'm here to tell you its the worst you can get, dos'nt want to work good for nothing, but thats just another lessoned learned for me. And thats what were here for to hopefully help someone not make the misstakes we have made. We'll good luck and keep us posted.

[Ericandcasey]

Thanks everyone..... we are getting new lighting today (friday 1/12). Look forward to reading alot of posts as we both have the weekend off. Will update when we get back tonight with the new light and also will take pics of our tank/fish.


Thanks again
Eric n Casey

[bobby]

Sounds good, cant wait to see the pics!!! I love pics.

[jhnrb]

Thanks for the update, parameters sound really good. New lights, good move, waiting for pic's. Have fun and keep us posted. Glad to have you as part of our community.

[Ericandcasey]

Bought a Coralife 2x65 24" Deluxe Series - Double Linear Strip..With.. 65Watt 10,000k Daylight and 65 Watt True Actinic 03 Blue. New owner friend of a local fish store said he had a couple protine skimmers they had made laying around his house unused and would let me use/have...... Pic's of set-up etc after we get back sat from the Baltimore Aquarium with Case's mom if anyone wanted to see will post them in our folder.... Hey also is there anywere (will look around later) to donate for the forum / site costs?

Eric.....

[Ericandcasey]

Also 1 other question etc.... We have a ten gal tank also with no fish just a piece of live rock, would using that say to make / balance new water be an ok idea?

[yote]

You mean to mix your water in? It'd probably be easier to use a plastic bucket for that,easier to get the new water in your tank any way.

[Bifferwine]

Sounds good, can't wait to see pics.