My First Aquarium and DIY Skimmer

[little_fish]

The chance of a mini cycle when you do such a huge water change, so just test your water and see what happens.

And its nice to see you have a good attitude about all of this, it makes me much more willing to help you out. :)

 

[hachadwick]

also, this time, I am going to get 1 or 2 damsel fish and start out alittle cheaper. If they do ok, I'm get the CUC going again.

 

[hachadwick]

Hey, we posted at the same time. I will watch for a mini cycle.
You know, there's no point in getting upset. That only makes thing worse. I caused the problem and so I need to fix it:):) I do appreciate the help. it's making having a good attitude alot more easy.

 

[little_fish]

dont go with damsels, you will have the worst nightmare on your hands trying to remove them later. Seriously. I had to remove every single rock in my 46 gal tank to try and get the damsels out that I put in there first. Worst idea ever. EVER.

If you do want a cheap, nice fish, try chromis or a clown goby.

 

[hachadwick]

dont go with damsels, you will have the worst nightmare on your hands trying to remove them later. Seriously. I had to remove every single rock in my 46 gal tank to try and get the damsels out that I put in there first. Worst idea ever. EVER.

If you do want a cheap, nice fish, try chromis or a clown goby.

LOL, sounds like you had a great time with the damsels. Did they hide behind the rock and would'nt come out? Thanks for the warning. I watched a video and they seemed very jumpy and fast.

 

[little_fish]

It would be like trying to catch a mouse in a cabinet full of random kitchen equipment. But this mouse can move in all 3 dimensions. So even when you remove the junk, that little fucker is still hard as hell to catch.

I think I finally caught them because they were exhausted from me chasing them around the tank for an hour.

In comparison, i had to catch 8 baby clown fish once a week for 16 weeks. It was super easy in comparison. Granted, the tank was smaller and so were they.

 

[hachadwick]

Ok, I'll see what the LFS has in stock and get something other than a damsel. The goby fish look interesting. Don't they pair up with a certain kind of shrimp or something and dig a mutal hidding hole?

 

[little_fish]

not clown gobies, but a few species of gobies do, such as watchmen goby

 

[hachadwick]

Cool. I know they had some in the fish store because I saw them paired up with a shrimp. I'll see what they have. Also, I'm gonna get some algae for the sump, make a refugium out of a section of it after I rebuilt it with the freindly silicone.

 

[hachadwick]

Well, I have roughly 60 gallons of salt water mixed in three storage containers. I removed ALL of the equipment I built and I will be rebuilding anything that I used that possibly bad silcone on it. Tomorrow I am going to quickly train the tank and perform a 100% water change with the freshly mixed water. Before I do so, I'm going to keep a sample of the water to have tested for chemicals and water ever else may be in it. We'll see if it's the water:)

Anyways, after the water is replaced, I'll be watching for a mini-cycle. I hope it retained the bacteria. I don't know if it matters, but I have had the fans off for two days now. My idea was to let the water settle so the bacteria will be settle on the rocks. I figure less current or no current will allow me to remove water and not other things. We'll see I guess.

Anyways, I'll update after the water change is complete. I hope this fixes the problem. starting completly over is going to suck. :grumble:

 

[Samhain]

Glad to see you're not giving up. Patience and perseverance really pay off in this hobby (and most other things in life, come to think on it).

 

[slwedge71]

I love DIY! Keeps the money away from "The Man" in the saltwater enthusiasts' tank

 

[hachadwick]

Ok water is changed, and I had to go with a Damsel. I may regret it but it was the cheapest fish the local fish store had in stock. Here's hoping! He's been hiding behind the rocks for about 45 minutes to a hour but he seems to be acting normal. Not like he's in poision. I'l video him when he comes out.

 

[hachadwick]

The fish is dead. Same behavior and dath as teh previous.

I am no longer concerned with having a mini-cycle or starting over. I will do what it takes. My wife hada good idea for finding the issue. We have taken the ten gallon sump tank and cleaned it out. Inside it, we mixed a fresh batch of saltwater using the following three things ONLY:

• Water from the tap
• Jungle brand Chlorine, Chlorimine, and heavy metal remover with slime coat
• Mortons 100% pure salt

I know nearly all of you are cringing at my choise of salt. I continue though.

After letting the water mix with the Junlge stuff, I then added the salt, rasing my salinty to the 1.023 to 1.025 range which is what the fish store uses. I check the water for P.A.N.N as I call it and all was right except the pH was alittle low, around 7.9.
I acclimated a new fish to the water and tempature acclimated him before adding. The damsel acted vary scared at first and stayed in the current of a small powerhead for about 1 hour. I turned out the lights and went to bed. By this morning, he was laying on the bottom, dead.:frustrat:

This was the simplest tank I could create. The water levels were not registering, much less dangerous. The only element that I used that was not "normally" used for awauriums was the Morton's Pure Salt. I started researching and founf this website addressing the subject of saltwater:
What is Seawater? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
and
Morton Pool Salt - Reef Central Online Community
According to this, useing pure salt is not a good idea as it is to pure. My only exisitng question is would NOT having the other elements in the salt mix kill a fish with a 24 hour period? If it would, then we have discovered my problem. If not, I am going to blow my fish tank up and start over!! LOL:mrgreen:
I am looking at the Instant Ocean brand of salt mix. I strayed away from it because I found the Motron's stuff which was pure salt and much cheaper. Once again, if this is the problme, saving money up front is NOT a good idea.
Let me know what you all think.

 

[Kelz88]

I use the instant ocean reef crystals and they work fine for me but i have heard there are better salts out there.

Dont use the pool salt, also you should get some RO or distilled water rather than tap. There could be something in there thats fine for human consumption but is deadly for fish.

This is one hobby that you cant really be cheap with, it almost always seems to bite you in the butt. Good luck man, trust me once you get it right it will be worth it.

 

[hachadwick]

I use the instant ocean reef crystals and they work fine for me but i have heard there are better salts out there.

Dont use the pool salt, also you should get some RO or distilled water rather than tap. There could be something in there thats fine for human consumption but is deadly for fish.

This is one hobby that you cant really be cheap with, it almost always seems to bite you in the butt. Good luck man, trust me once you get it right it will be worth it.

Thanks for the comment. My view in the bginning was I was only going to cut corners that I thought would be risky. Come to find out, ALL of them are risky! LOL I'm not stopping until I have a fish tank, no matter how many times I fail along the way. I am picking up some Instant Ocean on the way home and we'll try it again, on a small scale, and see if I can keep a damsel alive for a day or two before declaring this hurdle overcome.
Right now I can't afford a RO/DI filter but I am planning on getting one. I am already over my budget. :grumble: My wife has kept a beta fish in a small tank that has a plant growing in it for over 2 years and she used the tap water and the dechlorintor. I aggree with you and I'm not saying it's the best option, but that fish has grown and is living for a long time.
My local fish store sells premixed saltwater for 1$ per gallon. Thats a option too and depending on the price of the instant ocean, I may gor it.

 

[little_fish]

Using the table salt is absolutly what is killing your fish, food grade salt is very different from tank salt.Ocean water isnt 100% salt and you are missing all the trace elements which would prevent you from keeping corals, and because of how food salt is mined, it does have a small amount of contaminated in it.

 

[hachadwick]

I am sory for wasting alot time and you all spending all this time helping me. The salt was the last thing I thought would be it because it was pure salt. I feel like such a IDIOT! :) I'm learning and won't make this mistake twice! Thanks

 

[hachadwick]

I found instant ocean salt water mix at the local petsmart for $50 and it will mix 160 gallons. My dad is buy a 100 gallon tank tonight and we are going to start his tank cycle in the next day or so. We will share the salt since I won't need all of it.
I'm going to go ahead and mix the 50 gallons for my tank tonight and let it mix all night tonight with my power heads. before replacing the water in the main tank, I'll double check the water perimeters and start out with a damsel or chromis if the LFS has then in stock again. Over the next week, I'll be watching for a mini-cycle to happen, as I know it will.
Anyways, thanks for the help in working through this problem. Once again, maybe my screw up will help someone NOT make the same costly and time consuming mistake:)

 

[little_fish]

If there was a good way to cut corners, we would have already done so. Most of us are quite broke, me especially as a college student. So if no one else is doing it, pretty good bet it doesnt work. Something to keep in mind for the future.

And you will need to keep buying salt, so if that bucket was on sale you might as well get two now.