Noob aquarist with a 55 gallon tank.

ErinCahir said:
Typo. Do youR own research.

Also we're trying to help you. Attitude doesn't help.
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The typo makes a lot of difference, and in light of that I apologize to you, but there have been comments by others that have not been helpful, just insulting.
 
If you wanna hear everything is perfect, im sorry, it aint. I get corrected too by senior members and i dont take it personally. Get over it. Putting that much lr in your tank is not going to give you a "mini" cycle, your tank is going to cycle. If you did too much of a w/c you may see a mini cycle or adding fish you may see this. Your lr is going to have die off, which is normal, you need to monitor it. I dont know how this is done w/o loss of fish and coral, this is just beginner mistakes and will be a learning curve. This is why im telling you to try to start over for a little while by returning you fish and corals. Cause and reaction equals saltwater. Your tank may "crash" because of what is happening and this is what im trying to stop. Stop worring about "feelings" and start taking actions. Dumping a bunch of cuc aint gonna help, they will just add to the down fall when they die off(which is normal on strengthing your cuc at times) far down the road
 
Now THAT was helpful information. Seriously. Knowing that I can't force a mini cycle with LR is disappointing yet informative. As for returning the fish and coral, that is an impossibility. Again, business first, none of the local LFS will "guarantee" salt water, and thus they will not take any returns. This is why I am trying to do what I can do keep the worst from happening. I do have a newbie question though, I am bad with acronyms, I know w/c is water change of course, but what is cuc?
 
Mike, just so you know, most LFS will take livestock trade in for store-credit. Usually half of the value of it. Another reason people told you to add base rock is it won't cause a cycle (I think, not sure, so feel free to chime in other people) when you put it in. Just, if you add base rock, make sure you rinse it really well. And I think part of Erin's comment was towards me as well. And, while we claim ignorance, she's right in the aspect it wasn't very kind towards the fish. But, like you said, once a mistake is made, all you can do is aim towards correcting it. And I compliment you on everything you're attempting to do to make things better. It's a step in the right direction! Don't worry, with time it becomes easier to maintain a happy aquarium. Ignore most if Mario's snippy comments. I don't think he knows how to give constructive criticism lol. Just read between the lines at the decent advice he is giving though. Remember, in the end, we're all here to try and help each other with this (at times extremely challenging) hobby. It's all about the love for :sfish::p
 
Alot of folks wait the 6 months because of the lr. The most inner part of the lr has not had time to cure in your system to create stable water. This is typical with the intoduction of your base or dry rock. Yes a tank can cycle in days, but this does not make your water stable until the inner part of the rock is ready. Slow introduction of a fish is typical, with monitoring your levels. I added corals like this too but at this point is prefferance. Anthony is in the same boat as you are, just 2 weeks ago same thing was going on with him........ If you have a medic take, put your corals and fish in there until you can get your levels normal, because we both know they are not. Usually the lfs will take credit, you just cant return dead things. I trade in frags every week for cedit on salt, fish food, odd and ends so i cant see why they wouldnt
 
Don't worry Mike, we're in the same boat together as far as learning and experience with it. So as I learn stuff, I'll share it with you, and in return I'd hope you'll do the same for me :). Also, RI is like a 4ish hour drive from where I live. Once you have your tank set up and ready/safe for corals, we could talk about swapping coral frags with each other :).
 
Thanks guys, I will definitely check with my LFS on taking livestock back for credit. And any further rock I add I will go with base rock. I mistakingly thought, as I'm sure you can see, that going straight to LR was a good thing, and that it was just cost that decided BR, and I didn't want to risk the fish by being cheap.
 
You got your new LR from PetCo right? The prices for LR there is pretty damn good. Like 7-10Lbs Rocks for like 27.99$ where as a LFS will charge like 8-9$ a Lbs.
 
After my Aiptasia incident with LR from Petco I stopped going there, but one of my private run LFS's was selling LR for 4.99/lb a little higher, but some well aquacultured rock, some really good color to them.
 
OK guys, big question here, are micro bubbles from the protein skimmer dangerous or just unsightly? My Coralife 65G HOB Protein Skimmer doesn't seem to be able to function without spitting microbubbles. I have researched and found everything from "all new skimmers will produce microbubbles for some time" to "microbubbles will get in the fishes gills and kill them"....again with the disparity of info out there...
 
I am not sure on the bubbles hurting fish but I know that skimmer is not very good...I bought it as my first skimmer and it wouldn't stop producing microbubbles, I had it running for 2 weeks with nothing in the tank and it wouldn't stop
 
Welcome to the site, Mike! You've found a great place for help and community!

Two things:

First, keep in mind that everyone loves this hobby because they love the animals it involves. This sometimes leads to a great amount of passion over their well being. This sometimes doesn't translate we'll over a text based medium. Some people may get short or preachy, best thing is to let it go. If you also care about your animals it is ultimately up to you to use the advice you receive. Lol ok now I'm getting preachy...

Second, I always use a three-pronged approach to information for the hobby. Using information from the forum, LFSS, and my own research to arrive at a decision. There is definitely a lot of info out there with a lot of contradictions. Hell, most fish/corals have at least three commonly used names! Lol

Again, welcome to the Reef, have fun getting your arm wet!
 
Mikek said:
OK guys, big question here, are micro bubbles from the protein skimmer dangerous or just unsightly? My Coralife 65G HOB Protein Skimmer doesn't seem to be able to function without spitting microbubbles. I have researched and found everything from "all new skimmers will produce microbubbles for some time" to "microbubbles will get in the fishes gills and kill them"....again with the disparity of info out there...
Click to expand...

Ive never heard of death by microbubbles, i believe it just oxygen. The organic matter should be on it way to the collection cup. I got mine used, so i am unsure of the break in procedures on the hundred of kinds of protein skimmers. Best idea is to start a new page and new title
 
OK, so it's been a while since I posted about my tank. As many of you predicted I had a bad ammonia spike, and my poor fish started to go toxic, swimming on their side etc., and I felt like :pooh:. I decided I was going to get a smaller tank to temporarily move them while I redid the 55 gal, and planned that if the smaller tank went toxic too quick I would just bring all my fish to the LFS with no expectation of compensation, just to save them. As "luck" would have it, the day I picked up a 20g tank, my 55g began to leak at the bottom seams (yay Petsmart brand products):grumble: so it was convenient I had already gotten everything for another tank. I put the whole thing together but because of the sand the water was too cloudy initially. By morning it was clear enough, thanks to a 75g HOB filter on a 20g tank. I moved all my critters, and 20-30lbs of the LR (which by now had gone through any die off), and took down the 55g and returned it for another.

In the meantime ALL the critters got better (:death:though I had lost all my snails, the sea urchin, one shrimp, 2 small coral, and one damsel to the other tank:frustrat:), and all the levels were perfect, so I waited. Long story short (too late, I know) it has been over a month, ALL levels are perfect :bounce:, no ammonia or nitrite, and less than 20ppm nitrate, PH 8.0, and ALK 300ppm, so I decided why fix what ain't broke? Recently tested my calcium, because I still want to go reef, and it too is perfect at about 460-480.

So now I have a 20g long tank, with 20-30lbs LR, 2 Clownfish, a blue damsel, a Firefish Goby, 9 red/blue hermit crabs, a Scarlet shrimp, and recently added 2 Mexican Turbo Snails, and an Astrea snail. Started out with 4 Astrea, but the hermits ate 3, which is why I got the BIG guys (the Turbo's are about 3 inches).

I started THIS tank, on April 3rd, so it has been over a month with NO fluctuation in levels, so tomorrow I think I will get a hardy mushroom coral and cross my fingers.

I learned a very valuable lesson in this, and I am ashamed at the loss of life as a result. However, the fact is I did learn, and hope to have a very successful future in this hobby as a result.:Cheers:
 
I'm glad your new tank is doing well. I am also glad you "learned your lesson" and there wasn't any gross loss of life as a result.

(For the record, though, every store (the big boxes and the LFS') all sell exactly the same tanks.)
 

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