little_fish
Moderator
have some faith in me, and go filterless, i promise you it will be much better
Prototype220's 20g long
- Thread starter Prototype220
- Start date
Prototype220
Reefing newb
Ok, so I brought the clowns home yesterday (pis up soon), and Sharkbait (the damsel) was NOT happy! lol I figured I would give it a try, but he/she just kept trying to attack the clowns! The crazy part was even though he was the instigator, the clowns had not a mark on them, yet his fins were getting pretty shredded! smh Trying to be a gaddass and getting beat up in the process! lol Ah well, cant wait to get my $3 in store credit! WOO HOOO!!
Prototype220
Reefing newb
Here are some pics of the saddleback clowns I picked up about two weeksa ago :D Their names are Marlin and Coral (my kids picked the names)!
acclimating
the best I could do with am iphone
They are happy and doing well, & I can't wait to start adding some corals! Right now all my pennies are going to the hubby's ND trip :/
acclimating
the best I could do with am iphone
They are happy and doing well, & I can't wait to start adding some corals! Right now all my pennies are going to the hubby's ND trip :/
chichimom79
reef junkie
They are gorgeous!!!
Mr.D
Reefing newb
Indeed they are a sight to behold!
little_fish
Moderator
very nice!
Prototype220
Reefing newb
Ok, so everything has been going great in my tank...until yesterday. I woke up yesterday and could not find my female saddleback! Hoping that maybe she was hiding ended up being false hope because she had jumped out of the tank in the night :( So I went to the lfs where I got her and wanted to get another female (because they were selling another pair same size color everything). Brought her home and all is well. My male actually looked like "there u are!" when I put her in the tank. Great!
But now I have two other problems. 1)Sunday I did a 25% wc because I hadnt done it in two weeks. Tested my water Saturday and params were awesome! Everything was 0, ph was 8.4, and nitrates were about 15 (but I was planning a wc so all good). Retested my water last night, everything is still good, nitrates are even a bit better, but now I have a ammonia spike at .25ppm! I'm thinking it was because I was a bit careless in puttin the fresh sw in and stirred up the sand a bit. Nothing has died (only 2 snails, two crabs, and two fish all are alive), but my diatom bloom has died of so I was thinking that could be it too. Any ideas?
2) I also purchased a glass cover to keep fishies in the tank and slow down evap. I was topping of every day to every other day! But now my tank thermo reads 84 degrees F! I have LEDs and they don't give off much, if any, heat. But do you think it could be the lid? Nothing else has changed, not rven the temp of my house, and my water is ALWAYS 79-80.
But now I have two other problems. 1)Sunday I did a 25% wc because I hadnt done it in two weeks. Tested my water Saturday and params were awesome! Everything was 0, ph was 8.4, and nitrates were about 15 (but I was planning a wc so all good). Retested my water last night, everything is still good, nitrates are even a bit better, but now I have a ammonia spike at .25ppm! I'm thinking it was because I was a bit careless in puttin the fresh sw in and stirred up the sand a bit. Nothing has died (only 2 snails, two crabs, and two fish all are alive), but my diatom bloom has died of so I was thinking that could be it too. Any ideas?
2) I also purchased a glass cover to keep fishies in the tank and slow down evap. I was topping of every day to every other day! But now my tank thermo reads 84 degrees F! I have LEDs and they don't give off much, if any, heat. But do you think it could be the lid? Nothing else has changed, not rven the temp of my house, and my water is ALWAYS 79-80.
chichimom79
reef junkie
Sounds like you need a screen top or plastic egg crate will work too. The tank needs to be able to evaporate a little to cool off. Sorry about your female clown jumping :(
Prototype220
Reefing newb
Thanks! I felt bad, not a good way to go! I'll try the mesh or something :). But do u have any ideas on the ammonia spike?
chichimom79
reef junkie
Not unless the temperature spike killed some stuff off. Dunno :dunno:
FishyReef
Broke Reefer!
Just out of curiosity, did you happen to test within a few hours after feeding? I've found that I'll get trace ammonia on my tests if I test after I've fed... And +1 on the screen tops - smaller tanks are just harder to keep stable temps in, and especially with a lid that limits air exchange. Sorry to hear about your clown but glad that you were able to get another that paired easily :)
You had also asked earlier about a dottyback or wrasse - I think your tank is probably too small for the dotty, but you could do one of the pygmy wrasses. What about a blenny? I love my tailspot blenny - such an active addition and soo full of personality! Oh, and I went filterless on my 90 for a few months with no issues - your 20g will be fine without a filter!
You had also asked earlier about a dottyback or wrasse - I think your tank is probably too small for the dotty, but you could do one of the pygmy wrasses. What about a blenny? I love my tailspot blenny - such an active addition and soo full of personality! Oh, and I went filterless on my 90 for a few months with no issues - your 20g will be fine without a filter!
Prototype220
Reefing newb
I did! Within the hour! lol Thanks I didn't think of that! I'll monitor this week so see if that was the culprit.
And I was happy they paired to with minimal stress. The new female hid in a cave for the first hour and the male looked at her like maybe she was just pms-ing lol Now they're swimming in unison like before so it's all good :).
About the blenny or wrasse, I was thinking of maybe just leaving the two clowns in there. MAYBE a goby. I thought like a 6 line wrasse would be ok in small tanks? And no more dotty backs of any kind! I know they are small shrimp eaters, but the one I had was eating my hermits too! Picked apart a very large $10 Halloween hermit I had :(
Still terribly scared to go filter less lol. So far nitrates have been consistently going down and everything else stabilizing. If i start seeing crazy nitrate spikes I might do away with the filters and maybe get a skimmer, or maybe turn my biowheel into a refuge, but right now everything seems stable so if it ain't broke don't fix it right?
ZyberGoby
Because I'm clever
damn those are some beautiful clowns :D and like others have said egg crate or screen top will do you well. hope this little lady does not feel the need to jump....
little_fish
Moderator
Sorry to hear about the clowns!
Absolutely remove the glass top, dealing with evap is just part of this hobby. Not only do the glass tops keep in the heat, they also prevent gas exchange and your fish and corals will suffer for the lack of oxygen. Saltwater holds very little oxygen as it is, so it important to not hinder the diffusion of oxygen into the tank and CO2 out
Absolutely remove the glass top, dealing with evap is just part of this hobby. Not only do the glass tops keep in the heat, they also prevent gas exchange and your fish and corals will suffer for the lack of oxygen. Saltwater holds very little oxygen as it is, so it important to not hinder the diffusion of oxygen into the tank and CO2 out
Prototype220
Reefing newb
:dunno::dunno::dunno::dunno:Thanks! I took it off and the temp is already down to 82 :D. Although its taking longer than I thought :dunno:
Prototype220
Reefing newb
pre-water change
post water change
Pretty good I think for HOB filters lol :) The "post" pic looks a bit different than it looks in real life. I think its because I took the first pic when it was still daylight, and this one was at nght. But the nitrates are slowly going down. Before it looked more like 15 now it's like a 10. Hubby asked what I wanted for my birthday and I said "FISH" of course (or something that has to do with my tanks)!!
post water change
Pretty good I think for HOB filters lol :) The "post" pic looks a bit different than it looks in real life. I think its because I took the first pic when it was still daylight, and this one was at nght. But the nitrates are slowly going down. Before it looked more like 15 now it's like a 10. Hubby asked what I wanted for my birthday and I said "FISH" of course (or something that has to do with my tanks)!!
Prototype220
Reefing newb
Ok, so I did a pwc yesterday and tested my water and thi was what I got...
I'm too excited! So today, I ran out and got a fire shrimp, peach tipped frogspawn with 3 heads, a emerald crab, a zoo rock, and a bunch of snails and hermits! Just acclumated and put them all in the tank so I'll post pics when everything is settled and open :)
I'm too excited! So today, I ran out and got a fire shrimp, peach tipped frogspawn with 3 heads, a emerald crab, a zoo rock, and a bunch of snails and hermits! Just acclumated and put them all in the tank so I'll post pics when everything is settled and open :)
Prototype220
Reefing newb
And a quick question... I let a few tufts of green hair algae grow on the rocks in my tank, and now my nitrates are next to 0 with two HOB filters ( a Penguin Biowheel 200 & a Fluval C2 that I rinse regularly). Although I don't want the algae in my DT, and it's really too small to put an effective refuge in there, so do you think putting a ball of cheato in the corner will do the same job? And do you think it was the hair algae that soaked up the residual nitrates, or just my pwc's? I know the fish may eat it, but I am only going to have my saddlebacks in there, and it is chep enough to replace if necessary.
little_fish
Moderator
Algae uses nitrates to grow, its basically fertilizer, so that is where your algae could have gone. And if you have no place better, i would put the cheato in the corner. Clowns are carnivores, so they should leave the algae alone
chichimom79
reef junkie
I used to catch my female clown dragging the chaeto around. LOL I had to take it out of the ten gallon display. I suggest putting it as far away from where they like to hang out as possible.
