Advise and corrective criticism please…

[pav213]

Hello, I am new to saltwater tanks. I have read a lot of posts and have learned from all your posts, thank you!

My question is I am not positive I’m in the right track. My tank is over a month old, I have a Fluval Evo 13.5. I used live sand, live dry rock and Nutri-Sea Water to start. I now have 2 fancy clownfish, 1 devil blue yellow damsel, 4 hermit crabs. My LFS guy gave me a piece of his coral with a small coral to see if my tank is really doing fine. He told me it’s a pink pulsating Xenia and not sure of the other, I don’t think he saw it on the rock. I didn’t notice either til day two in my tank. And then all a sudden it was there. So my question is, is my tank looking like it’s on the right track? I have not seen it ever get “dirty”? I have not had any algae or really any thing in my tan, water change was fairly clean and foam bio block was a little dirty. So curious what i need to add for all my fish and corals to survive. Is there any thing such as a too clean tank??? What other fish are recommended? Should I add a shrimp to my CUC?? My salinity is 1.021 (low, not sure how to increase slightly), my ammonia .50, nitrite .25ppm, nitrate 20ppm, ph 7.8….I know I have to lower all, not sure exactly to add thou. I added Fluval cycle after water change…. That’s all I have done…Please advise, ty!

(running stock foam media, Fluval skimmer, sicce nano wave maker, stock pump with stock return dual heads, stock light)

 

[SlugSnorter]

Bottom looks like a pest anemone, 0.50 ammonia is not good could be a test error though. Do you use tapwater or RODI? did you QT fish? do you have an ATO?

Algae takes time to grow, but it will likely begin to grow in time and you'll hit the ugly stage.

Low salinity can kill inverts. regular Waterchanges of the proper salinity can fix it. What do you do to test salinity?

tank looks normal enough, although life rock is not live rock, and there may be toxic ammonia present. I would recommend adding some bottled bacteria.

 

[stevolough]

I would wait a bit before adding anything else. A month seems barely cycled. Your tank can be to clean. Cleanup crew will starve. Easy to raise salinity just use properly mixed salt water to replace evaporated water. Top off frequently and slowly and keep checking it.

 

[dthom]

Looks like you are doing good and on the right track!
Just keep taking it slow. The tank is really new so you will likely see some issues like algae pop up.

That unknown coral looks like a zoa or a paly.
Looks like it is happy and doing well.
xenia looks like it not totally happy, but will adjust.

To raise your salinity either do water changes like was mentioned above.
You could also use small amounts of saltwater to top off the tank until you get up to the needed salinity.

 

[Dbichler]

Your fish are alive and that proves your cycled just be patient and I wouldn’t stock that tank with any more fish. I would wait a while for any more corals as well. Give the tank time and it will be fine. To raise your salinity just add saltwater when you need to top off. Just don’t add too much too fast salinity changes going upwards need to be done slowly.

 

[pav213]

Bottom looks like a pest anemone, 0.50 ammonia is not good could be a test error though. Do you use tapwater or RODI? did you QT fish? do you have an ATO?

Algae takes time to grow, but it will likely begin to grow in time and you'll hit the ugly stage.

Low salinity can kill inverts. regular Waterchanges of the proper salinity can fix it. What do you do to test salinity?

tank looks normal enough, although life rock is not live rock, and there may be toxic ammonia present. I would recommend adding some bottled bacteria.

Bottom looks like a pest anemone, 0.50 ammonia is not good could be a test error though. Do you use tapwater or RODI? did you QT fish? do you have an ATO?

Algae takes time to grow, but it will likely begin to grow in time and you'll hit the ugly stage.

Low salinity can kill inverts. regular Waterchanges of the proper salinity can fix it. What do you do to test salinity?

tank looks normal enough, although life rock is not live rock, and there may be toxic ammonia present. I would recommend adding some bottled bacteria.

i used Nutri-Sea water (picture included with this reply), purchased from LFS. I did not QT fish, bought all three from same tank at LFS. Yes checks salinity with meter (digital pen). Thanks for your advice

 

[Dburr1014]

Bottom looks like a pest anemone, 0.50 ammonia is not good could be a test error though. Do you use tapwater or RODI? did you QT fish? do you have an ATO?

Algae takes time to grow, but it will likely begin to grow in time and you'll hit the ugly stage.

Low salinity can kill inverts. regular Waterchanges of the proper salinity can fix it. What do you do to test salinity?

tank looks normal enough, although life rock is not live rock, and there may be toxic ammonia present. I would recommend adding some bottled bacteria.

Looks to me like a cinnamon paly.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Looks to me like a cinnamon paly.

Sorry about that, guess I miss IDed

 

[pav213]

Looks like you are doing good and on the right track!
Just keep taking it slow. The tank is really new so you will likely see some issues like algae pop up.

That unknown coral looks like a zoa or a paly.
Looks like it is happy and doing well.
xenia looks like it not totally happy, but will adjust.

To raise your salinity either do water changes like was mentioned above.
You could also use small amounts of saltwater to top off the tank until you get up to the needed salinity.

Ty

 

[pav213]

Looks to me like a cinnamon paly.

Ty

Your fish are alive and that proves your cycled just be patient and I wouldn’t stock that tank with any more fish. I would wait a while for any more corals as well. Give the tank time and it will be fine. To raise your salinity just add saltwater when you need to top off. Just don’t add too much too fast salinity changes going upwards need to be done slowly.

thank you!

 

[pav213]

Looks to me like a cinnamon paly.

Thank you!

 

[pav213]

Bottom looks like a pest anemone, 0.50 ammonia is not good could be a test error though. Do you use tapwater or RODI? did you QT fish? do you have an ATO?

Algae takes time to grow, but it will likely begin to grow in time and you'll hit the ugly stage.

Low salinity can kill inverts. regular Waterchanges of the proper salinity can fix it. What do you do to test salinity?

tank looks normal enough, although life rock is not live rock, and there may be toxic ammonia present. I would recommend adding some bottled bacteria.

I would wait a bit before adding anything else. A month seems barely cycled. Your tank can be to clean. Cleanup crew will starve. Easy to raise salinity just use properly mixed salt water to replace evaporated water. Top off frequently and slowly and keep checking it.

Any suggestions if or what I should feed CUC? I don’t want them to die… or will they be fine eating the fish poop and excess fish food they find?

 

[pav213]

Also I did notice 2 or 3 Bristol worms on the rock the LFS guy gave me… I did make a rookie mistake and I didn’t dip it first. He said just to temp acclimate it and then place in tank…. Now I seen the Bristol worms when light was off. Are they ok? Do I need to remove them?

 

[DJF]

Agree things look good- salinity a touch low for coral. Last pic does look like a paly although technically a paly or zoa is a “colonial anemone”. Bristol worms get a bad wrap and can be kept in check (just removing with tweezers as you see fit works)

 

[pav213]

Agree things look good- salinity a touch low for coral. Last pic does look like a paly although technically a paly or zoa is a “colonial anemone”. Bristol worms get a bad wrap and can be kept in check (just removing with tweezers as you see fit works)

Thanks! Here is a little better picture

 

[DJF]

Definitely a paly

 

[pav213]

Definitely a paly

Remove it? Or is it the okay kind? Just looked them up and says toxic? Invasive? Your thoughts?

 

[dthom]

I would leave it. People buy them on purpose.
Yes, they can be toxic and you need to be careful when handling them and if you ever remove or clean your rock.

 

[DJF]

Remove it? Or is it the okay kind? Just looked them up and says toxic? Invasive? Your thoughts?

Personally I would more because they grow fast and would overtake the rock rather than palytoxins. That is personal choice; if you like it then I say keep it- If you keep it, isolate so you don’t get them everywhere.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Also I did notice 2 or 3 Bristol worms on the rock the LFS guy gave me… I did make a rookie mistake and I didn’t dip it first. He said just to temp acclimate it and then place in tank…. Now I seen the Bristol worms when light was off. Are they ok? Do I need to remove them?

*Bristleworms* are good clean up crew members. No need to remove.