First saltwater tank, 40 breeder

[count krunk]

The flow is pretty strong if you have every been snorkeling

But yes some people really crank it, but you are no where near that output right now though.

 

[dbjonesjr]

As others have said, any type of medication in your marine aquarium is not good for inverts and corals. If you ever want to put livestock such as inverts and corals into your tank I would strongly recommend against putting medication directly into your tank.

 

[KleineVampir]

As others have said, any type of medication in your marine aquarium is not good for inverts and corals. If you ever want to put livestock such as inverts and corals into your tank I would strongly recommend against putting medication directly into your tank.

Any type? How are you supposed to medicate your animals then? Have a separate tank just for medication?

 

[dbjonesjr]

Any type? How are you supposed to medicate your animals then? Have a separate tank just for medication?

Typically separate quarantine tanks are used to treat fish if necessary. Most of us observe fish for some period of time prior to adding them into our system to ensure they are disease free. I personally never medicate fish.

 

[KleineVampir]

Typically separate quarantine tanks are used to treat fish if necessary. Most of us observe fish for some period of time prior to adding them into our system to ensure they are disease free. I personally never medicate fish.

Well that would certainly be in line with my low-maintenance philosophy here. I'm actually new to keeping fish, the only reason I got clowns was because they were supposed to be one of the most hardy fish I could get. And I like them in general. My point is, I don't have experience with fish getting diseases. But don't you ever find that you have to either treat the fish or it'll die? Or are diseases so rare that it doesn't seem to matter that much?

 

[dbjonesjr]

Well that would certainly be in line with my low-maintenance philosophy here. I'm actually new to keeping fish, the only reason I got clowns was because they were supposed to be one of the most hardy fish I could get. And I like them in general. My point is, I don't have experience with fish getting diseases. But don't you ever find that you have to either treat the fish or it'll die? Or are diseases so rare that it doesn't seem to matter that much?

I’ve personally found that most health problems are stress induced. Many of the fish we get (clownfish not included) are wild fish and have good immune systems. So factors such as bad parameters or mean fish can cause stress and disease etc.

 

[ngoodermuth]

But don't you ever find that you have to either treat the fish or it'll die? Or are diseases so rare that it doesn't seem to matter that much?

Sometimes, you do. If you venture over to the fish disease forum, you’ll see plenty of stories where action is required.

Medicating is typically done in a separate QT/ hospital tank and the main tank left fishless (fallow) for a specific amount of time based on the parasites in question.

Clowns are pretty resilient, but velvet and brooklynella are both potential threats that are quite virulent... brook for clownfish especially.

 

[KleineVampir]

Well given that only one out of the two clownfish died, if it was a disease, it seems like my other fish didn't have it. Soooo I got another one! So I have 2 clowns again.

But just before that I put the ceriths in. For the dwarf species, the guy gave me at least 40 if not 50, instead of the 20 I ordered. I guess that's cool but honestly I'm not entirely sure there will be enough for all of them to eat! No extra big ceriths though. I'd probably rather have 1 extra big one than 30 extra dwarves, but oh well.

 

[KleineVampir]

By the way, I noticed my crab lurking near the new clown. So yeah I guess that's what happened to the last clown. That said, I was under the impression that this was an algae eater, not an apex predator!

 

[KleineVampir]

I guess I have to feed him. I just have the distinct feeling that whatever food I put in there he's not gonna eat. I've barely been able to see him, though he has been coming out more recently. He likes to be inside the pukani rock where he can maneuver while still having some rock around him. I have some generic shrimp/crab/lobster/whatever pellets that I bought when I was first starting aquatics with shrimp! Should I feed some of those? Ah heck it's worth a shot to save my clowns! The snails should pick up what he doesn't eat.

 

[KleineVampir]

Come get yer non-descript invertebrate pellets! The clowns tried to put them in their mouth but couldn't. It was funny. They carried them around trying to eat them, constantly spitting them out and then trying to eat them again. Hopefully the crab smells those and eats some instead of my clown!

 

[ngoodermuth]

It's not accidental contamination, it's purposeful medication. The fish and the crab are both doing fine. I don't think paraguard is what you think it is. They just don't like to say it's for inverts when really you can use it for them.

Here’s the manufacturer’s comments regarding how reef-safe it is:

https://www.seachem.com/support/forums/forum/general-discussion/1648-sechem-paraguard-reef-safe

In a nutshell, say it could be fine or it could not... use caution, and the use of a quarantine tank is preferred. I personally wouldn’t risk it with corals in the tank.

 

[ngoodermuth]

And about the crab:

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/emer...ef-safe-reputation-mithraculus-sculptus-3388/

 

[KleineVampir]

Yeah. Looks like they'll go after small fish if they're hungry. That's why I put some pellets in there. It has a bit of fish protein...hopefully he went for that last night and gave up trying to hunt my fish! The new clownfish survived the night so hopefully that's a good sign. I could put in snail or shrimp pellets that I feed my freshwater dwarf shrimp, but that is the good stuff and also it can get messy if nothing eats it. I'm hoping this cheap stuff does the trick for now. Hopefully later it'll be able to survive on just algae. Coming from shrimp, I kinda expected a pure algae eater. Never thought it would actually predate upon the fish! I guess crabs are a whole different ball game!

 

[KleineVampir]

I bought an auto-top off. Suddenly dumping a bunch of RO water into your tank kinda takes away from the elegance of the system as a whole! Not to mention the instability of it.

 

[count krunk]

ATO's are great

 

[KleineVampir]

It's also a sumpless one that doubles as a skimmer. How well it does I don't know but hopefully it's a lot better than nothing!

 

[KleineVampir]

The snails seem really good so far, eating a lot of algae. They're slow, even for snails, but apparently they eat whatever is around them!

 

[KleineVampir]

I'm considering getting containers for my big ol' 7 pound bags of calcium, magnesium, and soda ash. Is that silly or conceivably good? They are just like minerals...they probably never go bad but I have no idea. I'm afraid to even open the last two yet!

Also I saw my clownfish fighting. I suppose there's not much any of us can do about that.

 

[count krunk]

containers that lock with a moisture seal sound like a good idea to me