First tank - questions!

[Laurenr22]

Hello all!
I have wanted a saltwater tank for many years and finally decided to take the plunge. I have a few questions highlighted below that I could use some help with, and I'm sure I will have many more to come.

We got a 29 gallon kit, live sand, 6lbs. of live rock and set it all up on July 11th. Everything was measuring 0 for the whole week, and my impatient boyfriend came home with a bunch of critters on July 17th, adding 2 small clowns, 2 australian dominos, 1 scooter blenny, 1 coral banded shrimp, and a long tentacle anenome. Before you yell at me for adding all those at the same time and putting an anenome in a new uncycled tank... I know! I yelled at him for it. And unfortunately I don't expect the anenome to survive.

We can't change the past though so here is where I am at now.
Had a huuuuge ammonia spike all last week (as expected, throwing all those fish in there).
I battled it by doing 25% water changes every other day and dosing with prime, also adding Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria. Kept feedings to a small once a day. Temperature has been at 78 degrees but I raised it to 80 today to help with the bacteria growth. All fish seem to be doing fine and are very active. The anenome has not rooted anywhere, we have tried placing him in the sand and on the rock and he doesn't like either. Fed him a small piece of raw shrimp and he ate it, but coughed it back up 8 hours later.
Today the nitrites and nitrates finally spiked, and ammonia has started to go down. Nitrates are around 3 and Nitrites around 80. Is it normal for them to spike at the same time during the cycle? I thought Nitrates would come first then go down as Nitrites rise. Ammonia is still reading at about .5 but I'm not sure if that's accurate with the prime. I read the API test can't determine between the "bad" ammonia and "not bad" ammonia that prime converts it to.

Obviously, we are in the middle of the cycle that should have been done without any fish, but alas, here we are. My question is, is there anything else I should be doing besides 25% water changes every other day to try and get the Nitrites down?

We were told some hardy corals could help stabilize the tank, so today we also added a small live rock that had some coral on it. At the store the coral was spread out about 6" tall and was pink and flowy. However since it went into the bag from the store and into our tank it has been shriveled up and bent over (see image).

Does anyone know what type of coral this is? And what can I do to get it to spread out? I thought maybe the salinity was too low, so I upped that with today's water change from 1.022 to 1.025, but still nothing. It has been about 6 hours since we put it in.

Please don't yell at me for the fish-cycling... it wasn't my choice! I STILL have to keep telling him we aren't adding anything else until this cycle is 100% complete. So I am looking forward to all your help to get through this cycle! Seems we are about halfway.

 

[Tony Jibster]

Yikes! I don't have the experience to talk you through this, but at least I can give you a bump. Don't add anything else until some of the veteran reef keepers weigh in. I hope this works out for you, and sorry I can't help.

 

[erinmegan85]

I don't have too much experience, but one thing I would suggest with the anemone, especially if it isn't looking good, is seeing if you can't get your LFS to either hold it for you, or a friend to put it in their tank, or to just give it to someone. If it dies in the tank it can make things go from bad to worse. I'm not sure that the coral you added is helping the situation. Especially since the tank is cycling. Might be a good idea to get the fish out of there too and maybe into a quarantine tank to let the tank finish doing it's thing.

 

[Justiful]

1. Yes the spike is normal, and feeds the growth of bacteria that break it down.
2. Buy Purigen 100ml bag, place it in your tank somewhere that has high flow.
3. That is a kenya tree. No it is not happy. But that is typical for 3-4 days after you buy them and add them to a new tank. (however the petstore employ that told you to add coral and an anemone already... NEVER trust any advice you get from that store again. Ever. You shouldn't have done that.) The anemone needs a tank that is established 6 months or more usually minimum. That Kenya tree same thing. I have no idea if they will live, but the kenya tree is a very hard to kill coral so it should.

Now as for the anemone, he is looking for an area of high flow in the tank he likes. Sometimes it takes them a few days. If you don't have a wavemaker (Rw-4, or PP-4 good for that tank), go buy one it will help with cycling and the coral and the anemone. Oh and buy some seachem phytoplankton. You will need to dose 1/2 the recommended dose, about 2ml every other day for the next 30 days, then go to 4ml, then get zooplankton and alternate phyto and zooplankton days. 4ml of each. 30 days after that add a small bag of copepods from algae barn. Phyto and zooplankton from seachem are good for 90 days after opening, use a sharpy to write the expiration date on them.

The anemone threw up the shrimp because it was too much. They can not eat a piece larger then a mysis shrimp at one time. They might still try, but will throw it up always if it too big.

 

[domination2580]

1. Yes the spike is normal, and feeds the growth of bacteria that break it down.
2. Buy Purigen 100ml bag, place it in your tank somewhere that has high flow.
3. That is a kenya tree. No it is not happy. But that is typical for 3-4 days after you buy them and add them to a new tank. (however the petstore employ that told you to add coral and an anemone already... NEVER trust any advice you get from that store again. Ever. You shouldn't have done that.) The anemone needs a tank that is established 6 months or more usually minimum. That Kenya tree same thing. I have no idea if they will live, but the kenya tree is a very hard to kill coral so it should.

Now as for the anemone, he is looking for an area of high flow in the tank he likes. Sometimes it takes them a few days. If you don't have a wavemaker (Rw-4, or PP-4 good for that tank), go buy one it will help with cycling and the coral and the anemone. Oh and buy some seachem phytoplankton. You will need to dose 1/2 the recommended dose, about 2ml every other day for the next 30 days, then go to 4ml, then get zooplankton and alternate phyto and zooplankton days. 4ml of each. 30 days after that add a small bag of copepods from algae barn. Phyto and zooplankton from seachem are good for 90 days after opening, use a sharpy to write the expiration date on them.

The anemone threw up the shrimp because it was too much. They can not eat a piece larger then a mysis shrimp at one time. They might still try, but will throw it up always if it too big.

Ok im not sure on the zooplankton and everything like that so my question is why? And as far as the nem goes i dont think they can only have mysis size food. Ive fed mine quarter sized chunks of lrs reef frenzy amd it ate it fully. I have also heard feeding quarters of silverside as well. And is the nem up and not even trying to attatch to anything or is he attatching and then leaving?

 

[Justiful]

Ok im not sure on the zooplankton and everything like that so my question is why? And as far as the nem goes i dont think they can only have mysis size food. Ive fed mine quarter sized chunks of lrs reef frenzy amd it ate it fully. I have also heard feeding quarters of silverside as well. And is the nem up and not even trying to attatch to anything or is he attatching and then leaving?

I have two large bubble tip anemones. I target feed them with a baster. I would never feed them a quarter size piece of any food. The easier the anemone can digest the food the better. Mysis size pieces, several of them, are perfect. While you may have had success with pieces that size, I think yours is the exception not the rule. Mine won't even grab a piece of flesh larger then a dime, let alone eat it.

As for dosing Phyto, here is an article that explains it better than I can. http://saltwateraquariumblog.com/ho...ds/dosing-phytoplankton-in-a-marine-aquarium/

Also studies done on it referenced in this article. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/2/aafeature

For me I do it to keep my copepod population stable and my filter feeding reef inhabitants happy.

 

[domination2580]

I agree. But i also think it depends on the nem and the tank.

 

[justingraham]

I agree. But i also think it depends on the nem and the tank.

This anemone that I fish sit for eats a third of a shrimp every other day but we are now off topic if I was the OP I would listen to what the guy said about the photo and mysis (just watch out for an alge bloom it will and shall happen)

 

[domination2580]

Op can chose whatever he thinks will work but i know each tank is different and every specimen will handle things differently. Most i think would agree. Some things work for some people but fail for others.

 

[Sabellafella]

Hello all!
I have wanted a saltwater tank for many years and finally decided to take the plunge. I have a few questions highlighted below that I could use some help with, and I'm sure I will have many more to come.

We got a 29 gallon kit, live sand, 6lbs. of live rock and set it all up on July 11th. Everything was measuring 0 for the whole week, and my impatient boyfriend came home with a bunch of critters on July 17th, adding 2 small clowns, 2 australian dominos, 1 scooter blenny, 1 coral banded shrimp, and a long tentacle anenome. Before you yell at me for adding all those at the same time and putting an anenome in a new uncycled tank... I know! I yelled at him for it. And unfortunately I don't expect the anenome to survive.

We can't change the past though so here is where I am at now.
Had a huuuuge ammonia spike all last week (as expected, throwing all those fish in there).
I battled it by doing 25% water changes every other day and dosing with prime, also adding Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria. Kept feedings to a small once a day. Temperature has been at 78 degrees but I raised it to 80 today to help with the bacteria growth. All fish seem to be doing fine and are very active. The anenome has not rooted anywhere, we have tried placing him in the sand and on the rock and he doesn't like either. Fed him a small piece of raw shrimp and he ate it, but coughed it back up 8 hours later.
Today the nitrites and nitrates finally spiked, and ammonia has started to go down. Nitrates are around 3 and Nitrites around 80. Is it normal for them to spike at the same time during the cycle? I thought Nitrates would come first then go down as Nitrites rise. Ammonia is still reading at about .5 but I'm not sure if that's accurate with the prime. I read the API test can't determine between the "bad" ammonia and "not bad" ammonia that prime converts it to.

Obviously, we are in the middle of the cycle that should have been done without any fish, but alas, here we are. My question is, is there anything else I should be doing besides 25% water changes every other day to try and get the Nitrites down?

We were told some hardy corals could help stabilize the tank, so today we also added a small live rock that had some coral on it. At the store the coral was spread out about 6" tall and was pink and flowy. However since it went into the bag from the store and into our tank it has been shriveled up and bent over (see image).

Does anyone know what type of coral this is? And what can I do to get it to spread out? I thought maybe the salinity was too low, so I upped that with today's water change from 1.022 to 1.025, but still nothing. It has been about 6 hours since we put it in.

Please don't yell at me for the fish-cycling... it wasn't my choice! I STILL have to keep telling him we aren't adding anything else until this cycle is 100% complete. So I am looking forward to all your help to get through this cycle! Seems we are about halfway.

First things first welcome to the forum! You said you started with live rock? Due to the short amount, thats maybe why your ammonia rised, otherwise its already cured/ reducing the tank cycle. Add some more liverock is the #1 priority (other then taking the fish and nem out). First comes ammonia witch is toxic, nitrite isnt harmfull AT ALL, litterally up to a 100ppm isnt harmfull, neither is higher levels of nitrate. So then i would then try to lower ammonia and some type of way to prevent it from rising (feeding nem, feeding alot to the fish ect). The ammonia is on the decline, so in about 2 3 days you shouldnt have a reading, but i would still buy some live rock. The nem, leave it, as long as you can keep an eye on it, itll park its foot where it wants to stay. The corals a soft coral, maybe colts, maybe a fingerleather or kenya tree, not sure when its opened up i can tell you. Water looks a bit cloudy, might be from all the stuff your dosing. Cut it out, leave it be, not necessary. Grab some type of floss or filter sock to clear the bacteria from the water column. Leave the temp stable and the sg to you preference, we all make mistakes and yup it happens =). Not sure if i answered everything lol but Thanks for joining, any other questions dont hesitate to ask

 

[RudyB]

First of all welcome to the hobby. Yes, you will make mistakes everyone has made their share of them. Don't worry. You did wright with water changes to bring down the ammonia fast. Ammonia will kill. As for the amount of live rock that you have get more. You said you had about 6 lbs, you need to go to at least 20 lbs to be of any use ( more if you can) to more pores the better the rock is for your tank. That is where some of the bacteria will be that will be beneficial to your tank. You can add the rock a little at a time to prevent another ammonia spike. As for the bacteria you can add the bacteria in a bottle like Brightwell Aquatic’s MicroBacter7, I have never used it since I cycle my tanks but my friends have and they say it works great and very fast. As for the anemone leave it alone, it will find a spot the it likes. But keep a watch on it. As for feeding it lower the amount you give it. It will be fine. Besides less food less waste to break down. As for the rest of the things you are doing stop it. A stable system is what you are reaching for. You don't need to raise the temp. Keeping it at 77 - 78 has worked the best for me and that is what I strive for. As for salinity stable is best pick a number and stick to it. I keep all my tanks at 1.026, but I have been successful anywhere from 1.023 to 1.026 just keep it stable. As for adding the coral I don't know who told you it will stabilize things but they where wrong and stop listening to them. Corals thrive on stable parameters not stabilize the parameters. Remember slow down take a deep breath and relax. The only thing you have to worry about is the ammonia the rest will work itself out in time (with a little help). Nitrite, Nitrate and Phosphates will only cause unwanted algae to grow and it will grow but that could be controlled as well later on.
If you can post a picture of your entire tank so we can see everything. Good luck and Happy Reefing.