HELP

Tautog · Sep 5, 2017

Sorry, but the learning curve isn't kind. Keep waiting, understand time is what you need most. As far as the clowns, their hardy fish, keep doing what your doing with them. Cody has made some great points, but don't listen to everybody, especially at the LPS. Your on a great forum now, lots of info, I also started with both LR and LS, but I did add a product called " Day/Night", it's a bottle of bacteria to put it simple, that will add to the present bacteria. It's bacteria or the very bottom life sources that clean your water, and act as a simple, natural filtration system. Keep reading up on cycling, and general care for the saltwater aquarium. Remember, to keep your aquarium stable it takes biological, chemical, and physical filtration working together, or Live stuff, carbon(ChemiPure), and a skimmer. All working together to filtrate the bad stuff out of the water, then it's you, removing waste via " sucking out the poop" during a WC.
Understanding the basics isn't easy, but basic environmental issues are the keys. Your not alone, I filled my tank with water and sand on a Monday, then added Live Rock and fish on Thursday. My tank never cycled, but I do have a much larger tank, it helps when I make errors in judgement too.
Oops, and Welcome to Reef2Reef!

motomac3 · Sep 5, 2017

That's the plan.....im not touching it for a few weeks .....just been keeping eye on stuff....was out of town for long weekend and checked water when I got back this am and noticed how high nitrates were....i would have thought nitrite would be dropping to have nitrate that high.....will keep on with the waiting game

CodyRVA said:
I'd let it do it's thing, see if your nitrites drop; give it a few days and go from there

motomac3 · Sep 5, 2017

Thanks for the help.....just waiting this mess out to see what happens....will look into what you were talking about

Tautog said:
Sorry, but the learning curve isn't kind. Keep waiting, understand time is what you need most. As far as the clowns, their hardy fish, keep doing what your doing with them. Cody has made some great points, but don't listen to everybody, especially at the LPS. Your on a great forum now, lots of info, I also started with both LR and LS, but I did add a product called " Day/Night", it's a bottle of bacteria to put it simple, that will add to the present bacteria. It's bacteria or the very bottom life sources that clean your water, and act as a simple, natural filtration system. Keep reading up on cycling, and general care for the saltwater aquarium. Remember, to keep your aquarium stable it takes biological, chemical, and physical filtration working together, or Live stuff, carbon(ChemiPure), and a skimmer. All working together to filtrate the bad stuff out of the water, then it's you, removing waste via " sucking out the poop" during a WC.
Understanding the basics isn't easy, but basic environmental issues are the keys. Your not alone, I filled my tank with water and sand on a Monday, then added Live Rock and fish on Thursday. My tank never cycled, but I do have a much larger tank, it helps when I make errors in judgement too.
Oops, and Welcome to Reef2Reef!