How can i fix my aquarium
- Thread starter Celbrise
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BlacknBlue2
Community Member
That should help alot with the issues your having, keep us informed.
for the GFO I was wondering if I put in a protein skimmer would I still need the GFO in my canister or would the protein skimmer take care of that all on it's own? also for the power heads would a wavemaker be better to put on or would the power head be fine running continuously and do you know of any good ones? looking to possibly get corals/zoa's in the future
BlacknBlue2
Community Member
the only reason I mentioned putting the gfo in a bag inside your skimmer is if you get a HOB skimmer, I was able to do it that way because I had 2 large skinny chambers to put it in. Does your canister have more than 1 filter? If it does you may be able to swap it out and put a media bg w/ gfo in it. The powerheads will be fine to run non-stop. The wavemaker is just going to give different options for the powerhead is all
BlacknBlue2
Community Member
Not sure if your aware but corals and puffers usually do not mix. I had a buddy with a puffer and he didn't realize that the puffer will eat corals. He turned his back for a little bit and turned back to the tank to see the puffer toss a coral frag up in the water and eat it,lol
i put the GFO/phosguard into my cannister it has 3 trays but they are really small to even fit the carbon in it but i managed. i just put the phosguard on the very top with the ceramic and then the carbon in the middle on the next tray. yea i know puffers bite corals never knew they would eat them. corals are hard to get here though so im probably only going to keep zoa's and by that time i will probably have a new stock. im pretty sure the stock i have now is too much for my tank. my puffer is actually very mellow for some reason it is the trigger that is very agressive it always nips the live rock and breaks it into chunks
I just added that 2nd power head to the bottom and removed 2 rocks from the tank lots of crap came out of the rocks but water movement is much better and tank looks cleaner. probably will remove another rock and break it up and use half of it and stack them for better water movement but overall atm it is looking MUCH better. fish definetly more active as well
BlacknBlue2
Community Member
I'm glad to hear your tank is performing alot better. Keep up the great work!
BlacknBlue2
Community Member
looking forward to it
here is my tank tried to clean up all the diatoms on the glass and my aquascaping isn't the greatest especially with the trigger it keeps knocking them down and moving the sand around. any tips? possibly will be buying a testing kit today probably the API one and will follow up with my my current parameters
Lowstorm
Well-Known Member
If this was me, I too would start over. But not all the way.
As someone else mentioned, pull the fish out and all the rocks already in there, put them in a temp holding tank. Put the canister filter and heater in it, they'd be living in the tank/bucket/plasticbox/whatever for a while.
Then get rock. Since you're in Hawaii, I'm not sure what you're allowed to buy, but marco rocks seems good. Dry rock that you can make into live. Shoot for about another 30+ lbs of the stuff. You'll have to re-cycle the tank. Yeah, its going to seem like it takes forever and ever. This is to get more bacteria that can convert your fish poop into less fish poop. Ammonia-nitrite-nitrate
Item #2 you are in need of is a skimmer. If you don't want a sump you can just get a hang-on-the-back. I like these ones, but there's also cheaper ones if you look around and money is tight http://www.amazon.com/Eshopps-Hang-...F8&qid=1452022103&sr=8-3&keywords=hob+skimmer This will help remove the over-abundance of nutrients from your big eaters (which are also known as big poopers!!!)
With the trigger and puffer, you won't beable to get much for inverts, as they'll eat more or less everything that comes into the tank. What you'll be setting up is a FOWLR. Fish Only with Live Rock. I haven't ran one, so I don't know what sort of inverts you CAN get for it. I imagine it takes a lot of elbow grease, so to speak.
Anyway, this forum has lots of great resources for setting up your tank. Here's one of them: http://www.reefedition.com/291/
As someone else mentioned, pull the fish out and all the rocks already in there, put them in a temp holding tank. Put the canister filter and heater in it, they'd be living in the tank/bucket/plasticbox/whatever for a while.
Then get rock. Since you're in Hawaii, I'm not sure what you're allowed to buy, but marco rocks seems good. Dry rock that you can make into live. Shoot for about another 30+ lbs of the stuff. You'll have to re-cycle the tank. Yeah, its going to seem like it takes forever and ever. This is to get more bacteria that can convert your fish poop into less fish poop. Ammonia-nitrite-nitrate
Item #2 you are in need of is a skimmer. If you don't want a sump you can just get a hang-on-the-back. I like these ones, but there's also cheaper ones if you look around and money is tight http://www.amazon.com/Eshopps-Hang-...F8&qid=1452022103&sr=8-3&keywords=hob+skimmer This will help remove the over-abundance of nutrients from your big eaters (which are also known as big poopers!!!)
With the trigger and puffer, you won't beable to get much for inverts, as they'll eat more or less everything that comes into the tank. What you'll be setting up is a FOWLR. Fish Only with Live Rock. I haven't ran one, so I don't know what sort of inverts you CAN get for it. I imagine it takes a lot of elbow grease, so to speak.
Anyway, this forum has lots of great resources for setting up your tank. Here's one of them: http://www.reefedition.com/291/
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the problem with starting over is idk how the fish will last in a rubber maid tub. I don't have any back up tanks and usually the rubber maids are small here it's hard to find huge ones unless it is a trash can. money is also very tight so I wont be able to buy rocks I have a lot of the rocks you see in the tank which are base rock that used to be in the tank but I removed for better air flow. could I simply just add more beneficial bacteria into the tank? I know they sell bottles of it and you just add it into the water.
Lowstorm
Well-Known Member
Oh, if you have more rock put it in there 
Water flow will only increase with powerheads, more rocks will mean more bacteria to help filter. The rocks are your biggest filtration system.
I'm old fashioned, and don't think the bottled bacteria will help much, but someone else may beable to chime in on that.
Water flow will only increase with powerheads, more rocks will mean more bacteria to help filter. The rocks are your biggest filtration system. I'm old fashioned, and don't think the bottled bacteria will help much, but someone else may beable to chime in on that.
okay thanks I didn't know if too much rock was a bad thing for the fish thus why I took it out as well but I will put in more rock and post another pic. I am thinking of getting a cheap skimmer but the one I am looking at has a lot of bad reviews
so here is it with some more rock just added about 3 big ones and a small one. do you think I should add more? the rocks are pretty heavy in general idk what they are made out of. I could go to the store and buy more though since I have to get a testing kit anyways. here is the skimmer I am planning to buy but people say it leaks sometimes or it takes a while to run well http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4392+4400&pcatid=4400
Lowstorm
Well-Known Member
much better with the rock. If you have more, add more lol. More is better! Its going to get covered in gross stuff as it cycles.I know nothing of seaclones to be honest (the skimmer)
I bought one more rock tank looks a bit tight though so I might stop. I also bought the skimmer I linked the seaclone one but a better one and it isn't working great. set it up and put it in turned it on and it's just transferring water up and down the tube very little bubbles. nevermind I just fixed it forgot to open up valve for the air so it was very tight. will post an update pic tomorrow of the tank. getting better >
forgot to open up valve for the air so it was very tight. will post an update pic tomorrow of the tank. getting better >
I hope you can get it to work. I purchased a seaclone a couple of years ago for a small tank I had. I could never get it to do anything productive even after the break in period but I've heard of some people having success with them.
yea it is working well it is on now but I don't see much collecting or even know how the hell it works but I do see water/condensation slowly building up in the cup so I will check how it does overnight hopefully I didn't waste my money I mean it was pricey. water looks like it is slowly getting cleaner at least
