Please help to ID this

[taz1458]

So my wife bought two of these at Petco the other day and we put them in. She couldn’t remember the name of them and today I noticed this one is starting to turn white. Tank is cycled. Salinity is 1.27. No ammonia or any of that. Currently only have 3 miniature clowns in the tank and that’s it. Could any help? Thank you.

 

[Fish Fan]

Let me be the first to welcome you to Reef2Reef!

This is an absolutely awesome community, and if you're interested in saltwater aquaria, you're in the right place and we are thrilled to have you.

I'm not an expert, but I'm happy to try to help you if I can. I believe what would best help 'the experts' help you is if you could provide a little more information about your tank, such as:

When did you start your tank?
Did you use dry rock and sand, or live rock, or both?
Did you add or use any products that are supposed to help you cycle a tank?
What kind of filtration/circulation do you have going right now?

I think if you can provide just a little more information it would help the R2R community better help you.

Good luck with your tank!

 

[steveschuerger]

Welcome to the R2R forums community!
One thing that jumped out at me was the salinity level you listed. Hope it’s a typo and it’s really 1.027 and not 1.27 which would be super high. Salinity should ideally be 1.024-1.026. Also as @Fish Fan noted, what type of rock and how did you cycle? I’d suggest getting some mariculture live rock to help with biodiversity if you hadn’t added any yet. Can you give some specs on the tank and what equipment?

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

Its a leather coral, probably a finger leather. I used to always shop at petco because I have social anxiety when shopping at lfs lol and I always see them selling leather corals so I'm guessing that's a leather coral. Anyways, it's turning white and milky like that cuz its melting, that's when you know it's dead and rotting away. Remove asap.

 

[VintageReefer]

It does not look like you have reef lighting or live rock, or live sand. this looks like a freshwater setup or a saltwater tank with freshwater decor, lighting and materials. If so this is not setup for long term success.

Please provide a list of equipment and tank contents and we can help. If that is a declining leather they can potentially crash an entire tank

 

[taz1458]

Ok I’ll do my best to answer all of these questions. Salinity is indeed 1.027. I was getting ready to head to bed and missed the zero. I have a light on the way that will be here tomorrow actually. Everything I was reading said to wait until you cycle to get the light. 8/29 with my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings was when they finally all went to 0. We have a global awuaclear 50 aquarium power filter and she got imagitarium gravel substrate for the bottom. I have 4 Cerith snails on the way that should be here next Wednesday. I’m in a rough area because Petco is the only shop to get anything at. There isn’t crap in my part of western PA. I was looking at reefsaver aquarium dry live rock off of bulk reef supply to get to add to the tank. The stuff in there Petco told her would be fine, but of course, obviously planning on removing it anyway to add the legit rock to eventually get coral and all of that. Thanks for the help. I’ll get the white one out of there asap. Tank was purchased 7/15. The only thing I used in the tank was microbe-lift special blend water care. Other then that nothing but food for the clowns.

 

[steveschuerger]

It does not look like you have reef lighting or live rock, or live sand. this looks like a freshwater setup or a saltwater tank with freshwater decor, lighting and materials. If so this is not setup for long term success.

Please provide a list of equipment and tank contents and we can help. If that is a declining leather they can potentially crash an entire tank

I noticed it looked more like a freshwater setting that might have gotten converted without any material changes.

 

[taz1458]

I noticed it looked more like a freshwater setting that might have gotten converted without any material changes.

Everything was bought for a saltwater setup. Of course Petco helped her with everything so who knows. The only thing I had a hand in was the castle to put in so that the clowns had somewhere to hide.

 

[VintageReefer]

This looks completely like a freshwater setup to me, I don’t see one saltwater related item. This might be ok for fish in the short term but saltwater will probably eat away at the foreign paint on those decorations and the tank is not suitable for any corals.

 

[VintageReefer]

Sorry I missed post 6

Does your petco have purple rock in their saltwater fish tanks? If so it’s for sale. Cheap too and decent stuff

That dry rock you are talking about will probably trigger cycles or at least algae outbreaks.

The petco rock is at least cycled. Every petco is different but mine sold in flat rates for small medium and large pieces.

The filter is fine. The gravel…it’s for freshwater. Reef sand helps maintain ph and is better. Gravel ends up trapping food and waste particles snd snails have a hard time digging in it to clean

Do you have a light in mind?

 

[taz1458]

Sorry I missed post 6

Does your petco have purple rock in their saltwater fish tanks? If so it’s for sale. Cheap too and decent stuff

That dry rock you are talking about will probably trigger cycles or at least algae outbreaks.

The petco rock is at least cycled. Every petco is different but mine sold in flat rates for small medium and large pieces.

The filter is fine. The gravel…it’s for freshwater. Reef sand helps maintain ph and is better. Gravel ends up trapping food and waste particles snd snails have a hard time digging in it to clean

Do you have a light in mind?

I will run over probably Saturday and find out if they have any rock. I usually don’t get home from work until 6:30 and by then with a year and a half year old I don’t have the time to run over. If I simply take the rocks out and put the sand in will it affect anything? This is the one I ended up getting. https://a.co/d/dDn1IHN

 

[strich]

Welcome to the forum @taz1458! You'll find everyone here super keen to help.

Can you tell us a bit more about what you did exactly to cycle the tank between when you started and today?

Certainly a light is important to keeping any kind of life alive so grab a suitable one before purchasing anything else I'd say.

 

[taz1458]

Welcome to the forum @taz1458! You'll find everyone here super keen to help.

Can you tell us a bit more about what you did exactly to cycle the tank between when you started and today?

Certainly a light is important to keeping any kind of life alive so grab a suitable one before purchasing anything else I'd say.

I just used the microbe-lift special blend water care once a week(40oz) when I checked the levels. Tank was setup 7/15, added the 3 minis 7/22 and just let it go. Built an ATO setup to use 8/1 to help with evaporation. Nothing too fancy as I was just trying to read a lot and learn as I go.

 

[taz1458]

Is the Carib-sea arag-alive a good sand to buy? Petco has nothing that will be here before next week.

Amazon.com

 

[VintageReefer]

Yes that is a good choice. Fiji pink is commonly used and has proven success

 

[taz1458]

Yes that is a good choice. Fiji pink is commonly used and has proven success

Awesome. Thank you. Got it ordered and I’ll pull the gravel out and replace it with sand when it comes on Saturday. I’ll run to Petco as soon as I can to find some purple rock. I think I remember seeing some but I’m not 100% sure. Would it be fine to leave the castle in there in the meantime so the clowns have a place to hide per say? I ordered 4 cerith snails and a TSA Iceman Hydnophora Coral from top shelf aquatics the other day. I’m going to try to cancel the coral since I obviously have this all messed up and don’t want to kill it. Thanks for the help.

 

[taz1458]

Also, This is what I was initially going to order before I realized I had some issues.

 

[taz1458]

once I get the sand in there and the others out, do you think by Wednesday I’d be fine with the snails and the coral? Also, how about the pods and phyto? I definitely want to go about this the right way now but I don’t want to cancel anything if I don’t have to. Thanks

 

[dedragon]

The filter is fine. The gravel…it’s for freshwater. Reef sand helps maintain ph and is better. Gravel ends up trapping food and waste particles snd snails have a hard time digging in it to clean

Looking at the tank are you sure this is freshwater gravel? It looks like the crushed aragonite that petco sells which should work fine

once I get the sand in there and the others out, do you think by Wednesday I’d be fine with the snails and the coral?

I wouldnt do coral yet, the light you have wont support their growth. THat light is better suited for a fowlr (fish only with live rock)

 

[dedragon]

I see op wrote imagitarium gravel now, but it still doesnt look like it tbh. I forget the brand but double check that op.
Are you using rodi water or tap?