QT Invertebrates and green mandarine

leighla wolf · Oct 24, 2020

Noob_Sam said:
ammonia is at 0.25-0.50 guess that's because I haven't done a water change in a month or two.

I wouldn’t be concerned. It’s probably 0. API is notorious for never being perfect highlighter yellow.

Noob_Sam · Oct 24, 2020

leighla wolf said:
I wouldn’t be concerned. It’s probably 0. API is notorious for never being perfect highlighter yellow.

Yeah I see. So is it a problem that everything is at 0. Should I remove one of the filters.

Noob_Sam · Oct 24, 2020

Noob_Sam said:
Yeah I see. So is it a problem that everything is at 0. Should I remove one of the filters.

or remove some of the media.

leighla wolf · Oct 24, 2020

Noob_Sam said:
or remove some of the media.

Never remove media! Can you adjust filtration power? Usually canisters have a lever that adjust gph flow. Maybe do that and where are powerheads in your tank?

Noob_Sam · Oct 24, 2020

leighla wolf said:
Never remove media! Can you adjust filtration power? Usually canisters have a lever that adjust gph flow. Maybe do that and where are powerheads in your tank?

lol yeah I was like that's probably very dumb but let me ask lol.... Yeah I can adjust it. They are both at max power so its filtering soooo much an hour. I will lower it right now. Because of that there is strong movement in the tank so I only use one powerhead. Its on the right glass in the middle.

Jay Hemdal · Oct 25, 2020

Noob_Sam said:
I looked at the tests again and the ammonia is at 0.25 not 0.50. It looks a little bit different on camera.

Yeah - that ammonia test is hard to read. You should not have any ammonia in a cycled aquarium. Here is a trick - test some seawater you KNOW doesn't have ammonia in it and then your tank at the same time - see if the colors are the same (just to confuse things a bit - some brands of sea salt have 0.25 ppm ammonia in them when you first mix them, Instant Ocean is one).

Regarding your initial question - I have an answer about the mandarin quarantine - don't get one (grin). I've never been able to find a good solution to this - what we do is get a good healthy one, larger is better and put it in a non-fish coral propagation system for 45+ days. We raise live mysids and get adult brine, so we augment food with that. Another option would be to get a tank raised one (from Biota?) and just take the risk and add it to the DT right away.

For CUC, we hold them for 30 to 45 days in a non-fish system. Not a "full" fallow period, but I've never had a problem with that.

Jay

ScubaFish802 · Oct 25, 2020

Noob_Sam said:
My Ph has been around 8.2-8.4 all the time. I just got a marine buffer. But i have never used it. I will do a water test right now and will post the results.

Your PH is already great if you are seeing above 8.0. I would stay away from marine buffers of any kind. They can create their own problems. Your ph level is awesome. I would not mess with what’s working!

Noob_Sam · Oct 25, 2020

802ScubaFish said:
Your PH is already great if you are seeing above 8.0. I would stay away from marine buffers of any kind. They can create their own problems. Your ph level is awesome. I would not mess with what’s working!

Yeah I see. I saw at it my lfs and said I might probably need it at some point so I bought it. But I have never used it yet, and probably never will. Thanks

Noob_Sam · Oct 25, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Yeah - that ammonia test is hard to read. You should not have any ammonia in a cycled aquarium. Here is a trick - test some seawater you KNOW doesn't have ammonia in it and then your tank at the same time - see if the colors are the same (just to confuse things a bit - some brands of sea salt have 0.25 ppm ammonia in them when you first mix them, Instant Ocean is one).

Regarding your initial question - I have an answer about the mandarin quarantine - don't get one (grin). I've never been able to find a good solution to this - what we do is get a good healthy one, larger is better and put it in a non-fish coral propagation system for 45+ days. We raise live mysids and get adult brine, so we augment food with that. Another option would be to get a tank raised one (from Biota?) and just take the risk and add it to the DT right away.

For CUC, we hold them for 30 to 45 days in a non-fish system. Not a "full" fallow period, but I've never had a problem with that.

Jay

Yeah I use Instant Ocean. I will try out the method you told me. Also it does not matter anyways cause I think my tank has ick

My Coral Beauty has one spot on his body. I am not sure if its an air bubble or ich. It looks like an air bubble but its been at the same spot for the past 2 days. btw Jay this is different than last time. I told you that my CB had something on his head possible ich, that was just a scratch. So I am really worried because my blue tang is almost done with QT ( 2 more weeks) and I dont want to leave my tank fishless for 80 days again.....