Some Questions Before I Get Set Up

Squishie89 · Sep 8, 2012

I think I had more questions, but my memory is bad and I usually need to write these things down before I forget. But here is a few that I did write down.

For the top-off water, to replace evaporated water, I have read to use freshwater. Should the water be treated to be de-chlorinated/etc. or just fresh from the tap? And should the water be heated before pouring into the tank?

Quarantine tank will not be running full time. If a fish gets sick, and I siphon out ~15g of water from the main tank (Q. tank is a 15g tank), into the Q. tank, does the sick fish need to be acclimated to the Q.tank? Would the only reason to acclimate be because of the possible temp difference?

I am doing FOWLR, but also with a clam and an anenome, how long should the lights be on for? I am getting the marineland reef capable LED light with timer. I would prefer to not have the day light lights on from dawn to dusk as I am not home till the evening and that is when the main feeding will be as well. And my parrots go to bed around 10:30pm, and at that time all the lights are turned off.

As I was cleaning the q. tank this evening, I have found it has a leak somewhere. It is a 15g glass tank. Still working out where the leak is and how bad it is. Can this be fixed, if it is not to severe? What would I do and use to fix it, aquarium epoxy?

Thanks so much, any and all help is appreciated.

GratefulReef · Sep 8, 2012

dont use tap water, and if you do at least use a dechlorinator like amquel, and yes just fresh water to replenish the evaporated water. also dont heat the water, more than likely your water comes through copper pipes, if you run hot water through it some of the copper will leach out and kill your inverts. I would say yes bc of temp diff you would need to acclimate to QT tank. Get a timer for your light, not sure on how long you need to run them though, I personally run mine from noon(actinics and 50/50 only)til 8pm, daylight bulbs I turn on for about 4 hours a day around 3pm. If there is a leak you will prob need to take the tank down, clean and dry and cut the silicone from the area of the leak plus 3-4 inches on each side of the leak and replace the silicone that you took out, allow ample time to dry and cure. Hope this helps ya

_Alex_ · Sep 8, 2012

do not use tap water! even declorinated! you will have algae issues from the get go! get a RO unit or find a place you can purchas good RO water. second from my understanding that light will most likely not be enough for a anemone or a clam. and definetly wont be enough on a 90g! you would be better off with 4 or 6 bulb t5ho if you want to try these corals/inverts. the clam exspecially needs a good amount of light! also being a fish only tank im guessing your nitrates are going to run rather high, anemone and clams are not fans of high nitrates!

some fish will nip and eat clams if you are not carful on what you put in with them. also you will need to have the tnak set up and stable for a good amount of time 6+ months before you should even think about getting either a anemone or clam. what are you planning to use for filtration? sump, hob filter. skimmer?? a lot of things come in to play when dealing with nems and clams...