Thinking Of Going From Fresh To Marine

[shibby]

Cheers cage,it does look kinda basic but it will look pimp in a month or 2

Soz yeh 1.022 lol @ my n00byness

Yeh i may not get anymore base rock and just start to build with live,the current piece is about 6.5 kg.

I'm hoping if the LR is added slowly then the ammonia spike wont be anywhere near as mega?

Also it seems there not interested in the marine mix/mysis shrimp...i just fed them some dried granuals for the first time and the went nuts over it! looks like the poor buggers not eaten in 5 days!

Do all baby Ocelaris have that weird yellow colour? they are only about 1.5" to 2" big. and is it normal that when they are near eachother they go sidewards and do this weird flicking movement?

Does my plan sound good to you also..my stocking,the weird cheapy way im doing it etc? sureley as Ammonia,Nitrates,Nitrites etc are all 0 then im doing something right yeh? lol (doing 10% weekly water changes using tap water/kettle water made up to 1.022 salinity they added into the tank...plau scraping that weird white stuff that only clings to my powerhead and filter)

Oh yeh...i added floss and carbon into my Fluval 2+ will that be ok?

ammonia nitrite and nitrate will all be 0 if u just added water and no source of food for bacteria eg live rock, pure ammonia, seems like you have ventured into a fish cycle unless ive missed something?

clownfish behaviour sounds about right.

floss and carbon will be okay as long as u keep it cleaned n changed.

 

[GShorty1981]

I used Live Sand like the dude did in the shop,If no ammonia,nitrite,nitrate after 5 days (tanks been running for just over 2 weeks) with clowns and 3 feeds surley its cycled like the guy said in the shop??

The Hermits went in after 2 days...maybe they cycled it then The dude from the shop breeds clowns and sea horses using just live sand without live rock and the nano tanks in watermarque dont have any live rock in them.

My clowns as of today seem to hate each other! the smaller one is getting a hard time and being put in his place alot

 

[shibby]

i dont think you can cycle a tank with just live sand although i could be wrong ive just not heard of people doing it that way before.

has he actually bred seahorses and clowns? both would be posssible seahorses are fairly easy to breed one of the easiet marine fish along with clowns and bangais. the one and only time i wouldnt use live rock is for seahorses!

hermits wont cycle a tank they dont effect the bioload much.

sounds like the clowns are okay they should settle down bully will probably start to get larger and convert to feminism.

 

[GShorty1981]

Yeh i think the one thats doing the bullying will be the female,shes whupping him..but not in a serious manner..more in a 'put him in his place manner' weird thing is its when ever he goes near the barnacle on the floor,maybe shes claiming it as hers lol.

If the water params stay stable then its cycled yeh? im going to keep a mega close eye on it,i'm doing water tests every 2 days...shall i do water changes twice a week instead of once?

The thing that really made me do it without the LR other than Price and having a 3 day old baby boy! was the fact the Nanos in the shop using fake LR are running perfectly and have been like that for months with the same fish in them,the 3 he has in there all have 2 Ocellaris,1 yellow tail blue,CUC,Fire shrimp and yellow watchman gobys in them..and the same fish are still there.

I know thye say LR is a gimmick but i think the purpose was that it can be used as filtration to....if it was a completely fake rip off it would surely be taken off the shelf by Trading Standards.

I will still feel safer with LR so i will add small bits as long as it don't effect my bioload enough to kill my clowns.

He said he breeds both at home and that he has 4 species nanos now instead of big tanks because he prefers them. (personally i would prefer to have a big tank with Yellow Tangs n stuff but can't afford it,but hey. lol)

So if my params are fine and my tanks still healthy by the time i get paid next..i will add 1-2kg of LR and some turbos and i think the fire shrimp and goby will go in later on when my reef has taken shape.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear I'm saying no more!

Seffie x

 

[GShorty1981]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear I'm saying no more!

Seffie x

Thats kinda unhelpful and worrying..

 

[seffieuk]

Thats kinda unhelpful and worrying..
[/quote]


Well, I suppose that was how it was supposed to read - using fish to cycle your tank I would like to see the fish go back to the lfs and you cycling your tank in the conventional manner - maybe I'm just too picky

There is so much info and so many people on the forum ready to help you - please listen to them Unfortunatly many lfs don't give the best info. for obvious reasons - they are just looking for a sale!


Seffie x

 

[GShorty1981]

Surely if he was looking for a sale he would of sold me the LR

6 days on the Clowns are acting normal and parameters are perfect,the tank is cycled.

This is not a fish cycle,if it was i would have a nasty ammonia spike and i do not have one and have not had one...and it isn't gonna wait 6 days after being fed 3-4 times until its gonna sneak up on me.

I know your only trying to help but it's working out OK doing what the shop did.

 

[CageUK]

This is a tricky one to try and comment on.

If the tank were cycled you would normally see some nitrates unless you had something in there to consume them (polypad, macroalgae, nitrate remover etc).
If the tank was not cycled then you would start to see some ammonia, then later on some nitrite. This tank shows neither. As you are apparently feeding quite lightly with just two fish and a couple of hermits in there then it wouldn't be too unusual not to see ammonia straight away but it should have started to appear by now I would have thought.
So as long as you keep a close eye on it and react accordingly.

Zero Ammonia - no risk to fish
Zero Nitrites - no risk to fish

So, whatever the state of the tank at the moment, assuming the tests are being carried out correctly then as long as these two parameters (along with PH, SG etc of course) are ok then you don't have to worry.

If you don't get nitrates then so much the better, but it would be interesting to find out what's consuming them.

 

[ben1987]

feeding heavily with two fish im sure there would be at least a trace of nitrates?

 

[GShorty1981]

Maybe a trace but on colour coded cards it is not always the exact match so there could be the slightest strain of nitrate,its hard to tell,same as the PH it seems to be inbetween 8.2 + 8.4 i cant tell the diffrence.

If it will give anyone piece of mind i will take a photo of my tests and colour charts to prove i'm not lying.

 

[ben1987]

i can believe that the stats are decent with two tiny clowns. But im unsure if they will stay that way. That filter is going to take a few weeks to establish itself and everything i have heard about live sands tells me its usless. I reckon you should just add 2-3kg of LR will help seed the ocean stuff over time and hopefully keep the water ok.

o yeah an try feeding teh clowns on live bine shrimp. Thats what got all of mine eating and they take everything now

 

[GShorty1981]

Yeh thats what i was planning to do mate as mentioned earlier,i cant really afford it right now.

Bare in mind it did run fishless for a few weeks with 2 hermits in and these guys have been in here for a week.

If anything goes wrong here,im gonna take it out on the Marine guy in Watermarque trust me...lol.

 

[ben1987]

bine at my LFS is 40p a bag. would last your little guys about 3 days i reckon. I put them in a small drinks bottle with a pop up top and give them a little squirt 2-3 times a day

 

[GShorty1981]

No i meant the LiveRock