New Tank Setup Help Needed.

[GoSUV]

Sounds like your pH is OK, just a bad test kit. As I said, if your skimmer is producing foam, your pH cannot be that low.

Instant Ocean should be a pretty good salt. The Salifert brand of test kits is quite good and reliable. IJO sells them here. You might as well start testing for things because it takes practice to use the test kits correctly. Nothing is more disasterous than trying to correct a non-existing problem due to a bad tester :guns: (the aquarist).

A tip to using the Salifert kits correctly is to follow the directions EXACTLY.

Enjoy. You are on the right track.

[venkiw]

Finally turned on my Skimmer, it is operating full-time now. The skimmer may be a bit oversized for my tank...

One more question, if I may ask.

One of the rocks I picked up had a lot of zoos on them. Being slimy and with fine silt of my bomix sand all the stuff in the tank is covered with the white coating. Will the zoos survive? and the slimy coating on all my rock disappear in time, or do I need to scrub the rocks?

Thanks

PS

Fishysan: I think I'll just walkover to your place for the meeting, couldn't believe that you live so close by.

[Fishysan]

Cool Venkiw, if we have time we can swing by yer place.

I wouldn't worry about the zoos, you can use a turkey baster to blow off the crap though. The slime is a defence and a way to get rid of that stuff. You can help it out though.

See ya tomorrow, err later today.

[venkiw]

Sure I would appreciate if you could drop by after the meeting. My rock is full of surprises.

I don't know much about the marine species, but please bear with me and my stupid questions.

Some new growth on my rocks. They are currently about 3/4 of an inch in height. They have a brown stalk like a mushroom and 5 to 6 tentacles that are green in color. One of my rocks is covered with literally 100s of these things.

What could they be?, may be we can have a look at them when you are here to identify the species.

See you at 2 PM.

[venkiw]

The tank is finally clearing out, the skimmer has started producing thick brown foam.

The Ph is at 8.4 didn't need to add any buffers, the previous reading was probablly incorrect.

Ammonia = 1.0 PPM
Nitrite = 0.0 PPM
Nitrate = 0.0 PPM

My next move would be get my lights setup.

Thanks to all who helped..

[venkiw]

The tank completed its mini cycle.

Added 20 snails/crabs to the tank. My hood is almost ready, just have to get clips for the Power Compacts. I am currently running with 4 NO (2 actinic and 2 full spectrum).

The water was nice and clear (skimmer is doing a wonderful job). I thought once the bacterias settle in the sand, wont produce white clouds when stirred/sifted.

Last night after I turned of the lights, some critter started sifting the sand. I am now back to the 1% milk I had when I added the sand for the very first time.

I am wondering if I need to get rid of my Bomix and go with Crushed Coral?

Venki

[reeferboy]

There was someone on this board who tried the Bomix sand and compared it to another larger grain sand. The Bomix after 6 weeks or something like that contained very little life.
I would trash the Bomix and get some Larger grained substrate.

Not to cause a stir on DSB anymore but after reading alot of posts on them DSB that fail seem to use sugar sized substrate and have very little turnover. Thus causing very little flow/gas movement or activity and overtime suffocating the little critters that live in there. Then you get the story from there.

[venkiw]

This tank will be my QT once I setup my real tank. Have plans of starting one next summer.

After the water cleared I noticed that the powerhead had sunk to the bottom and stirred the sand bed The turbo snails seem to hang on the pump a lot). Hope fully it wont happen again, I am getting a new pump - a Rio 1100, this time will anchor it to the glass.

A freind of my is sending me the following items.

1) Emerald Crab
2) Tiger Tail Cucumber
3) 2 Cleaner Shrimps
4) Hawaiian Feather Duster
5) 35 Snail/Crab combo
6) Pulsing Xenia

Can I add all of these at the same time?, or am I going be icreaseing the bio load too much.

Venki

[tang_man_montreal]

I wouldn't be worried so much about the bio-load with what you're getting.

I'd be more worried about the tank being too "sterile" yet to support a cucumber.
They're constantly foraging on the sand, and with your tank being new, there might not be enough to sustain his needs.

As for the feather duster, be sure to add some phyto or something similar to keep him happy.

Hope that helps.

[venkiw]

Thanks Vince,

I didn't get what you meant by "sterile". Since I added rocks from a established system, and there was a lot of die offs and the cycle is complete and coraline algae seems to be spreading including the glass, I thought it was safe to add more species. Are you suggesting that the tank is too new to support something like a Cucumber?

Venki