30 Gallon FOWLR

[Zaitmi]

I am from India, kolkata, the temperature in India is hot except in 2 months winter(Cant afford a chiller its too expensive) i have new 30 gallon tank filled with RedSea Saltmix saltwater from last 5 months. My salinity is 1.024 I am using my home drinking Kent RO Water Purifier. Earlier (last 5 months) i was in tropicalfishform.com, somebody suggested me to join here to get advance help. I have 1 Yellow Tail Damsel, 1 Electric Blue Damsel, 2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.

I also have 1 QT 11 gallons.

Bad News :

One of my Skunk Shrimp died last night(It was pretty expensive). Why did it die ??

I quickly did test of my water and after testing i replaced 5% of water which was ready 1 day before.

Test Results :

Salinity : 1.024
Temp : 82.7 deg F
Ammonia : 0 ppm
Ph : 8.5 ppm
Nitrates : 35 ppm
Alkalinity : 10 dkh
Calcium : 460 ppm

Everything looks fine except nitrates, which is a bit high. Are shrimps very sensitive of nitrates?

P.S.>I have added some of my QT water last Sunday to the display, that might have increased the Nitrates. From now onwards i am never going to use any water from QT to Display or vice-versa. Then i checked my QT water Nitrates it showed me 20 ppm.

Its becoming a bit scary to keep marine tank. Plz help!!
__________________
1 Yellow Tail Damsel
1 Electric Blue Damsel
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimps

 

[trido]

By your test parameters everything looks to be in balance. Your nitrates are a bit high but shouldnt kill a fish or shrimp. A water change should help with that.
Your shrimp could have died while trying to molt (change shells). If your iodine levels are low they will struggle, but again, a water change should help with that. Since most of our fish and inverts are caught wild, there is no way to tell how old they are. Your shrimp could have simply died of old age.

 

[Zaitmi]

Thanks a lot trido.

First tell me wow what an icon u have, is your body tattoed. I mean its amazing. gr8 job bro.

My shrimp died might be of old age, okay i will replace more water today like 10%.
BTW i just gave a glance to ur 210 build. It was gr8. Cool job.

Right now i am running airstone wooden diffuser (old technology) Protein Skimmer, I want to buy Coralife Super Skimmer 65 gallon but its pretty expensive specially the shipping charges to India. do u have any idea how to get it india with cheap shipping charges.

One more thing how can i add my tank pics here.(though my icon i shown in my tank but i want bigger ones).

 

[trido]

I honestly dont have a clue how to ship internationally. Let alone, cheaper. Sorry.

 

[trido]

I use a web hosting site like Photobucket. Then I copy and paste the direct link. Afterward I left click higlight it and hit the "Img" tab (above) which wraps it in the tags.


It should look like whats below, only with this symbol on the very end. ]



http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s15/trido/poster-red.jpg[/img


You end up with this
[img]http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s15/trido/poster-red.jpg

 

[Zaitmi]

Thanks for the reply. okay i will try with photobucket but i prefer to upload from my pc

i booked 1 true percula clownfish.

Not buying any more shimps coz the shrimp keeps on hanging on the rocks and does not cleans anything. The damsels are annoying him and not letting him to come to surface to eat the food when i feed, so i have to feed the shrimp by hand everyday. How to solve this?

 

[Zaitmi]

I was thinking that, what if make my tank (a damsel tank) all types of damsels (bicolour, yellow tail, yellow damsel etc etc) coz i think they are very hardy and would be easy for me to keep them easily without very serious water parameters. They can fight off themselves almost all the diseases, this is what i like abt damsels, rest of the fishes are very sensitive. i might add some clownfish with damsels, they r all pretty hardy. this was request to u guys.

suggestions plz.

 

[Anonymous]

I am still new to reefkeeping but it is my understanding that Damsels are very territorial and introducing new fish in that small of a tank they will abuse him, even a clown. hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. Welcome to Reefs.org btw

 

[Zaitmi]

added 2 hermir crabs (orange or red legged type). they have started grazing green hair algae.

 

[Zaitmi]

They are deep orange legged hermit crabs and they are grazing pretty well from last couple of days. I am happy they doing good job.



I was wondering that my rocks are not making any coraline growth its been 6 months, they have improved only a bit since inception.



My shrimp is not eating as it used to go up and eat from the surface of the water, he is scared of damsels i think. What to do ?



Can i add more sand at this time, i am getting coral reef live sand 10 kg box. i have 2 inches sand bed. Will it help me in any ways?

 

[Zaitmi]

Whaty abt my coraline growth? Now growth yet. Light Problem. 1 T5 & 1 AquaCoral(Blue).

My light timings are 6pm to 12 pm. Whole day the light comes from the very close window.
__________________


Water parameters are okay.

 

[Petsolutions]

Make sure you have enough calcium in your water, I usually tell people about 400 parts per million of calcium on a calcium test kit. Also, coralline algae just sometimes takes a while to grow. I have had it grow in some of my aquariums in short time of starting to see it after a few weeks, and in others I have seen coralline not start to form for a year. It is different for everyone.

 

[Saltlick]

What I like to do with damsels is catch them in a net and then take
a hammer and gently smash them. This stops all bad behavior in
that family of fishes. Of course catching them destroys your tank
unless you do it at night. I am of course joking, but i would give
the damsels away and find a fish that is a lot less obnoxious. To me,
shrimp are one of the pleasures of salt water aquariums, so anything
that would threaten them or eat them is not good in my opinion. Plus
I dislike damsels, haha.

 

[Zaitmi]

Okay will for 1 year for coraline algae growth.

thanks for reply, i hammered my damsels slowly with a wooden hammer and they are now much civilized.

 

[Saltlick]

Haha, that ought to do it.
Not sure what your choices are in the fish world, or if the prices there
are high enough to limit your choices. There are reef keepers who use
damsels to help cycle their tank, and if they survive, they go ahead and
keep them around for the ride. But once a fish goes through that cruelty,
AND is the resident big kid on the block, no other creatures will be allowed
to live in HIS tank. They are not very big, but the ANNOY ten times their
size. If you are thinking about changing the fish species in your tank, make
sure to bring the damsel with you to the store. Trade it, give it, do anything
to leave it there. If you get new creatures, they will be bullied by the damsel
when they get home. IF YOU LIKE damsels they are certainly fun to watch and
there is nothing wrong with damsels. If you want to have more damsels, buy
them all new and take your old friend back to the store. Better for all fish to
be new on the first day. Only then will they tolerate each other. There are
certainly alot of various damsel species. Set up a reef with a LOT of hiding
spots separated from each other so each can find a safe home to defend.

 

[Anonymous]

What kind of live rock did you get? I got mine that was in a circulating tank with coraline algea and I have a very good growth on the rocks from that tank after just 2 months in my aquarium.

 

[Zaitmi]

Don't know what kind of rock, the LFS say here its just live rocks.

 

[Zaitmi]

But some stange thing happend last night my yellow tail damsel disappeared from the tank, searched by removing all the rocks and every side of tank but....???????

He was doing very well and was pretty fast. Not a single sign could be found.

What can happen, do hermit crabs eat fish???

What else can happen ????

 

[Zaitmi]

Temperature Info :

Cant afford a chiller? is it an issue to worry about.

The temperature in daytime here is above 90 deg F but at night they come back at 73 deg F.
So 12hrs 90 deg and 12 hrs 73 deg F.

 

[Zaitmi]

Aquarium cooling Solutions as per saltaquariumabout.com:

When you are unable to resolve an aquarium overheating issue because it is merely due to hot summer weather conditions, here are some simple but effective ways to temporarily bring down harmful rising tank temperatures and keep your aquarium inhabitants safe.
Cooling with Ice

1. Fill plastic soda bottles with water and freeze them. When needed they can be placed in the sump or floated in the aquarium.
2. Double or triple bag cubed or chunks of ice in plastic bags (ZipLocks work great). Place these bags in the sump or tank as needed. After the ice has melted, place the bags back in your freezer and freeze again.


Temp here is 90 deg f above.