New W/Pics of 29g. NEED HELP!!!

[Bergy]

ok, so now, i have some comments.. and of course i dont agree with the 'starter fish' issue, but regardless of that...

we kinda talked about the ammonia and the harmful nature of that, but i dont think there is an understanding of where ammonia comes from and or why there shouldnt be any in the first place...

the last test you posted about NITRITES showed elevated levels...  This indicates that your biological filtration is not working...The low or zero level of ammonia only says you have no measureable amounts of ammonia... it does not tell you if your tank or biolgocial organisms will be able to process the leftover food, the fish poo andpee, and the dead fish or snails or whatever...

In fact it does tell you that it wont be able to handle or process the detritus...

Your choice, asi mentioned in the message where i THOUGHT you got two fish are no applicable.. You will have to do more frequent water changes which will cost you more money on water and salt, and the proess of water changes will slow down the cycling process, whreby you are compounding the higher costs in maintenance...

But, as long as you are ok with that and the possibility that your plan of keeping the damsels and finding compatible tankmates may end with the 'starter fish not survining) then fine.

Im totally anxious to see if it can be pulled off  and if so, whether or not iit is doable or not as difficult as discussed, and predicted by 'experts'.. hehehe

[kwest]

ok kool. thanks for that guys. My damsels are doing great as of today, they are swimming around, hiding when its dark, mainly active when the lights are on. They are eating well. I was told and read to feed them 2-3 times a day, which i am, and they are eating very well. im going now to check my water parameters and see what has changed since the add in. The one thing i do wish is that i would have chosen green chromis or yellowtails, fo ri hear these arent near as aggresive when they get older. But they didnt have those, and i just really loved the way the blacktails looked with their black and white striped bodies. If worst comes to worse down the road, ill just take them out and sell em or give em away.

quick question, any know anything about chestnut eels? havent done alot of research, but a local here said they are very passive eels and dont get big...

[kwest]

measured the salinity today, it lowered as is at now 1.026, yesterday was 1.028.

[Bergy]

yea, i have a school of 6 green chromi  and they are totally a favorite of mine...

and yea, the little bit of salinity difference you ahve could just be the differencebetween needing to top off and just topped off...

not big worries on that... and have fun watchin your fish...


btw,  i feed my fish 1x per day... if they are lucky

the more you feed the more they poop and the more left over food to deal with...

there are some fish that eat less and need to be fed more often, but as you probably know already, your damsels eat well..

[kwest]

yea, i have a school of 6 green chromi  and they are totally a favorite of mine...

and yea, the little bit of salinity difference you ahve could just be the differencebetween needing to top off and just topped off...

not big worries on that... and have fun watchin your fish...


btw,  i feed my fish 1x per day... if they are lucky

the more you feed the more they poop and the more left over food to deal with...

there are some fish that eat less and need to be fed more often, but as you probably know already, your damsels eat well..

Yea no kiddin. Ive read to feed them 2-3 times a day.

[kwest]

well i got my koralia 2 in finally, installed it last night. this thing seems great, but man is it powerful. It is blowing stuff off my rock i never even noticed. My fish seemed to not take a liking to it yet...What you guys think? is the 2 too powerful for a 29gallon?

[Bergy]

nah, it cant be too powerfull, if you are comparingit to real world tidal action...

the fish will get used to it.  if you want you can turn it off at night, put it on a timer???

[Just_Greg]

IMHO, depending on where the PH is aimed, it may indeed be blowing things around to their detrement.  remember, we're talking LAMINAR flow here, and not tidal surge action or even an alternating flow pattern.  also, a 29 gal isn't a very big box of water from end-to-end.

i suggest aiming the PH a bit differently, maybe more towards the surface, one of the walls, or into a rock.  you may need to fool around with it to find a sweet spot, but i'd definitely try and tweak it in.

[Bergy]

i stand corrected in principal, but was thinking about his tank and what he has in it and the size of that particular powerhead...

but, there can be situations and powerhead/pumps and corals that would in deed be bad... peeling flesh off of skeleton bad...

[RandyFolds]

I like to point powerheads at the stream of water from the return in smaller tanks. It creates some nice turbulent flow and tones it down so nothing is getting blown away. I have about 50x turnover per hour in my 30G, and there are places where it is very gentle.

[Bloop]

no, No, NO...do NOT cycle your tank with live fish!  that's VERY "old school", and there's no reason for it...  besides, damsels are nasty little fish, and often pick on their tankmates (and they're a PITA to remove).

Darn skippy.

My damsel "Steve," who is about the size of nickel, is an ornery bastard with a Napoleon complex.

I can’t get a diamondback goby to survive in my tank due to Steve’s harassment. Ironically, the gobies I’ve bought could have taken him in one gulp if hey had the gumption.

That said, he was a nice fish during the six months I was horrible at keeping my water balanced. I’m certain he would have survived in my toilet, flower vase…

If you have no interest in other fish and are sticking with corals, they’re not horrible.

Howdy ya'll. I'm back.

[kwest]

kool deal. thanks for all the .2 cents guys..

[Just_Greg]

no, No, NO...do NOT cycle your tank with live fish!  that's VERY "old school", and there's no reason for it...  besides, damsels are nasty little fish, and often pick on their tankmates (and they're a PITA to remove).

Darn skippy.

My damsel "Steve," who is about the size of nickel, is an ornery bastard with a Napoleon complex.

I can’t get a diamondback goby to survive in my tank due to Steve’s harassment. Ironically, the gobies I’ve bought could have taken him in one gulp if hey had the gumption.

That said, he was a nice fish during the six months I was horrible at keeping my water balanced. I’m certain he would have survived in my toilet, flower vase…

If you have no interest in other fish and are sticking with corals, they’re not horrible.

Howdy ya'll. I'm back.

just send that nasty little damsel over to play with my scorps...they'd love to have it for dinner, so to speak.

funny story, when our R. eschmeyeri had its run-in with the feeding stick and went "stick-shy" for awhile, i was buying it damsels to get it over the hump.  i went into one of the LFS's i frequent and asked for some damsels, and the guy looked at me REALLY strangely, and i asked what was wrong.  he replied that he couldn't believe I was buying damsels, but when i told him why, he relaxed and LOL'd.

good to see ya back!

[kwest]

Well guys, had the LFS team come on today to my apartment, showed me some basic things, and did my very first water change, filter change, and cleaning of the tank and rock. Things turned out well, they took a sample of my water back to their store and guess what? NO nitrates/nitrites nor ammonia!!! So, i decided i wanted some clowns, but i needed to part with my damsels. I talked them into takeing them back, so i paid for the clowns. (got a paired false perculas one black and with an orange faced and other regular orange with stripes) went home, tore down my rock structure, i really didnt like the way it looked so i wanted to do some remodeling, so i was able to capture one of them but couldnt get the other. so i brought him back to the store and them bastards so one of my paired clowns. So im waiting for a new shipment of them on friday. I really wanted to get some that were already paired so thats why im waiting. But i did pick up so RO/DI water, and a Red scooter blenny...He has been in the tank a while now and is doing well. very active and beautiful....


does anyone have any experience with a condylactus anenome? i was told its a good starter requiring hardly any light, attention, etc.??

[psykokid]

Condy's arent the best choice. They are cheap, thats about the only upside i can think of. They will tend to move about the tank and sting anything it will come into contact with. Another downside is they require alot of light. Also, Condy's dont naturally host clowns. Some times clarkii's and tomatos will host them but not always.

Your best bet to break into nems would be a bubble tip anemone E.quadricolor. They host the largest range of clowns (dam near all of them iirc) They dont require as much light as other nems and once they find a happy place in the tank they tend to stay put and not go on walkabout. Since your light output isnt that high, id suggest putting the nem about halfway up the tank in the rockwork. If you put its foot near a crevice or hole in the rockwork it will have the best chance of attaching. My BTA hasnt moved an inch since he was introduced into the tank. Just make sure you give it some indirect flow and let it go from there..