Questions Questions Questions

[squirt24]

like i said, i do have questions.
ok, what is the purpose of removing the oxygen and carbon dioxide bubbles from the sand?

how often should i clean the carbon filter? (when i first got the tank, the fibers were grey and now their brown, i think its time, right?)

i think i know the answer to this question, when do i put my cleaning crew in?

why do i need to wait a month to place fish in, whats the difference if i put them in now?

when i put my fish in, can i put them in all at once, or must i wait a certain amount of time?

these are some of my questions. please help... thank you so much everyone, i appreciate it!

[m_lacom99]

Originally Posted by squirt24

how often should i clean the carbon filter? (when i first got the tank, the fibers were grey and now their brown, i think its time, right?)

Yep. About once a month.

Originally Posted by squirt24

i think i know the answer to this question, when do i put my cleaning crew in? why do i need to wait a month to place fish in, whats the difference if i put them in now?

Because you need some time for the cycle to finish up. Adding fish right now would be like dumping them in a pool of "poison". Your tank is going through its natural cycle and you will get spikes of trites, amonia and trates. Once those are back to normal e.i 0 then i would start adding live stock.

Originally Posted by squirt24

when i put my fish in, can i put them in all at once, or must i wait a certain amount of time?

Cause you need time for your tank to build up the necessary bacteria to make up for the extra bioload, if you add to many fish at once you will cause another mini cycle. Wait a month between new fish. that way your sure to give your tank some time.

I know its hard but you need to be patient with reef keeping. Like a wise man said, go slow let it grow. You will same your self from a lot of problems down the road. HTH

Marc.

[m_lacom99]

Oh forgot about the sand... once your cycle is about finished and you get your cleaning crew, get some critters to stir the sand up (Nassarius and cerith snails do a great job at that) so your sand will stay nice and clean.

Marc.

[coral reefer]

Marc pretty much covered it without getting to technical! Queen or Fighting Conch, IMO is the best for cleaning your substrate by the way!

[turbo4603]

Patience pays in this hobby, and its gonna be tuff. You dont whant your substrate to store them lil gas bubles, you whant to stir your sand so bubbles are out of it.
Ima test your water this weekend to see were we are standing concerning the cycle, but even if a miracle occured and the cycle finished by this weekend, you still need to have the tank setup for at least 1 month so that you run no risks of potentially killing fish due to inmature water Quality.

[nemo79]

If you add fish too soon, they will die and cause more problems in your tank then you want. As stated above, if you add too many fish at once you run the risk of your tank not being able to handle the load, and you will start a cycle all over again. Patience is a key to success. Get what you need in your tank, test it frequently during cycling, don't do water changes while cycling either.

[squirt24]

thanks everyone!

but, then again, the questions keep coming :embarrass.

i've got these new little, green things on my rocks. yes, i know thats very vague, but my i couldn't take a picture of them, because they wouldn't come out. they're all over my rock, little, pieces of grass, if thats what you want to call them. they're spikey and they don't move. they just popped out of no where this morning. i know that im supposed to grow things, but is this one of those things?
and i also have little stringy, white things, these move, what do you think about these?

thanks...

[coral reefer]

The stringy white things maybe spaghetti worms-beneficial!
Grass stuff may be hair algae(microalgae) not bad if controlled and Tangs will eat it as well as other herbivores!
Tiger Tail Cucumber is another nice sand sifter that will clean your substrate and feed on detritus!
As for your carbon from your previous post, alittle goes along way and should not be used continuously IMO. Use it for three days or so then remove it. Then a few weeks later you can add more! The carbon will remove beneficial trace elements etc. so be careful. I have had my tank set up for well over a year without even using carbon. My skimmer and weekly water changes are suffficient for my long term success of my livestock, corals included!

[Pisces23]

I definitely don't want to step on the Reefer's toes, but are conches and cukes going to be too much for a 14 gallon tank? I would have thought they'd need more space and/or wipe out the sand bed too quickly...I ask partly for clarification and partly b/c they're cool inverts that I'd like to add if they'd work in my small tank........
Keep the questions coming, squirt...we'll keep on making up answers...

[squirt24]

The stringy white things maybe spaghetti worms-beneficial!

but, if they're worms, why are they on the rock like that? wouldn't they be moving around in the sand or something?

Grass stuff may be hair algae(microalgae) not bad if controlled and Tangs will eat it as well as other herbivores!

here is the thing, the little that i know is that that isnt hair algae, because that ive seen when turbo's tank was cycling. the green ones in my tank are short and stiff, well, at least thats how they seem, what do you think? and since im cycling, i dont have fish, so i just leave them there, right?

As for your carbon from your previous post, alittle goes along way and should not be used continuously IMO. Use it for three days or so then remove it. Then a few weeks later you can add more! The carbon will remove beneficial trace elements etc. so be careful. I have had my tank set up for well over a year without even using carbon.

my tank came with the carbon filter, this is why i shoved it in there. are you saying that i shouldn't have it at all?

thanks C.R....