First Tank - Project (First Fish! Pics Tomorrow)

Normal. A single immature clown in the tank is going to start darkening up as it progresses through the sexual change into a female. If you add a pair of small clowns at the same time it's real easy to tell who is becoming the female. Big growth spurt and they darken up a lot.

 

I am almost 100% sure that it is Corralline growing on all of the rocks. It is in highflow/highlight areas and I tried to scrape some off and it is really hard.

I have the brown sand starting to show up also. The hermits are playing in it, but I can't tell if they are eating it. Might have to get some snails here pretty soon.

I still have 0.25ppm ammonia, which is really annoying. I scoured the tank for a dead crab or something I missed and cant come up with anything. I pulled the skimmer and cleaned all the slime out of it, pulled and cleaned the powerheads, and picked up any debris I could find on the sand. Also slightly cut back on the food for the clown *crosses fingers*. I saw the nitrite spike (back to 0) and I am keeping the nitrates at 20ppm or less.
Any more ideas?

 

What are you using to test ammonia? If you are using API, I have found that it always looks closer to .25 than 0, however it is likely 0.

 

Yeah I *think* (ask someone smarter/more experienced here) if you were seriously having ongoing ammonia, the other byproducts would give you a pretty wicked algae bloom as well, and your fish would be looking pretty unhappy. Give your test tube a good cleaning and rinse with RO/DI water instead of tap, see if that makes a difference.

 

Yup, using an API. I will have to rinse really good and try again tomorrow. Maybe have the LFS test also. As far as I can tell the clown is really happy and swimming normally.

 

Got Brown, red, green, and every other color showing up. Hard to tell the bad from the good. My ammonia level is still holding steady at exactly what it has been for 1.5-2 weeks now. Going to have the LFS test and see what it really is. The clown seems perfectly healthy and fat... *Shrug*

 

8 Week Update

The Cyano is finally starting to die off which is jacking with my water; Earlier this week a huge turbo snail died which didn't help either. Between the bacteria die off and the snail I got a mini cycle going.
Home-made skimmer is skimming away. I have it going 24hr/day really wet to try and pull out as much as possible. I am hoping that everything 0's out this weekend. But the clown is still fat and happy ( a touch lonely though).

 

Week 9
Everything finally dropped to 0 except my nitrates were at 40. After a water change and a couple days to stabilize I bought a Starry Blenny and a Melanurus Wrasse, which are awesome! The Wrasse swims between the arches and is really fun to watch, the Blenny is cleaning up the last of the Cyano and some of the algae that has started to grow (which was a surprise). I will get a picture next week. All three are eating really well and seem happy.
The only thing I am fighting right now is an algae/bacteria bloom. My water clarity isn't the best. I had a touch of phosphates/nitrates from un-eaten food when I first put the two new fish in. Not sure what to do other than wait it out.

 

Been up and running for about 6 months now. I tried some Mushrooms a few weeks ago; turns out my Wrasse has a taste for them. Other than an algae bloom a couple of weeks ago, which is almost cleared up, every thing is working.
I have started to realize that I am very limited without a sump, so I cleaned the cabinet out underneath it and am going to put a sump in. I am mainly wanting the sump because the HOB skimmer I made isn't cutting it, I am thinking it contributed to the algae bloom. A friend donated a 25gallon tank and some other parts and pieces which helped, but I am still looking for a skimmer and return pump. A local store has sponsored teachers before and helped them out with in-class aquariums, but donating a skimmer was a little much for them (some fish, snails, and food helped out though!).

 

Glad to hear you are going along. Too bad the wrasse like mushrooms. Good luck on getting a skimmer and return pump.