I need some advice. I started a 55 saltwater with a white bottom. The water has cycled and I have populated the tank with nine fish. The bottom it seems to have a brown dusting on the bottom. I have a Danner skilter filteration. I have done PH, Nitrate, and Ammonia testing and all are in acceptable ranges. What gives ? I need help..
white bottom slowly turning brown
- Thread starter Mock55
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These are called diatoms, and they'll disappear in a week or two when other types of algae start to outcompete them and when they've used up all the immediately available silicon. You think your tank has cycled, but it will still take a few months till it settles biologically.
What 9 fish have you added - it's too many at a short period of time I think. The only acceptable reading for ammonia is zero.
What 9 fish have you added - it's too many at a short period of time I think. The only acceptable reading for ammonia is zero.
Thanks for the info. I have added 1 scopa tang, 3 damsels, 1 coral angel, 3 clowns, and 1 mandarin gobi. The ammonia is at 0. The food that I am giving the fish is the frozen combo, and brine shrimp. In my posting I did'nt mention I have about 8 pounds of live rock. Do you think that this will help the diet of the gobi?
Probably did add to much at once, I usually only try to add a couple fish a week or two until the tank is full, and not overpopulated. Also the mandrin goby was probably a bad idea, you need more live rock, and need to let it thrive so that copepods and anphipods will show up and spawn, mandarin goby's almost require a mature tank, they will usually only feed of copepods and such, and if your tank is new there probably isn't enough for it.
Have to agree with what's already been said, the brown stuff on the sand are diatoms....absolutely normal, but while we are on the subject, do you have any critters to clean the sand? Things like hermit crabs, conchs, nassarius (sp?) snails, cucumbers?
Again to go along....the mandarin is not going to do well in your tank. 8 lbs of rock is not enough to sustain any kind of population of the various pods that the mandarin requires. Best thing to do is to take him/her back to the store you got it from and (if you feel you must have a mandarin) wait until you have around 50 to 75 lbs of rock in there and the tank has been running for 6 months or so......you can also add a refugium to the tank to help keep the pod population up.
Nine fish are way too many fish for this tank....what kind of damsels and what kind of clowns do you have? Even though the tank may not look overcrowded to you, eventually the fish will grow and the aggression will become more apparent. Even clownfish can be aggressive at times, they are after all a member of the damsel family, and depending on what kind of damsels you have, you may have real trouble brewing in there. In saltwater too, it is always better to understock than to overstock......you will have a much better chance of success especially when first starting out. That way you have a chance to get your feet wet, so to speak
Again to go along....the mandarin is not going to do well in your tank. 8 lbs of rock is not enough to sustain any kind of population of the various pods that the mandarin requires. Best thing to do is to take him/her back to the store you got it from and (if you feel you must have a mandarin) wait until you have around 50 to 75 lbs of rock in there and the tank has been running for 6 months or so......you can also add a refugium to the tank to help keep the pod population up.
Nine fish are way too many fish for this tank....what kind of damsels and what kind of clowns do you have? Even though the tank may not look overcrowded to you, eventually the fish will grow and the aggression will become more apparent. Even clownfish can be aggressive at times, they are after all a member of the damsel family, and depending on what kind of damsels you have, you may have real trouble brewing in there. In saltwater too, it is always better to understock than to overstock......you will have a much better chance of success especially when first starting out. That way you have a chance to get your feet wet, so to speak
It's a separate tank connected like to a sump to the main tank - it's an area sheltered from the fish and other predators in the main tank. In it you can grow things that are beneficial to your tank that would normally be eaten - algae, mangroves for nitrate and pollutant removal, copepods will grow here, and some will be washed into the tank by outflowing currents to provide food for the fish. Do an internet search on refugiums ,look at the pictures and you'll get the idea.
You shouldn't have bought the mandarin - it will almost certainly starve to death. Ditto the tang - people like to get em early so they can keep algae under control, but if there isn't any alage they tend to suffer from malnutrition, plus your tank is frenkly a bit small for it. This also applies to the angel, they do much better in mature tanks, plus neither of them are terribly resistant to any signs of poor conditions.
Do yourself a big favour and research everything you buy properly before you make an expensive and morally unacceptable mistake. And quarantine
You shouldn't have bought the mandarin - it will almost certainly starve to death. Ditto the tang - people like to get em early so they can keep algae under control, but if there isn't any alage they tend to suffer from malnutrition, plus your tank is frenkly a bit small for it. This also applies to the angel, they do much better in mature tanks, plus neither of them are terribly resistant to any signs of poor conditions.
Do yourself a big favour and research everything you buy properly before you make an expensive and morally unacceptable mistake. And quarantine
Good advice
Thank you Toodles, Ntidd, and Wayne for your help. Supplying me with info helps. Toodles, I have 1-4stripe, 2-orange tail, 3-ocellaris clown, 1-brown scopa, 1-coral beauty, and the mandarin. The fish have been doing well for about 2 weeks now. Are you certain that the mandarin is history? With my population, do you see any conflicts later on? Thanks for your help.
Thank you Toodles, Ntidd, and Wayne for your help. Supplying me with info helps. Toodles, I have 1-4stripe, 2-orange tail, 3-ocellaris clown, 1-brown scopa, 1-coral beauty, and the mandarin. The fish have been doing well for about 2 weeks now. Are you certain that the mandarin is history? With my population, do you see any conflicts later on? Thanks for your help.
I am glad that all the clowns are the same species....they should be fine together. All too often you will read about people combining different clowns together. Unless the tank is huge, there will be definite problems as most clowns will not tolerate other species in their tank.
Your damsels are another story. I haven't had any experience with 4 stripes, but from what I gather, they are rather aggressive. I do have experience with orange tails though, as I have one myself. I love damsels, don't get me wrong.....but I do realise that they can be quite the terrors. There is a very good chance that the 2 orange tails will harass each other, the 4 stripe and possibly the clowns. Or the 4 stripe might harass everything else in there.....hard to say......
IF this was me, I would remove 1 orange tail and the 4 stripe, the mandarin and either the tang or coral beauty.
As far as the mandarin.......unless you are one of the very few lucky ones, and your mandarin accepts frozen or flake foods, I would return it. The thing is, mandarins are very particular in what they eat. Most will only accept live food. Now it's true that you can offer them live brine shrimp. But BS alone, are not nutritious enough to sustain the mandarin. While it's true that you can "gut load" the shrimp by feeding them a good live phytoplankton like DT's (which is a brand name, you can buy this at your fish store.....it must be kept refrigerated), even that wouldn't be enough to keep the fish long term. If you were willing to raise baby brine shrimp, that would be a huge improvement. BBS are much more nutritious because of their yolk sack....but you would need several cultures going to keep a steady supply. You can also add a small refugium to the tank, either inside or outside, it doesn't matter. All you would need in there are some small rocks or shells, and some kind of macro-algae. This would provide an area for the various pods to multiply without predation.....they then cast their eggs/larvae into the water column and as the eggs/larvae hatch and grow, the mandarin would eat them. You will definitely need more LR. Not only for the pods to have areas to grow and live in, but also for your other fish. To be honest, I would return the mandarin you have now, and when your tank is ready, then get another one.
When I suggested removing either the tang or the coral beauty, it's not because they won't get along with the other fish, it's because of the fish load in the tank. Scopas tangs can get to be a foot in length....and even though I wouldn't expect it to reach that size in your tank, it will still be a fairly large fish that will put a strain on the bio-load. Coral beauties are notorious for being sensitive to water quality so really, one or the other.
One more suggestion.....if you can't afford to buy more LR right now, you can add other things to the tank to give your fish places to hide, sleep or hang around.....things like large shells, fake plants, lace rock, even pieces of slate. (All items must be clean, no oils, varnish, paints etc...and fake plants should read "for saltwater use" on them). I have done this myself when I first started up, as I was able to buy more LR, I would then remove something, but hey, it worked!
Good luck to you on whatever you decide to do!
Your damsels are another story. I haven't had any experience with 4 stripes, but from what I gather, they are rather aggressive. I do have experience with orange tails though, as I have one myself. I love damsels, don't get me wrong.....but I do realise that they can be quite the terrors. There is a very good chance that the 2 orange tails will harass each other, the 4 stripe and possibly the clowns. Or the 4 stripe might harass everything else in there.....hard to say......
IF this was me, I would remove 1 orange tail and the 4 stripe, the mandarin and either the tang or coral beauty.
As far as the mandarin.......unless you are one of the very few lucky ones, and your mandarin accepts frozen or flake foods, I would return it. The thing is, mandarins are very particular in what they eat. Most will only accept live food. Now it's true that you can offer them live brine shrimp. But BS alone, are not nutritious enough to sustain the mandarin. While it's true that you can "gut load" the shrimp by feeding them a good live phytoplankton like DT's (which is a brand name, you can buy this at your fish store.....it must be kept refrigerated), even that wouldn't be enough to keep the fish long term. If you were willing to raise baby brine shrimp, that would be a huge improvement. BBS are much more nutritious because of their yolk sack....but you would need several cultures going to keep a steady supply. You can also add a small refugium to the tank, either inside or outside, it doesn't matter. All you would need in there are some small rocks or shells, and some kind of macro-algae. This would provide an area for the various pods to multiply without predation.....they then cast their eggs/larvae into the water column and as the eggs/larvae hatch and grow, the mandarin would eat them. You will definitely need more LR. Not only for the pods to have areas to grow and live in, but also for your other fish. To be honest, I would return the mandarin you have now, and when your tank is ready, then get another one.
When I suggested removing either the tang or the coral beauty, it's not because they won't get along with the other fish, it's because of the fish load in the tank. Scopas tangs can get to be a foot in length....and even though I wouldn't expect it to reach that size in your tank, it will still be a fairly large fish that will put a strain on the bio-load. Coral beauties are notorious for being sensitive to water quality so really, one or the other.
One more suggestion.....if you can't afford to buy more LR right now, you can add other things to the tank to give your fish places to hide, sleep or hang around.....things like large shells, fake plants, lace rock, even pieces of slate. (All items must be clean, no oils, varnish, paints etc...and fake plants should read "for saltwater use" on them). I have done this myself when I first started up, as I was able to buy more LR, I would then remove something, but hey, it worked!
Good luck to you on whatever you decide to do!
Good luck tim - keep trying to add more live rock - the more the merrier. Make sure it's fully cured before you add it though, and as it's live rock , keep it alive in a bucket when you take it home.
Curing is the process where you take a piece of live rock that is in either good or bad condition, and let stuff that's died on it in transit rot off till only live stuff is dead. Putting uncured rock in youur tank is like adding a pollution bomb, and a total bad thing.
Do you get it locally or by mail - if you odn't have much experience local is better as you can see it before you buy
Curing is the process where you take a piece of live rock that is in either good or bad condition, and let stuff that's died on it in transit rot off till only live stuff is dead. Putting uncured rock in youur tank is like adding a pollution bomb, and a total bad thing.
Do you get it locally or by mail - if you odn't have much experience local is better as you can see it before you buy