new to saltwater

[2maroons]

Hi, my name is Anna, my husband and I recently purchased a 12g Aquapod.
We just got it started 3 days ago, and have the following in it:
2 maroon clowns, 1 long tentacle anemone, 1 steinitz goby, 2 sm feather dusters, 1 cleaner shrimp. We have had issues with PH dropping dramatically. We have used marine buffer (by Seachem) the first day to bring PH up to 8.3, but today, our long tentacle anemone's tentacles looked " shrivled". checked PH and it was at 7.4 around 7 pm. We didn't want to, but felt it was in the best intrest for the tank to use the buffer to raise PH back to 8.3. We are worried about raising PH so fast but we did not know what to do. Since this is a new tank, and we are new to saltwater does anyone have advice? Any reason why the PH would crash so suddenly??
Any assistance would be great. Thank you for your help.

[scubadude]

Hi Anna
Welcome to Reefland!

Starting a reef tank takes approximately one month to cycle before adding any live animals as the tank will show unstable readings in many aspects such as Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, PH, Temp, SG etc. The smaller the tank the more severe the changes seem and with a 12g tank you have more than likely shocked the animals you have put in this tank by the extreme changes and unstable environment. An LTA (long tentacle anenome) is generally not suitable/recommended for tanks unless it is a large tank 100g or bigger. You would be much better taking your PH from 7.4 to 8.3 over several days versus a couple hour time frame. Please do yourself a favor and read more before you go any further. There is tons of information right here for you to dive into. How much liverock do you have in your tank? What type of filtration do you have? Skimmer? lighting? What are your water parameters?

[FireEater]

and we are new to saltwater does anyone have advice?

Start reading the forum throughly and learn all you can.

Then go back to the place where you purchased everything and tell them that you feel they tricked you into purchasing animals for no other reason than to make a buck off of you. Tell them they need to care more for the animals they sell and their customers than they do.

Then when they try to lie to you some more, you will be able to call their BS.

[2maroons]

Hi Anna
Welcome to Reefland!

Starting a reef tank takes approximately one month to cycle before adding any live animals as the tank will show unstable readings in many aspects such as Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, PH, Temp, SG etc. The smaller the tank the more severe the changes seem and with a 12g tank you have more than likely shocked the animals you have put in this tank by the extreme changes and unstable environment. An LTA (long tentacle anenome) is generally not suitable/recommended for tanks unless it is a large tank 100g or bigger. You would be much better taking your PH from 7.4 to 8.3 over several days versus a couple hour time frame. Please do yourself a favor and read more before you go any further. There is tons of information right here for you to dive into. How much liverock do you have in your tank? What type of filtration do you have? Skimmer? lighting? What are your water parameters?

Scubdude, thanks for your reply we really appreciate your help.
The pet store told us we can place (with the right sand) the animals in the tank within 24 hours providing if the water conditions are normal which they were. That sounded weird to us, but we figured they knew what they were talking about since we knew little about saltwater. We have heard this before but were assured by the pet store that if our ph was 8.3, and SG was between 1.022-1.023 then everything would be fine.
That might explain why the anemone looked so badly yesterday, but he is looking good now, he has planted himself in the substrate (crushed coral) and is fully open. He will still shrivel up a little when we take light off of him, but, when put light back on we opens up again. We have seen our 2 small Maroons dragging food (brine shirmp) back to him.

We have approx. have 4-5lbs of live rock (fiji), one with extremely good plant growth.

Flitration is an in tank system, that came with our aquapod. We do not have a protein skimmer. Our water paramateres our as follows: SG is at 1.023, nitrates and nitrites are at 0, Amonia is 0, and PH just hit 7.4 (at 11:42 am).
Don't know what to do to maintain proper PH in our situation , except use the buffer, but that could harm our fish....

[Samper]

They have you running CC so even if that were true you wouldn't be benefiting from it. If you can remove that CC before too much detritus builds up in it you won't have much of a problem. Being so new and small you shouldn't have much of a hard time swapping things out. Please take some time to read before you venture further into this and let your local shop know that you are reading online forums and they might as well stop suggesting selling to you.

Dripping limewater will help your ph as well as keep stable Ca and Alk.

If you can get a protein skimmer for it or a refugium these will make nice additions. The aquapods I've dealt with are all 24G but the way the back is made a 13" cpr refugium or a prizm skimmer will fit perfectly. Also many have swapped out the stock powerheads with Maxi jets for more flow.

You will have to stay on top of your water changes and top offs in a system that small.

Do you have an RO/DI yet?

[Samper]

Oh and I forgot. If you can get rid of all those foam filters and bioballs that come with them and fill that chamber up with LR rubble you will be happier with the results. If you don't want to do that make sure you keep those foam filters cleaned every few days.

[2maroons]

They have you running CC so even if that were true you wouldn't be benefiting from it. If you can remove that CC before too much detritus builds up in it you won't have much of a problem. Being so new and small you shouldn't have much of a hard time swapping things out. Please take some time to read before you venture further into this and let your local shop know that you are reading online forums and they might as well stop suggesting selling to you.

Dripping limewater will help your ph as well as keep stable Ca and Alk.

If you can get a protein skimmer for it or a refugium these will make nice additions. The aquapods I've dealt with are all 24G but the way the back is made a 13" cpr refugium or a prizm skimmer will fit perfectly. Also many have swapped out the stock powerheads with Maxi jets for more flow.

You will have to stay on top of your water changes and top offs in a system that small.

Do you have an RO/DI yet?

Hey Samper,
Thanks for the advice. Since I am new to saltwater I have a few things that I dont understand what they mean in your quote. If you can be so kind and put everything you said in laymen's terms it would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

[2maroons]

Oh and I forgot. If you can get rid of all those foam filters and bioballs that come with them and fill that chamber up with LR rubble you will be happier with the results. If you don't want to do that make sure you keep those foam filters cleaned every few days.

Thanks! Can you please explain what LR stands for?

[rjs5134]

LR=live rock
CC=crushed coral
Ca=Calcium
Alk=Alkalinity

In addition, your tank is too small for maroon clowns, even just 1. Slow down and read, read, read.

[Samper]

Hey Samper,
Thanks for the advice. Since I am new to saltwater I have a few things that I dont understand what they mean in your quote. If you can be so kind and put everything you said in laymen's terms it would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

Sure

The shop erroneously told you that with the right sand you could just magically start a reef system. It does not work this way even with the right everything to run it. Simply put marine aquariums take time, patience, dedication and research. You are in a great place to learn so before you take things any further please take some time to utilize the search feature. You can get more specific using the advanced search feature. In addition ask questions....that's what everyone is here for.

You are running crushed coral substrate so even if the shop was correct it wouldn't matter in your case. Crushed coral is advised against. It is extremely easy for waste to become trapped in it which in turn destroys your water quality. If you are going to use a substrate find a nice bag of Calcium based sand to use. Here is a link for some #00026 ULTRA PINK ARAGONITE 15LB: Premium Aquatics.

In your system a sandbed won't provide you with a whole lot of benefit so just make it pleasing to the eye.

Limewater is saturated calcium hydroxide solution. You can make it by purchasing some pickling lime in the canning section at a local grocery store. Most grocery stores around me carry it. The idea is to mix the pickling lime in some filtered water let it settle out for a few hours and to slowly drip the top clear layer into the back part of your aquapod. I said filtered water because you need one of these Compact Reefkeeper. You can drip this for all of your top off water. If you ant to know how to make a simple drip system let me know and I'll talk you through it.

This solution helps to keep pH up and to maintain Calcium and Alkalinity levels. You will want to research this because water chemistry in these aquariums is crucial to their success.

Example for a nano:

As your water evaporates your salinity is going to go up much quicker than a system with a larger volume of water would. So you have to stay on top of keeping the water level in your aquarium at a constant. You always add fresh water when topping these off because the salt won't evaporate. If you do a water change...and you should often you will always use the RO/DI water to do this but this time you pre mix your saltwater and adjust what you need to so that it matches the water chemistry of the display assuming all the levels are where they need to be. Let this age for a few days minimum then simply siphon out the target amount from the display....for your aquarium a 3 gallon water change every week for a while is going to help you out tremendously and add 3 gallons back.

I forgot to mention this to you there was a recall on 12 gallon Aquapods so make sure yours wasn't one of them.
AquaPod 12-Gallon Aquariums Recalled Due to Shock Hazard

Nano-Reef.com - The source for nano reef aquarium information has some members with some beautiful 12 gallon Aquapods so you might want to take a look at what some of them are doing with theirs. The site seems to be down at the moment or I'd give you some specific links.

I have some people arriving to study for a Genetics test tomorrow so I'll get back to ya. Research protein skimmers and hang on back refugiums. For your system I'd either get a cpr refugium or a hang on back protein skimmer. A cheap one that works fairly well is the prizm skimmer. You don't really have room for both but one or the other will help you.

Later man

[logantidwell]

I would advise in getting more live rock, in that 12G i would have at least 10lbs, but 15 lbs if it was me, this will majorly helpy with your biological filteration, and just like everybody said before, read, read, read, i am not a newbie but im not an expert and i still read constantly

[2maroons]

I would advise in getting more live rock, in that 12G i would have at least 10lbs, but 15 lbs if it was me, this will majorly helpy with your biological filteration, and just like everybody said before, read, read, read, i am not a newbie but im not an expert and i still read constantly

Thanks Logan, I will keep that in mind.

[Nikki]

I don't want to change the thrust of this thread, but had a question.

Samper wrote:
"As your water evaporates your salinity is going to go up much quicker than a system with a larger volume of water would. So you have to stay on top of keeping the water level in your aquarium at a constant. You always add fresh water when topping these off because the salt won't evaporate."

I have had a ~12 gallon nano (BioCube) for about 2 months now and my salinity has been VERY stable. I do water changes 1 x a week of about 1-2 gallons and when I do top off, I use the aged seawater, not fresh water. Has it not been long enough to have an effect. I use a refractometer for my SG readings and I honestly have been surprised at the stability of the SG.

[Samper]

If you have been topping off with artificial sea water your specific gravity has to increase. The only time you use ASW is when you perform a water change. Maybe a 2 gallon WC at the right SG is enough to offset what you've been adding during the week.

There may be a formula to calculate it but I haven't a clue. At any rate save yourself some salt mix and top off with RO/DI.