New(er) tank and clownfish

[trinculo54]

My Wife and I set-up our 55 gallon fish tank about a two weeks ago. After we had everything stabilized we read that getting some hardy fish would speed up the cycling process. Thus we bought a pair of clownfish, maybe a little expensive for what we are doing but they are cute Anyway we bought them about 3 days ago and they don't seem to be eating, we tried the dried seaweed, spinich, and fish flakes, so far nothing. They hang out by the heater and hover, occassionly they act a little weird, aka swim on their side and bob a little...pretty scary stuff. Anyway I want to ask if maybe I am missing something in my set-up, this is what I currently have with levels

Equipment
Penguin Bio Wheel 330
Visi-Jet-Ps (Aquarium Systems) Protien Skimmer
6" bubble bar
200 Watt heater

Vitals
pH 8.0 (Using Kent Marine superbuffer -dKH)
Ammonia and Nitrates 0
S.G. 1.025
Temp is 78 degrees ( I have the heater cranked all the way and it doesn't seem to get any higher, should I get another one? Should my temp be around 80?)

Thank you for your help...hopefully my clows will make it

Jamie

[Peterock]

I had the same thing happen to me when I bought my clown he would just hang out in one spot of the tank and not eat. but now 2 weeks later he is all over the tank hanging out with my yellow tang. I would think that they are eating even when you cant see them doing it. Clowns like to play in the current it makes them have to work at swimming. Try another day and if you are not happy take them back.

[NoSump]

[QUOTE=trinculo54]My Wife and I set-up our 55 gallon fish tank about a two weeks ago.

Jamie;

I am relatively new to this hobby as well, but my imediate reaction to your post would be - two weeks is an awfully short period of time to mature your tank before the introduction of livestock. I know that you stated that your levels were satisfactory, but I would assume that with only two weeks of cycling, your tank has not yet fully stabilized.

Chuck

[Reefland]

Hi trinculo54, Welcome to Reefland!

I don't have much to add, both of the posters have provided good advice just in the wrong order. It probably is a bit to eary to add livestock but now that you have, the behaviour you are experiencing sounds pretty normal. Don't give up on feeding them, stay to a feeding routine and eventually they will eat.

[trinculo54]

Well the clowns are looking better, they seem to be moving about quite a bit but they still do not seem to be eating. I tried some frozen brine shrimp that the LFS suggested, he thought live would be better but only had frozen to offer. Maybe I'll try another store tomorrow.

Does anyone have any suggestions about my tank set-up that I posted earlier? I've been doing some extensive reading and there are just sooo many options, any suggestions would be great. Thanks

Trinculo54

[Reefland]

Yeah I have some suggestions about the set-up in general, thought you were just looking for advice about the fish.

Don't get shocked here...
The Protein Skimemr you have is pretty much useless. It will skim, yes, but it is not effective at what it does. Often times a cheap protein skimmer is selected and they appear to produce well but you can never get over the difference once a powerful skimmer is added. For a Hang-On skimmer, the AquaC Remora is hard to beat.

The "bio-wheel" filter you have is not needed, in fact without a lot of counter-productive maintenance it can be problematic. These types of filters are known for collecting waste which leads to nitrates. Cleaning them is the only solution and then your washing away the bacteria that does colonize them, therefore you have a piece of equipment that requires a lot of maintenance and is only provide water flow.

The bubble bar may look cool, but the excessive bubbles could be irritating to fish and coral is you choose to get some later on. Most people work very hard and spend good money getting rid of bubbles.

[trinculo54]

WONDERFUL!! Glad to see I'm on the right track! At least the tank is good right Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to get back on track...I'll look at the skimmer you suggested though I hate to think that I wasted $75 on the one that I got. I've been digging around the DIY part of the boards and consider myself fairly handy is there a DIY skimmer project that wont break the bank? I've been reading about the sumps and think I may try something like that. Though I am not in a hurry to start drasticly changing my setup with the clowns hanging around...any suggestions..thanks

trinculo

[Reefland]

The best advice right now is to take it slow and do a lot of research. The topics I would suggest are "protein skimmer", "sump", "overflow".

What kind of substrate are you using?

[trinculo54]

We started with just 3" crushed coral and dolomite that the LFS suggested and then added a 25lb bag of "live" sand after about 12 days or so. So we now have about 3 1/2 of substrate...

trinculo[img]images/icons/icon11.gif[/img]

[Reefland]

Ouch, that's what I was afraid of.

You should also include in your search the two types of substrate you have used. Niether dolomite or crushed coral are good options.

[NoSump]

Scott:

I have a quick related question concerning the Remora Pro skimmer. As I have previously posted, I purchased that skimmer based on your recommendation.

As a reminder, I have no livestock other than crabs and snails, I have 85 lbs of live rock (in a 72 gal tank) that should be fully cycled at this point. I put a few drops of Micro Vert and sprinkle a few pellets of Formula One in the tank each morning.

My question concerns the amount of skimate that is currently being produced. The skimmer has a column of foam which works it's way up the tube - but the collection reservoir contains only a very dark, foul smelling liquid. It produces very little skimate. Based on the very low bioload of my tank is it common to produce a small amount of skimate?

In another post I saw some pictures of skimate, which had the appearance of chocolate pudding - my skimate is nothing like that. I am getting ready to shut down my cannister filer (due to perpetual nitrate levels of 20PPM - which I think is coming from the cannister sponges and foams); I want to make sure that my skimmer is operating properly before I eliminate the cannister. As a backup strategy, I am considering removing the sponges and filters, and still running the cannister with carbon in order to create a flow, and some filtration benefit. What do you think?



Chuck

[trinculo54]

Well good news, the clowns seem to eating and so far seem to be fairly happy...I'm still investigating a new skimmer as well as playing with the thought of replacing ALL of my coral/dolimite with live sand and then getting some base live rock and basicly start over...one thought though what can I do with my clowns in the mean time? I thought of setting up a small tank and transfering them into that, maybe set that one up with some live sand and maybe some base rock and let that sit for awhile before transfering the clowns and working on the main tank...what do you think, is this a good way to go?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. thanks

trinculo [img]images/icons/icon11.gif[/img]

[Reefland]

Scott:

My question concerns the amount of skimate that is currently being produced. The skimmer has a column of foam which works it's way up the tube - but the collection reservoir contains only a very dark, foul smelling liquid. It produces very little skimate. Based on the very low bioload of my tank is it common to produce a small amount of skimate?

Chuck

Chuck,

The dark foul smelling liquid is what you want. I would say it's not producing cup after cup because it just isn't present to pull right now. Once you increase your bio-load, if the amount of dissolved organic material is present the skimmer will produce more.

trinculo,

It really depends on how fast you can make the transition. Setting up a small 10 gallon aquarium with just a couple of pieces of rock, water from your existing tank, heater abd basic water filter will work for a could pf weeks while you work on your main tank. I wouldn't bother with livesand in the temporary tank.

[Peterock]

You should defently set up a small QT tank to keep them in for now or see if the LFS will take them back and give you credit. As far as your tank goes with your set up have you tried adding any additional bacteria to help with the Nitrates and Nitrites. Every two weeks I add 2 cap fulls of A.C.T. to add bacteria to my tank because after you do a water change and clean the substrate you remove some bacteria so that is what i do.