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Old 30-12-2008, 05:29 PM   #11
Fei Yi
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hee hee i also got fish from china town well should not be problem with the fish there ba hee hee

hi may i know what is salinity? how to adjust?
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Old 30-12-2008, 05:31 PM   #12
Fei Yi
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and one thing sorry .

what do you mean by "Some coral dun do well in captivity "

hmmm thanks for teaching
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Old 30-12-2008, 06:35 PM   #13
KaLiB
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Fei Yi: Salinity is how salty your tank water is, we usually measure this in terms of specific gravity(SG) of the water. Some corals like seafan don't do well in captivity due to their dietary requirements, we simply are unable to supply the food they need.

Apologies if the post is a little long winded.

Unless your seriously overstocking the tank, it is unlikely the water change regime is of any problem. The speed of stocking should be ok so long as you keep it to monthly and not weekly.

I think these are the 2 main contributors to your problems:
- Using unconditioned tapwater
- Wrong acclimatization procedure

1. Looks like the use of unconditioned water may have been one possible cause, chloramine is toxic to any aquarium livestock be it fish or coral. You need to treat tapwater with water conditioner(for marine aquarium use) prior to use. There are some water conditioners meant only for freshwater aquaria, don't use those.

2.I think one other problem could be the acclimatization procedure. The water at the LFS can be very different from that of your tank, directly releasing the fish after floating for 15mins is insufficient.

This is how i acclimatize my livestock:
1. Without opening the bag, clean the bag with freshwater and then float it in the tank for 30mins.
2. Empty the contents of the bag in a seperate pail. I bought small pails for this purpose.
3. Fill a 1.5litre bottle with saltwater from my display tank. At the base of the bottle, i have opened a hole and attached a rubber airpump tube to it with a plastic valve at the end.
4. Using a plastic valve(don't use metal) attached to a 1.5litre bottle, i slowly drip saltwater from my display tank into the pail. The rate is around 2-3drops per second. If you don't have a valve, loosely tying a knot or two along the tube should serve the same purpose as having a valve to control the flowrate.
5. Drip and monitor the water level in the pail and how does the livestock do periodically, usually once every 30mins or an hour.
6. Once I have estimated the water level has almost doubled, I remove around 50% of the water in the acclimatization pail and continue the dripping process.
7. If you want to play safe or the livestock is sensitive to sudden water parameter changes(corals, invertebrates), repeat step 6.
8. Using a suitably large plastic mug, scoop some water from the display tank and net the livestock gently from the pail and place it in the mug.
9. Release the livestock into the display tank slowly(best to let it leave the mug on its own), some coaxing maybe needed. Dimming or keeping the aquarium lights off for that day will help in acclimatizing.
- I would advise using an airpump to keep the water aerated through the procedure.

This is the bottle that I use, you can substitute this with any other bottle/container.


This is the valve.


- Do you pour the water from the LFS bag into the tank? I would advise against doing this as you inadvertently introduce disease, chemicals into the tank.

- So long as you wash your hands thoroughly before placing them into the water, there is no problem. I use my bare hands too after washing them with water.

- SG can be taken at anytime of the day. Only pH is best taken when lights are on, as its normal for the pH to dip during the lights off period.

- You might want to try getting fish from another LFS, sometimes the livestock maybe kept in poor conditions at the LFS which contributes to the failure rate. Since you mentioned that they get sick easily.

In general, when choosing livestock you would want to lookout for these points:
- Active & alert fish, try moving your hand and see if the fish reacts. Sick fish appear lethargic and don't react to hand movement.
- Signs of illness, Eg. Faded colour, rapid breathing, fin rot, physical damage to the body, reddish markings.
- General condition of the fishes at the LFS, are the fishes mostly healthy or sick & dying?
- Avoid loners, fishes that hide at a corner maybe sick.
- If possible, ask if the LFS can feed the fish for you to see. Fish that eat at the LFS generally will do well when brought home.

Mostly for marine tank, these are the few basic parameters that should be monitored.
- pH, kH, Calcium, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates
Did you caliberate your pH meter? There should be some solution for you to caliberate it with. If its caliberated, it would give you an accurate reading. Its better to measure pH when the lights are on as there is a tendency for pH to fall when lights are off.
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Old 31-12-2008, 11:30 AM   #14
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Bro, will get the necessary tester - NO2 + NO3 + PH + KH. Attached is my poor tank photo taken last night.

Photo 1. I don't know why my LR got all these pinkish tree or white tree come out?

Photo 2. My tank water has a lot of bubble and LR with algae one also have big bubble? Is this ok? Is my wavemaker position correctly and my surface skimmer?

BG.
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Old 31-12-2008, 11:52 AM   #15
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I can't really see what's in Photo 1.

Do you have anything thats drawing in air and producing microbubbles? Is there any protein skimmer? Or is the canister return splashing water into the tank? Doesn't seem like the wavemaker is causing the bubbles here.

I can't really see where's the surface skimmer, is it the vertical tube on the right hand side of the picture?

I think you would need to reposition the wavemaker slightly, its pointing a little too high, I would suggest lowering the angle slightly. You can try getting a 2nd wavemaker to improve water flow, this can also reduce algae growth as well as improve aeration. Ideally, the 2nd wavemaker should be placed across the tank and moving water in a direction opposite that of the 1st wavemaker.
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Old 31-12-2008, 12:00 PM   #16
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bro, yes the microbubbles are caused by the return water from the canister, becos the inlet pipe (the vertical one) suck in some air from the surface, which i thought it can be act like surface skimmer. I got 2 wavemakers - left and right side same height as the pic one, blowing the opposite direction (cross direction). Should the wavemaker blow at the middle / top of the water?
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Old 31-12-2008, 12:09 PM   #17
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Ideally, aim at the top portion of the water at a slight angle. It seems from the photo that your angle is a little too steep.
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Old 31-12-2008, 01:24 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fei Yi View Post
and one thing sorry .

what do you mean by "Some coral dun do well in captivity "

hmmm thanks for teaching
From what i read from books, coral such as cauliflower etc dun survive in home aquarium for long. There r still a couple of fragile coral that i forget abt their name, i go and search for the book for the name.
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Old 31-12-2008, 02:49 PM   #19
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Some questions:

1) Just what did you have inside the cannister?
2) How many cannisters are there?
3
During these four years .. did you ever dose trace elements as I could see any coraline algae from the pics.

It is possible to have a marine tank without a skimmer but then you must be damn diligent to do partial water changes every week or the worst fortnightly. If you are prepare to do this and commit to the schedule, go for it. However, we tend to go into self denial mode over a period which leads us to complacency.

So the best excuse is to have a over-rated skimmer and you never know how clean is the water until you see the skimmate.

Are you giving the best water conditions to your livestock or you are giving them a lifestyle in their own toilet bowl because they swim, they eat and they poo too.

Moving on to lighting ... personally three hours of lighting is not sufficent unless the tank is only a FOWLR otherwise at least 5 hours for a mixed tank with 4 x T5 tubes.

If it is a tank with corals then do take note of the Ca and Mg levels.
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Old 01-01-2009, 03:24 PM   #20
Fei Yi
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hi there may i know what level should calciuam and mg should be kept?
well i do estimate dose when i first start up tank 1 month ago.
seem now quite ok from then i never does liao as i only keep very few coral.
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