Compatibility and beginning a small SW tank  10/23/07
Hello WWM crew,
<Hi Leslie! --- Brian here>
Thank you in advance for a fantastic site;
<You're very welcome, we try.>
I have already learned a lot of good information about my FW tanks and fish! I have recently purchased a 29g aquarium, which is currently beginning its cycling. I would like to eventually begin a SW tank, so I have been reading the posts and articles on your website about proper set-up. Is 29g too small for a SW tank?
<No not at all, but you will be limited to the fish which you can keep.>
I currently have a 1" green spotted puffer (Tetraodon nigroviridis) which, after purchasing from my LFS who informed me he was a freshwater fish, I found information on your website quite to the contrary.
<It would be a GREAT idea to do your research, before you buy, not afterwards.>
He is in brackish water 5g tank (I know, waaaay too small for him), and I would like to move him to his new 29g home and begin increasing the salinity.
Can GSPs coexist with false percula clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) once the salinity is within proper range?
<While the GSP can and do live in saltwater, usually in their adult stage, they are extremely aggressive. The clownfish would not survive. Very bad idea. Your puffer needs to be kept with others of it’s own kind.>
I was hoping to include one clownfish with the puffer in the 29g tank, but I do not want cause any harm to either fish, or keep them in a tank that is too small. If they can coexist, can the À. ocellaris thrive without a host anemone? It sounds like from your website that my GSP would likely munch on the anemone. Just wanted to get some information before I bring another fish home who is totally incompatible with my little GSP!
<As far as I’m concerned, you can’t beat a saltwater aquarium, but please, before you begin, please do your research. Before you start, there is much for you to learn. Use this site as well as the rest of the Internet and buy a book or two. Bob Fenner has an excellent book entitled ‘Conscientious Marine Aquarist’ which would be a good start. Take a look at this article, http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_3/cav3i2/marine planning/marine_planning.htm, as well as the others linked to that one. Your success will be dependent on what you learn, prior to beginning your adventure in saltwater aquariums. >
Thank you,
Leslie
<Your welcome – Brian Griffin>

Acclimation, Over Stocking, Poor LFS Advice – 10/7/07
Hey guys!
<Hi Jason, Brenda here!>
First off, you guys need to know that I read all the stuff on your site almost daily and the information I get is priceless.
<Great to hear you are using it and find it helpful.>
That being said, I need a little bit of advice, or perhaps an opinion from someone that I’m not buying a bunch of expensive stuff from.
<Okay.>
I have a 10 gal tank with 10lbs of Fiji live rock, about a 3 1/2" live sand bed, penguin bio-wheel 150 filter, and the lights I got yesterday which are the Coralife Aqualight quad (96watt, 2 10,000k white, 2 7000k actinic).
<Is this a new system? No protein skimmer?>
I've been going to my LFS for a while and trust them. Yesterday I also bought 5 corals along with the light fixture (2 mushrooms, 2 star polyps, and a brain).
<That is too much for one week. Your LFS should have never sold you that much live stock, especially for a 10 gallon tank!>
I was told to put them all fairly low, so I did. Also, my LFS told me to keep the lights on for only 5 hours daily (6 hours the most). Is this correct?
<No, you want to replicate daylight, especially if you have fish. I would aim for 8-10 hours a day.>
I know it is possible to burn out the tank/coral (they lose pigmentation, correct?)
<Yes, but not with your lighting.>
but I wasn’t sure if 5 hours was sufficient.
<No, it isn’t.>
I was also told that after about a week, I could add more corals to the tank.
<Rule of thumb is one per week. However, given the fact that you only have a 10 gallon tank, I would stop where you are. What fish do you have?>
I was testing the water daily but now I’m testing every other day. Also my live rock has started growing coralline algae and looks very nice.
<Good!>
One piece is completely covered and has polyps growing on it as well. I also added 10 blue legged hermits
<Yikes, that’s too many! The rule of thumb is one per 10 gallons. Even with the rule of thumb, they are quite dangerous!>
and 3 turbo snails about a week ago. Another thing I feel compelled to ask is do corals need to be acclimated? I've read about drip acclimation and how to do it, but my LFS told me to just put the corals straight in.
<Oh my!!!! Of course they need to be acclimated. I question the trust you have in this LFS. Acclimation is a necessity with all livestock. Without proper acclimation your coral and any other livestock is in great danger>
It really threw me off, because I thought they were very sensitive.
<Oh yes!!!!! They certainly are!!!>
Well thanks a lot for your help! You guys are great!
<Girls too!>
Jason Lopez
<You’re Welcome! Brenda>

Question on Live rock... small SW... maint.  – 09/13/07
Hello WWM, I am new to your site and have found much of your topics to be very informative. Ok, to the point, I have a question about live rock.
First I will give you my data on what I have: 24g Nano Cube Deluxe w/ stock actinic blue lights and pump. In the first chamber I have one stock sponge over a fair amount of filter floss to capture the small stuff. In the second chamber I have a 1/2 unit of Chemi-pure and a 100w stealth heater set to 79 degrees. In the third chamber I have the stock pump and a CoraLife thermometer probe.
In the tank itself I have 20 lbs. Araga-live Fiji pink sand and ~25 lbs. Fiji rock.
My livestock consist of seven hermit crabs, two margarita snails, one feather duster, and one transparent goby. I am feeding the goby about 1/4 cube of frozen Mysis shrimp every other day.
My water parameters are all good showing: 0 ppm ammonia, 8.2 ph, 0 ppm nitrites, and >5 ppm on nitrates, salinity is at 1.023-1.024. I am using reef crystals salt with r/o water.
<Salinity would be better at closer to 1.025sg. What about alkalinity, calcium, and phosphates? Though coralline algae is largely under-studied (even by ecologists and phycologists), as with everything else we try to keep, pristine water conditions do help. Coralline algae uses a lot of calcium, so steady, higher calcium levels are important (at least 400ppm). Here's an academic site on the study of the stuff: http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/clines/>
I do a two gallon water change about every 10-14 days and currently run the lighting at five hours per day.
The tank is about 8 weeks old and I am adding one hour per day to the lighting cycle each week. Week one was one hour per day, week two, two hours per day and so on.
My question is the live rock that is in the tank had a fair amount of coralline algae growing all over it, recently as I have been increasing my lighting cycle, I have noticed a brown substance covering the entire rock. I have read about algae blooms and diatom breakouts, but this does not appear to be any of those.
<Are you sure? Please see: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brownalgcontfaqs.htm>
I am wondering if my rock is dying or is this transition normal as the tank adjusts to the added lighting?
<Do you know what lighting this rock was under before you acquired it? Sudden changes in lighting can hurt coralline algae. Other reasons for coralline death are changes in alkalinity and/or calcium levels.>
I have tried to scrape off the brown substance, but it is not on the surface, almost like it is in the rock itself. I do have brown patches on my glass and the back of the tank, although that easily cleans up with the use of a magnet cleaner.
<Well, believe it or not, algae has a much harder time clinging to glass than just about anything else.>
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I have attached a few photos to help any identification of the possible cause.
<Unfortunately, there's not much I can tell you that you don't likely already know. You should be monitoring your calcium, alkalinity, and phosphates along with everything else. Your tank is still very new and it's likely to go through several algal blooms before it's truly established.>
Thank you,
Xoor
<Best,
Sara M.>

Pictures for you... Happy reef, high Ca, cnid. allelopathy and its consequent succession events in a small SW reef   9/3/07 Hello gurus: <Sarah> First, thank you so much for the service you do for all of us aquarium neophytes. I would be lost without your site. Because of your hard work and patience, I have been able to have a great experience with my first reef aquarium, a 34 gal Red Sea Max (RSM), that is now 6 months old and doing great. It is a source of constant joy and attention for my family and a great addition to our family. While we've had some "learning experiences" that were less than savory, your expertise has helped us navigate around most of the crazy stuff. <Great!> Here's the facts: 34 gal RSM w/ indigenous protein skimmer, dual pumps (2x145 gph), lighting (2x55 T5 PCs, 10000 Actinic, blue moon LED). I added a 1/10 chiller which we use rarely. I religiously do 10% water changes weekly. Botanical <Algal?> and carbon filter media plus mechanical. Temp: 80; pH: 8.3; Alk: 300; Ammonia: 0; Nitrite: 0; Nitrate: 10-20 (Can't seem to get below this); Phos: 0; Calcium: 500+ 35 pounds live rock and 3 in. "live" sand... added in a few handfuls of sand from Baja 4 months ago. <Good> So, that said, here's the questions... First, how do I LOWER calcium? <Don't add... will drop over time... Are you using a supplement that contain biomineral/s? Oh, I see this below... Remove some of the present water (just through your weekly changes) and replace with mixed water of lower Ca concentration> I have read billions of articles on raising it, but none on lowering it. I have always had very high calcium (500+ppm)... I also have pH from 8.2-8.4 and alk 280-300 all the time. I can only figure it is because the calcium in my water is so high. <Mmmm... I would test your test kit here as well> I own an RO system and add Oceanic Sea Salt mix <And try another brand of salt> to about 1.025. I have never added calcium supplements. <I see> I used to occasionally buffer for pH and alk when the tank was new, but haven't had to do it for months. My tridacnid clam and torch corals have grown amazingly (clam has put on 3/8 inch growth in 3 months), and I have zoos, xenia (gone from 2 tiny frags to 6 med-sized ones) and Goniopora which are all thriving. (I have had this Goniopora for 5 months now and it has grown huge... <Needs more room than this tank...> I know they are supposed to die and disappoint, but mine has done anything but!). I also have 1 fire shrimp, 1 sand-sifting star, 1 royal Gramma, 1 pygmy angel (Gramma and angel get along with everyone btw and angel has not eaten any coral), 1 Chromis (I bought him with 2 others, but a rogue flame hawk who we returned killed 2, plus a canary blenny, a huge cleaner shrimp, and about 10 hermits, all in about a week before we figured out what he was doing and caught him and returned him), 1 small yellow tang and 1 small blue tang. <Also need more room> We also have 6 turbo snails and 4 smaller snails and about 8 hermits. We are planning a bigger tank soon, a 120 gal - and we know the tangs will grow out of the one we have now. <Oh! Good> So, if everything seems balanced and doing well, even with very high calcium, should I change it? And how, since water changes don't help? <May be artifactual... hence the call to check your checker... but also the brand of salt is variably very high in Ca> Everything has been going fabulously, but when I was out of town on a biz trip, we had an "incident" that seems to have precipitated some interesting things. The "incident" was that the flow tube on one of the RSM pumps came loose, was jostling around in the back, knocked some holes in the carbon media bag, and then the pumps sucked a bunch of carbon pellets out and blew them all over the tank. We lost one fish, a blue tang - my LFS expert says that it might have taken a bite out of a carbon pellet. Got the vast majority of the pellets cleaned up... there may still be a few buried in the sand under rocks and so on, but I have not dismantled the entire tank to get them all out. <No need> Since then, we have seen some interesting changes... There had been no tank additions for several months, and then we brought home a green bubble coral... <Can't compete here in this size, type of system...> it seemed happy for about 2 months and had been flourishing and growing, but after the "incident" it started to shrink... though it continued eating (Mysis, minced silverside) for a while, it is now pretty much dead, and just dissolving. I thought it might be chem warfare with the zoos on the other side of the tank... <Yes, likely> they are propagating nicely, but whenever I saw a new colony over near the bubble and xenia, I'd move it back to the "zoo" side. Then, as the bubble truly "bit it," we noticed a new bright red seeming-SPS growing on the rock that the bubble inhabited. Then my blue xenia (never perfectly ID'd, but not the pumping type) started to shrink too (my pumping xenia are growing and propagating like mad). I gave the xenia a iodine bath today, <Mmm, best to administer "just some"... with water changes weekly> and as it got all curled up afterward, I noticed 2 things growing on its rock as well. I have not had a whole lot of luck IDing any of these things, but they all seem to be SPSs. Then there's a very reddish-sort of algae growing on some live red... <I see... some sort of possibly BGA... might be a Rhodophyte...> could be the beginnings of some of the other red SPS, <And some either tunicates or sponges... tube-shapes with an opening on their apical ends> or another type of coralline? Any help/explanations/advice are appreciated. Thanks a bunch - Sarah You have been sent 6 pictures. <Larger pix for better resolution in future please. Bob Fenner>

Hmmmmmmm.. What am I missing? Sm. SW maint. mostly  – 08/27/07
Hello there,
As always a pleasure to talk to you guys. Hope your year has been a good one so far. Enjoy the upcoming holiday.
<gracias and to you>
I have a 12G AquaPod and it has been running for 34 days. I do a water
change every 10 days of 2.5 gallons and my parameters could not be better. I turkey baste the rock each and every day and the tank has 49x turnover in it. Pretty high flow in most areas including right across the surface of the sand in most places, but not enough to move the sand.
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o46/mynd/AquaPod/day26rebuild.whitelight.jpg
The tank pretty much cycled in a sense where I got the brown diatom algae and then it went away. As stated I have 0 of everything I am suppose to and I have no silicates and less than .2 phosphates. I use PhosGuard and I just put in some high quality carbon ( no phosphates detected ) just to see if it would help. I do dose 2 part tech cb ( 2ml of part A and one 1ml of part b every other day. ) I also dose some tech-m to keep my magnesium in check but only every other day as well. There are 3 small frags in the tank now and one ½” green banded goby ( which I use 1 pellet ( and it is about a ¼ the size of a bb ) a day ) to feed. Nothing is outta the ordinary here that I can see. All looks very good to me.
Here is the problem. I keep getting long hair like algae on the rocks and sand. It is just like 1 strand of hair that is covered in dust so to speak.
It is not the normal matted hair algae and I can’t seem to find it in the algae section. It basically look like a piece of hair got into the tank and algae/ dust covered it. It is black looking. They hang in high flow areas, and low flow, just kind of anyplace. It is not bad as in covering the tank, but it is there.
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o46/mynd/AquaPod/hair.algae.jpg
<It’s difficult to say from the photo. Based on your descriptions, I would have thought you had some kind of worm with long tentacles. But the picture looks more like dinoflagellates or maybe even cyano. It’s hard to tell though, sorry.>
I am attributing this to possibly the amount of crap the snails create ( 3 astrea, 1 Nassarius ) which just kind of makes its way to the center of the tank and sits there until I do a water change.
Is there anything you can suggest or come up with that might lead me to the proper identification of this stuff. Or something I can try to rid myself of it. Maybe I am still cycling?
<Unfortunately, I can’t think of much more you could do except more water changes. Personally, if everything else is doing well, I’d just wait for it to pass. Sometimes these things just come and go. In the mean time, you can always just suck it up with the baster.>
I appreciate your time and your help and any suggestions you may have.
Thanks again!
Your humble servant
<LOL>
Stephen
<Best,
Sara M.>

Nano and pico systems... maint. & stkg. mostly – 08/26/07
Dear Mr. Fenner, Crew,
<Hi Michael.>
Firstly, thank you for all of the wonderful information/advise provided on your website, your site is a true GEM for novices like myself!
<I’m glad you like the site. Thanks for your kind words.>
I have been dabbling in the art(?) of fish keeping for a few years now but my experience has mainly been in freshwater fish. I have a couple of questions for you (I apologize in advance) and would greatly appreciate any information you are kind enough to provide.
<No need to apologize, we are here to answer questions.>
Setup:
My saltwater tank is a mere 17 gallons and I am currently using
1) an 1100 litre per hour external canister filter,
2) 400 litre max capacity protein skimmer,
3) air pump,
4) wave maker,
5) aragonite (2-3mm) substrate,
6) 12 pounds live rock,
7) 150W metal halide lamp,
8) 100W heater and a
9) 400 liter max capacity chiller.
*** I tend to buy equipment that is intended for larger tanks as I am not able to provide weekly water changes (work)***
<A larger tank in combination with your equipment would be much more stable and due to the larger amount of water less prone to fluctuations of physical or chemical parameters.>
I was on a business trip for three days and of those three days, my electricity seems to have been shut down for a total of approx 40 hours (electricity provider's fault). I live in Hong Kong and the weather here is somewhat on the hot side, my tank temp will actually rise to 33 degrees without my chiller.
Upon my return, I was absolutely horrified to find that all of my tank inhabitants had passed on =( (an extremely sad day).
<Sorry to hear that.>
I have been an avid reader of your site and haven taken your advise, my tank was not heavily populated (two clowns, three anemones) at the time of this "catastrophe".
<Anemones do not work in a 17 gallon tank in most cases. Likely the anemones died first and the declining water quality wiped out the fish.>
I have removed all of my dear inhabitants but my water parameters were off the chart...
Questions
1) I have done a 50% water change and have restarted all of my equipment but I was wondering if I should still change more water? I am presuming that testing will answer my question, <Exactly.> however, I was also wondering if I need to remove the contaminated live rock, substrate etc.
<Not necessary if you can fix the water quality. Fresh activated carbon in combination with water changes will help you to stabilize the system again. This could also be the right time to think about a larger tank if you have the space.>
2) My tank had been up and running for three months prior to this incident and my tank was heavily populated with stow-aways from my live rock, should I buy more live rock to replace my current load as I am afraid all life forms may have perished?
<Hopefully there is enough microfauna left to re-populate the system in a short time. If you fail to see living “stow-aways” during the next few weeks, adding some new life rock would be beneficial.>
Essentially, I would like your advise on how to get this nano tank up and running again!
<Hope my suggestions help. In addition, I recommend not to try clowns and anemones in this tank. Even without the electricity problem, this system possibly would have crashed. See here http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_3/cav3i1/Clown_anemone/Clown_anemone.htm.>
My second question is probably one that you have been asked numerous times...
<There is a good search function on WetWebMedia.>
I recently received a tiny tank (present) which can probably hold about 3-5 cups of water. Interestingly enough the tank actually has an air pump, light (LED) and a heater (no filter, filter media, circulation pump). If I were to fill this tank with water from my saltwater tank (including fully cycled substrate and one small chunk of live rock), would it be possible to keep one shrimp in this tank? I was actually thinking of keeping perhaps an anemone shrimp.
<No, absolutely not. See http://www.wetwebmedia.com/palemonidae.htm and the linked FAQs for an overview. They need a cnidarian host and are not among the most easy reef invertebrates. A few cups of water will not allow many inhabitants. Success will depend on how stable you can keep this tiny world. Perhaps put a piece of life rock in there if you really want to use this tank and see what develops. Read http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I1/small_world/It's_a_Small_World.htm and the linked FAQs.>
Thank you in advance! Michael.
<You are welcome. Marco.>