IQ5 Dymax Nano Tank :D

[FD2R]

Hmmm thanks for all the replies. i top up salt water from the LFS as and when it evaporates. As for water change, i do that once a week? prolly 10-20% but i thought i'm not suppose to change water so to let the bacteria set in? i didn't had the chance to do a proper water cycle. So basically now, I'm doing the cycle with my fishes and corals ( is that how it works? ). And one of my nemo died on me last night, when i came back home. Realized one of em is missing, look around for a good 5 mins and found his dead body underneath a live rock! how's that possible? what could have causes his death? There's no bite marks on him either. At first i thought the anemone ate him!

[Terryz_]

I really think you need to read more... You are supposed to top up with freshwater, not saltwater, because the water evaporates without the salt and the salinity will increase in your tank when the water evaporates if you add more saltwater, it becomes saltier and stressing/killing the fishes and corals..

Yes bascially, you are cycling with your fishes and corals, sadly expect to see more death until the ANN cycle is over..

[FD2R]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lol. no one should die on me no more. So i just top up with fresh water? The water at my filter area really evaporates soooooo quickly. My Salt level in my iq5 is doing 1.015. Is that ok?

[Terryz_]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lol. no one should die on me no more. So i just top up with fresh water? The water at my filter area really evaporates soooooo quickly. My Salt level in my iq5 is doing 1.015. Is that ok?

That is very low.... Yes, top up with freshwater and change water with saltwater... Range should be 1.023-1.025...

[braincoral]

Expect to c more death coming

[yeo99]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lol. no one should die on me no more. So i just top up with fresh water? The water at my filter area really evaporates soooooo quickly. My Salt level in my iq5 is doing 1.015. Is that ok?

Test the sg of the salt water from the LFS first, try to increase the sg to the 1.023 in your tank. Once reach the correct sg, take note of the water level in the tank. When the water level decrease due to evapouration, top up with fresh water to the water level that you have noted.

You need to maintain the corect sg because of coral. Fish will not be a problem at low sg. I normally maintain at 1.02 for FOWLR tank.

[peacemaker]

I really think you need to read more... You are supposed to top up with freshwater, not saltwater, because the water evaporates without the salt and the salinity will increase in your tank when the water evaporates if you add more saltwater, it becomes saltier and stressing/killing the fishes and corals..

Yes bascially, you are cycling with your fishes and corals, sadly expect to see more death until the ANN cycle is over..

Precisely. Hence my initial advice to sell everything away, do research before re-starting again. Why would you want to use these fishes and corals, which can still be saved (while they are still alive, of course), as a learning experience?

[Terryz_]

Precisely. Hence my initial advice to sell everything away, do research before re-starting again. Why would you want to use these fishes and corals, which can still be saved (while they are still alive, of course), as a learning experience?

Yeah, true, it is might be the only way.

[Jameshong]

She seriously need to read more !

IMHO, better save the $$$ to buy SK II instead... :lol: !!!

[braincoral]

Better restart everything again

[Rxcp14]

Read up! Boring but wasting time and effort reading is so much better than worrying day by day, paying money for the unknown and im sure u hate things dying on u right? So do those living things a favour by getting things right for a start and that will definitely make ur tank inhabitants and urself very happy if all are well!

[HW33]

She seriously need to read more !

IMHO, better save the $$$ to buy SK II instead... :lol: !!!

[FD2R]

arghh

[peacemaker]

arghh

Pls don't feel discouraged. I believe it is not our intention to be a wet blanket to you, but to provide an ideal solution to the current problems that you face. First of all, the health of your livestock and corals are utmost importance at this point of time, and most of us feel that they would be better off sold to experience reefers with stable reef systems to take care of them, while you do plenty of research to understand why things have to be done in certain ways (ie proper cycling, no shortcut) to ensure the survivability of your livestock and corals. I must say that the learning curve in this hobby is a lot steeper than other hobbies, and you need to thoroughly understand them before embarking on this reefing journey. Most of us have been through this stage, and we try to prevent others from following our mistakes.

Your answer to the following question would tell us if you truly understood the necessity of cycling... do you know why your fishes died and your corals are not opening up?

[FD2R]

Hmm. My corals are opening up now. And I'm only left with royal dotty back and nemo. As for now. Everything seems to be working well. Another thing is my tank has been around for 2 weeks. Is it still not properly cycled yet?

[peacemaker]

Have you read through the pinned topics on this section? There's one on

[Rxcp14]

Hmm. My corals are opening up now. And I'm only left with royal dotty back and nemo. As for now. Everything seems to be working well. Another thing is my tank has been around for 2 weeks. Is it still not properly cycled yet?

No 2 tanks are similar, so only u can confirm by testing using accurate test kits... test mainly ammonia, nitrite and nitrate... All shld be 0ppm when cycling is done.

[FD2R]

So. The moment it says all zero it's done? And the above 3 mentioned won't go up no more? And what If it does goes upagain? Change 10% water again?

[straydum]

No 2 tanks are similar, so only u can confirm by testing using accurate test kits... test mainly ammonia, nitrite and nitrate... All shld be 0ppm when cycling is done.

someone correct me if i'm wrong here, but the end of the cycle can be indicated by 0 values of ammonia and nitrite. nitrate on the other hand should not be 0 unless you have done something to get rid of them. the first two (ammonia and nitrite) would be broken down eventually giving nitrate which is not that easily removed by bacteria (unless you're talking carbon dosing and all) and thus stays in the water and requires active removal by the reefer himself through water changes, or other methods which includes the use of macro algae, bacteria (as above), chemical means etc.

ammonia and nitrite should not go up again (though in a sense it does but is quickly broken down by your established bacteria colony) but nitrates would continually rise depending on your feeding and maintenance routine. water changes would be the easily solution to combat nitrates especially for such a small set up.

[FD2R]

noted

[FD2R]

Tank's properly cycled. Which cleaner crew should I introduce? Which kind of snail? And what's the main diff of true percular clown fish and common clown? Thx.

[cool guy]

Mornin SK-II... A very hapi new yr to u.

Back to ur ques, imo since ur tank is small, u don really need a cleaning crew. Don need to waste money on tat.

As for clownfish, ther many diff type n species. U can google in e net. Price range can be as low as $1 to as high as $500...

[Rxcp14]

Tank's properly cycled. Which cleaner crew should I introduce? Which kind of snail? And what's the main diff of true percular clown fish and common clown? Thx.

Hmmm get a small margarita snail or just 1 cone shape snail(forgot the name but very common)... One layman way of the difference is the black "jacket" meaning the black coverage/shade is more, the proper details you can find are on google...

[terencekhung]

nano tank should change water more regularly to maintain good water parameters

[MadScientist]

nano tank should change water more regularly to maintain good water parameters

that applies to all tanks, not just nano.