so pressing questions from a newbie...

[colinsoon]

hi all. hope you guys can really help me out here...

1. i had 2 cleaner shrimps in my 1 1/2 foot, and today there was a power shutdown for around 5-7 hours, and i was nt around at that time. when i came back, 1 of my shrimps is dead. is it due to a lack in oxygen? or do i have to get special feed for them?

2. i have an anemone for my 4 clowns that are in my tank, 3 common and 1 fire. it happened 2 days ago, when i came back in the evening, 1 of the common clowns went missing. no where to be found in the tank. could it be that the anemone ate it? cos this anemone actually belongs to my fren, and he saw the anemone trapping one of his clowns, and after which the clown disappeared... do i have to feed the anemone some special feed also?

3. i only have a hang on filter, and what is the frequency of having to change water for the tank?

4. how does nitrate come about in the water? if having 5 fishes in a 1 1/2 foot tank, will the nitrate build up be very high?

please help me out here. i am at a loss...

[dreamzcape]

Ok bro, first i think you should share the full dimensions of your tank so we can disern your tank volume.

I think you have too much livestock for your tank size. The shrimp probably did either die of low oxygen or a spike of either ammonia nitrite or nitrate.How are the rest of your livestock doing?

As for the anemone, i think it's best u get an ID coz some anemones have very strong stings and some don't even play host to clownfish eg tube anemones

The frequency of water change should be i think about 20% per 1~2 weeks coz i do that for my 1.5 ft with only 2 common clowns, a few normal yumas and 1 bta

nitrates come from mainly the break down of wastes of the livestock so if your tank is overcrowded and has too little a tank volume, it can shoot up pretty fast. Not to mention decompostion of uneaten food in the tank and in the filter + presence of nitrates in the freshwater topup(unless u using distilled or RO/DI)

MAin thing i think u should do is reduce the amount of livestock, find out more about your anemone and livestock and develop a habit of changing water regularly.

Hope this helps, just sharing opinion

Cheerz

[hammy]

hi all. hope you guys can really help me out here...

1. i had 2 cleaner shrimps in my 1 1/2 foot, and today there was a power shutdown for around 5-7 hours, and i was nt around at that time. when i came back, 1 of my shrimps is dead. is it due to a lack in oxygen? or do i have to get special feed for them?

2. i have an anemone for my 4 clowns that are in my tank, 3 common and 1 fire. it happened 2 days ago, when i came back in the evening, 1 of the common clowns went missing. no where to be found in the tank. could it be that the anemone ate it? cos this anemone actually belongs to my fren, and he saw the anemone trapping one of his clowns, and after which the clown disappeared... do i have to feed the anemone some special feed also?

3. i only have a hang on filter, and what is the frequency of having to change water for the tank?

4. how does nitrate come about in the water? if having 5 fishes in a 1 1/2 foot tank, will the nitrate build up be very high?

please help me out here. i am at a loss...

1) yes it could be due to lack of oxygen. even some claimed their LS is totally wipe out when their skimmer shut down on them. however do a test on the basic paramater such as ammonia and nitraite, nitrate before confirming.

2)there's a possibility that the anemones will eat the clownfish if they are injured and as a result lost their slimy secretion on their body. anemones are one of the most difficult invertebrate to keep in captive as it require intense lighting , preferably a metal halide to satisfy it's light craving nature. if ur lighting is great, there will no need for special food to administer to it. however some reefer prefer to handfeed them with little prawns or fishes. however this is not a compromise for their light demanding nature.

3)depending how efficient is your hang on filter. IMO, they are not as useful. a minimun of external canister should be employ for marine hobby. 15%-20 % per week should be good for general system.

4) nitrate is generally high when ur ammonia is high since it come from there anyway. which mean ur bioload will determines the nitrate level. what ever u added to ur tank will increase nitrate too. such as tap water, unrealiable salt mix , uneaten food, whatever is decomposing, fishes's poo and many many more . one of the safest wat to lower nitrate is water change even though some like to use chemical such as AZ-NO3. AZ-NO3 is generally a temp. solution and require u to have a good skimmer for it to work , however you should find the source of ur ammonia .

watch ur tank's bioload and whatever u add in ur tank

hope it's help you.

enjoy reefing

[colinsoon]

hey bros~~~

thanks lots for helping me out here!

my tank is of the size 40L x 25B x 33H. kinda weird for a dimensions i think... its a hand me down from my fren... anyway, i think my overhang filter is working pretty ok, and i juz discovered what happened to one of my clown fishes. it jumped out of the tank to the back of it, thats why i could not sport it. and i lost another clown fish, so decided to take the anemone out of the tank. the anemone looks like the one in finding nemo. think my lights are sufficient for the tank as yet, but its only blue light. do you think it is affecting the anemone? what do you think has caused the clown fish to jump out of the tank? cos i had the superlong power failure when i was not around, and when i came back in the evening, the shrimp is dead and the clown fish waz missing. think its the one dat jumped out of the tank...

i juz changed the water and the landscape, cos there was this super huge rock in the tank dat was like not giving enough space for the fishes to swim in. so i got a few smaller pieces from reborn and took out the big one. now the tank looks a little empty though...

anyway bout the LS i have rite now, its a cleaner shrimp, 2 turbos, 2 common clowns, 1 damsel, 1 blenny. is it too much for the tank?

thanks again for helping this poor soul out here again... will try to post fotos into the thread to ask u guys for opinion bout the landscape....

[colinsoon]

the old landscape, with 4 clowns and 2 shrimps still... sobz

[colinsoon]

the new landscape. looks really boring. and very very blue. note also there are a lot of floating bubbles on the top. and i got no idea why too.

[colinsoon]

the new landscape. looks really boring. and very very blue. note also there are a lot of floating bubbles on the top. and i got no idea why too.

[andylee]

Have u checked the salinity and S.G?

[colinsoon]

its all good... i checked all... thought was the salinity at first, but cant be, cos in the green zone...

[wil_lee76]

bro, just a question:

How long have you cycle your tank?

[wil_lee76]

u dun have a skimmer install? is your surface skimmer working properly? And what generate the bubbles formation? e.g your pump etc.

[Clownfish]

1. highly recommend u to hav a skimmer

2. wat light u r using? wat colors r they? anemone need strong lights...

[colinsoon]

hey guys...

juz came back... all the surface bubbles gone already... think they all came from the new rocks that i placed into the tank... now my surface is clear...

still dunno wat to do wif the landscape though... any suggestions?

[laona]

hey bro, heard u took out your anemone...u still want it?? mighty interested..anyway got a picture?? maybe we can all id it..

[nakazoru]

Bro;

Its luck that you have only one shrimp dead.

Your is a nano tank so you dun have much buffer to work with. From experience from last nano, any power failure that last that long sure wipe out at least 50% of LS/coral alike. Mine has more live stock and run canister filter then. After that even the water stinks.

Recovery also difficult for nano tanks.

Try not to shift or stir LR/Sand too much for nano, Sudden change in environment has drastic changes to water parameter.

[colinsoon]

icic thanks bros!

anyway, cos my tank onli 40cm long and onli 25cm breadth, if i put in an airstone skimmer its gonna take up a lot of my tank space... was thinking of the hangon protein skimmers like the weipro 2011 or the prizm... dunno which one is more recommended though. oh ya, i am intending to add in some corals, probably some yumas and hammers, for my clowns, and some tubes.

i am gonna start cycling a 2 ft tank soon, and i was thinking of bringing over the skimmer to use in my 2 ft... so any suggestions for a not too expensive skimmer? something in the ranges of 2 digits....

oh ya, back to my current tank... any suggestions for my current placement of LR now???

anyway bro nakazoru, what size of a tank or what criteria would a tank be considered nano?