noobie tank

[mulloway]

Hi all,

I've just started a marine tank that i think was too rushed and impulsive. i've never had any experience with marine fish except eating. so here goes....

my friend gave me a tank 2 x 2 x 2, pump, 2 colour tube lighting and some filter membrane on 22nd May, I bought some salt water, coral chips and coarse sand from pasir ris on 23rd May and dumped the whole lot in..... lugging the 140l of water was hell!!!, went to St John and picked some live rock on 24th May, did a quick rinse with fresh water and dumped them in as well..... i found a few crabs hiding in the rocks too.... there is 1 hairy crab too... i was feeling very impatient, i went and bought 2 clownfish and 1 sweetlip on 30th May and dumped them in as well.... oh and i've also added a small pump to circulate the water and a small wave maker too. on the morning of the 1st Jun, I found a sea lice attached to 1 of the clownfish, dayum!!!!... i quickly removed and squashed it. by evening, the clownfish isn't looking too healthy, it was swimming on the surface. then i saw it took a dive and started wiggling at the bottom, Merde!! its dying so i took it out and flushed it down the toilet bowl. kinda sad. well..... the other 2 fishes are still going strong and eating well, thats a comfort.

I just bought a NO3 test kit last night and tested the water.... its showing 20-25ppm.... i guess that should be ok.

I'm currently thinking of changing the light.... would a couple of car HID headlight do for the lighting? what would be the prefered colour temp. and lux level? I'm gonna put in some corals too. and i'll probably need a chiller. the water is hovering around 29deg, so i've been putting in frozen bottles of water in the sump hoping to bring the temp. down. what a chore that is.

I intend to keep barramundi cod, golden trevallies, sweetlips and maybe somw cleaner shrimps. and maybe a couple of algae eating critters for measure.

ok, whats done been done..... how do i proceed from here? i'm all ears.... but i'm on a tight budget so please don't recommend expensive stuff, my wife will lock me out of the bedroom.

cheers all

[TayHongSiang]

err...bro..if you use untreated live rocks straight from the coast...you gonna encounter a lot of strange creepy creatures man...u should dump them into fresh water to kill unwanted pests or at least put them in a pail of sea water first for a few days.

you sound like u want to bring sentosa underwater world into yr house....

[beebeefl]

Hi all,

I've just started a marine tank that i think was too rushed and impulsive. i've never had any experience with marine fish except eating. so here goes....

my friend gave me a tank 2 x 2 x 2, pump, 2 colour tube lighting and some filter membrane on 22nd May, I bought some salt water, coral chips and coarse sand from pasir ris on 23rd May and dumped the whole lot in..... lugging the 140l of water was hell!!!, went to St John and picked some live rock on 24th May, did a quick rinse with fresh water and dumped them in as well..... i found a few crabs hiding in the rocks too.... there is 1 hairy crab too... i was feeling very impatient, i went and bought 2 clownfish and 1 sweetlip on 30th May and dumped them in as well.... oh and i've also added a small pump to circulate the water and a small wave maker too. on the morning of the 1st Jun, I found a sea lice attached to 1 of the clownfish, dayum!!!!... i quickly removed and squashed it. by evening, the clownfish isn't looking too healthy, it was swimming on the surface. then i saw it took a dive and started wiggling at the bottom, Merde!! its dying so i took it out and flushed it down the toilet bowl. kinda sad. well..... the other 2 fishes are still going strong and eating well, thats a comfort.

I just bought a NO3 test kit last night and tested the water.... its showing 20-25ppm.... i guess that should be ok.

I'm currently thinking of changing the light.... would a couple of car HID headlight do for the lighting? what would be the prefered colour temp. and lux level? I'm gonna put in some corals too. and i'll probably need a chiller. the water is hovering around 29deg, so i've been putting in frozen bottles of water in the sump hoping to bring the temp. down. what a chore that is.

I intend to keep barramundi cod, golden trevallies, sweetlips and maybe somw cleaner shrimps. and maybe a couple of algae eating critters for measure.

ok, whats done been done..... how do i proceed from here? i'm all ears.... but i'm on a tight budget so please don't recommend expensive stuff, my wife will lock me out of the bedroom.

cheers all

Bro trevalies and sweetlips etc are all carnivorous hunters how can you keep cleaner shrimp with them. haha...especially after it chaNGES ITS SHELL WILL GET MAKAN UP

[onizukaa]

bro, really really hope that you can treat all fishes/coral like human if possible, it's really really sad that the clown is not doing well, however, you can isolate it in a container with sea water and put a bubble or something (at least try before flushing down the toilet bowl) it's really sad to hear that.

Let us know your budget and maybe you can post pictures of your current setup (full tank shot) so that we can see what's missing.

Hopefully everything goes smooth for you! and maybe in the meantime you can buy packet of salt to change water regulary (1 week 20%) or you can buy directly for shops (natural sea water) if you find it a burden to do salt mix.

[Fuzzy]

Whoah ok you need to slow down, this hobby requires great patience, or you will end up spending even more money.

Stop buying and adding anything to the tank straight away.

You need to devote a few days to doing some serious reading before you do any more buying or adding to your tank.

[paul@sg]

bro, really really hope that you can treat all fishes/coral like human if possible, it's really really sad that the clown is not doing well, however, you can isolate it in a container with sea water and put a bubble or something (at least try before flushing down the toilet bowl) it's really sad to hear that.

No fishes should be flush down the toilet bowl...

If you cannot cure the fish, then it is more humane to end the it's sufferings. Please put the fish with some salt water and freeze them. The fish will die without further stress.

0.02 worth. HTH

[mulloway]

I'll take a pic of the tank and post it up tonight. the 2 remaining fishes are doing great, sweetlip has found a home and the clownfish just swims against the current all the time. but both are eating well.

[mulloway]

attached are some of the pics i took last night.