Reefs.org Forums

[xrenx]

it's not that trites and trates aren't present, it's just that they aren't moving. i keeping waiting for the nitrite to spike and the ammo to lower, but it's been about a month now. as far as feeding goes, i am feeding them 2-3 daily about what they can eat in 2 minutes. i take out whatever they don't eat. should i cut down on the feedings. also i've got 10 margarita snails, and 10 tiny blue leg hermits in there. could they be contributing to the ammo? would i run into the same problems with a 29 gallon, is that tank prone to the same problems since it is still a relatively small tank.

[slojmn1]

I would definately cut down on feedings and maybe consider moving these guys to your 29g. I feed my false percs every other day one time and some weeks every day one time when I have some live brine around for a treat. These guys are little pigs and will act hungry all the time. I am not advocating starving them by any means, maybe cut back to once a day. You might consider only having 1 fish in a tank that size for a good long time, months and months. Then maybe consider adding a second fish later on down the road. BTW, after your cycle ended did you have 0 ammonia readings for some amount of days? If this is the case and your cycle did really end then you are overloading your tank to soon by having 2 fish and feeding 2-3 times per day. The bio load is to big for the new, fragile eco system in the tank. Good Luck and keep us posted on what you do.

[xrenx]

thanks for the help guys, i appreciate it. i will cut down on the feedings. i am also leaning towards moving my setup to a 29 gallon, which i guess i need to get started on so it can have some time to cycle before the ammonia situation in my 12 gallon gets worse. is crushed coral substrate a good way to go. i don't really know much about live sand. i've been reading these posts alot, but what is a good way to go about setting up a live rock/live sand setup. what is DSB? would i need to purchase any kind of external filter like a canister or a wet dry. would just a skimmer/powerhead/LR be enough? none of any this info is in any of the books i am reading.

[highrpm]

for what it's worth:

I have a eclipse 6, with about 6-8 lbs of live rock, 2 inches of live sand, 2 13 watt PC's from AHSUPPLY, 5-6 snails, and about 12 hermits - one percula. I have had this tank up and running for almost 18 months. I did let the tank cycle for about a month before adding the clown. I have a lot of mushrooms, and to much calerupa- it gets trimmed weekly. I do weekly water changes of about 1-2 gallons. All I have in the filter is filter floss, and the bio wheel. I feed the clown 2-3 a week. I haven't had any problems yet.

Don't give up on the small tanks, they are harder to maintain but can be worth it when the tank is running right

[playfair]

First, are you sure your LR was "live" when you put it in? Dried up won't work...

Second, yes, your feedings are WAY too much; Once per day what they will eat in about 20 seconds is plenty.

In your case, I would vacuum out the crushed coral, and do another water change.

Did you add all those snails/hermits/fish all at once? That's probably why it is re-cycling. Take at least half of them back.

[xrenx]

the LR was definitely live, i bought it a LFS which was storing it big tanks. it had purple growth on it. critters, including a tiny starfish, have come out of it. a sponge is taking over one of the rocks. the tank ran for 2-3 weeks before i added anything. again went through the whole cycle. i then added 20 margarita snails and 20 blue leg hermits. which in retrospect was prob too much but stupid me listened to the LFS. I saw no ammo spike after a week, so i added the percs. ammo went up after mabye 3 days later. i have since lowered the amount of snails to 10. still ammo problems though. i was thinking, could i just buy a ten gallon and use that as a sump and hook up my skimmer in there. would it be as simple as buying 2 powerheads and some tubing? i might give that a shot before i buy a bigger tank and a bunch more LR.

[ July 13, 2001: Message edited by: xrenx ]

[xrenx]

i've got a 12 gallon eclipse with about 12# of LR, crushed coral substrate, and 2 false percs. my tank cycled before i added them and everything looked good so i added the clowns. since that time the ammonia level has risen to between .1 and .25. i am doing regular (weekly) 3 gallon H2O changes, but the ammo doesn't seem to going down to zero, and i can't get the nitrite or nitrate levels to move. should i be vacumming the cc substrate when i perform the changes. there is a bunch of crud down there, but i thought i was supposed to leave that to seed the bio filter. i actually bought a skimmer, but i can't get it to fit in the tank with major mods to the hood (which would difficult an eclipse). would adding a big sump to increase the water volume help me lower the ammo? i was thinking of moving everything to a 29 gallon and making the eclipse a sump or reugium but i don't really know how to go about doing that. i live in a apt and don't have space for a huge tank. anybody have any idea/suggestions.

[grimreefer]

Ammonia presence with no 'trites or 'trates means your tank hasn't cycled.

[Emmitt]

You're discovering one of the challanges with keeping a small tank. Are you feeding heavily? I'm not sure, but I would think that keeping 2 fish in 12gal with heavy feedings would tax the biological filter you have with 12lbs of LR. Especially since you're not skimming.

At anyrate, to answer your question, Yes it would help immensly to change over to the 29gal.

[Jrsydevi1]

Way too much feeding goin on there..

Try feeding once every other day for awhile...

[william snyder]

xrenx,

No one hit on it yet but I think a significant part of your problem is your substrate. Your crushed coral is a magnate for organic material that your system is unable to deal with. Get some ideas from others and from books but I don't think you will find much support for that medium.