New setup

H

hazysine

Registered Member
Oct 17, 2005
3
0
0
Hi,

New to keeping fish, and to the forum, so hoping I can get some good advice.

I've had the tank an 'Aqua One' AR380 (34ltr), cycling for about 2 months now. I put a sliver of mussel in and the ammonia levels dropped off after about 3 weeks. Nitrite has been reading pretty high on the testing kit since. After taking some advice I put a clown fish in and was told the nitrite should drop off after a couple of days and that I shouldn't feed the fish for 1-2 weeks at which time I should do a 20% water change. The clownfish seems to be doing well, and I guess I'm a bit nervous, so just want some confirmation that the advice is sound? Anybody add anything to this?

Thanks in advance
 
I'm new too, but not feeding the clown for 2 weeks sounds like starving it to death to me... I would feed it very little and watch it eat what you gave it. if it doesn't take the excess out...

I waited for my nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, levels to go to 0 before I added fish... So I'd suggest keeping a close eye on him and watch your levels...
 
Thanks for the advice. I must admit I gave in today and gave him a little and he eat it all. The nitrite is still showing high. According to the advice I was given it should have dropped by now. I think I'll try a 30% water change at the weekend unless anyone else thinks that this is a bad idea.
 
hazysine, I forgot to ask your setup...

What kind of setup are you running?

Are you running a HOB (Hang over Box) and if you are are you using floss for filtration? do you use activated carbon as well?

Do you have any Live Rock? how much?

Do you have a sand bottom or crushed coral?

Any other filters, canister, skimmer, etc...

There are alot of factors that could cause imbalances. Mainly you need to make sure you have a cycle going. For example you start your tank nice and level, but then you add a fish. it eats the food you give it and creates waste.
You need to have a way to get rid of the waste before it gets rid of your fish...

Thats why you use the rotting organic matter (seafood etc...) to cycle your tank. It rotts and feeds bacteria in the watter. Once the bacteria is established in your tank the fish will essentialy feed it, and it will feed the micro and macro algaes in your tank. the algaes will then in turn feed the fish and other little guys in your tank.

The Live rock you add also steps up this cycle. It adds nice little guys that live in it and eat unwanted things too. as it eats it grows and becomes more and more pretty and fun to watch.

Just remember that what goes in, must come out... So if Nitrites are high they need to turn into Nitrates and so on and so forth.

The main thing I know to watch for is ammonia, it is deadly to your fish. So if you see this make sure to incubate your fish and do an immediate water change.

anyway,
I talk too much...
Sometimes I have to cut myself off
:hang:
 
Ammonia is 0 so that's good I guess. I'll keep my eye on the levels and go ahead with a water change this weekend to get the nitrites/nitrates down. I'm not going to introduce anymore fish until everything has settled down.

I don't have any live rock. I wanted to get some, but the fish supplier doesn't sell it. Apparantly it's an import to NZ that is disallowed.

Thanks for the good advice.
 
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