Sorry to clobber readers with long story, but am hoping for commentary on anything we've done wrong, should undo, or redo correctly (hoping to learn from mistakes)....
wife and i are newbies who picked up a functioning albeit empty 12 gal jbj nano on ebay earlier this week. know small tanks are tuf but figured this would be harmless way to take first step on marine hgwy. Tank was running with SW and LS and a couple of golf ball size rocks, even some coraline. Otherwise empty... which we figured meant there was little for us to kill.
Obviously the move stirred everything up so we gave tank a day or 2 to settle. Then tested and found SG low at 1.0175, Amon and Nitrite okay, but Nitrate high at around 40 (altho these color coded tabs can be really difficult to read). Found Nitrate level peculiar but assume tank was cycling properly and PO removed LR and fish but never did final water change.
So we do about a 20% water change the next night. There had been covering of gray/brown silt on the LS that i vacuumed up during the water change. Unfortunately we unleashed a blizzard of new silt from the back "filter section" of the tank when we added the new water! Now I'm visually no better off than before (altho i suppose i got some of the silt out).
Also removed the PO's bag of phosban, and replaced half the activated carbon in the other bag. (In process we were started to find several nickel sized star-shaped worms and a couple of mini red worms which i'm assuming are bloodworms i've read about.)
Tonight i remembered to clean pump which seemed rather yucky and water flo is better but still dosnt seem like schmutz is going into the filter slots in the back of the tank. Figure we'll do another set of readings tonite and anothe water change in day or so.
So my questions are:
shall i vacuum crap out of back of tank or just leave it there, vacuum front and make sure we dont pour water into tank through the back cavity
assuming i get the SG and Nitrate levels improved, will clean-up crew help get rid of the silt? do they eat that stuff too?
i'm buying an exiting mariner's live rock and was thinking i'd put 15 or so pounds in the tank. is that a bad idea?
what were those little wormy things? bristle worms?
anyone have experience with the jbj nano cubes and know if theres a better way to mechanical filter?
and how about chemical filter? dont think i need phosban, but how about the charcoal? and there's this hunk of green plastic shredded wheat that the PO left in the tank. he seemed to be saying that it held microalgae
whew......thanks for any observations or help.
steve
wife and i are newbies who picked up a functioning albeit empty 12 gal jbj nano on ebay earlier this week. know small tanks are tuf but figured this would be harmless way to take first step on marine hgwy. Tank was running with SW and LS and a couple of golf ball size rocks, even some coraline. Otherwise empty... which we figured meant there was little for us to kill.
Obviously the move stirred everything up so we gave tank a day or 2 to settle. Then tested and found SG low at 1.0175, Amon and Nitrite okay, but Nitrate high at around 40 (altho these color coded tabs can be really difficult to read). Found Nitrate level peculiar but assume tank was cycling properly and PO removed LR and fish but never did final water change.
So we do about a 20% water change the next night. There had been covering of gray/brown silt on the LS that i vacuumed up during the water change. Unfortunately we unleashed a blizzard of new silt from the back "filter section" of the tank when we added the new water! Now I'm visually no better off than before (altho i suppose i got some of the silt out).
Also removed the PO's bag of phosban, and replaced half the activated carbon in the other bag. (In process we were started to find several nickel sized star-shaped worms and a couple of mini red worms which i'm assuming are bloodworms i've read about.)
Tonight i remembered to clean pump which seemed rather yucky and water flo is better but still dosnt seem like schmutz is going into the filter slots in the back of the tank. Figure we'll do another set of readings tonite and anothe water change in day or so.
So my questions are:
shall i vacuum crap out of back of tank or just leave it there, vacuum front and make sure we dont pour water into tank through the back cavity
assuming i get the SG and Nitrate levels improved, will clean-up crew help get rid of the silt? do they eat that stuff too?
i'm buying an exiting mariner's live rock and was thinking i'd put 15 or so pounds in the tank. is that a bad idea?
what were those little wormy things? bristle worms?
anyone have experience with the jbj nano cubes and know if theres a better way to mechanical filter?
and how about chemical filter? dont think i need phosban, but how about the charcoal? and there's this hunk of green plastic shredded wheat that the PO left in the tank. he seemed to be saying that it held microalgae
whew......thanks for any observations or help.
steve
