newbie here and need some advice

[gasman]

I blame this all on Finding Nemo. anyway, i recently purchased a 12g uniquarium for my gf's b-day (huge hit by the way) from my lfs. he said it had been running for about a month and was "ready." It had lr/ls, some shrooms and couple of clownfish. now after extensively researching saltwater tanks (which I should have done BEFORE), i read that the bioballs in the wet/dry should be taken out as they are "nitrate factories." what the heck should I do? also there's no alot of lr in there so should i get more and if so should i place it in the overflow where the bioballs were and in the tank? make it a refugium? also it came w/ a sealight 27w quad 6700 + 9w actinic, which now seems insufficient lighting, should i upgrade? my measurements seem ok, except for the nitrates which seem to be creeping up.

ph 8.1
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 15

p.s. i think i love the tank more than my gf now and she complains i spend more time on it than on her...women, what can you do???

 

[Anonymous]

Well, everything seems fine with your parameters. Fish will do fine at pretty high nitrate levels, and corals don't like them but mushrooms are unusually tolerant. You can always lower your nitrate with some small water changes with RO/DI or bottled water. You should be using RO/DI or at least bottled fresh water to replace your evaporation as well.

Adding LR is touchy with a new tank. Just make sure it's not "curing". If you can get LR that's been in a tank for months, perfect. You should be able to find this easily in SoCal.

You could probably turn your little filter into a refugium by adding LR rubble in there as well. I would invest your money in a couple good books, rather than spending it on new lighting.

What species of clowns are they?

 

[gasman]

thanks matt, already bought a book, but unfortunately after i bought the tank. the clowns are small false percula's and they seem to be doing ok, except they are aggresive w/ each other occasionally...is this normal? i love the new tank, i can sit and watch it for hours...is this normal???

 

[brandon4291]

Hey GasMan,


I too think the system is okay as-is and your water changes will solve many problems. IMO, 15ppm nitrate is not too high as that is what all my reefs hover around even with a few stony corals. many prefer nitrate to be at zero or at the (.) mark, this is your best chance for beating algae, but all of my corals have adapted to and are growing well at the 15ppm mark. For the type of setup I use, its hard/impossible to keep nitrates at zero and this is my happy medium. Your mushrooms may feed indirectly on many nitrogen-containing compounds floating around in there.



As for the nitrate factory, BBalls can be if they aren't cleaned regularly. it just means if you can see scum and dirt on the balls, it may be time for a flushing. One thing is for sure, two clowns and their required food is very decent bioload in a 12g (unskimmed?) wouldnt you say Matt/ the surface area they provide may be necessary if you don't have a lot of live rock. You can add a refugium, add LR and deal with the new cycling/balance of the tank, or you can just proceed as is and change water whenever nitrate gets too high--Id say around 30-50 ppm for that particular setup because you mention having only mushrooms...

You have a wide tolerance for system adjustments provided your ammonia and nitrite is at constant zero (an indication of sufficient surface area)

10:23 pm, just got Lens email about the graphic, we'll test it on you gasman

 

[gasman]

thanks brandon, all advice much appreciated...what the heck do you mean lens???

 

[brandon4291]

Len is our friend who is an administrator on this board, and he sent me that special banner in an email which we use to greet new people. I just got it last nite before I read your thread, and this post was the first one I tried it on... Good luck on your tank and post us some pics when you get a chance!

Brandon

 

[Anonymous]

gasman-
The clowns picking on one another a bit is totally normal. Over several months, one will become the more aggressive female while one changes into a male. You'll notice the more passive one will do a sort of seizure where its whole body shakes whenever the more aggressive one rushes him or opens her mouth. This sort of means "I give up, you're the queen" in clownfish lingo. Percs and ocellaris attain the smallest max size of all the clowns, so you got a good species for your tank.