ScottPierson

Obiji: My tank is a nanocube type so the water pump and protein skimmer are enclosed in the back. Water circulation seems pretty strong but don't know exactly what it is. How would I tell that? Zarathustra2: I have 20# of live rock. That's want was recommended when I got the tank. Also, thanks for the tip on how to make a drip for the acclimation process. I have read about doing a slow drip but wasn't sure how to practically implement that concept. Scott

Hey, all…thanks for the quick and helpful replies. I can tell that this website/forum is going to make this hobby even more fun! I’ll try to post a picture of my tank with this post. Will stop dosing the Iodide and will get test kits for Ca/Mag/Alk. Will cut way back on feeding as recommended by several Dave:I am using the API Saltwater Master Test Kit – pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. Also have the Seachem kit for Iodine & Iodide. I top off with RO water I bought from Aqua Dome. Not yet to the point of making my own yet. Zarathustra2 & Obiji: For my first two fish I did almost no acclimation. Just floated the bag for 15 minutes and then released. In later tries I did a better job by gradually adding some of my tank water to the bag and then putting just the fish into the tank and not the water. Will do the more thorough approach suggested of the drip method with the next fish. I will work on raising the spg to 1.025. the picture of my tank shows my colony polyp pretty well I think. It looked great when I got it. Looks terrible now. If I raise the spg and keep a stable tank as suggested with regular water changes will it revive itself? Any other suggestions after seeing the photo of my tank? Scott

Beginning of July bought 29 gal Oceanic BioCube from Aqua Dome with live sand, 20lbs live rock, 20gal their saltwater. Set it up and let it run for about 10 days. Water tested good at Aqua Dome so got 2 clownfish, a colony polyp coral, 10 little crabs and 2 snails (per Aqua Dome recommendation). Next day 1 clown fish is dead so got another. Next day both clown fish dead so got a Dottyback. Two days later Dottyback is dead. Got a Blue Damsel. Three days later it dies. Water is testing good at Aqua Dome all along. Am feeding with a frozen Cyclop-eeze freezer bar twice a day. 36 watt Actinic light is on 12 hours per day, 36 watt 10,000K Daylight bulb is on 10 hrs per day. Water temperature is 80 – 81F which seems high but the Aqua Dome folks say it should be fine. Specific gravity is 1.020 which seems a bit low but is the same as the Aqua Dome water (obviously since that is where I get it). Stopped getting more fish for awhile after 5 deaths. I changed out 5 gal of water with Aqua Dome water, removed the filter and installed the Oceanic Bio Cube Protein Skimmer. (Not sure I should remove the filter as that filter was catching a lot of stuff and I don’t really seem to be catching much in the Protein Skimmer.) Let things sit for a week then changed out another 5 gal of water. That’s where I am now. I plan to let things sit for another week then change out another 5 gal of water and then add fish again to see how it goes. Also, during this process the colony polyp coral, which looked great when I bought it has closed up about half of its buttons and the half that are still opening are pretty weak looking. About two weeks ago I began to add Iodide at the rate of about 2.5ml every other day per recommendation of Aqua Dome folks. Haven’t seen any improvement yet that I can notice but not looking worse either. I have also gotten a test kit so I can check my own Ammonia, pH, Nitrite and Nitrate levels. My most recent readings are Ammonia=0, pH=8.0, Nitrite=0, Nitrate=5-10. Should I get something like API Proper pH to get the pH to 8.2? Also bought a test kit for Iodine/Iodide but haven’t checked my levels with this yet. If anybody sees something really stupid that I am doing or that I am not doing that is making the fish die or stressing the colony polyp I’d appreciate the advice. I hate the fact that I am killing so many of these little guys. Scott