Full Version: help!
I have just bought an orca and bought my water from dobbies garden centre and sorry for being so nieve but does the water contain salt they said it does but i am not sure they told me i can buy live rock and at a clean up crew is this true?
Welcome to the forum Graeme.
You sound a little flummoxed and appear not to have been given the best service in the world from your retailer.
This is the start of a possibly expensive hobby and one in which you will need a good, able and trusted local fish shop (LFS) to help you through it. I would suggest you go a make a pain of yourself at various outlets to find the one with the most patience and knowledge, it will pay dividends in the long term, and save you stress and money.
The first necessary piece of equipment you need will be to measure the salinity of your water, and to maintain that in your tank set up. The maintenance of stable water perameters is of utmost importance in the nano reef due to the small volume of water therein. Follow that with various test kits for your wtaer quality to monitor the maturation process, the cycle, ie ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, etc.
Live rock refers to tufa, coral rock, other calcareous rocks found in the ocean (or matured at source) which contain a myriad of small creatures, a kind of liquorice allsorts of life within it. Naturally, it is a lottery what life forms you get in the rock, some good, some bad, but on balance, the benefits of live rock outweigh the demerits.
Clean up crew refers to the animals that will help you keep the tank all spangly, the hermit crabs, cleaner shrimps, turbo snails. They are amongst the first additions, after the water has cycled normally as some are intolerant of the chemicals produced as your wtaer matures at first. The cycling is the same as the process that casues new tank syndrome in fresh water aquaria.
Best off looking through all the threads on here and gleaning the information from the forum, as many of us have been in the same boat. My speciality was getting corals smothered in cyanobacteria (red slime), but thankfully, I've solved that now!
This forum is here to help, not primarily to say look how good I am at doing this, so we are here to help each other.
Billy
You sound a little flummoxed and appear not to have been given the best service in the world from your retailer.
This is the start of a possibly expensive hobby and one in which you will need a good, able and trusted local fish shop (LFS) to help you through it. I would suggest you go a make a pain of yourself at various outlets to find the one with the most patience and knowledge, it will pay dividends in the long term, and save you stress and money.
The first necessary piece of equipment you need will be to measure the salinity of your water, and to maintain that in your tank set up. The maintenance of stable water perameters is of utmost importance in the nano reef due to the small volume of water therein. Follow that with various test kits for your wtaer quality to monitor the maturation process, the cycle, ie ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, etc.
Live rock refers to tufa, coral rock, other calcareous rocks found in the ocean (or matured at source) which contain a myriad of small creatures, a kind of liquorice allsorts of life within it. Naturally, it is a lottery what life forms you get in the rock, some good, some bad, but on balance, the benefits of live rock outweigh the demerits.
Clean up crew refers to the animals that will help you keep the tank all spangly, the hermit crabs, cleaner shrimps, turbo snails. They are amongst the first additions, after the water has cycled normally as some are intolerant of the chemicals produced as your wtaer matures at first. The cycling is the same as the process that casues new tank syndrome in fresh water aquaria.
Best off looking through all the threads on here and gleaning the information from the forum, as many of us have been in the same boat. My speciality was getting corals smothered in cyanobacteria (red slime), but thankfully, I've solved that now!
This forum is here to help, not primarily to say look how good I am at doing this, so we are here to help each other.
Billy
Thank you for the info. i will be on this great site alot more cause i am new to marine fish its alway good to get advice before steaming ahead!!
Bily have a cup of tea on me that was a very well wrote peice *applause*.
Graeme, in this hobby its nearly always more expensive fixing something that went wrong because you went steaming ahead
.
Rikki
Ps. Some things to ask at a LFS to figure out if they are as knowledgeable as you want them to be...
Will a Tang thrive in my Nano? (The answer should be a resounding NO, with comments about a blatent lack space being made)
Can I put an Anemone into my nano strait afterthe cycle has ended? (Again your looking for a NO) ((I in no way advocate any one to keep Nems with limited experiance and in the such small confines of a nano, adversly i dont say it cant be done either for those experianced enough to attempt it!))
Can i keep SPS (Small Polyp Stony) Corals in my nano under stock lighting? (As with the other two questions your looking for a NO, with something to do with insufficient lighting being the hindering factor)
Aslo check their display tanks thoroughly, filthy? distressed,listless, sick fish? corals looking less than healthy? All "can" be signs of a poor LFS
Graeme, in this hobby its nearly always more expensive fixing something that went wrong because you went steaming ahead
.Rikki
Ps. Some things to ask at a LFS to figure out if they are as knowledgeable as you want them to be...
Will a Tang thrive in my Nano? (The answer should be a resounding NO, with comments about a blatent lack space being made)
Can I put an Anemone into my nano strait afterthe cycle has ended? (Again your looking for a NO) ((I in no way advocate any one to keep Nems with limited experiance and in the such small confines of a nano, adversly i dont say it cant be done either for those experianced enough to attempt it!))
Can i keep SPS (Small Polyp Stony) Corals in my nano under stock lighting? (As with the other two questions your looking for a NO, with something to do with insufficient lighting being the hindering factor)
Aslo check their display tanks thoroughly, filthy? distressed,listless, sick fish? corals looking less than healthy? All "can" be signs of a poor LFS
Cheers Rikki, once I get my picassa program sorted, I'll make you green with photos of my snakelocks anemone....
I find concentrating on the new digital ready Peugeot HDI Fap 908 from scalextric enough to stop me making expensive mistakes as well, I have far too many expensive hobbies on the go, not to mention the racing bikes, the two children, my Skoda, etc...
Billy
I find concentrating on the new digital ready Peugeot HDI Fap 908 from scalextric enough to stop me making expensive mistakes as well, I have far too many expensive hobbies on the go, not to mention the racing bikes, the two children, my Skoda, etc...
Billy
Snakelocks... o.0 has it eaten any fish yet? i hear even clowns cant host them.
Rikki
Rikki
Touch wood, even the damsels know not to go near it, along wth the crabs, the boxer, the clowns defend it, but its still about the same size as the big one, so too small to host.
Billy
Billy
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