Update & Questions

[cq28]

Here it is....





I'm sorry everyone, I couldn't hold it any longer. I bought one clown and after that I gota fish everyday, and two shrimp to go with them.
Here's what I got:
20 Astrea Snails
4 Blue Hermit Crabs and 1 Thathas brown color, no blue even though I purchased him as a blue crab(I'll get a shot of him later, doesn't look evil yet)
2 Percula Clowns (False Percula?)
1 Six Line Wrasse
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Red Blood Shrimp

So far so good...I'm waiting for the lfs to get their next big orders and I'll put the zoas and polyps on hold until my chemical levels go down...I just finished testing the water and here is what I got...
pH 8.23
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20 mg/L (What could I do to bring this down? Or will it go down naturally) I'm going to get some chaeloptra (or however u spell it, I got it here somewhere) algae to put on one side of my filter (as recommended, sounds like a great idea)
Salinity 1.021 (I need to bring this up, working on it real slowly)
I'm thinking a goby or two at the most will complete the fishyness (small ones). I am going to get a few zoas and a starburst polyp. I got a few questions on that. I saw a starburst polyp that looked neon (it glowed alot!) is this green starburst or a different kind? Another thing I wanted to ask was how to feed these guys. I have been feeding them every other day about an eraser size chunk of frozen brine shrimp (as recommended). Another question is how often do you guys clean your filter (not just the filter change). And my final question is how about the pumps, do you ever clean those? I've noticed some shrimp get sucked into them. The only thing I shut off for a little bit is my filter during feeding. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to ask, you guys are awesome!

[flame]

I would stop and let everything settle. Adjust your salinity. Looks like you have another cycle starting and need to let run its course. Nitrate should drop off as well. I just think the tank needs time to catch up. IMO

There are folks here that know a lot more about this than I do and they will chime in as they come by

[rickm]

Looks good, some water changes might bring those nitrates down. As far as power heads go I've never taken them out and cleaned them. Certain pumps need to be taken out and run in distilled vinegar and water over nite, then disassembled and cleaned. This depends on the amount of supplements you use like Kalkwasser etc.

[dakar]

I try to clean all of the powerheads and pumps monthly, weekly for the protien skimmer pump. The chamber the impeller magnet sits in seems to be the biggest problem area aka pump killer and needs a frequent scrubbing.

The ammonia is a good indication that your tank can't yet handle the bioload completely.... I'd suggest to just let the livestock ride for a while and not add anything more to the load.

[KG]

No offense, but you should slow down. Any amount of ammonia in a tank that has finished cycling means that there's too much load on the bacteria. Also, doens't sound like your QTing your new additions - bad idea that will eventually make you wish you had.
KG

[Limpit]

Great point on the QT tank KG. Many a fish have been lost because of people not using a QT tank. It really sucks when you introduce an inexpensive fish to a tank and it infects your expensive ones and they die.

[cq28]

I have the QT but I'm sorry everyone, it's my first tank so I needed to throw them in. I'm going to start to use it with the zoas and polyps since I can't really see what hitchhikers may come. I'll perform a water change tomorrow and let everything calm down during the week. Thanks for the answers.
Clem

[KG]

Thanks Limpit. Just hate to see someone walking toward a pitfall without yelling "watch your step!"
KG