The Puffer Forum

yes, I am prepared to feed a lion the proper food so that he gets all his saltwater fatty acids and such. I've been doing a lot of research on what they like to eat and what techniques people are using to ween them onto dead/frozen food sources. I'm up for a good challenge, I trust that I won't be bringing a deathly ill fish home right from the get go this time around, so I'm hoping I experience more success.

As far as corals go, I haven't done a ton of research on it yet since I am not planning on getting any until I'm at least reasonably successful at keeping a fish healthy for a decent length of time. I'm considering it for the future though.

the tank WILL be stable and well decorated with lots of rock and hiding places when he goes in, no exceptions.

However, another concern I had is that my tank has now been running for 3-4 days with nothing living in it (except for live rock). Is my bacteria bed in jeopardy at this point? Or can I go until the end of the week, add the Dr. Tim's and be good? I know the cycle needs some type of ammonia source to keep the bacteria live, I'm not sure if whatever is living in my live rock is filling that role or not. But then again I'm not sure how crucial it is since I will be adding a bottle of bacteria by the end of the week anyway.

Be sure the fish has a rounded belly.

you could drop in a blood worm or 2 just to add a little protein. Some folks have used ammonia but finding a pure source is a little tricky. if your live rock isn't cured, there will be plenty of stuff decaying to feed your bacteria. I wouldn't worry about it too much, read the fishless cycling article for an idea of what is going on in your tank.

my live rock came straight from a long established reef tank, about 20 minutes in transit from that tank to mine. Its been in my tank for 3-4 weeks now. No hitchhikers that i've seen though.

You'll find creatures from that rock, soon enough.

i hope so, I've been interested in what will come out of it since day one. Its pretty wide open though, i feel like if there was anything in there, I'd be able to see it crawling around. Whatever they are, hopefully they aren't dead haha.

I have seen cool, interesting creatures pop up even years later.

thats pretty neat!

anyways, updates. I have my Dr. Tims chilling in the fridge. and my rock is coming tomorrow.

plan is to mix about 18 gallons (maybe more) of sw tonight and throw my power head in there to let it mix overnight.

Tomorrow I'm going to stir up anything that might still be resting on the bottom and siphon out at least 50% of the water. Then put together a nice rock structure in there, refill, then add the entire bottle of bacteria to seed the rock. Does this sound alright?

My fish will be here late friday afternoon.

My skimmer has started to work awesome, its no longer filling up at all, just collecting a bunch of crud in the bottom. I still only have one powerhead for the time being (about another week until my other one comes in. Hopefully its not too much of a one way current for my fish.

I was also wondering if you guys recommend cementing/mortaring the rocks together? Or should I stack them loosely so I can change things up in there from time to time? I'm pretty sure the marco rock comes with a sample of mortar, I'm just not sure if most people do that or not, from what I've seen it looks like most people leave them loose.

Mine are loose. it can be a challenge to get them set up, but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad. I wouldn't glue them together because it would make maintenance tough. if you need to kill som aiptasia or pluck some pest algae I would imagine glued rocks would be a hassle. this is especially true in a reef tank where you will be introducing new bits of LR with every new coral, which means you run the chance of adding a new pest with every new coral. another plus is you can change things up when ever you want, I have redecorated 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months.

thats what I figured. I'll see what kind of cool structure I can make leaving them loose.

Progress.

My rock came in today. So I set everything up for my fish to come tomorrow.

First order of business was to mix some saltwater. So last night I mixed 16 gallons in a rubbermaid tote at 1.025

removed existing rock/live rock and drain water. I stirred the sand up a lot before I siphoned, thats why the water is cloudy.



Then I built a pretty decent structure I think. I wasn't able to use all of the rock that they gave me. There is a VERY large chunk that i just could not find a place for, I wanted to leave sufficient room for a fish to swim, so I left it out.

This is the reject chunk.



And after I refilled, put powerhead and started the skimmer up and all that. I also introduced an entire bottle of Dr. Tim's to the tank at this time.

The water is still cloudy, but I think it looks decent in there.

Front



Left side.

'

Right side.



What the tank looked like before for reference.



I also just placed an order for a second koralia 750, api master test kit, an algae magnet, and a bottle of seachem prime.

Questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions welcome.

For FOWLR, 1.020 is fine.

I would try to find a place for that rock, more is better. Can you not break it up?

I tried cracking it in half but don't have the right tools, since all my stuff is at my parents where I keep my car. When I get a chance I'll break it down and fit it in somewhere. I sort of wasn't expecting so many huge pieces. I thought there would be more of a variance in size, but I only got 5 rather large pieces and one smaller one, kind of hard to make a structure out of that and still leave room for fish to swim.

anyone else's skimmer act really weird after water changes? Before this mine had finally calmed down and stopped filling up so fast and there were no micro bubbles coming from it. But after the water change, rocks, and bacteria added, it has gone back to filling up super quick and making quite a few bubbles.

Hammer & screwdriver should do it.