Cleaning routine (oh, and new to this forum)

SerialCoder · 08/18/2014, 04:34 PM

Hey all, I have been messing in this hobby for about six months and learning what I can as I go. I recently set up a new tank in my office at work and am planning on adding some decent fish to it soon so I wanted to make sure that I was setting reasonable maintenance routines so this one stays nice and healthy. What I hope to come up with is a checklist that I can set in my Outllook so that I get reminders like I would any other appointment here at work.

As it stands here is my list:
Monday Weekly:
Water change 10 Gal
Water test after things have settled (PH, NH3, NO2−, NO3-)
(Should I be rinsing the canister filter afterwards to get out the larger particulates that might have been kicked up?)

Thursday Weekly:
Test water (PH, NH3, NO2−, NO3-), react if necessary.

1st Monday Monthly:
Change/rinse media in canister filter.

Here is the current setup, A 40 gallon breeder. (the size fit the credenza in my office). Filtration is a Marineland C360, Sand bed, live rock. Lighting is a 25W National Geographic programmable LED light.
20140818_180918_sm.jpg

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

NJAB · 08/18/2014, 04:56 PM

Will you be adding any corals to this tank eventually, if so you will need to add some more tests to your schedule, and a few other things. However once you've finished cycling your aquarium i wouldn't test twice weekly, i mean you can but once a week should be sufficient if you have a fish only with live rock tank. Weekly water changes are good, you want to do at least 5% water changes but i have always done 10%-20% depending on the size of tank, are you running any other filters or equipment?

Portsie · 08/18/2014, 04:59 PM

Sounds like a good plan. I don't see any powerheads in the tank. You might want to add a couple. They will help keep junk suspended in the water column to be filtered out.

Some will say ditch the canister but I used one for about a year When I first started, it shouldn't cause any problems. I rinsed my sponges once a week and changed media when necessary.

Add any new fish slowly, like 1-2 a week at most to give the bacteria in the tank time to catch up. There's a "check out my fish list" thread here in the new to hobby forum where you can post your stocking plan and snorvich will give you his advice.

What are the future plans for the tank? Any coral?

SerialCoder · 08/19/2014, 08:33 AM

Thanks for the replies all...

Quote:

Will you be adding any corals to this tank eventually, if so you will need to add some more tests to your schedule, and a few other things.

There is some soft coral in there that was already growing on the live rock that I bought from some dude off of craigslist. It seems to be growing pretty well so for. What else should I be testing for in terms of coral?

Quote:

are you running any other filters or equipment?

That is pretty much it... I have thought about adding more light but wanted to see how things did as is first.

Quote:

I don't see any powerheads in the tank. You might want to add a couple. They will help keep junk suspended in the water column to be filtered out.

Noted... The bottom does need to be cleaned up a bit but I really didn't want to disturb the sand.

Quote:

Add any new fish slowly, like 1-2 a week at most to give the bacteria in the tank time to catch up. There's a "check out my fish list" thread here in the new to hobby forum where you can post your stocking plan and snorvich will give you his advice.

Well, this should be interesting... I just ordered some fish from an online retailer that will be showing up today. When I built up my other tank it was one at a time from the local pet store. It seemed to be more economical to stock all at once this time so I went with it.

This is what is showing up:
2 False Perculas & a Bubble Tip
3 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Sixline Wrasse
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Naso Tang
1 Coral Beauty

Hopefully this isn't a disaster.

maddmaxx · 08/19/2014, 03:50 PM

thats a TON of fish to add at once. and i wouldnt bank on total success. ordering the naso tang was a mistake. they typically need a tank that is 7-8 feet long if not longer. i have a 6 foot 220g and i wouldnt even put one in my tank. they get huge and your tank is simply to small...

just understand. thats goin to be one hell of a shock on your system dumping in all those things in your tank that produce bioload like that. i would be extremely worried what affect it will have on the tank, then what that affect will do to the anemone, then what the affect of the anemone does to the tank again...

i really dont mean to bash you here. but that wasnt a smart move to purchase all that, that quick. your gonna lose money for sure....

Portsie · 08/19/2014, 06:04 PM

Yeah, I'm with maxx, this is not going to go well. If you have some friends with tanks, maybe you could sell a few off to them. I wouldn't even try adding the naso, give it away or ask your lfs if they will buy it or something. I'm pretty confident adding all those fish to your system will cause an ammonia spike, and harm all the fish.

I also wouldn't put the anemone in either. They can be difficult to keep, and can really foul your water when they die.

myofibroblast · 08/19/2014, 06:17 PM

Like having one functional toilet on a 5000 passenger cruise.

maddmaxx · 08/19/2014, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Portsie

Yeah, I'm with maxx, this is not going to go well. If you have some friends with tanks, maybe you could sell a few off to them. I wouldn't even try adding the naso, give it away or ask your lfs if they will buy it or something. I'm pretty confident adding all those fish to your system will cause an ammonia spike, and harm all the fish.

I also wouldn't put the anemone in either. They can be difficult to keep, and can really foul your water when they die.

An anemone should only be purchased till the tank is atleast 6-10 month mature. and thats with slowly adding fish over time to allow the system to become stable after each addition. sad cause they will either post "whats goin wrong", or "why is this happening" or "whats up with my nem" etc etc etc...

SerialCoder · 08/20/2014, 06:17 AM

I appreciate the comments... I have a semi mature 29 and my housemate has a mature 55 at home so I will disperse them to make this a bit easier.

MythicalReef · 08/20/2014, 06:45 AM

I'll kind of pile on with the questionable purchases, however, you could raise your chances of success if you are willing to put in the work. In order to sustain a non toxic atmosphere for the/your incoming bioload of a new tank, I would suggest around 3 x 30% water changes per week for about 2 months... this is without the tang.

After that time you can begin to tailor off a bit to around 2 x 20% per week and read your tank from there. Always remember to take things slow in this hobby.

fishhuman · 08/20/2014, 08:00 AM

I think that you should give away the naso becuase they get 18 inches you will need a 240 gallon aquarium to house one

08/18/2014, 04:34 PM	#1
SerialCoder Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 3	Cleaning routine (oh, and new to this forum) Hey all, I have been messing in this hobby for about six months and learning what I can as I go. I recently set up a new tank in my office at work and am planning on adding some decent fish to it soon so I wanted to make sure that I was setting reasonable maintenance routines so this one stays nice and healthy. What I hope to come up with is a checklist that I can set in my Outllook so that I get reminders like I would any other appointment here at work. As it stands here is my list: Monday Weekly: Water change 10 Gal Water test after things have settled (PH, NH3, NO2−, NO3-) (Should I be rinsing the canister filter afterwards to get out the larger particulates that might have been kicked up?) Thursday Weekly: Test water (PH, NH3, NO2−, NO3-), react if necessary. 1st Monday Monthly: Change/rinse media in canister filter. Here is the current setup, A 40 gallon breeder. (the size fit the credenza in my office). Filtration is a Marineland C360, Sand bed, live rock. Lighting is a 25W National Geographic programmable LED light. 20140818_180918_sm.jpg Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

08/18/2014, 04:59 PM	#3
Portsie Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 741	Sounds like a good plan. I don't see any powerheads in the tank. You might want to add a couple. They will help keep junk suspended in the water column to be filtered out. Some will say ditch the canister but I used one for about a year When I first started, it shouldn't cause any problems. I rinsed my sponges once a week and changed media when necessary. Add any new fish slowly, like 1-2 a week at most to give the bacteria in the tank time to catch up. There's a "check out my fish list" thread here in the new to hobby forum where you can post your stocking plan and snorvich will give you his advice. What are the future plans for the tank? Any coral? __________________ 90g corner overflow, 33g sump, Apex, Vertex IN-100, 2x MP-10w ES, 1X MP-40w, Tunze Osmolator, 60lbs Caribsea oolite, 85lbs live rock, 4x54w T5 with LED moonlights

08/19/2014, 03:50 PM	#5
maddmaxx Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Jersey Shore Posts: 3,003	thats a TON of fish to add at once. and i wouldnt bank on total success. ordering the naso tang was a mistake. they typically need a tank that is 7-8 feet long if not longer. i have a 6 foot 220g and i wouldnt even put one in my tank. they get huge and your tank is simply to small... just understand. thats goin to be one hell of a shock on your system dumping in all those things in your tank that produce bioload like that. i would be extremely worried what affect it will have on the tank, then what that affect will do to the anemone, then what the affect of the anemone does to the tank again... i really dont mean to bash you here. but that wasnt a smart move to purchase all that, that quick. your gonna lose money for sure.... __________________ One Life One Shot Current Tank Info: 40B Mixed reef

08/19/2014, 06:04 PM	#6
Portsie Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 741	Yeah, I'm with maxx, this is not going to go well. If you have some friends with tanks, maybe you could sell a few off to them. I wouldn't even try adding the naso, give it away or ask your lfs if they will buy it or something. I'm pretty confident adding all those fish to your system will cause an ammonia spike, and harm all the fish. I also wouldn't put the anemone in either. They can be difficult to keep, and can really foul your water when they die. __________________ 90g corner overflow, 33g sump, Apex, Vertex IN-100, 2x MP-10w ES, 1X MP-40w, Tunze Osmolator, 60lbs Caribsea oolite, 85lbs live rock, 4x54w T5 with LED moonlights

08/18/2014, 04:56 PM	#2
NJAB Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 82	Will you be adding any corals to this tank eventually, if so you will need to add some more tests to your schedule, and a few other things. However once you've finished cycling your aquarium i wouldn't test twice weekly, i mean you can but once a week should be sufficient if you have a fish only with live rock tank. Weekly water changes are good, you want to do at least 5% water changes but i have always done 10%-20% depending on the size of tank, are you running any other filters or equipment?

08/19/2014, 06:17 PM	#7
myofibroblast Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 88	Like having one functional toilet on a 5000 passenger cruise.

08/20/2014, 06:17 AM	#9
SerialCoder Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 3	I appreciate the comments... I have a semi mature 29 and my housemate has a mature 55 at home so I will disperse them to make this a bit easier.

08/20/2014, 06:45 AM	#10
MythicalReef Registered Member Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 19	I'll kind of pile on with the questionable purchases, however, you could raise your chances of success if you are willing to put in the work. In order to sustain a non toxic atmosphere for the/your incoming bioload of a new tank, I would suggest around 3 x 30% water changes per week for about 2 months... this is without the tang. After that time you can begin to tailor off a bit to around 2 x 20% per week and read your tank from there. Always remember to take things slow in this hobby.

08/20/2014, 08:00 AM	#11
fishhuman Registered Member Join Date: May 2014 Location: LA california Posts: 647	I think that you should give away the naso becuase they get 18 inches you will need a 240 gallon aquarium to house one