help!!! Brand new owner

shaners · 04/17/2006, 10:06 PM

I hope a new thread is appropriate. A friend of mine just had an ugly situation with his soon to be ex. Long story short...He left town and I took his 55gal tank and saved it from certain death. I had to move it immediately and had no help or advice (except to use this website). Believe it or not..they all made it so far. However, I don't know where to go from here. Can't tell you what I have or anything. Looking for a place to find lots of thumbs to look through to see what I have. Also the tank hasn't been maintained well the last few months. Cleaned tons of algea off the glass and globs stuck on everything. Looks much better now. Any advice?

Billy1234 · 04/17/2006, 10:16 PM

To Reef Central

Here is a good site to find things. Everything is defined by picture. As for questions, post them here as you need, people are more than willing to help.

Here is another one. It's a safe bet that anything posted by WaterKeeper is something useful and informative.

I'll post more useful links when I find them.. they are hard to find.

Good Luck,

Billy

pitt_prodigy · 04/17/2006, 10:21 PM

READ read read!! This site can be a VERY useful... but there are a lot of great books at your local bookstore which are going to be a great reference for answers, they would also help you with identifying the fish that you have and appropriate care. There are far too many things to keeping a marine aquarium to post in this thread.... but a few things that i would do in the near future is:
1. Post more info about the tank itself and equipment... does it have a sump, skimmer, powerheads etc?

2. Do you have a test kit for the water.... specifically Nitrates and ammonia? If there is a lot of algae and the tank hasnt been maintained in a while chances are the water parameters could be off. One failsafe that will help no matter what is doing a 10% water change. This includes making new saltwater, getting it to the right specific gravity and swapping it out.

If you really want help from people on this site we're gonna need to know what the water tests show.....so post results.

3. Dont overfeed! Do you know what foods the fish were being fed?

4. Pictures could really save your butt here too... if you have a digital camera, go to photobucket.com get an account and post some.

Other than that.... i wish you luck.... you face a real uphill battle here if your coming into the hobby blind. That doesnt mean that you cant do it nor should it discourage you from trying. Its a GREAT hobby and trust me.... if you already found this site your on the right track! But i will tell you that you really need to do some FAST learning. If i were in your shoes i would have a book on keeping marine aquariums as a reference ASAP! I have many... but one comes to mind that really breaks things down pretty easily. "The Consientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner (cant remember the exact title).

Billy1234 · 04/17/2006, 10:28 PM

^^ excellent advice.

As for books I've seen Aquarium Corals by Eric H. Borneman recommended most.. and have heard it's a phenemonal book, excellent for beginners.

shaners · 04/17/2006, 11:02 PM

As I'm researching, I've found out I have a yellow tang, a pair of clown fish (living in a couple red anemomies), a coral banded shrimp, lots of little bristleworms,tons of brittle starfish,many different SPS and LPS coral along with cool looking mushrooms (a clump are blue with cool glowing dots. There are tons of things too numerous to mention. I'll get out the camera tomorrow and take some shots. It has 2 powerheads and a main pump that is on a rotating schedule with a wave maker controller. It has an auto top off and bio balls in the rear filter system. For lighting it has two coral bulbs and a bright single bulb (like daylight bright). this is on a timer. I have a new ammonia alert in the tank and it reads (safe). I have boxes of test kits and sounds like I better use them. will post them tomorrow as well. Thank you all for the quick response

Billy1234 · 04/17/2006, 11:09 PM

I wouldn't trust one of those ammonia alert things, if they are the things I'm thinking of. I would buy a reliable test kit (Salifert being the most accurate) and test your results, you have a lot of nice things in there and it would be a shame to lose them over something like that. What kind of test kits do you have now?

WaterKeeper · 04/19/2006, 09:36 AM

Your sig line is so true Billy. That is why I never use the spell checker when I write.

04/17/2006, 10:06 PM	#1
shaners Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: roseburg oregon Posts: 17	help!!! Brand new owner I hope a new thread is appropriate. A friend of mine just had an ugly situation with his soon to be ex. Long story short...He left town and I took his 55gal tank and saved it from certain death. I had to move it immediately and had no help or advice (except to use this website). Believe it or not..they all made it so far. However, I don't know where to go from here. Can't tell you what I have or anything. Looking for a place to find lots of thumbs to look through to see what I have. Also the tank hasn't been maintained well the last few months. Cleaned tons of algea off the glass and globs stuck on everything. Looks much better now. Any advice?

04/17/2006, 10:16 PM	#2
Billy1234 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 417	*To Reef Central* Here is a good site to find things. Everything is defined by picture. As for questions, post them here as you need, people are more than willing to help. Here is another one. It's a safe bet that anything posted by WaterKeeper is something useful and informative. I'll post more useful links when I find them.. they are hard to find. Good Luck, Billy __________________ "Your mom goes to college." Current Tank Info: 20g

04/17/2006, 10:21 PM	#3
pitt_prodigy Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Palm Harbor, FL Posts: 751	READ read read!! This site can be a VERY useful... but there are a lot of great books at your local bookstore which are going to be a great reference for answers, they would also help you with identifying the fish that you have and appropriate care. There are far too many things to keeping a marine aquarium to post in this thread.... but a few things that i would do in the near future is: 1. Post more info about the tank itself and equipment... does it have a sump, skimmer, powerheads etc? 2. Do you have a test kit for the water.... specifically Nitrates and ammonia? If there is a lot of algae and the tank hasnt been maintained in a while chances are the water parameters could be off. One failsafe that will help no matter what is doing a 10% water change. This includes making new saltwater, getting it to the right specific gravity and swapping it out. If you really want help from people on this site we're gonna need to know what the water tests show.....so post results. 3. Dont overfeed! Do you know what foods the fish were being fed? 4. Pictures could really save your butt here too... if you have a digital camera, go to photobucket.com get an account and post some. Other than that.... i wish you luck.... you face a real uphill battle here if your coming into the hobby blind. That doesnt mean that you cant do it nor should it discourage you from trying. Its a GREAT hobby and trust me.... if you already found this site your on the right track! But i will tell you that you really need to do some FAST learning. If i were in your shoes i would have a book on keeping marine aquariums as a reference ASAP! I have many... but one comes to mind that really breaks things down pretty easily. "The Consientious Marine Aquarist" by Bob Fenner (cant remember the exact title). __________________ -Josh Current Tank Info: 72 gallon RR Oceanic, heavily modded ASM G2 skimmer, 30g sump/refugium, AI vega lighting x 2, apex controller, Phos Reactor, etc.

04/17/2006, 10:28 PM	#4
Billy1234 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 417	^^ excellent advice. As for books I've seen Aquarium Corals by Eric H. Borneman recommended most.. and have heard it's a phenemonal book, excellent for beginners. __________________ "Your mom goes to college." Current Tank Info: 20g

04/17/2006, 11:02 PM	#5
shaners Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: roseburg oregon Posts: 17	As I'm researching, I've found out I have a yellow tang, a pair of clown fish (living in a couple red anemomies), a coral banded shrimp, lots of little bristleworms,tons of brittle starfish,many different SPS and LPS coral along with cool looking mushrooms (a clump are blue with cool glowing dots. There are tons of things too numerous to mention. I'll get out the camera tomorrow and take some shots. It has 2 powerheads and a main pump that is on a rotating schedule with a wave maker controller. It has an auto top off and bio balls in the rear filter system. For lighting it has two coral bulbs and a bright single bulb (like daylight bright). this is on a timer. I have a new ammonia alert in the tank and it reads (safe). I have boxes of test kits and sounds like I better use them. will post them tomorrow as well. Thank you all for the quick response __________________ Life is too short, dive in!!! Current Tank Info: 55 gal reef/fish

04/17/2006, 11:09 PM	#6
Billy1234 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 417	I wouldn't trust one of those ammonia alert things, if they are the things I'm thinking of. I would buy a reliable test kit (Salifert being the most accurate) and test your results, you have a lot of nice things in there and it would be a shame to lose them over something like that. What kind of test kits do you have now? __________________ "Your mom goes to college." Current Tank Info: 20g

04/19/2006, 09:36 AM	#7
WaterKeeper Bogus Information Expert Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 16,147	Your sig line is so true Billy. That is why I never use the spell checker when I write. __________________ "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" Tom Current Tank Info: 130 Now out of service and a 29