Jumping In

[Slick Fork]

I don't think a hood will work simply because of the size of the fixture, it is actually 4" wider then the tank so I think a hood would look silly. I like the wall mount idea Midnight, but with the backpack sump I've got going the back of the tank is about a foot from the wall already so I'd need one huge shelf!

I think what I'll do is just suspend if from the ceiling. Then I can push/tie it out of the way if I need to get into the tank.

With the parameter's I've got, I'm thinking about holding off on fish (just to be safe) but maybe adding a couple of inverts and maybe a coral (maybe a Riccordia or mushroom for starters) and see how things go for a little while. I want to add things slowly so that the smaller stuff gets a chance to establish before being actively hunted by anything bigger!

[Slick Fork]

What a sh@tty week.

Got my light fixture hung and that was all good and well. Decided to take my water down to Gold's on monday to confirm that I was cycled, readings of zero across the board, so I grabbed a toadstool coral and a star polyp.

Took those home and all was well, the coral's seemed to adjust beautifully to life in the new tank.

Yesterday I had to go back to Calgary and stopped in at Gold's again, picked up a pair of tank bred clownfish (I figured with 15 gallons of capacity I would be ok) and a new powerhead. Acclimitize the fish just like I did the coral's (put them in a bucket and drip my tank water in gradually, it took about half an hour before I put them in the tank) Installed the powerhead, added the fish, all was well and happy. I checked on them before I went to bed and everyone seemed fine.

Came home from work today, clownfish are both dead, coral's look like they're on the way out. Other residents of the tank seem fine (2 hermit crabs 2 snails and a conch). I have no idea what could've caused this, as I didn't change anything at all between monday and today other then adding the new fish and powerhead. My parameter's are all fine, Salinity is good, Temperature is good Like I said as well, my inverts are all fine, but the fish are dead (I stuck them in the freezer in case I can return them), and my Coral's are on their way out.

Of course, because it's thursday and Gold's is closed, I can't phone anybody and vent. This is the first time I've bought livestock from them and I'm really not impressed. Does anyone know if they have any sort of guarantee? I'm living about an hour out of the city so getting in before the weekend will be problematic.

I am really one unhappy camper right now, my coral's might still have a shot, does anyone have any idea what I should be looking for in order to give them a chance at recovery? Any help is appreciated

[TheReefGeek]

1/2 hour is minumum for acclimating I would say, I do it for 1 hour, slowly increasing the drip rate and emptying my container 1/3rd every once and a while.

The fish dieing might have polluted your tank before you found the fish, and your corals might be suffering a bit because of this.

How long did you leave the rock to cycle? Did you observe and chart an actual cycle of ammonia spike, then no ammonia, then nitrite spike, then no nitrite, then nitrates increasing?