Have patience?

[leezard]

I've checked the salinity, but the rest is just off the Mardel "5 in 1" (turned "4 in 1" for saltwater) strips -- I'm picking up a test kit from a friend of mine ASAP -- just need to find the time to drop in.

Salinity is throught the roof, so I topped it up yesterday. Still really high, so tomorrow I'll do an actual water change. Nitrates and nitrites are zero, alkalinity is higher than 300 and pH sits between 8.0 and 8.4.

Otherwise, I need to pick up that test kit. I have a freshwater one, but I don't that will have everything I need.....

Thanks for the O2 lesson!

[BlueAbyss]

I figured something would be out of whack.

Hey, glad to be of service... further to the O2 thing, be careful with the inches of fish per gallon recommendations that are sometimes made. There is some sort of calculation you can do to figure out how much fish you can have with a given surface area of air to water contact, but I can't find the book I used to have with that stuff in it. It is different depending on the fish you are planning on keeping ie: cold or tropical temperatures, freshwater or marine.

To be safe, understock. I have a 20 gallon that will eventually house a pair of Bluestripe Pipefish and a Yasha or Griessinger's Goby. Total length between all fishes will be about 6 inches, probably less, and that still seems like too much... I'll likely only get the pipefishes.

[leezard]

That's it?? Do you have to count starfish and cleaners, as well, or only fish? I know for freshwater it's generally an inch of fish per gallon, but if done properly a person can cheat.... I'm overloaded in the freshwater by about 6 inches, but they seem to do very well nonetheless. I don't do water changes as often as I should, though.... that whole time dilemma.....

Oh well. Looks like I'll have lots of corals and shiny things! It'll next be a matter of finding out who's compatible with what. Speaking of which.... where's the best place to look for that info?

[BlueAbyss]

Yes indeed, you must count invertebrates to an extent... but probably because of total bioload, in the respect that they will eat and produce waste. I doubt most are big enough to consume much oxygen, and indeed the photosynthetic types ie: most corals, are considered to be oxygen neutral, at least during daylight hours. I don't think anyone takes into account the extra critters in live rock and sand, but just assumes that these will use some oxygen all the time.

I think I'd actually be stretching it a bit for my planned tank, as I intend to include about 5 Bumblebee Shrimp. These guys only get to 1" max, I've read, so I would count them to be 2.5" of fish total... 1/2 of what their actual length is. Not overly sure if this is a safe bet, but its what I'm using as a calculation. I intend to run a 15 gallon sump which has the same dimensions in terms of surface area, effectively doubling the amount of fish I can keep in this tank.

As far as compatibility with each other, you could do what I did... find something you like in pictures, and find out what it will take to make it grow and thrive. Build a tank plan ahead of time (what I'm doing now), and find things that fit into your grand image. Read heavily before buying ANY livestock... don't go out and buy a bannerfish that looks cute when small but starts eating polyps later, or a spotted filefish that will eat ONLY coral polyps. These sort of purchases rarely work out for the better, and we as responsible aquarists have a duty to provide the best environment for our captives as most marine animals are wild caught.

[leezard]

Build a tank plan ahead of time

That's what I want to do.... the friends of mine who I got the tank from lost alot of animals, many due to what I may now be considering poor hubandry, and many others because of the eel they purchased without knowing anything about it. Yep, really cute, but they've lost alot of things to it.

I think, then, I'm going to start my reading on seahorses. They're awfully dumb, but neat to watch.... dont' know if it's feasible or not, but nothing like looking into trying while I get everything switched over!

[Snaz]

http://www.seahorse.org/

Seahorses are not begginer species but if your interested this is the website to start. Read EVERYTHING before you go with seahorses.

[leezard]

Woot! Thanks! I definitely will.