Dez' Tank Journal

[Dez]

I got my first 3 fish today - FREE from Blacknife (Thanks). These are sort of my test the water fish. I have about 5 - 10 lbs of seasoned nice rock in the tank already along with some really old cooked rock. The water tests shows everything at 0 so I'm assuming the tank doesn't have to "cycle".

I put the 3 domino damsels in my 40 gallon frag tank. They seem to be doing well. I'm just gonna leave it at these 3 fish for a while and maybe as I get algae (as I'm putting my tank on a 12 hour photoperiod off the bat), I will get a good clean up crew in there first before any major fish. I spent probably 1 1/2 hours acclimating these guys.

Here are a couple of shots.

[Dez]

Sorry, deleted double post.

[blacknife]

awe they are all hanging out together they must be confused

A little more space in there than in the bucket they spent the day in.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by blacknife

awe they are all hanging out together they must be confused

A little more space in there than in the bucket they spent the day in.

Thanks again John, They seem to have acclimated well for being so new to my tank.

[BlueAbyss]

Love the rockwork Dez... keep up the good work!

Can't wait to see this with corals. I'm in love with the living room side of the tank <3

[Dez]

Thanks for the comments BlueAbyss

I have a problem. One of the damsels died today (I haven't been home yet). My wife took the other 2 in rough shape to the store to rescue them so that we didn't kill the rest. Everything seems to have tested fine and I actually have a frag of colt coral that's in the main display for about a week already and it is fully open all the time.

I will test when I get home. But this is really baffling me cause it's been running for almost 2 weeks now without anything.

Could it be the 5 year old live rock leaching something? PH is at about 8.25 all the time. Temp at about 78.5 all the time even with this 30 degree heat wave (I attribute it to having so much water volume in the cool basement). Ammonia was at 0 last time I checked. I will check other parameters as soon as I get home.

I am just starting to get the brown algae forming on the rocks which is part of the nutrient cycle right? All the damsels were healthy....

So frustrating.....

Any ideas? Or people with experience?

[lastlight]

Love those damsels.

I know I'm crazy but I totally love all the cheap, common damsels. I'd love a school of the 3 or 4 stripers but have no idea how bad they'd be.

[blacknife]

They might have got stressed from being in the bucket. I checked the temp every hour or 2 and it stayed around 84 degrees. but that floating thermomoter might not be accurate. poor little guys

[Dez]

New update. The other 2 damsels are completely fine. My wife dropped them off at our local fish store today and I went there tonight and the other 2 damsels are completely fine in their quarantine tank. So something is seriously STRANGE going on in my fishtank.

I tested parameters tonight

Temp - 78
PH - 8.25
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10ppm
Calcium - 440
DKH - 17 (This was ridiculously high.....but would this cause fish death and should I do anything to lower it?)
Phosphate - 0 - 0.25

What is wrong? How could healthy damsels keel over and die overnight?

I bought some carbon tonight and I'll throw that in the tank.

My colt coral frag is doing really well with full polyp extension. It's only a 1" frag, but everyday for a couple of weeks it is fully extended.

I AM BAFFLED. ANY IDEAS?

Should I do anything about the DKH? It should be 7-9 right?

[Malibu]

I have read that soda water or carbonated water will lower the DKH. As to whether it could harm your fish - I'm uncertain, not knowing very much about salt systems. However, I would assume that it's like any other water parameter and any high or low level can be bad...