need some advice! please

[Ryan Joel Smith]

Originally Posted by naesco

Well, it is simply not acceptable Ryan. Your lack of patience will stress your fish with the result that the water parameters will become out of wack.
The result will stress your fish which are already stressed as you have indicated they are fighting each other even before the additions.
YOU are responsible to provide optimum conditions for the critters you choose to keep.

"simply not acceptable Ryan" i hope this isn't intended to be as authoritative as it sounds to be.

The "fighting each other" is what happens when you add two different types of fish who have both decided they would like to inhabit the whole tank rather than just a specific territory of it. If their "fighting" and "stress" was due to poor water quality; there would also be stress noticed in the corals. Gold banded maroon clowns are known to be quite aggressive if not given enough space or they decide that no one else should be in the tank. Also, noticing a spot of ich on a newly introduced fish is not very unusual (I tend to get a soar throat and cough when my environment changes from summer to winter but hey what the heck .

This has potential to go down a path completely useless to everyone so thanks for everyones comments and suggestions.

#1 Carbon is in.
#2 Retested and it seems my initial test was a bit off but still nitrates are close to 5ppm.
#3 Water is being prepared for the water change tomorrow.
#4 Going to continue enjoying my 3-4 month old nicely stocked tank keeping a close eye on everything making sure to ask at least a hundred more questions before the 1 year anniversary!

Thanks guys

ps: Leduc reef* Shannon mentioned you fired that skimmer up and it was working fine?!?! unbelievable! It sounded like i had a tank rolling through my sump when it was on. Anyway, using the hang on in my sump now and it seems to be working great.

[lastlight]

A skimmer will remove organics that will eventually become nitrates. So yeah for sure not running your skimmer will lead to elevated nitrates.