Saltwater Aquarium 4

Just remembered that I forgot to buy the fish food and coral food – yes, even the corals need food too!

 

I rushed this evening to Saltwater City and bought them:

 

1. Mysis Shrimp, $5.99
2. Formula One, $5.99

Then went to Safeway and bought the "Turkey Baster", $0.50.

How to feed the fish/coral:

• take 1/3 slice of cube of mysis and formula one
• put it in a cup with fresh water, wait till it thaws
• rinse it with fresh water in a fish net
• dump the fresh water from the cup and fill it with tank water
• use the turkey baster to add the food (with water) onto the corals and into the tank

 

Saltwater Aquarium 3

Sunday is Chinese New Year and I bought 2 more live rocks, a LPS coral and an ocella clown fish.

 

Saltwater Aquarium 2

Today I am going to write down one discovery I made these days.

 

I purchased a mushroom anemone about a week ago from Saltwater City for $49.99 and first day it opened up but the 2nd day morning it retracted (closed) a lot that scared the hell out of me. I went immediately tested the water but ph, ammonia, nitrate are all normal. I thought that I need to put it near high current so I moved it closer to a pump which pumps water to form a current. And gradually it opened up again and made me relieved. But this kept going on for a week: every morning I wake up and it’s closed. I frantically tested water but everything is okay. It puzzled me for the whole week until yesterday I suddenly think could it be because of light? Every night when I go to bed, I turn off the lighting and morning when I wake up I will turn them on again, thus to simulate sun rise and sunset. Could it be because Mushrrom will ‘close’ when there’s no light? It seems like so 🙂

 

Saltwater Aquarium 1

This is just to blog about my saltwater aquarium for maintenance record.

 

It is a tank running Berlin System, 25 gallon. Lighting is 2 white light compact fluorescents (Coralife Actinic 65W, 22 inch, $49.99) and 2 blue light (Coralife 50/50, 55W x 2, $49.99). Its filtration system uses live rock and bioballs. Other than the filter pumps, original owner sold me extra pumps to create some kind of current in the tank (now I understand high current helps corals to grow).

 

First week I was too anxious and forgot to turn on the protein skimmer that about 4 or 5 days later the tank water turned into yellowish green and I had to change water completely. Then in about 7 days it became yellowish again, though the water test (pH, ammonia, nitrate, etc) was all okay. I emailed the original owner and he had no idea too but suggested I did another complete change includeing substrate.

 

I followed his advice and 7 days later, it’s no longer yellowish but still cloudy. I asked the owner of Saltwater City who the original owner used to buy fish and corals from. He suggested me to make the protein skimmer work harder. But I couldn’t find the knob to do this as his system on display in his shop is different from mine. So I had to email the original owner again and he pointed it out for me through email. I did and 2 days later, water is clear!

 

So I think I can go buy a fish soon, maybe another week.

 

Lessons learned: Let the aquarium break in before you introduce any corals or fish. Waiting period needs patience. Cloudiness of water can be caused by: 1) residues from gravel, as my experience showed; 2) normally occurring bacacterial growth, which could be happening right now in my aquarium. As time goes by, cloudiness will dissipate through a combination of settling, filtration, and the biological cycling of the tank. Let nature take its course and add fish only after the water has cleared.