My First Marine Tank

Pics of the tank and close ups of some rock work I like.

WOW love the rock work

I am acclimating my first fish. Checked parameters again, What do you see?

I think everything looks spot on. :)

I find it hard to read ammonia. Maybe I'm a little color blind LOL

Pics of the Chromis I added yesterday. They actively swimming around, favoring the right back corner of the tank. I put some Mysis shrimp in this morning, but I didn't see them eat.

They sure are pretty! Best of luck!

I added three chromis to my tank then a week later two more....Now I have one...no bodies either...No idea where they went or how. Never had any spikes in the water either..I wish you better luck.

i love your rockscape. def love the shelfs in your scape. my next build im going to have a couple of islands like this.

They look good, but it isnt a good idea to add that many fish to a tank at one time, especially a new tank. You should be only adding one or two fish ever 3 or 4 weeks. Also it looks like you have added at least 9 chormis, which is as many fish as your tank should have in it total. For saltwater tanks you want to stick with 1 fish for every 10 gal, when the tank is well established you can fudge with this a bit, but you need to be careful. I wouldnt add any more fish to your tank, and if you want other fish you are going to need to remove some of the chromis first.

Pretty rockwork! Good luck with your Chromis.

little_fish said:

They look good, but it isnt a good idea to add that many fish to a tank at one time, especially a new tank. You should be only adding one or two fish ever 3 or 4 weeks. Also it looks like you have added at least 9 chormis, which is as many fish as your tank should have in it total. For saltwater tanks you want to stick with 1 fish for every 10 gal, when the tank is well established you can fudge with this a bit, but you need to be careful. I wouldnt add any more fish to your tank, and if you want other fish you are going to need to remove some of the chromis first.

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This is the first I've heard of the 1 fish for every 10 gallon rule. I added 9 very small chromis and today I can only find 8. Yesterday, I noticed one looked a little sickly, breathly quickly, missing the tips of his tail and not schooling with the others nor did he show interest in eating. I was going to move him into the empty sump compartment, but forgot to and now I fear he's dead in my tank somewhere in the rock work. I added some prime, I think an ammonia spike is coming.

Ammonia .25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 1-4ppm
ph 8.2
Salinity 1.024
temp 80

Ya, I would get ready to do a big water change

Yeah you really shouldnt add so meny fish at ones, And as far as the 1 fish per 10 gallong rule, i think theres exeptions to that rule no matter what enaone says, small fish will defenetly pruduce less waste than bigger fish, and it also depends on feeding and all that good stuff. I would use that rule then just keep an eye on your parameters, if there stable for a long period of time then its up to you if you want to add another fish or 2, then just do the same thing keeping an eye on water quality. i still would not go over the rule by more then 2 or 3 if there big to medium fish and 5 tops if you mostly have small fish. Thats just me do.
But as far as adding all those fish at ones, your defenetly setting your self up for a crash. When i first got my tank and got my water set up and cycled i added a big sailfin tang and black and white heniocus a blue tang, and a coperband. well that was a mistake i got ich so fast it was not even 2 months in and everything died exccept for the sailfin and blue tang couse they went back to the store.

Anyways i know deal with ich in my system at all times so i make sure my water quality is as good as i can get it and my fish are stress free, so they dont catch it. I know its in my system since i never went fishless, i still had 4 firefish in there for a couple months alone. But yeah, know my tank is doing really good, Im pretty happy with it at the moment just wish i had more cash to buy a couple big corals i want to start taking up space in my tank. But anyways people have said it to me more than ones, and its defenetly true in this hobby

Take Your Time !!!!!!

little_fish said:

Ya, I would get ready to do a big water change

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That is happening today. Water is mixing and almost ready. I'm having issues gettng consistant reading with the refractometer.

The 8 chromis are doing well, they attack the food i put in the tank. I'm continuing to test the water daily and monitor everything. These guys are tiny, so I don't think the 8 of them are huge load on the system. Readings aren't changing that much either. I hope to do a water change today, There's about 20 gallons mixing and will be ready when I figure out how to keep the salinty stable. It keeps dropping.

Looks good! Way to to go! & welcome to the forum too!
Farside Tropicals

I usually mix for 24 hours, that way it stops dropping and it isnt so acidic.

In a brand new tank like yours 8 chromis would take up most if not all of your bioload. But they are highlander fish so you might end up with a smaller number in the end.

Kelz88 said:

I usually mix for 24 hours, that way it stops dropping and it isnt so acidic.

In a brand new tank like yours 8 chromis would take up most if not all of your bioload. But they are highlander fish so you might end up with a smaller number in the end.

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What do you mean by highlander fish? Also, I'm not having issues with ph dropping. I'm having issues with salinity dropping. I think it's my refractometer or user error. I'm reading and watching videos about using one. I think I got it figured out now. We'll see when I get home tonight.

They pick the weakest, and pick on it til it dies :( Not every single time, but it happens alot.