Several questions about fish and skimmers!

[stroid]

Thanks in advance guys here are my questions. A little background on my tank my help with answering my questions. It is a 30gallon tank 36" in length with 192 watt PC lighting. All RO/DI water, CPR Bak-Pak skimmer ran with a MJ 1200, another MJ 600 for more circulation, 100 watt heater (very stable), and a millenium 2000 HOB filter, with about 11lbs of live rock 20lbs of live sand and a ton of dead live rock which looks like it is gonna be living again very soon.

Fish and Inverts
2 False Clown fish (still young)
1 Firefish goby
1 yellow watchmen goby
1 yellow tail damsel
1 cleaner shrimp
1 snail
6 blue hermit crabs
3 red scarlett crabs
1 condy anemone

Coral:
2 kenyi trees
1 redish/blue/purple mushroom
1 green mushroom
1 frogspawn (that split and is getting huge)
1 blue digi monti stick (free frag it's tiny)
1 glowing green zoa sm colony
1 orangish zoa sm colony
1 candy cane coral
1 small red/orange montipora
2 pulsing xenia
1 rock with tons of orange, green, brown, yellow zoa's on it got from Califreefer it's beautiful.


Question 1: My larger False Perculas has several black spots on its body not very big spots but spots none the less. It has even spread to the other smaller clown. Is this something that I need to be conserned with or will this go away on it's own? I'll try to get pictures of it later today.

Question 2: I currently am running a CPR Bak-pak skimmer on my tank with a MJ 1200 on it for about 3 weeks now (first week not on the mj but a lower powered ph). As of this point it still has not pulled any skimmate out of the water. I have heard many people say you need to tune your skimmer...well I don't know what that means and what I need to do to the skimmer. Do I just not have enough waste cause my tank is still fairly young? around 4 month old.

Question 3: I have quite a bit of coraline algae that is starting to grow on my glass and it is practically covering most of my rock...does that mean my tank is healthy...all my water parametters are perfect.

Question 4: I would like to have my clowns hosting in something I have seen clowns host in a frogspawn before. What are the odds that my clowns may host in the frogspawn...atleast until I can find a BTA for the tank.

I think that's all my questions! Thanks in advance guys
Ziad

 

[fishwhisperer]

The black spots on the clowns may very well be nothing to worry about. I have seen this on clowns before. Sometimes happenes when they rub against corals. I'm not sure you want your clowns hosting in the frogspawn because it will eventually irritate the coral to the point of perhaps it's demise.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

It sounds like evrything is going good for you. I would guess the black coloring is mostly just coloration. There is one pathogen I know that causes black cysts, but clowns are seldom afflicted with it. As per your skimmer, I fret to say the CPR bak-pak is not an ideal skimmer. It may or may not be sufficient to work your tank. I would suggest getting a stronger skimmer- it's one of the most important pieces of equipment in my book. good luck.

 

[stroid]

jmaneyapanda wrote: It sounds like evrything is going good for you. I would guess the black coloring is mostly just coloration. There is one pathogen I know that causes black cysts, but clowns are seldom afflicted with it. As per your skimmer, I fret to say the CPR bak-pak is not an ideal skimmer. It may or may not be sufficient to work your tank. I would suggest getting a stronger skimmer- it's one of the most important pieces of equipment in my book. good luck.

well for the cost at the moment it is the best I could afford and I got it for a good deal from another arc member and from my research about it on the internet it seemed to get pretty good reviews from what I read . I also have a prizm skimmer but I am not running it right now it's just sitting in the basement out of the two the CPR seemed to be the better skimmer. I don't necessarily want the clowns to host in the frogspawn just seemed like it may pick that to host in out of all the other things in the tank. Thanks for the input. So the black spots are probably nothing to worry about?

 

[stroid]

so i get home to see some interesting behavior from my yellow tail damsel and my frogspawn. He is swimming around it and a couple of times I saw him swim into it. So i decided to feed a little food to see what he will do with it sure enough he fed the frogspawn...now do damsels host in corals/anenomes etc because it seems like he might be thinking about it. Do I need to be concerned with this? Also he was showing a bit of aggression towards one of my clowns.
Thanks

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I would not trust the condi in a tank full of coral. They like to roam and if they sting your corals then it is bad jue-jue. Second, Know that your clows might never take to ANY anemone. Tank raised clowns have never seen one much less know what to do with them, frogspawn even less so. There are a few tricks that MIGHT help them learn but I would not get your hopes up. You light might be a bit low to make a BTA happy as well.

How was your live rock dead. More improtant, in what way is it coming back to life?

As has been said, the black spots might be nothing to worry about. I know of a few pathology things it could be. My worry is how is it spreading. I would keep a careful eye on it.

CPR bac-pacs had thier day in the sun a few years ago. Much better technology is out now. If that is all you have, then you can make it work. WIth your coral selection and you BTA you want to get, I would definatly think about an upgrade soon. I have seen a skimmer not work on a new tank but with your corals, you should be pulling something out.

As far as your damsel, he is the same "family" as your clowns and have been known to show some of the same behavior. They even can show the same resistance to an anemone as a clown. He WILL bully the clowns though. They do not call them blue devils for nothing.

Just my take on all this.

 

[stroid]

thanks for the input. the dead "live rock" came out of an old tank and the person that sold it to me had them curing in fresh water. It basically just became base rock. I did some reading and such and it said you can seed rock using live rock and live sand so i have both in there. I am assuming it will be cured in the next few months or so based on coraline algae growth which is spreading heavily and my tank just seems to be doing really well. Now you said i can make the skimmer work but how am I doing something wrong. And yes I am aware that they may never host but I would like them to

 

[cameron]

Ques #2: As others have said the CPR is not the best choice, but it should be pulling skim out of the tank if it is working properly. I don't know your skimmer so I can't tell you how to adjust it. Are you getting no foam, white foam out of your skimmer? Some additives (Amquel+ for example) can cause skimmers to not skim properly. Also, check and make sure you are getting lots of bubbles and from it.

I will leave the livestock quesitons for someone who knows more than I.
Ques #3: I have been told that coraline growth is a good thing as it grows when conditions are favorable for coral growth.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I second what Cameron said. It is hard to tell you if your skimmer is adjusted properly in an forum post. You should be pulling out something. Search some forums on you skimmer and see if you can try a few things to get results.

When you are ready to find a host home for your clowns I will give you a few tips on how to get them to host. As long as you understand that 80% of the time they will not take. A clown will live a happy life without a host, the same might not be true for your BTA you want to get. I think your light is a bit to low in my experience.

Ok I get your LR situation. Yes you had basicly base rock and it will re-seed.

I suggest you do a bit of reading on a few topics to get a idea of how/why things work. Not that you do not already but I can tell you know enough to understant that you need to know more. Heck, we all are always learning about this hobby. I would start here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com">www.wetwebmedia.com</a>

Hope that helps.

 

[johnqx4]

I have a cpr bak-pak that I use from time to time. As was stated, there are better options (if you are buying new), but for what you have, it should be fine. Check that... It is fine (if it is working).

That being said... you should have been pulling something with in a week (3 or 4 days actually). Even if it is very wet, you should get something.

Tuning generally refers to the "wetness" or "dryness" of the skimate being pulled. Generally "dryer" is better as you are not removing as much water from the tank (hence the skimate is denser) and you don't have to empty it as often and hopefully it won't overflow when you are not looking ...

BTW, I have been told... that also affects the flavor:yuk:

See what happens when you "drink and reef"!

My $.02 worth

johnny

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Porter- That was one of the pathogen I thought, but I have really only ever seen it effect yellow tangs, not clowns. The other thought was a fungal problem, but this, too, i think is stretching. I am guessing it is just changing coloration. Stroid, post a pic, it would help.

Regarding the damsel, Xyzpdq0121 is right, they are realtd to clowns, and will likely harass the clowns, but not absolutely. However, I have never heard of yellow tail damsels hosting in an anemone or surrogate. That certainly doeasnt mean it cant happen, though. I have kept many many pairs of clowns over the years, all if which (save one pair), were captive raised, and every one of them took to an anemone. With some, it took a little time, but they all ended up in there, so I will contrast Xyzpdq0121 that it is not a difficult ordeal.

 

[stroid]

thanks for the responses everyone I meant to take a picture but I never had a chance and I am at work now so I cant take one now. As far as the clowns go they seem as happy as can be and my smaller clown doesnt have any spots anymore so I think the spots are just going to disapear. The damsel I will continue to watch.

The CPR has not pulled anything out in the form of foam. I have not lifted the cup out of the top but it looks like there is just water in there. Ill work on getting some pictures up tonight.
Thanks everyone

 

[cameron]

A lot of skimmers when they fill up with water can produce no more foam. Hopefully someone with this skimmer can chime in, but I would empty the collection cup and dial the skimmer down so that you see foam popping up but not running over in to the cup. Let this run until you see some dark foam and then dial it up a bit more so the dark foam drops into the cup.

 

[stroid]

don't really understand what you mean by dial up the skimmer? Thanks still a newb with some of this stuff

 

[cameron]

Give this a quick read

 

[stroid]

thanks Cameron that is a great site I will try some of those things later today.

 

[platyplakia]

If it's any help... I have two false percs and they recently began housing in my Frogspawn. The frogspawn is doing great. It hasn't skipped a beat. Still fully opened, etc. I got lucky and saw their first trips into the frogspawn. My green clown goby went to perch on it and ended up sinking in and swimming around to get more stable ground. My male Perc saw this and jumped in head first. The rest is history... The clown goby still gets in there from time to time, but the female kicks him out when she can see him. He blends in quite well. I'll try to get some pictures up as soon as i can get my camera. Another thing i was going to recomend was that you maybe move up to some MH lighting before you put the BTA in. I really noticed a difference in mine. It was only under Power Compacts for about a month, but the difference was amazing. Finally, in reference to the black spots; my female has gotten them recently. Mine was just a coloration change. I made a batch of my own fish food and stopped adding supplimental chemicals. I think thats what caused it. Once i added the chemicals again the have shrunk quite a bit. Now she just has a little spot about the size of a pencil tip. Even that is begining to fade. I'm not an expert by any means, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Good luck.

 

[stroid]

thanks Jamie I think I am going to hold of a bit on the BTA anyways I know the BTA will do alright under PC lighting but if i could get something better that would be great. The black spots are about the size of a pencil tip just like you said and I don't have any chemicals in the tank just water and salt...and water the corals and fish put into the water. My damsel seems to be swimming in and out of the frogspawn but we will see what happens.


So for my cpr bak-pak 2 do i need to have the venturi line hooked up to my maxijet because I don't have it hooked up (didn't think i needed it)? Maybe that's why it isnt working properly..but I thought the venturi controls just the amount of air into mj pump. Thanks guys

 

[stroid]

oh yeah I also have a bag of the bio-bale that CPR sells for the skimmer. I did not use it because I read it will cause a nitrite spike and that it really isnt that beneficial to use. Any opinions on the use of bio-bale? Do it or don't?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

jmaneyapanda wrote: I have kept many many pairs of clowns over the years, all if which (save one pair), were captive raised, and every one of them took to an anemone. With some, it took a little time, but they all ended up in there, so I will contrast Xyzpdq0121 that it is not a difficult ordeal.

Please tell me your tips for this. I have only had one pair over the years that did it on their own (took them about a year to figure out what they were suppost to do). I have gotten one other pair to do it by "showing" them how to do it. My newest pair is showing some intrest in their BTA so I am hoping thay they will figure it out.

Stroid: Ya you need a venturi line in the skimmer. Something needs to be able to pull air into the skimmer to produce bubbles that create the foam.