Help me please

[newreef90g]

My husband and I have just split, he has a 90 gallon tank that I need to care for.

The last time he went away he left these instructions and I followed them but I need to know what else is involved.

1. Fill the sump to the fill line(skimmer chamber)

2. Add 15 cc Alkalinity in skimmer chamber, wail til cloud dissipates, add 15 cc Calcium, rinse cups out.

3. Add algae to clip

4. Pinch of flake food or 1 cube of mysis in freezer, defrost it in cup of tank water.

What else is involved, what do I need to do????

[newreef90g]

anyone please, my kids will be so disappointed if we can't keep this

[CrystalAZ]

I would suggest reading as much as you can on here... it also may be a good idea to hire someone to care for the tank for a month or two while you learn or to get a local reefer to show you how to do water changes and testing.

I would not be messing with the alkalinity and calcium until you learn how to test the water. You could be making things worse rather than better.

When you are filling the water in the sump, you are replacing evaporated water. You also need to learn to do water changes - where you mix fresh salt water and replace some of the water in the tank with fresh water.

For now, I'd keep adding the food, water top-off, and algae, and wouldn't mess with any chemicals until you learn more or get help.

There is no reason you can't keep the tank - it just requires learning. :)

Crystal

[AngeloM3]

theres a lot to do....... i'll point out the main ones

1. fill sump to fill line using RO water
2. weekly or biweekly %10-%20 water changes
3. adding alk and cal might not be needed
4. every other day or so feed fish
5. empty skimmer cup
6. feed corals... if there are any
7. while doing water changes.. siphon out any junk
8. watch for any signs of sickness or disease on fish and corals

[AngeloM3]

like Crystal said... a lot of local fish stores have a "at home service".. they will come ever two weeks or so to do everything the tank needs

[mcox33]

how old are the kids, if they are old enough to read they can learn along with you as long as you have a rule that only you take care of the tank and feedings. But they can help with water changes and learn to do test and things like that.

Ask at your local fish store, alot of times they will do the test for you and can advise you what you need to do to the tank while you are learning how to take care of it. Preferably one that has a good saltwater reputation.

[newreef90g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7738511#post7738511 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AngeloM3
theres a lot to do....... i'll point out the main ones

1. fill sump to fill line using RO water
2. weekly or biweekly %10-%20 water changes
3. adding alk and cal might not be needed
4. every other day or so feed fish
5. empty skimmer cup
6. feed corals... if there are any
7. while doing water changes.. siphon out any junk
8. watch for any signs of sickness or disease on fish and corals

Is the skimmer cup that thing that smells really bad, how do I remove it? What should I feed the corals, there's alot of them.

[TOURKID]

yep. basic maintenence would consist of...

1. a 10% water change each week (you'll take out 10% of the water in the tank, and replace it with new water, that is mixed with salt until the salinity is 1.025. (mix your salt a few days before you do the water change) you'll also need it heated to the same temp

does your ex use tap water, have an r/o machine, or buy r/o water?

2. empty the skimmer when needed

3. feed the fish
4. learn to do testing
test for alkalinity, calcium, ph, salinity, and phosphate, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are good too
are theyre corals? do you have some sort of coral food available? (dts oyster eggs, snow, photoplankton, somthing like that)

if there are filters, you'll need to change them cometimes (carbon, foam, media like this)

its a good idea to keep a log of when you added nutients, how much.. when you change media, when you change lightbulbs etc
keep your glass clean with a scrapper or mag float.. and stay at reef central!! best place you could be.

and having a project will help ease your mind.

maggie

[whiteshark]

Do you have a list of what corals are in the tank? Different corals have different feeding requirments.

[newreef90g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7738558#post7738558 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by whiteshark
Do you have a list of what corals are in the tank? Different corals have different feeding requirments.

I don't have a list there is a few orange ones a couple blue ones, quite a few green ones a really pretty pink one, some tannish purple ones, there's alot of different ones.

[whiteshark]

Well, can you get a pic of your tank? Maybe we can help you ID some of them.

[TOURKID]

try to get a pic of the skimmer too. mine unscrews under the cup (where the smelly stuff is located)

[Sk8r]

Have you a camera? If you can get pictures of corals we can tell you what they are.

Get Salifert test kits for Alkalinity, Calcium. Test. Your alkalinity should be at 8.3 to 9. Your Calcium should be at 400 to 420. Your salinity [you need a refractometer to measure this accurately] should be at 1.025---that's what that 'fill line' is all about.
Your temperature should be 80. Don't let it reach 85. Run a fan blowing across the tank.

You can do this. You do need to keep the alkalinity up. I take it you have jars of calcium and buffer with instructions on them. The instructions relate to those tests I juts named. When low, you add buffer, add calcium, and most tanks with well-developed corals want those 2 additives every day.

Your tests are critical: start a log and write down the results every day, plus what you did to correct it or add buffer. When you begin to see patterns in this situation you will be a long way toward self-sufficient. It's not that hard to do. But you should start in the newbies forum and read those posts, then start in Reef Discussion and read those, and work your way toward Reef Chemistry. There are many experts here who will gladly answer questions, and since this forum is world-wide, it pretty well goes 24 hours. You can usually get an answer inside 15 minutes unless the sun is going over a long stretch of ocean.

Your corals won't starve while you're supplying calcium, light, and buffer. You don't mention what fish you have.

We can identify everything you can get pictures of. Often we can identify from just a good description.

Do you have a sump [a second tank underneath]? I suspect by the way you are told to buffer that you have a hang-on skimmer and no sump. The more sizes and brand names you can provide the better picture we can form. What kind of lighting do you have? All long bulbs, or the very blindingly bright short MH bulbs, or a combination of same? Are your lights on a timer?

You or the kids might go to a site like Foster and Smith Live Aquaria and just look through the catalog, writing down the names of fish or corals that look like yours, and that will ID them.

The best of luck to you and keep this thread going so we can find you.
People, keep bumping this one: this lady needs some serious quick assist.

[newreef90g]

The lights are off right now(timers), if you look under "sinkingbeach" that would be the tank I have now. The pictures seem old as we switched over to a 90g from a 75 so anything with a blue background is the old tank. He also added alot of colorful corals in early June.

In my freezer there is Cyclopeeze, mysis shrimp, Formula A and B, Angel Formula. In the fridge there is Decapsulated Artemia Cysts. In the stand there is Phytoplex, Zooplex, flake food, Garlic Extreme, Reef Essentials, B-ionic Alkalinity, and B-ionic Calcium

[newreef90g]

Also husband tried to sell this earlier today here's the thread with equipment http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=885159

[jerehmy]

where do you live??? &
[welcome]

[newreef90g]

Ocean City

[jerehmy]

try and find a local reef club or good lfs and they will get you going in no time fast ;)

Good Luck :beer:

[Sk8r]

That's a good suggestion, a reef club. If you can find out where they meet---there's often a store they center around; and that might be a good resource. You can get someone to come over and help.

What you've got is a pretty fair-sized rig with some prime equipment. Did you keep any testing equipment? Do you have a ro/di filter, or what is your water source?

[whiteshark]

Sweet! An SPS dominated tank, my fav!

Of course SPS are some of the hardest corals to care for. With the amount of fish you have in there you really shouldn't have to feed them. Of course, you can feed them oyster eggs or zooplankton. DTs seems to be the best company for these products.

You can check out the sticky threads in the SPS forum. They will give you the basic care for these corals.

[Sk8r]

That list was, re equipment:
145lbs of rocks and corals (sps)

Hippo and Yellow Tang

Flame Angel
2 Chromis

2 Ocellarius

6 line wrasse

Orange Linkia

90g, stand and AGA megaflow sump
2 Tunze 6060 pumps

Aqua Spacelight dual 250 halide 14k pheonix bulbs new a few months ago(the bulbs) unit is 18 months old dual actintic 32w

This is, in short, an SPS tank with tangs and angels: water quality demand high, good lighting, good skimmer.

Frequent, even daily full range of water tests until you establish your routine. Eventually you can guesstimate, but not until you know at gut level how this tank behaves.

[newreef90g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7738826#post7738826 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
Did you keep any testing equipment? Do you have a ro/di filter, or what is your water source?

There are alot of different test kits, along with a special water source, it has 3 different white chambers and it's own faucet(lack of a better term) from the kitchen sink?? ro/di??

[whiteshark]

Probably an RO or RO/DI. You can google up RO/DI and take a look at the units. See if anything looks like what you've got.

[AngeloM3]

newreef90g


check your comcast email!

[newreef90g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7738887#post7738887 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by whiteshark
Probably an RO or RO/DI. You can google up RO/DI and take a look at the units. See if anything looks like what you've got.

It looks similar to this http://www.premiumaquatics.com/seachem/PinnacleROplus.gif
but there's no name on it

[whiteshark]

Well, if it looks similar, you have a good source of clean water for water changes:thumbsup: