Hello Help with a 10 gallon

hello everyone i juet started A 10 gallon tank i dont know if you would call fish only. but it has yellow tail blue damsel and a domino damsel. also about 7 strimp and 4 hermit crabs well i got my water tested about a week ago and my nitrate was high along with my amonia levels.

trying to keep this set up cheep because i'm in high school and dont really have aby money to spend on a tank.

well for starters i love fishing and has awayls been close to the water so when my little sister killed my fresh water fishes i decided to go with salt water not knowing that a bigger tank would be easyer than a 10 gallon
so here i am about 3 months later with this 10 gallon tank with a wallmart filter rated for 5-15 gallons and a rino 90 power head so what do you guys think i should do

 

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Do a 2 gal water changes every few days and get those levels down. How much live rock do you have? Are you using tap water or RO/DI? What kind of shrimp do you have in there, 7 shrimp and 2 fish may be too much bio load for that size tank, especially this early. Stick with it and don’t' move to fast. Good luck, Rob.

 

you said u just started the tank? what does that mean? i would say u are overfeeding (the bio load is too great) and the tank was overwhelmed and stock too early during the cycle process...the shrimp/inverts will be the first to go. i would get the inverts out and leave the fish as testers...once the cycle is over get rid of them and get some that will live together in peace. damsels are very aggressive, esp in a 10 gal tank.

fw and sw are 2 diff things. ur sister killed them you say? u sure? for anyone starting out in saltwater the min tank size should be at LEASt 33 gal. a 10 gallon is a nano and only the approtiate fish should be housed. btw walmart sell crap! go the a lfs that i knows their ****. i hope to god you dont take advice from a clerk at walmart! RESEARCH before you do anything.

was ur fw tank a ten gallon? i assume so.

 

Your bioload is pretty high. Your two fish are all you are going to want to put in that tank. Do you have any live rock in there? Or live sand? I consider my 10g tank maxed out with a mated pair of false perculas, one turbo snail (which is borderline overkill) and one large hermit crab (he should go). If you do not know what a turbo snail is, their shell can get about two inches in diameter. They are pretty large. So that will give you an idea. What kind of shrimp do you have anyway? IRR's concerns are valid.

If your bioload is too high and you do not have the biological filtration (live rock) to break down the waste matter, your tank will not cycle properly and it sounds like your tank is not cycled yet. What I want to know is, what is your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. If you do not have test kits, then your LFS can do it for you.

Peace.......John.

 

Oh, wow, I was under the assumption that this tank was three months old. Why? Don't know. Must have been thinking of another post. If you just started it, let's say, a few weeks ago, I would return everything but the yellow tail damsel. If you eventually want a domino damsel, fine. It needs to go in last. They are a lot more aggressive. Then let your tank cycle and go from there.

 

I was thinking it was 3 months old also, hopefully all that wasn't thrown in at once. +1 on taking that shrimp out, no matter what kind they are, and taking the domino out. I set up a 10 gal about 6 months ago and had a LFS try to sell me 5 damsels for my 10 gal, Long story short 4 died.

 

Patience young grasshoppa! If you don't have any.....get out of the hobby. And I don't say this to be an ass or anything as it's something that even I had to deal with. Patience = great results. You'll learn that here. With that said......Hello and welcome aboard

 

Here Are some old pictures before i got a blue velvet damsel and a blue fin cromis also i changed the rocks up a little now