My first 45g Updated DIY intank fuge and pictures

fish seems to be doing much better now. i just received my 2nd koralia 750 and installed it now both pumps are facing each other in the middle of the tank right over the top of my rock work. my question is that my flow is ruffly 48x in my tank is that to much or just right?

 

That is fine. You might want to increase it if you decide to keep SPS.

 

i wake up this morning hopeing to see my six line in his cocoon again. nope hes at the bottom of the tank this time and the hermits are eating him :-(. i checked my lvls to see if there was a spike the only thing that went up a little is nitrites/nitrates. Yesterday after the fish came out of hiding he seemed like he was doing ok i fed him and he only ate a cpl of pieces of mysis shrimp. I tried to feed him before i went to work 6 hrs later and he did not eat anything. So im not sure if he was stressed because of my water conditions or me pulling him out of his cocoon or just something else i did in error? or my tank could still be to young?
i also have 2 hermits introduced at the same time as the fish they seem to be doing fine.

just checked temp 80 maybe the cause
parameters

Salt: 1.024
Ph: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .50
Nitrates: 10-20

 

80 degrees is perfectly fine for temperature and is most likely not going to be the cause of the 6-line's diminishing health. There must be something else contributing. Did you observe the fish before you made the purchase? If so, did he eat? The fish may have already been stressed or sick which did not help his chances.

 

I'm a little confused. It looks like you just started your tank and added rock, less than two weeks ago and put a fish in already? The nitrites of .50 show that you have recently had an ammonia spike, whether or not you detected it. So, it would appear that your tank isn't stable enough for fish yet. It's really safest to wait at least 4 weeks, regardless of readings IMO. There are a lot of reasons why readings can be misleading.

 

i messed up...... tank was on day 26 of cycle 40lbs of live sand and 2lbs of live rock were added day 1, 2 weeks ago 25lbs of dry rock and 8lbs of live rock were added. (as of putting fish in tank readings were ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10) or so i thought...... i was confused as to why even with a mini spike of nitrites at .50 with a healthy looking fish would kill it...... i took my water to my LFS and had them test it to make sure that my test was ok and their results came back as (PH 8.2 perfect.... Ammonia 1.5-2.0 , nitrites .10, nitrates 10) BAD TEST KIT.. so my test kit has been lieing to me and i infact rushed putting a fish in and killed it.... so its back to square one for me and the begining of my cycle it seems

 

started noticing brown stuff on my rock is it diatoms?

 

Yes, that appears to be diatoms. They'll disappear on their own once they've used up all the silicates.

Sorry to hear about your Wrasse- it's unfortunate that you had a bad test kit, but it happens. That's why I use two kits when testing parameters.

As for the lobster, I highly recommend against them. They are nocturnal and hide under the rockwork during the day which makes it difficult at best to feed them, and like any other crustacean, they will become predators when they get hungry. Lost a lot of livestock myself while patiently trying to trap one- finally had to tear my tank apart to catch him.

 

what kinda of test kit do you guys reccomend. i currently have an API i want something diffrent though.

 

is this worth the money? NutraFin Master Aquarium Test Kit at PETCO