@reefwars sorry I didnt see that last part, I have a ocellaris and a bangai cardinal, one emerald crab, 4 hermits, 4 snails. thats all. and some soft corals

absolutely when i first started reefing losing fish wasnt a big surprise, when i started in the saltwater hobby we(me and the girlfriend at the time) decided to do a clown tank to go with the cichlids i had going, we must have replaced that clown about 20 times lol no skimmers, no rock, no sumps,pumps or sand.

the biggest mistake just about everyone makes in this hobby is not going slow enough and telling yourself things will be fine ive done it and everyone on here has done it too its part of the learning process, sometimes someone telling you something isnt enough you need to try it for your self.....an old boss years ago use to tell me " if you dont know what the result of doing it wrong is you dont fully understand why right is right" basically even if we are sure we have something right knowing what can happen and how it happens when it goes wrong will make you that much smarter.

your doing fine just take it a bit slower, the amonia in your tank could have been cause by the blenny but in all honesty the blenny would have to be left to rot before it upset your water quality, the amonia is more than likely there because it cant keep up with the bioload yet , your cycle is finished but your tank is still very fragile so what you add now and in the weeks to come has to be done slowly so once you add something allow your tank to catch up and stabilize then consider something else.

now that you have some fish and some corals let the tank stabilize could take weeks for this to happen it all depends on the quality of your liverock, in the meantime it sounds like your going for a reef so nows a good time to think about corals or buy some corals(be sure theres no amonia though first)

your doing fine but save yourself some cash and focus on reading and asking questions.

ive had my 90g set up for 3 months now i havent added anything(frogspawn/small zoa colony/anemone) other than that its just been sitting there stabilizing growing pods and becoming healthy.after some time in the hobby you will set up many tanks and the more you set up..sell...take down..set up again the more you will realize that the rush of filling it isnt as important you wont even have to think about it it will just come second nature to let it stabilize.


if it helps some i lost 2 black clowns the other morning didnt even make it one night they didnt lol got bullied by my sixline and were thrown out of the tank....after 10yrs you would think i know that by now eh?? we all lose fish for different reasons the important thing is to learn from it and move on, dont let it discourage you but think of it as "now i know" no ones perfect by no means :):) cheers mate and keep up the good work your well on the way to where you need to be :):)

having a copper test kit is aways handy, age has nothing to do with it copper can come from different places but is always lethal to inverts such as your shrimp.


did the tank your using now use to be a freshwater tank??

awesome sounds great, for a 20g thats been set up for a month and a bit def slow it down a bit when it comes to buying fish youll be full in no time lol cheers:)

thanks reefwars. I appreciate that! My clown is probably my favorite part of my tank at the moment so I am focused on keeping my parameters stable, cause if he dies I would die lol (not literally obviously) but hes my little buddy, when I put my hand in the tank to clean the glass or move LR he swims around in my hand as if to host it. and I hand feed him every day he's my biggest accomplishment thus far. my bangai, quickly has become best friends with him. So thats a bonus. I'm still bummed about the blenny, cause I looked all over for one did some reading up on them talked to the LFS and got him home, and boom dead. that was so bogus. lol. It's like you said no matter how much you think you know or prepare yourself, theres always a surprise. For now I wont be adding anyone til' after the holidays, except a ricordea, this saturday, and that is it for a month. my next focus is working on my tanks filtration and lighting hopefully retro fitting some leds into a light I got dirt cheap over the weeked, anyone know how I could get some super bright (almost metal halide bright) leds into my oddysea 24 in" MH t5 combo light? I don't want to use the halides on this tank cause it'll for sure fry my corals. maybe when I upgrade to a larger tank down the road, but for now a nice retrofit is in order I believe. Other then that everyone is fine, in fact today my scarlet hermit crab changed shells for the first time since I got him 2 months ago, and that was pretty neat to see.

i used a 250w on my last 20g lol so frying them i woldnt worry about too much, but youve got the right idea for sure go slow and if you need to spend money spend it on equipment and bettering the tank itsself;)

oh and i wouldnt rule your hermits out from killing your shrimp.....hermits and all crabs for that matter are evil hehehe they will take an easy meal such as a freshly molted shrimp;)

you used a 250? I only keep low lights though like zoo's and ricordeas and stuff, in fact the only coral I have that could take higher light i believe is my hammer. its mounted about 6" above my tank, mind you my tank is a standard 24x12x12 20g. I was told by a few that it would fry my tank lol. so its off for the time being

You would be supprised what might like the light after being aclimated to higher levels.

so if I was to do the halide, it would be best to suspend it I take it and lower it every few days a bit at a time? its got a fan but it still gets very hot luckily I have a lid lol

yup +1 for the most part theres not "two much light" just two much two fast if they are acclimated properly alot of low light corals do fine with high light.but there are still some that do better with low light so it takes some reading or trial and error to find this out;)

zoas can do fine with lots of light or no light as do shrooms and alot of softies:):)