Interesting that you brought this up. You are behaving like an addict. Most addicts do not self enroll into a support group. Usually there is an intervention of people that care. That in itself is what most people are trying to accomplish here. You are asking us how to do drugs and still live a normal life in society. Now you are even asking which drugs to quit. ("suggestions on which fish to start with if it came down to removing based on size and need and type,")
The first step in caring for your addiction is admitting you have problem. Up to this point you are in denial.
If you were authentic with your statement on doing tons of research and caring about your charges, you would not be in this situation at all. I believe you are reading what you want to and interpreting it so you believe this is ok. It is not.
You need to understand that there are many people on this forum that have much more experience than you. You need to respect that and consider their advice, because they actually care and are willing to take time out of their day to help others and you.
You can go back to lurking and not admit the real issue. But you will just end up homeless in Oakland.
Dude, I’m trying to help! Consider adding a canister filter, no sump needed, buy some pods and I trust you’re upping your game, new system coming, great, start planning a dream build in your new house!Well I guess I’ll go back to lurking. This has been a giant waste of time. 2 pages of the same answer for something I already acknowledge in my first post.
If this was an addiction support group and I came for help with my drug addiction because my life was going down hill, the “support” I would’ve received from this group would have been “stop doin drugs”.rather than, hey the ultimate goal is to get you to this result, it’s not easy but here are some tips you can use to help along the way.
I would’ve expected methods to help the water quality until I can get a bigger tank, suggestions on which fish to start with if it came down to removing based on size and need and type, rock work organization, other things to add or remove that could help.
If these were dogs in a bathroom then one dog in a bathroom is too many and everyone who has dogs in a bathroom or fish in a tank is being cruel. I just don’t agree. Sorry if that makes me evil. But the fish aren’t breathing heavy, they’re not fighting or showing any agression, they’re not stressed, not getting diseases or parasites, and they’re well fed. I spend several hours each day with the tank checkin on one by one looking for any marks, parasites, I make sure no one is missing or stuck under rock work, or looking too skinny, I check for fin rot, swollen or bloody eyes, and evaluate their growth over time (most of which are obviously larger than they were two months ago, some even doubled in size). And I spend even more hours researching and trying to learn.
Fish wholesale distributors will put 10 tangs in a 2’x2’ Tank. The fish store will put 2 tangs and an angel in a 1’x1’ tank and the hobbyist community proudly supports these places and continues to give them money. The suggestions of bringing them back to the lfs where the fish will be put in ultra low salinity 1’x1’ tank with a pvc pipe seems worse to me, and absolutely no knowledge whatsoever as to where they’ll go next. But hey, once back at the lfs, who cares right? Sounds elitest and hypocritical to me. Maybe the lfs elsewhere are better but out of the only two in my county, one has a better selection of products as used to have more unique fish but exuberant high prices and a priority of selling as much as possible even if it means duping a new hobbyist with bad info. The other store has poor inventory in both product and fish, but has good prices but also bad quality of fish (several sick or no doing well in their tanks).
I’ll go back to figuring it out on my own I guess. I thought of the idea of a larger sump to get me more water volume, perhaps it wi atleast give the better water quality until I can get my larger tank (bare minimum 90-120 days until delivered from the date of order) and can start thinking about which fish create the most effect on water quality, need the most space, difficulty of replacing, and potential lifespan and age they are now to help me decide which is worth rehoming or keeping.
Until then,I decided to use an api test kit instead of the Hannah to cross reference results.
Ammonia somewhere between 0 and .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 20 and 40
Copper 0 (Hannah reads .15 for both my tank and a fresh batch of salt water)
If Red Sea pro coral silt is supposed to get me alk of 12 and I’m getting 11.1 I’m not worried.
Since I’m not dosing anything I’m told to have a calcium level greater than 600 would be darn near impossible unless I’m using a contaminated water source. I made a new fiend who is a hobbyist just he other day who offered to test my water and give me a good idea what it is in case I’m performing the test wrong. His tanks are crystal clear with thriving coral.
Until then, I removed the cuprisorb from the media reactor and put in some carbon, did a 25g water change
Debra
