falter
Community Member
Hi there! I'm not new to aquariums but am new to salt water. I had been thinking about starting a reef tank off and on for years, but what pushed me to do it was, of all things, a tenant eviction in our complex. After moveout, they left behind a pile of garbage in their carport, along with a squalid fish tank that was down to its last four inches of water. We noticed he had an air pump running so we checked it out - we were shocked to find a clown fish alive in there. We made the decision to bring her home, along with the tank. We also discovered as we were emptying the tank to move it, that there was a conch, a snail, a crab and a fire shrimp hidden in there! Poor things had been out in the elements for probably a week!
We managed to find temporary accommodation for them while we rehabbed the tank (a 32 gal Biocube sans lid). We were given advice on this by a very helpful aquarist at a major aquarium shop in Burnaby. The tank rehab went well, everything seemed to be balanced and cycling, so we got the Fab Five and moved them into their new old digs.
A week in, things seemed fine. However, the fire shrimp sadly died during a molt. Then last night I found the clown (we named her Repo), doing this weird dance up and down, like she was gasping for air. I looked up advice on this online and it suggested oxygenation issues. So I repositioned the powerhead to push water harder at rhe surface. She seemed to get a little better but was still in distress the next morning, so while we await the arrival of a protein skimmer, I got a pump going to aerate. Now she seems kind of more like herself. We've removed the air pump.. but I'm worried it will happen again. It's hard to tell sometimes with clown fish what is what. She likes to hang by the grate where water falls into the back compartment of the tank and then swims vigorously against the current provided by the powerhead.. rarely venturing into the rest of the tank.
Salinity is 35ppm, nitrite is 0, ammonia is 0.. just wondering if there's anything else I should be doing?
This was what the tank looked like when we got it.. ugh.
We managed to find temporary accommodation for them while we rehabbed the tank (a 32 gal Biocube sans lid). We were given advice on this by a very helpful aquarist at a major aquarium shop in Burnaby. The tank rehab went well, everything seemed to be balanced and cycling, so we got the Fab Five and moved them into their new old digs.
A week in, things seemed fine. However, the fire shrimp sadly died during a molt. Then last night I found the clown (we named her Repo), doing this weird dance up and down, like she was gasping for air. I looked up advice on this online and it suggested oxygenation issues. So I repositioned the powerhead to push water harder at rhe surface. She seemed to get a little better but was still in distress the next morning, so while we await the arrival of a protein skimmer, I got a pump going to aerate. Now she seems kind of more like herself. We've removed the air pump.. but I'm worried it will happen again. It's hard to tell sometimes with clown fish what is what. She likes to hang by the grate where water falls into the back compartment of the tank and then swims vigorously against the current provided by the powerhead.. rarely venturing into the rest of the tank.
Salinity is 35ppm, nitrite is 0, ammonia is 0.. just wondering if there's anything else I should be doing?
This was what the tank looked like when we got it.. ugh.
