AllenIsbell's Marine Aquarium Experience

[Cliff]

I would suggest taking some water out, mixing a little more salt in it, then pore it back in. Its never a good idea just to put salt directly in the tank

I like to take the same approach for FOWLR as I do for reef. The reason being is that all the fish we keep in FOWLR set-ups come from, or near, the coral reefs in the ocean and will do best when kept in those same water conditions. A very similar approach as we can find in FW. The biggest difference between the fish and the corals (in terms of water quality) is that most fish can be more tolerant to some parameter swings as compaired to most corals.

Many people would disaggree with me on that

[AllenIsbell]

Understood. I will get on that today. I have no idea how much water to take out, and how much salt to add in to get it right, haha.

Anyone got any preferred methods?

[Cliff]

LOL, it can also be a little different for each brand of salt, just to make it a little easier for you

I normally mix my salt water in a large container. As I have been using the same brand for about a year now, I have a really good idea of how much to add based on that brand of salt and the size of my container. I would suggest using a 5 gallon bucket, add a powerhead, then add about 1 cup of your salt. After 3 or 4 hours of mixing, test the salinity and adjust from there. Once you got it between 1.025 and 1.026, you will then know how much to add to the bucket next time to make 5 gallons. You can just adjust from there for your weekly water changes.

For your current situation, just take a little tank water, try mixing a little salt in there (like a few tsp) put it back in the tank and test in a few hours. You waint to make your changes to your salinity very slowly for best results

[AllenIsbell]

That's pretty much exactly what I was going to do, Cliff!

I WANTED to get the InstantOcean Reef Crystals, but they were out.

I got the regular InstantOcean instead.

[AllenIsbell]

Sigh....

This tank is so clean... Begging for some sort of life....

I went up to Aquarium Outfitters (Locally owned LFS), and man... They have some beautiful fish.

I think I want to get one Oscellaris Clown fish. I'm thinking about the ones that are black instead of orange. Not quite as common, and I love the rich, deep, dark black they offer.

I was thinking about a couple of Pajama Cardinal or a couple of Banggai Cardinals. Most likely the Banggai since they stay a little smaller.

Maybe, just maybe a Pom Pom crab. I made sure I left plenty of open spaces as well as caves for a crab to run around in when building my rockscape.

Pictures will be posted tomorrow shortly after the video! (I hope)

[Cliff]

You may not want to go with clownfish and Banggai Cardinalfish both in a 20 gallon tank. That might be a little too crowed. Maybe some longspine cardinalfish (Zoramia leptacantha) or dracula goby (stonogobiops dracula) would work for you (with the clownfish).

Please disreguard stocking recommendations at the begining of this thread. At that time I mistakenly thought you had a larger tank.

[AllenIsbell]

Gotcha. At said LFS they had a tank similar size as mine with 2 clowns and 2 Banggai Cardinals.

[Cliff]

The combo can be risky (long term) in a 20 gallon tank. You have to keep in mind, most LFS know or plan to only have the fish in their tanks for a very short period of time. They truly can push their luck and get away with it with ever having a slight problem.

Just make sure you research this potential stocking list so you understand the risks and you can make a informed choice.

[AllenIsbell]

Will do, amigo. Thanks, again.

[AllenIsbell]

Here is the stand video:

(It will take a few minutes before you can watch it.) It's being processed.