piggyfish

hi, i just recently started a saltwater tank, it's a 12gl aquapod. i bought around 5 lbs. of live rock and a bag of live sand to get it started. the LED lights have not worked due to a bad adapter, so i've had the hood replaced twice now. anyways, 4 days ago i had a small flood in my condo (washer busted yikkkes!) and i had to have dehumidifiers and hot air fans to take care of the problem. needless to say, my tank started to overheat and was in the low 90's. i put some ice cubes in plastic bags and rested them on the side trying to cool it down, but that really didn't help too much. luckily just today i was able to move the tank out of the condo to my temp location, and the temp has gone down and is now between 82-84 degrees. i went to the fish store, had my water tested and was told it was "OK" and the employee suggested i get a small damsel to get the cycle started. so, i have one now and she seems to be doing fine. my mushroom (that came with the live rock) died though...can they come back? also, is there any other advice or suggestions with this type of situation where the water heated up the way it did for 3 days? i can't seem to find or see any cocopods which i did see earlier in the week. any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. i'm glad i found this forums, there seems to be a lot of information to be found here. thanks again!

april

Tumbleweed

First off welcome to fishlore. Step one for an overheating tank is to make sure that the heater inside the tank is turned off. Next you can float a bag with ice or a small frozen water bottle in the tank. Just keep an eye on the tank to make sure it does'nt get too cold. Most salt water tanks do there best in temp ranges from 72-76F. Now as for the mushroom it may not be dead just closed in out of stress. give it a couple of days and see what happens. As for the cycling the tank with a Damsel in it. It is a fairly common practice because damsels are pretty staout fish and can handle the water chemical spike. Here is a link to an article that you should read to help expain what is going to happen in your tank.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
Fresh water and saltwater tank cycling work the same. You will need to buy a water test kit. I recomend the API master test kit. You will need to moniter your pH amonia nitrite and nitrate levels and that is the best way to watch it. With the fish in there you may need to do frequent water changes to keep the amonia and nitrite levels in exceptible limits for your fish. I know that this is a lot to take in at once but it will all be wherth it in the end.
Once again welcome to fish lore

piggyfish

thanks for the help! i've had experience in the past with saltwater, freshwater and brackish tanks. i forgot to mention that i'm starting a reef tank with this and everything i've read and everyone i've talked to has said to keep the temp between 78-82 degrees. does that sound about right? i really appreciate the quick response. thanks again.

april

Tumbleweed

Yes in a reef tank the 78-82 range is about right. The ideal temperature for a reef tank from what I understand is 79. This is the best middle range temp for most corals and inveritbrates from different areas.

piggyfish

The LED lights are broken again on my tank will this effect my fish if their not on?I heard they need it to grow almost like moon light,is that right?

April

Tumbleweed

Sorry to hear that. What is the company sending you for the repair? Just new adaptors or a whole new lighting system. If they have just been sending adaptors, I would try and get them to send you an entire new lighting system.
As for the lights not working. The lack of moon lights not working will not really affect your fish. Some people believe that they need it for nocternal breedng, and others say they are not needed, and are only for looks.
I have them and leave them on all night in my SW tank just because it won't hurt anything, and they use so little power and create no heat there is really no negative. I would not worry about it too much. The fish should be fine.

piggyfish

Nice, I got the tank from a store and they have been really good about replacing parts for me.The adaptor was broken on the first one along with burned out lights in the hood so they replaced the hood but we tested the adaptor on the tank in the store and it was fine, brought it home and wrecked the new lid.still have to back and get new lid and adaptor and then maybe all this stuff will work.I was wondering about calcium and magnesium i have live rock should i start supplementing these into the tank yet?

Any help will do thanks!
April

Tumbleweed

DO you have a test kit to test for those items? Freshly mixed salt water will be high in those nutrients they slowly lower as they are used up. For calcium you want around
350 - 450 PPM and for magnesium you want around 1150 - 1350 ppm. I would test your water first to see where it is before adding any supplements. my tank has around 560ppm in calcium which is a little high and that is with a very fresh salt mix, and no supplements

piggyfish

Ok i'll test my water before starting supplements.I now have a new crop of brown algae in my tank. I did a water change and brushed off most of it with my hand is my tank to new to buy hermit crabs? (its about two weeks old) also should i be checking Nitrites and Nitrates to see if they're the cause of the problem? My ammonia is at around 0.25 ppm maybe a little less I know it should be at 0.1ppm or less is this because im starting the nitrogen cycle? I did a water change, the water from the store had a salinity reading of SG 1.022 so i matched that amount and did a 35% / 45% water change.

Please let me know if i should have done that or if i should just leave my tank alone for the next few weeks.
Any help would be great.
April

Tumbleweed

I would wait on the hermet crab until your tank has finished it's nitrogen cycle. As for the water change that is something that you are going to have to keep doing while there is fish in the tank. You should check your amonia, nitrites and nitrates everyother day or so to keep an eye on them.