Am I doing things right?

matty0206 · #1 08/14/2006, 08:50 PM

I have a 12g ncdx with two peppermint shrimp, one serpent star, one tiger watchman goby and the usual clean up crew(6snail,6hermits) I also have a finger leather and four small colonies of various zoas! I feed the tank one block of hikari frozen misid shrimp a day and i do a 20-30% water changes a week, I also change filter floss once a week? I add a drop of iodine per week after doing the water change, does this all sound ok? Any suggestions?

P.s. I took all of the filter media out and I use the filter floss in the first chamber and have live rock rubble and a purigen bag in the second chamber! maxijet 900 with hydor flo in the third!

bertoni · #2 08/14/2006, 08:58 PM

I'd skip the iodine, since it can be harmful and doesn't seem to be useful. I'm not sure what the Hydor is doing, since I can't visualize that part of the setup. Other than that, it sounds reasonable to me.

demonsp · #3 08/14/2006, 08:58 PM

well how old is your tank and hows your peremators ? ammonia,nit,nat,ph .

matty0206 · #4 08/14/2006, 09:19 PM

The hydor is on the return not in the third chamber, sorry! My tank is like three months old and the params are all normal=
ammonia=none
nitrite=none
nitrate=15
ph=8.3
alk=2.0
water temp=76-79
salinity1.024

One lfs said they strongly recommended the iodine and another said I would get all the tank needed from the weekly water changes?

bertoni · #5 08/14/2006, 09:25 PM

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

That article is a good place to get started. It discusses iodine briefly, and has more pointers. I would also suggest looking at the sections on SG.

matty0206 · #6 08/14/2006, 09:33 PM

Here is a full tank shot!http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...13DSC00107.jpg

bertoni · #7 08/14/2006, 09:35 PM

Looks nice!

SahuaritaMike · #8 08/14/2006, 09:39 PM

Wow I have a 50gal with 2 clowns, gramma, 6 line and a firefish lots of crabs and snails and I only feed 1/2 a cube a day and they are growing like crazy for that size of a tank I think 1 cube is a little eccessive JMO.

matty0206 · #9 08/14/2006, 09:52 PM

Thats kinda what I thought but what do you do with the leftovers? Also I swear the tiger goby is starving he eats like a madman! I have only been feeding that much for like four days and before that it was a whole cube every other day?

SahuaritaMike · #10 08/14/2006, 09:55 PM

I slice the cube in half and soak it in vitamines before feeding and the other half I put into a ziplock and use it the next day.

Shagsbeard · #11 08/14/2006, 09:59 PM

Many algae foodstuffs will contain quite a bit of iodine. Your shimps will need iodine to molt, but they know how much they need and how to get it. They'll eat algae either growing in the tank, or some that you provide. The algae growing in your tank gets it's iodine from the water. Water changes should be fine as a source of idodine unless you have just a ton of algae growing in it. You really don't need iodine suplements, and a better way to get it to your shrimp is to buy some kelp based food for them to munch dirrectly.

bertoni · #12 08/14/2006, 10:00 PM

Good catch! I missed that part.

I'd reduce the feeding, and also add some variety to the diet. A good frozen food like Formula 1, perhaps some mysid shrimp, etc, would be good. This thread has a lot of ideas:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=176530

Freed · #13 08/14/2006, 10:03 PM

Your fish can do well if fed every other day. Some feed every day, some feed a couple few times a day, etc, etc., but fish will be fine if fed every other day which is what I would suggest in a tank that small. Water params could plummit drastically overnight if something goes wrong so the less uneaten food and detritus in the tank the better in your small tank.