Surgeonfishes: Tangs for  Marine Aquariums Diversity, Selection & Care New eBook on Amazon: Available here New Print Book on Create Space: Available here by Robert (Bob) Fenner

Questions Cycling / Tank Additions 04/01/2008 Hello guys. <<Hello, Andrew today>> Let me begin by saying that I am new to the aquarium world and this is my first system. I have a 50 gallon bowed tank. I have a TurboFlotor multi sl Aqua medic protein skimmer, the Eheim 60 canister filter Ecco comfort, 2 powerheads, a digital thermometer, a wall of bubbles (to help with water movement), two Corallife Aqua medic 150 w 14000k metal halide lights and 70 lbs of live rock as well as 2 bags of live sand. <<Suggest remove the wall of bubbles, no good for water circulation, powerhead should be used instead>> The tank has been running for 4 weeks. I test the water every other day and for the last week and a half the conditions have been stable Although honestly they only spiked the first week when the live rock was added: Ammonia- 0ppm Calcium- 350 Nitrate- 0ppm Nitrite- .25ppm Ph- 8.2 Temp- 77 to 79 Hydrometer- 1.022 Two weeks into the process I added 3 damsels. <<Yikes>> Three days ago I removed 2 of the damsels and added a Naso tang, 3 mandarin dragonets, 1 flaming scallop, 20 snails, and a cleaner shrimp. Two days ago I added a purple tip anemone, a rose anemone, and another anemone similar to the purple tip. <<OH WOW...Seriously, please stop. Remove all the stock from the tank and return all but the Damsel, snails and cleaner shrimp. This is a brand new setup and the stock is not suitable for this. The Naso tang needs to be in a tank 3 times larger than yours, the dragonettes and anemone's should not be added until the tank is about 9 - 12 months old as they really need a mature / established reef tank to survive>> The Naso was beautiful when I purchased him and swam around the tank like a champ. The day after having him he began to turn dark gray on the right side of his body. <<Stress>> This morning when I awoke he was DEAD and my pink tip anemone has been floating at the top of the tank with the tentacles pointing down and the butt inflated at the water surface. It simply floats around up there. Is this normal? <<No, not normal, reasons stated above>> Why do you suppose my Naso died? <<A combination of new tank, heavy bio-load, lack of space>> I checked the water after removing him and the levels were all normal. I did a 20 percent water change anyway and checked my reading again and they were still the same. I purchased phytoplankton that I have been feeding the scallop, and I have been putting a frozen mixture of omega-3 brine shrimp, squid, Mysis krill, spinach, plankton, and algae. I thaw out the food and put a small amount in the water for the fish and use a turkey baster to place the food directly in the center of the anemones. Please give me any insight to help with what I am or have done wrong. I am so sad to have lost Tommy (Naso tang). I appreciate your time. Thanks in advance! <<Its a hard lesson to learn, the patience and research lesson. These two things are needed when getting into marine systems as a whole. Patience is used to slowly stock the aquarium, research is used to assess and check if you can adequately meet the needs of the specific inhabitant. A hard thing to tell you, but these are the reasons things are failing and inhabitants are dying. Please do use the search function of this site and check the needs / requirements of potential stock for the tank. Learn from this mistake, its a common one>> <<Sorry its not a move positive response, however, its an honest appraisal of the situation. Regards, A Nixon>>

Loss of Naso and Foxface... allelopathy? Hey there, I have question about my reef aquarium. The aquarium has been setup for about 9 months. I use Coralife salt and use well water rather than RO water. My tap water tested at 3 with a TDS meter. This is just as good as RO water so I just decided just to use the well water. There is .2 ppm of phosphate in the water, however, so I put a few drops of Caribsea's Phosbuster and it works great. Well water may be inconsistent, and I have an inkling that it may be the root of my problem, but I'll let you decide when I'm done rambling about my tank and ask the you actual question. The water parameters are as follows: Salinity - 1.025 Temp - 77-79 F Ph - 8.0-8.2 Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate - 0 calcium - 425 Alkalinity - 12 dKH (my alkalinity has always been high, without any supplementation whatsoever.) <Unusual... am wondering how this jives with such a low reading for Total Dissolved Solids?> I dose Seachem's reef complete for calcium, and reef plus for trace elements for the corals. <This is the source> Everything else is replaced by 10% water changes every 10-14 days. Other maintenance includes emptying the skimmer cup and cleaning the glass. The tank is a 75 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. The sump design was based on Melev's reef model F sump. The drain branches off and roughly 30% drains to the fuge section and the rest drains to the skimmer section. Both of these sections then overflow into the return pump section. The sump contains a octopus nw-150 skimmer and a fuge section with Chaeto and Caulerpa as well as a DSB and live rock rubble. My return pump is a Rio 2100. I also run Purigen occasionally in my overflow. In the display, I have roughly 85 pounds of Fiji live rock formed in two patch reef structures. Circulation if provided by the return, a Hydor Koralia #2, and a maxi-jet 1200. The livestock list is as follows: Fish - Yellow Tang Coral Beauty Six Line Wrasse Pair of Ocellaris Clowns 1 green Chromis corals- lots of Zoanthids/Palys (may be a concern also) Ricordea Florida Finger leather Toadstool leather Hammer Several Mushrooms Xenia Inverts- Condylactis anemone (yeah, I want him out, but he's stuck on there GOOD) Common starfish Sand sifting starfish Blue leg hermits (approx 20) Turbo snails (approx 15) Nassarius snails (approx 15) Feather Duster Misc. worms, copepods etc Now, here's the question: In the last two months two of my fish have died out of the blue. The fish are a Foxface lo and a Naso tang (a small one, with plenty of room in the tank) <Mmm, these species really need larger quarters than a 75 gallon tank> The Foxface was the first to go. He died about 2 months ago. He was fine one day, then the next he was found dying on the bottom. I had him for only about 3 months. The Naso Tang died today and exhibited the same symptoms, he was fine one day, then the next day he was found struggling for life at the bottom, only to die a few hours later. I had him for about 8 months. What could be the cause of these fishes death's? <Likely "stress"... from the psychological crowding component mentioned... coupled (more importantly) with negative interaction twixt some of your "corals"... Note that these Acanthuroid fishes are the ones needing the highest dissolved oxygen in your system...> It could very well be anything, but with the information provided I am hoping you guys can figure something out. Thanks. <Please do read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/cnidcompppt.htm  I would be pulling the Condylactis, with the rock it's attached to; at least. Bob Fenner>

Surgeonfishes: Tangs for  Marine Aquariums Diversity, Selection & Care New eBook on Amazon: Available here New Print Book on Create Space: Available here by Robert (Bob) Fenner