A couple questions

[devilbuni]

I have an 80 gal. with a sailfin, naso, and blue tang. Everything seems to be fine. I also have a sea apple and green tip anemone alon with some hermits and snails. Oh and i also have a brittle star that measures to about a foot wide. To get to the point, I have air stones in my tank and they cuase lot of tiny air bubbles and was wondering if that was bad. My other question is how do you know whan your sea apple is dying? I heard they will kill everything in the tank if they die. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

 

[blondenaso1]

Is there a reason ypu have the airstones in your tank In general it is not necessary and overall detrimental to the tank. Circulation and water flow should be enough to provide sufficient airation of the water.
As far as the sea apple, I have no idea how to tell if it is passing. I guess if it is closed up for extended periods of time and you can notice any color change or slime covering it.

 

[saltyrich]

I would definately remove the airstones.

 

[simm]

Air bubbles is bad for corals. They can get lodged into an oral cavity and rutpure. Kinda like an anurisum in a human. Not for sure on the sea apple dying but I know if they get messed with alot or pissed they will expel their stomach contents into the tank which will toxify your tank with nasty and toxic levels. HTH

 

[devilbuni]

Thanks for all your help. Looks like i will be doing some remodeling tonight!

 

[ophiura]

Can you give us some specs on your tank? How long have you had it set up, what are your water parameters (specific gravity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alk, temp). What sort of filtration? Any powerheads, live rock, etc? Another big risk with any sea cucumber is getting sucked into a power head.
Do your tangs tolerate each other!?!

 

[synyster11]

Speaking for devilbuni:
We have a 80 gallon, a fluval 404, about 50 pounds of live rock, one good powehead, and lighting is a "marine glow, and power glow" not sure of the specs, but they were bought from the LFS and were told they were the way to go. So far everything is going great, the fish seem happy, the only grumpy thing is the banded cleaner shrimp that got all itswiskers eaten off by my blue tang. Now this is on a warpath. I am looking into getting a protien skimmer. Our main concern is the SEA APPLE we have. I KNOW I KNOW. I will never impulse buy from the LSF again. After doing my research I decided we should remove the SEA APPLE. Well, the guy at the LFS was a total jerk and told me he would not even take it back for free. I will never shop there again. What a idiot, I even told Him I am about to buy alot of coral, and he said he would not take it back for store credit tward the coral, or anything. Hey said in 25 years he has never directly heard, or sold one that has killed anyones fish. He said he has never seen it happen. Oh well, I am just going to try to keep it. It seems happy, stays open, does not move, just hangs out on the glass, all swinging its arms. I am feeding it about every other day. The thing just looks too neat to get rid off. The tangs dont mess with it, the are just happy swiming through my live rock caves. Any tips would be great. Thanx!!!
I have some cleaner fish coming in the mail for the tangs too and a cleaner shrimp, and a anemone or two, and 3 Ricordia Mushrooms.

 

[saltyrich]

I feel that you are moving too quickly. What kind of cleaner fish? If it is a cleaner wrasse, they will clean your fish and then die of starvation because the subsist off of parasites. Once those are gone, so are they. I would never recommend an anemone to a tank that does not have stable, long-term water parameters. In addition, you don't even remotely have enough light to sustain an anemone or the ricordia. Your lfs guy is an idiot. I would not worry about any more livestock right now. I would focus on equipment. You need a skimmer. I recommend at least three more maxi-jet powerheads for circulation. You also need a substantial lighting upgrade in order to keep corals (with very few exceptions). This will consist of VHO, power compact, or metal halide lighting. You can do an online search for "aquarium lighting" and find all three types along with descriptions etc... Once you upgrade your lighting, you'll need to upgrade your cleanup crew (snails, crabs, etc.) to combat the increase in algae. I also recommend adding more live rock, preferably 1.5 lbs per gallon (a total of 120 lbs.). Always research everything you put in your tank. It will save you a ton of money. Glad to see you are asking questions. Good luck.

 

[synyster11]

Yea, it is a cleaner wrasse. Two of them.
The tank has been running for 3 months, (1 month cycle first). The Tangs were not added until about 2 weeks ago. The water is very stable thus far. As far as lighting. I am really on a budget so I cant get to crazy with the lighting. I bought this tank used "80 gallon w/stand/fluval 404/and about 50-80 lbs of live rock" for $150 so I have not really spent much nor can I spend that much. The anemone has been in for about 2 months and seems to be doing great. However I am not sure how to tell is these things are doing bad. Its color is very bright "green tip" and seems to be doing well??? How can I tell when they are doing poor? I do not plan on adding any more fish, just some crabs, and cleaner shrimp. I now have purple'ish algae spreading over some of the base rock. It seams things are going well other than those purple tube anemone's growing all over the rocks... They will be gone soon.
Oh yea.. about the powehead. We have one large powerhead that produces a ton of tinny bubles all through the tank. Is this bad. Every pic or tank I have seen I dont see their powerhead pushing out near as many bubles into the water as ours. Please let me know.. thank you.