Help, Tank Crashing

[hkgar]

This morning my Tangs were (are) breathing rapidly and hard. Nitrites are .30, natrates are 20 and amonia between 0 & .25.
Lost a Sally Lightfoot a few days ago and neer found it.
Feed with garlic soaked food last night.
Have done a 20 gallon water change so far and am considering doing more untill the nitriates and nitrites get to a responable level.
More suggestions? Thanks for your help in advance
Gary

 

[hkgar]

Lost the yellow tang
Nitrates are now about 5 and nitrites still are about .10 Ammonia down to about 0.
Should I continue water changes?

 

[beth]

Both the nitrites and ammonia are at potential lethel levels!! You need to continue to perform water changes until those levels are zero!
Why are you having this problem to begin with??

 

[hkgar]

Beth,
That is what I don't know. The only thing(s) I can think of are the missing Sally Light Foot, who I believe died a couple of days ago.
One other potential - I recently got a Orange Tree Sponge from this site and it appears to be all but dead. Most of it has turned whitish and somewhat translucent

 

[hkgar]

The tank has been set up since last May (10 months). I constantly (weekly) monitor the levels and have never had a problem. The set up includes a refugiuum that I started about two months ago.

 

[goldrush]

Way too many fish. What's in your refugium? How big is the (dead) sponge? If you are sure it's dead,get it out.

 

[hkgar]

The refugium is 10 gallons and contains mostly Grape Calupera. It really doesn't grow as well as expected and I have only had to cut it back once. Also contains 10 lbs of base rock, 3 crabs and a snail
It is lit 24/7 with one 15 watt flourescent.

 

[hkgar]

How many fish should I reduce it to? Who goes and who stays?

 

[hkgar]

Here is a picture of the sponge. What do you think? I have it in a rubbemaid tub at present.

 

[leigh]

the cleaner wrasse will probably starve even if he survives the crash, so that might be the first fish you'd consider returning...the yellow tail and maroon must be fighting for territory a lot? does the tang seem happy normally, i'd think with the damsel and maroon in that size thank with him he'd be sad. good luck!

 

[cboyfan2020]

i know I'm going to get flamed for telling you this but i have a 55g and about fish and 10 corals
1 yellow tang, 1 hippo tang, 4 green chromis, 1 pink anthias, 2 blennies, 1 maroon clown, 1 coral beauty, 1 condy, leathers(4), gonipora(flowerpot...going to get flamedon that one too), cabbage, filter feeding clam, 2 stars, 6 turbos, 3 cleaner chrimp, 1 horseshoe crab. All my levels are great except for a 50ppm nitrate reading. Fish doing great, corals growing. I have about 80lbs of live rock.
I wouldn't necessarily look at your fish load as the main cause. Maybe something died and it rotted in the water? HTH,
Bring on the flaming!!!!

 

[treble]

Well your sponge is probably why your tank went dont hill.... If the sponge has touched air at ANY POINT...its dead. You probably put it into your tank by lifting it out of the bag..into the air..into the tank..rotted away into ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Dont put it back in, the white spots are dead, the rest is dying... GOD SPEED!

 

[hkgar]

Treble
Sorry but your assumption is WRONG. I put the bag into the tank and acclimated per instructions opening the bag in the tank and getting the Sponge out without it ever getting in the air.
Some of us read and try to learn what to do before we do it.
I agree it is probably a goner but NOT because I introduced through the air.

 

[cboyfan2020]

whoa big guy settle down......find that crab and do some water changes to see if it stabilizes.

 

[fshhub]

Originally posted by cboyfan2020
i know I'm going to get flamed for telling you this but i have a 55g and about fish and 10 corals
1 yellow tang, 1 hippo tang, 4 green chromis, 1 pink anthias, 2 blennies, 1 maroon clown, 1 coral beauty, 1 condy, leathers(4), gonipora(flowerpot...going to get flamedon that one too), cabbage, filter feeding clam, 2 stars, 6 turbos, 3 cleaner chrimp, 1 horseshoe crab. All my levels are great except for a 50ppm nitrate reading. Fish doing great, corals growing. I have about 80lbs of live rock.
I wouldn't necessarily look at your fish load as the main cause. Maybe something died and it rotted in the water? HTH,
Bring on the flaming!!!!
how big are your fish and how old is your tank???
2 very important factors which may mean you are fine SO FAR. Does not mean that is not the problem with another tank
both are definitely overstocked
I would look at the sponge, it could be the culprit, but I would not stop there. It may also not be the culprit. The stocking is definitely a potential problem, if it is not already.
cboy, yours is terribly overstocked and unless those fish are all FULL GROWN and your tank has had them for a few months, I would not jump to the conclusion you are safe. NOT even for a second. Not flaming, just making you aware that it probably is not OK and will become a problem in time.
I definitely will not flame you for having a flowerpot. For, it is also probably partly why your tank is doing fine and the tank is also probably doing fine because of it, for now. Flower pots are not hard to keep at all, they require SUBSTANDARD WATER QUALITY to do best. The healthiest of them do best in tanks with water qualtity at such low levels that most of us will not maintain. And in turn, their diet helps to keep the levels low by eating the nutrients suspended in the water. Thsu helping to reduce nitrite and nitrate. These 2 work hand in hand. the flower pot is making you think the water is good and teh tank is helping you to keep the flower pot.

 

[cboyfan2020]

1) am switching to a 120 in 2 weeks if that makes you feel better.
2) how do you explain the levels being the same before the flowerpot?
3) The fish to gallon rule is a bunch of #$%^
4) tank has been up for a year
5) the only big fish I have are the tangs and the hippo is only 4"
I'm not yelling at you i'm just informing you. Evereybodies tanks are different. There are some givens in this industry but most of the time what works for one person doesn't work for the next and vice versa. When you try to duplicate an enviroment as diverse as the ocean there will be a lot of discrepencies. FWIW

 

[fshhub]

1) fine, remember i didnt flame
2)age of everything, tank, fish and flwoerpot
3)rule yes is not a set in stone theory, but not crap, good guideline for long term success. ESP in the begining
4)great, i t si pretty mature and at that age, with all beig good 30 trates should not be any problem to maintain wihtout even trying. PLUS a more mature tank will handle it better(whihc yours is getting to be)
5)he's gonna love his new home
and the rest, well i could not agree mroe in fact had said the same thing in the begining of my post"your tank is diffferent". I had used diffetne words, but......
and at least you do realize they do need another home, although your earlier statement leads us to believe otherwise.

 

[cboyfan2020]

just a correction....50 ppm and i know you werent flaming and I wasn't yelling. Honestly could care less about being flamed. I am also going to add a refugium w/ 4" DSB to the 120. I am trying to get the nitrates down with this new tank and the only reason I still have all those fish is because of the new tank. some of them I have nursed back to health from a friends tank and thats why so many.

 

[fshhub]

you are indeed a gentleman(i hope, i am not insulting a woman here) and aquariist. rescuing fish a nd such and realizing that they need to be moved and doing so, is a good thing to do.

 

[m.rogers]

i have 1 thing i would like to know it is said that you sould never add the water in the bag that (what ever you are getting) to your tank then is there any other way to add a sponge to your tank or do you just have to hope that the water in the bag is ok.
mike