Help with Bio Load

[disaster]

I have had some problems with establishing my tank (most likely poor acclimation). tank is 2 months old now I am left with 1 tang and alot of rock algae and diatom on my sand bed. I have a 29 gal tank with all levels checked reg. and are fine. Would adding snails, crabs and 1 fish all at once be to much of a load on this tank.
Thanks

 

[sepulatian]

Ok, first that tang (it does not matter what kind or what size it is now) will not do well in a 29. Not only because they are open water swimmers, but they ALL need an established tank as well. I am not trying to bash you in any way. Second, please explain the situation to us.

 

[disaster]

I have a 28 gallon tank, live rock, emperor filter. The tank has been established approx. 2 months. I cycled the tank with 2 damsel fish but removed them after I introduced a clown which they promptly attacked and killed. The following week I purchased 2 false clowns (wild caught), and a chocolate chip star. which were in the tank for 1 week, after which I purchased a yellow tang. All was going well, the clowns were beginning to eat and swim around as opposed to staying in a corner. Four days ago my star fish died, two days after that I awoke to find a dead clown fish. All levels, temp and salinity have been monitored closely and are always perfect. The following morning I was looking at my last clown fish swimming around and all of a sudden it looked like he had a heart attack. It droped to the sand bed and lived for 5 minutes longer. As soon as this happened I took all the levels again which were perfect.

 

[sepulatian]

Ah, I remember this. I was the one in disease and treatment who said this was acclimation shock. If you would like to get other oppinions I will leave this post. No hard feelings. Other opinions are always a good idea to have.

 

[earlybird]

disaster,
Do you have pictures? You will get a lot of help on this forum if you provide your water parameters. There's obviously something going on here.
What and how often are you feeding?
Did you use RO/DI water?
How much live rock do you have?
What kind of substrate and how deep?
How long has your tank been cycled?
What equipment do you have (skimmer, powerheads, lighting, filtration)?
What is your turnover rate?
How long is your photo period?
How did you acclimate your fish?
I don't have hands on experience yet but have been reading books and this site for almost 4 months now. A lot of people are against cycling with fish, even damsels. It is not healthy for them. It is normal for a new tank to go through a diatom bloom. Once a tank is finished cycling a lot of people add their clean up crew first to. While clean up crew is doing it's job this is the time to quarantine your first fish. You should observe your fish in the QT for a few weeks prior to introducing it to the display tank(4 weeks is favored). Then you can QT your next fish and so on.

 

[craig7220]

I agree with sepulatian, it does sound like acclimation shock.. Did you drip acclimate the fish and star? Also could you post your levels.

 

[catawaba]

You have a what in a where?
I hear sirens circling.....
Yep, need to acclimate over a few hours

 

[craig7220]

Originally Posted by Catawaba
You have a what in a where?
I hear sirens circling.....
Yep, need to acclimate over a few hours
:joy: