need help please

kolody117

kolody117

Member
:help:
I am a realativly new hobbyist and I am starting to lose patience with my aquarium.
I have a 55 gallon corner stand tank, have probally 40 pounds of live rock, 300 gph pump, coralife metal halide lighting system, and I HAVE NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS.
salinity level is 1.023, 1.024
temp is 78 degrees
ammonia level is .25
ph is 8.0
protien skimmer is on an getting weekly dumps of waste
I still have immense algae growth in my tank
YELLOW WATER
and fish dying regularly.
so far I have lost 2 yellow tangs
2 blue hippos
cant tell you how many clowns
yellow star polyps corals.
SOMEONE PLEASE tell me what I am doing wrong and what equipment i need to buy. there is got to be something i can do after my last fish died this morning (a flame angel) I am starting to get a little discouraged, and broke. I read and read on powerheads and chemicals and all sorts of things and they make no sense to me
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP
thank you
MIKE
 
dirkdaplr

dirkdaplr

Member
Ok first calm down the worst thing you can do is get excited when things start to get ugly in your tank because that will just lead to making more mistakes. First how long has you tank been set up. What are the other values of your water nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate. How fast did you add the fish into the tank. :notsure:
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
Also, are you using tap water? What, if any, chemicals are you adding to your water? What kind of skimmer/filter do you have? What all is alive in your tank right now?
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
nitrite is around 30 and nitrate is 0 phosphate i never tested i dont know
tank has been set up for approx 7 to 8 months now, lighting system 3 months, have lost entire population to ick 3 times in that time period.
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
ok alive in tank now is
1 yellow tang
3 damsels (2 yellow tail and 1 domino)
1 blue hippo tang
1 mandrin fish
1 goby
1 coral bandit shrimp
3 hermit crabs
around 6 to 10 turbo snails
1 rock with about 6 mushroom polyps
1 purple anemoe (however you spell that)
1 red emporer starfish
yes I use tap water with water conditioner from my lfs. (aged 24 hours b4 I add it)
i dont know what kind of metal halide system I have I know its 24" with 1 halide bulb, 2 actinics and 2 moonlights. Coralife is the manufacturer. I leave it on about 8 to 10 hours a day
 
dirkdaplr

dirkdaplr

Member
Well a hope you nitrite is not 30 and you really mean nitrate. But anyway Phosphate is a strong component to the production of algae in saltwater tanks. This can come from uneaten food, using tap water, and even some additives contain it. Also like mentioned in the other post the amount of light can effect you tank values. As far as loosing your fish if yuo have indeed lost them to ick I would recommend setting up a QT tank for new arrivals and treating them for a month before putting them in your show tank. Also if all the fish you have been purchasing are getting ick either get a new fish store or you may need to wait becase ick can live in a tank for about a month without a host. So you could add fish after that.
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
well the last bout with ick ended with me totally dumping the tank and starting over. that was 3 months ago
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
Ok, don't add any more fish to that tank. It is WELL overstocked as it is. Your most possible cause is your damsels attacking the other fish.
I don't think you have enough rock for the mandarin goby. I would get another 30lbs at least for him to eat properly.
Try to net the damsels out and bring them back to the fish store. See if they will give you a credit for them.
Use RO water from now on. The tap water is most likely making your water turn yellow along with the conditioner you are adding.
You have ammonia in your tank and that is a bad thing. It is most likely because the nitrifying bacteria can't keep up with all the waste your fish are producing. Ammonia is poison to a fish. My suggestion would be to take the damsels and tangs back to the LFS and see if they can give you a refund. Let your tank sit for a few weeks to get back under control. Do a big water change (20 gallons) and start over again. Add no more than one fish per month.
There are a lot of people on here who are very knowledgable. They can help you through this with as little loss as possible. Good luck!
 
dirkdaplr

dirkdaplr

Member
I just read your last post before typing that last message I would start buying ro water because it sounds like that may be your problem. Test your water for phosphates because most likely it will be high. Also I hate to break it to you but that mandarin you have will most likely die as they need aroung 100 lbs of live rock to meet their food requirements. If you got lucky and purchased on that will accept prepared food then you wont have problems. Also ill just warn you that there are many people who will give you grief for having a blue hippo in your tank and will lose sleep knowing you have two tangs in that size of a tank.
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
well unfortunately I cant my lfs has already said he wont take any of my fish back B/C he knows of all the problems I have had. what are my other options? Death by sea??(toilet)
also I really would like to keep my 2 tangs they are my favorite.
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
Your tangs will get ich again if you keep them both. Especially with the damsels in there. Your tank is barely big enough for a yellow tang...let alone a hippo. I would see if someone wants them and fast.
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
seriously??? the 2 tangs are small...
what kind of prepared food can i buy for my mandrin???
and what kinds of test kit can I buy for phospates and if they are high... what can I do to lower them?
 
dirkdaplr

dirkdaplr

Member
Buy a phospahte test from your LFS, and do a series of water changes using ro water. As far as the prepared food I just mean what ever you are feeding your other fish
 
airforceb2

airforceb2

Active Member
There is a phosphate test kit you can buy. You lower the phosphates by using RO water and not tap. Mandarins primarily eat copepods (thrive in LR). They may eat mysis shrimp soaked in garlic if you are lucky.
The 2 tangs will get big fast. They need a lot of swimming room.
 
kolody117

kolody117

Member
well i thank the 2 of you for helping me with this.. I will satrt off with the water changes and see if I can get my lfs to take some of these fish back. i appreciate the help thank you...
 
bgriff

bgriff

Member
Far from an expert but I see two concerns..
Yellow water.. and no Nitrate level which seems to indicate your bio-system isn't up to speed...
You really need to figure out why your water is turning yellow and doing water changes from the same source may not improve things. Do you have a well, or community water? (High iron content in water I've heard could turn yellow from the salt) Try adding salt to a glass of water and see what happens.
As suggested, I would test your water source. It may be possible depending on your area, to find Reverse Omosis bottled water, Wal-mart in my area use to carry dispenser machine that you could purchase it by 1 and 5 gal jugs. Also my local refurbished ***** now sells water as well. Changing your source may help, if it turns out your tap water is to blame, you may want to look into an RO/DI unit. (You may want to regardless, as I've seen a major change in my tank since I got mine running..)
Other than the skimmer, do you have any other type of filtration? In an ideal setup, you hope you have enough live rock and live sand to take care of the bio-system. (along with a good cleanup crew.) However, until it gets well established, alternate filtering would not hurt. For example a hang on back filter with a sponge, ammonia obsorber, and carbon. This could be enough extra filtration until the tank is able to hold it's own. Even then, there are filterpads out there made especially for ammonia, phosphate obsorbtion which I used in my tank and replace them weekly or as needed. There is also bacteria you can buy in a small cylinder shaped container, it is a powder which you can use to help jump start the bio system. (There is some for fresh and saltwater)
Good luck!!
 
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