New Fish =again

[polka]

My questions are these:
1: I need suggestions for variety and hardy fish for 40 gal f/o up for 2 years, over time my fish have dwindled and I recently lost the last one.
2: Can you ad more than one fish at a time? I would like to get pairs of fish, such as clowns and others types.
3: I currently have just a cleaner shrimp and 4-5 small blue leg crabs, Would I be able to put in a small hawk fish? I get conflicting opinions on this.
I thank you for your help!

 

[flydan]

Hey,
First I'd like some more information. What kind of fish did you have before and why did they "dwindle" away? Just old age, or did the tank have a problem, such as poor water conditions?
As far as adding fish, if you get mated pairs they should obviously go in together. Put a pair in and then wait a few weeks before adding more. You should also concider how aggressive the fish are. The more aggressive fish should go in last.
Would love to help, but need more info. Do you have lots of lr and a dsb? Or no lr and cc? How is your water?
Dan'l

 

[polka]

Sorry didn't mean to be evasive!!!
40 gal f/o, c/c, cpr2 bakpak, up for 2 years. I had some very bad advise at first then approx a year ago I had a very small yellow tang (I know: not good idea) anyway also 1 clarki clown 1 perc clown. Then the perc died, I added a butterfly, then the tang died, then the butterfly, then the clarki. I had listed all of this in the D & T section. From the very beginning of my tank, I have never had more than 4 fish at one time. As soon as I ad something someone dies.
Water conditions are ph 8.0, salinity .023, nitrite - 0, ammonia - 0, nitrtate .20- .40. I have also stated countless times that I can't get that lowered. I do h20 changes with filtered water 1 -2 times month. I was feeding variety of things. Am very confused why I can't seem to hang on to anything any length of time. I thought I had whatever problem there was licked. The tang died when I had him for 1 year. The clarki, I had for 6 months.
I hope this helps.... Thanks!!!!

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Well, unless you figure out how to get those nitrates down you'll have problems. Do you have lr? Your cc and bakpak are both nitrate factories. If there is nothing in there now I would suggest going with a dsb, lr, and later add a good skimmer. If you want to keep the set up you have, you'll have to vacuum out the cc on a regular basis and change the filter medium in your bakpak every other week. HTH
Dan'l

 

[polka]

Whoa! Now i'm really confused!!!!!!!! the guy who sold me this pakbak told me that I would only clean the filter bale once a year and I have read on this bb that you should only vacuum the cc one side one time and then the other side the next time (when doing h20 changes) If I add l/r do I have to maintain the water differently? ie: add minerals or vitamins or things along that nature? If I were to do the dsb, how? where do I get the sand, Why does that change the water quality. What's wrong with the skimmer on the bakpak? This is what is so upsetting, I have been nickle and dimed to death on this tank. I no longer visit the store that did that, but I was told that this system I have now would be very adequate. Thank you for your time and patience!!! I seem to be losing mine.

 

[polka]

Hello Flydan........please answer the last question. Thank you!

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner... I lost track of this thread.
Any mechanical filter you have with some sort of media in it, such as carbon, collect debris over time which starts to decompose. This causes your nitrates to go up which can cause algae blooms and other problems. If you do use carbon I recommend only running it for about 48 hrs to take the yellowness out of your water. I don't use any media in my hang on filter, just the sleeve to catch large particals. It's there for the surface water movement and that's about it. I still rinse it out whenever I do water changes.
As far as the cc. Vacuuming one side and then the other was good advice, but you still have to do that on a regular basis. With a dsb, you just leave it alone. A dsb with lots of lr IS your filtration.
As far as the Bakpak goes, I have no personal experience with it so I'm not going to flame it. You can check the search feature on top of this screen for "skimmers" or "protien skimmers" and find out all you want to know on that. I believe most people are happy with Berlin skimmers, but again, I wont speak for others.
Hope I got most of your questions this time!
Dan'l

 

[mr . salty]

Your problem may be that a tank that small,with no live rock has a very limited biological filter capasity.That is,,Your tank has just enough to barly keep up with the bio load that is in there.When you add another fish,the bio system is put out of balance.This can cause a mini recycle as the tank needs top make nore bacteria to keep up with the added waste this new addition produces.When this recycle occurs the water quality(mainly ammonia,and nitrites) go out of wack.This may be killing the older fish that are used to the water/tank just the way it was...As far as your other Questions are concerned,It looks like they have all been covered in the other posts...I also would reccomend getting rid of the crushed coral and going with about 3-4 inches of live sand.And about 25-40lbs of live rock..This site sells both at very reasonable prices...Real GOOD stuff too...

 

[polka]

Thanks Mr. Salty and FlyDan:
How do I go about changing to a dsb? Can I put it over the c/c? How do I add l/r? do I then have to ad trace elements and all that type of thing? I guess I need to start reading again.
Have another quesiton......I was looking into this BB live sand, would 20# be enough or would I need more? can I ad the lr and ls and the same time?
[ September 23, 2001: Message edited by: Polka ]