the delicate live, the hardy die

[pegandgrif]

I Have Had My 56 Gallon Up And Running For 5 Months. We Have Roughly 80lbs. Live Rock. The Paramators Are..
Salt .022, P.h. 8.2, Kh 16, Ammona 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 50 Mg, Ca Under 400, We Have Been Doing Water Changes Once A Month The First Few Months, But Have Now Have Uped That To 1/3 Every Other Week. Our Nitrates Have Been Higher, Thats The Reason For More Frequite Changes. We Have Lost Sence The Begening.. 2 Rock Anemone, Three Yellow Tangs. Three Bangie Cardnals, 1 Brittalstar Fish Due To Waisting Away, 2 Firefish, 1 Purple Fire Fish, 1 Scooter Bleeny, 1 gold striped maroon Clown. Now This Has Been At Differant Times, As We Have Not Had All Those At One Time. The Survivers Are.. 1 Randelly Goby, 1 BLUE TANG,1 gold striped maroon Clown, 1 Midnight Black Angilfish, One Mandarinfish, 1 Royal Gramma, 1 Flametail Goby, 1 Firefish, 2 Turbo Snails, 2 Peppermint Shrimp, 1 Camelback Shrimp, 1 Long Tentacle Anemone, 1 Rock Anemone, And A Couple Rocks With Mushrooms, Featherdusters, And Few Corals. We Were Warned About The Mandarinefish And The Angelfish About Their Bad Eating Habbits, But They Are Thriving. We Feed, Seaweed Select Once A Day, And Rotate Flake And Frozen Every Other Day. We Also Hatch Our Own Brine Shrimp And Feed Them Ever Other Day, Making Sure To Separate The Shells. What Can We Do To Be Able To Keep The Bangie Cardnals And Firefish Alive? Thanks

 

[nudilove]

I'm definitely not trying to flame you here, just trying to give some advice, so please take it the right way, I want to help! :cheer:
Your salinity is a bit low, 1.024-.025 would be better.
1/3 is a VERY large water change, a better way to do it is 5% once per week, this reduces shock.
Do you currently have the blue tang? If you do I would recommend removing him, I worry about him stressing in that small of a tank and giving the entire tank ICH.
Can you explain more about what is wrong with the cardinals and firefish? I'm not sure I understand why they arent staying alive.

 

[sinner's girl]

5% isn't much though...I'd do 10-25%, and you shouldn't really need to do 1/3 every week...look for what's causing the high nitrates...and in some cases, more water changes can do more harm than good. Are you moving the lr around (this would stir stuff up)....try feeding less...
Not to be a pain, but since you wrote the post in title caps, I can't read it, so I can't really help you.

 

[ray28576]

I think you may be over feeding and you may have too many fish. This is where I'd say the nitrates are coming from. As far as the water changes go, IMO, I'd do a 50% water change to after I found the reason for the Trates, then do a 10% water change each week after that. You want to slowly bring that salt level up. Don't try it all at once, that would be to much of a swing. I'd bring it to about 1.025. What kind of filtration are you using? Any Powerheads? What is the temp? We'll figure you're problem out.

 

[pegandgrif]

Originally Posted by Ray28576
I think you may be over feeding and you may have too many fish. This is where I'd say the nitrates are coming from. As far as the water changes go, IMO, I'd do a 50% water change to after I found the reason for the Trates, then do a 10% water change each week after that. You want to slowly bring that salt level up. Don't try it all at once, that would be to much of a swing. I'd bring it to about 1.025. What kind of filtration are you using? Any Powerheads? What is the temp? We'll figure you're problem out.

the filtration that I,m using are... protineskimmer--cyclone 100, whisper 60. the temp. is at 84. i,m worried that my tap water may to blame for the nitrates. yes no? i also use phas. guard. on one side of the whisper. i tryed to put a bigger bio wheel filter, but the tank is a 56 tall cube with the suport bar in the mid. filter was too big by 1 inch. the blue tang is one of the original fish that i put in. i have had ick only at the start but not in last few months.

 

[pegandgrif]

the blue tang was one of the first we purchased. it was the size of a nickel, now fifty cent piece. the only cardnial that has lived is the spotted, we like the bangie cardinals a lot better though. but they just die after about two weeks. the firefish did well up till recent. one jumped out, and two just died, the one left stays hid up at the very top. we were thinking of buying bottled water that would get expensive. we have a filter on faucet, but not r.o. filter.

 

[pegandgrif]

Originally Posted by NudiLove
I'm definitely not trying to flame you here, just trying to give some advice, so please take it the right way, I want to help! :cheer:
Your salinity is a bit low, 1.024-.025 would be better.
1/3 is a VERY large water change, a better way to do it is 5% once per week, this reduces shock.
Do you currently have the blue tang? If you do I would recommend removing him, I worry about him stressing in that small of a tank and giving the entire tank ICH.
Can you explain more about what is wrong with the cardinals and firefish? I'm not sure I understand why they arent staying alive.

the blue tang was an original purchase at the very start.it was the size of a nickel, now three times bigger. only had an ick problim the first month. treated with kick ick, and has been clear sence. we were told by dealer to do a couple big water changes then about 10 to 15 % a week after. we are hoping that it's not our tap water. we were thinking of puchasing bottled put that would get expensive. we do not have r.o. but we do have a filter on our faucet for heavy medals. we keep it changed when indecated. the only cardinal we have to live is the spotted. the bangie died after 2 weeks. thats when we were told to do the water changes.

 

[ray28576]

Originally Posted by pegandgrif
the blue tang was an original purchase at the very start.it was the size of a nickel, now three times bigger. only had an ick problim the first month. treated with kick ick, and has been clear sence. we were told by dealer to do a couple big water changes then about 10 to 15 % a week after. we are hoping that it's not our tap water. we were thinking of puchasing bottled put that would get expensive. we do not have r.o. but we do have a filter on our faucet for heavy medals. we keep it changed when indecated. the only cardinal we have to live is the spotted. the bangie died after 2 weeks. thats when we were told to do the water changes.
You do not want to use tap water. That could be part of the nitrate problem. You can buy RO water at walmart, or use distilled water. It's very cheap at most grocery stores.

84 is a little high IMO for a FOWLR tank. Try to bring it down to about 79-81 if you can. 84 isn't extremely bad and I'm sure thats not what killed your fish. I just think it should be a little lower.

Also, have you tested your water for copper. Tap water tends to have copper in it, so does some ick treatments. If you haven't tested for it, you should get a test and see what the levels are. :happyfish

 

[pegandgrif]

when we had a ick problim at the very first we use kick ick, which did not have copper. we are trying to go with some corals and such. nother on the aggesive side. not sure what you meen by FOWLR tank??? i will lower the temp. slight.

 

[valgae]

i have a tank like that also w/ the same problem. was going for a emperor 400 but too wide ended up getting 2 emperor 240s. im a little cramped for space but i got a little creative and both filters, protien skimmer,heater, and a couple of powerheads fit on the back!

 

[ray28576]

FOWLR means fish only with live rock. You'll see that a lot on these message boards.

Since you are going to try corals, Do you mind if I ask what kind of lighting you have? What kind of corals are going to get? :happyfish

 

[pegandgrif]

Originally Posted by Ray28576
FOWLR means fish only with live rock. You'll see that a lot on these message boards.

Since you are going to try corals, Do you mind if I ask what kind of lighting you have? What kind of corals are going to get? :happyfish

please bare with me on all this comp. stuff. i'm not very familar with this machine. so not sure of all the abbreveations used. when we purchased tank and stuff we made sure that we baught the corallife light to fit. we baught up grades at the start so not have to down the line. right now some of the LR we bought has a couple mushrooms, tube warms, featherdusters, polups, nothing to spetacular as of yet. to new at this. we are also consurned. that living in the Charleston S.C. area and hurricans, comes power outages. we have a small battery operated air pump, but fear the next big purchase is a small ginerater. what is your oppinun?

 

[ray28576]

Originally Posted by pegandgrif
please bare with me on all this comp. stuff. i'm not very familar with this machine. so not sure of all the abbreveations used. when we purchased tank and stuff we made sure that we baught the corallife light to fit. we baught up grades at the start so not have to down the line. right now some of the LR we bought has a couple mushrooms, tube warms, featherdusters, polups, nothing to spetacular as of yet. to new at this. we are also consurned. that living in the Charleston S.C. area and hurricans, comes power outages. we have a small battery operated air pump, but fear the next big purchase is a small ginerater. what is your oppinun?
A generator is great to have. How many watts of lighting do you have. I would recomend at least 280watts of light for a 56gl. That should be fine for soft corals.

 

[pegandgrif]

i looked on the light itself and it said 65w. the light has duel bulbs, and was what we were told that was for corals and for that tank. {the tank dimentions are 30x 18x25high} it also has the moon light for night.

 

[ray28576]

That light isn't strong enough to keep corals. Did your local fish store tell you it would be fine? You could get PC lighting and that would be fine for soft corals as long as you have enough watts. If you want to try anemones and harder corals sometime, then you will probably want to go with Metal Halide lighting. The lighting for corals, especially MH tends to be kind of expensive, so before you buy anything search around for it on the internet. If you want e-mail me at rayray28576@sbcglobal.net and I'll give you a couple sites to look at. We aren't aloud to put names of other sites on the boards here.

Oh yeah, good rule of thumb is that you will want at least 5-6 watts per gallon. :happyfish

 

[newbieabc]

you guy's it's fine to use tap water as long as you use aqua safe it makes water safe for your fish it neutrlizes chlorine,chloramine,and heavy metals harmful to fish.thats probably your problem.

 

[fishieness]

Originally Posted by newbieABC

you guy's it's fine to use tap water as long as you use aqua safe it makes water safe for your fish it neutrlizes chlorine,chloramine,and heavy metals harmful to fish.thats probably your problem.
but there are many things it wont take out. And if you havae corals, i DEFINATLY owuldnt use tap water.

 

[ray28576]

Originally Posted by newbieABC

you guy's it's fine to use tap water as long as you use aqua safe it makes water safe for your fish it neutrlizes chlorine,chloramine,and heavy metals harmful to fish.thats probably your problem.
No, tap water is not fine. Just to name a couple things in it that it doesn't neutrilize, Phosphates. With tap water you will have huge algae outbreaks. Tap water can also have nitrates in it. It also has ammonia in it. I'm not flaming you, I used tap water when I first started this hobby. I really like Distilled and RO water better. It is just a lot safer to use. Even when you neutrilize certain things in the water, they're still there. IMO it is just a lot better to use cleaner water.

 

[pegandgrif]

i do use a water conditioner that i use for my freashwater tanks, and pond. i also use phos. guard in one side of the filter. i will test the water from my tap threw the filter that is on it. we have not used it threw the filter just straight tap. i did talk with the dealer again about the lighting. he said that the watts may only be 65, but the kelv. are at 10,000. is this still ok? the anmonies that are in there now and the few corals that are there seem to be doing ok.