Was this a bad Idea

olingerjccj

olingerjccj

Member
I have a 47 bowfront Its been up for 8 weeks about. I had a clown fish, Cleaner shrimp,some snails and a sand sifting starfish. Last weekend My LFS was going out of business, Things were so cheap I bought a small Yellow tang to help with hair algae(now there is not a trace of it in my tank) another clown and a goby of some sort its got a silver body with black markings he picks at the substrate and filters it through his gills I think. I added these all at once. My live rock came from another tank so it was not completly dead just no light. Everyone is doing fine should I be concerned. My ammonia is still at 0.
This is a 2nd part I know this is long but here it is, I use tank water for now but If my Tank was getting ready to crash is there any signs.
thanks
 
fishygurl

fishygurl

Active Member
personally i would get rid of the yellow tang and the sand sifting starfish, the yellow tang imo would need a bigger tank and the sand sifting starfish will starve... can u post pics of the goby that sifts the sand? it sounded like a diamond goby or yellow headed sleeper goby until u said black markings.. anyways your ammonia could spike up and the bigger the fish were the faster it could spike how long has it been since u added all of them? how long has your tank been set up?
 
fishfreak1242

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Originally Posted by olingerjccj
http:///forum/post/2617032
I have a 47 bowfront Its been up for 8 weeks about. I had a clown fish, Cleaner shrimp,some snails and a sand sifting starfish. Last weekend My LFS was going out of business, Things were so cheap I bought a small Yellow tang to help with hair algae(now there is not a trace of it in my tank) another clown and a goby of some sort its got a silver body with black markings he picks at the substrate and filters it through his gills I think. I added these all at once. My live rock came from another tank so it was not completly dead just no light. Everyone is doing fine should I be concerned. My ammonia is still at 0.
This is a 2nd part I know this is long but here it is, I use tank water for now but If my Tank was getting ready to crash is there any signs.
thanks
There are a few things that you should consider about your tank. Since your tank is still fairly new, you should not have bought all of those fish especially a tang. I would recommend giving it away to someone that has a bigger tank or selling it back to some other LFS. Once it gets bigger, it will need alot more swimming room and will become stressed causing an ich outbreak. I would watch you nitrates very carefully over the next few days. The new inhabitants could cause a spike so you should have some water ready incase you do have a spike so that you can do a water change. If your tank is crashing then you inhabitants would be dying rapidly and your parameters would be out of control. IMO, you should not have bought any of the things that you did.
 
olingerjccj

olingerjccj

Member
Really get rid of the tang. Yellows are the smaller ones and he eats hair algae, And my star I like him too he climbs on my rocks he is cool but will starve is there anything i could feed him. My ammonia has been at 0 for a while.
here are some pics
 
olingerjccj

olingerjccj

Member
I guess I said that wrong since i use tap water not to say that my tank is crashing but way down the road it it might and I say might crash are there any signs
 
fishfreak1242

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Even though yellow tangs are some of the smaller tangs, they still get up to 9", and will still need a bigger tank. If you plan on keeping it up until it get up to about 4" then I should be fine otherwise get rid of it. My friend had a yellow tang in his 46 gal bow and he ended up giving it to his friend because it got ich from being stressed from not having enough space to roam.
 
phxfishguy

phxfishguy

Member
There is not much you can do about the starfish. Anyone who you give it to will have the same problem. Just avoid getting another one in the future. Another thing is you should definitely switch to RO water. I used tap water when I started and I have since bought an RO/DI system. With the tap water I was losing fish. I have had the RO/DI for over a year and have not lost any fish.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
I believe a 46 is too small for a sand sifting star and he may end up starving to death. Add to that a sand sifting goby which is helping deplete the food in your sand and could speed up the death of the star. You certainly are moving fast and will have to stay on top of water changes. The tang will outgrow your tank fast. I would try to get rid of the tang and the star and keep the rest. Getting a tang to take care of the hair algae is like sweeping dirt under the carpet. You've made it look nice but the problem is still there. If you aren't using RO water then chances are you have both nitrates and phosphates which fertilize algae. To combat nitrates and phosphates all you have to do is regular water changes with nitrate and phosphate free water (RO) and feed quality foods sparingly.
 
vampofvegas

vampofvegas

Member
Get store credit at another LFS for the Tang.
Buy an RO/DI system for your SW Tank or purchase the Water premixed or RO/DI from the LFS with your new store credit. Your hair algae will start to disappear. Getting a tang to fix the algae problem is like having squeeking brakes and you just put in ear plugs so you dont hear them any more.. Eventually your brakes will fail. Same thing here.. fix the problem.. not cover it up.
You should probably read a lot more before purchasing anything SW related. You pretty much went against a bunch of 'laws' of SW keeping. So read start by reading this: https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/301033/101-tips-to-beginning-and-maintaining-a-saltwater-aquarium
But dont stop there.. continue to read before you purchase anything.
 
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