Advice on my Setup

[Saltwada]

Hi everyone!

Since i am relatively new to the hobby i wanted to get some professional advice from you all about my setup. Currently i have some sort of disease in my tank because i cant keep a blue tang for my life. I am going to attempt to go fallow and i have a purple fire fish, yellow tang, 2 false perculas, flame angel, and a 6 line wrasse. This is my current set up with the rocks. and radion light. i have two power heads running, but wondering if thats a good place to put them. if these power heads stink, please recommend some to me. My sump i have a SCA skimmer and somtimes i cant tell if its working or not because it barley collects black color water. The return pump line is green for some reason and whenever i turn off the pump all this white stuff falls into my sump which gets annoying. Lastly any tips on what to put in my sump, how to run my refugium would be much appreicated.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

IMO, your tank is overstocked with fish. It is also to small for tangs. Do you test your water? What do you test for and what are the parameters?

 

[Saltwada]

IMO, your tank is overstocked with fish. It is also to small for tangs. Do you test your water? What do you test for and what are the parameters?

what does IMO mean? i thought 60 gallons is okay for a tank with tangs? and yes i test my water. my ammonia and nitrites are always 0, nitrate stays around 10 after water changes. ph is 8.0, calcium 400, alk 8. how many fish would be recommended for a 60 gallon then?

 

[scriptmonkey]

How old is the tank?

 

[Saltwada]

what does IMO mean? i thought 60 gallons is okay for a tank with tangs? and yes i test my water. my ammonia and nitrites are always 0, nitrate stays around 10 after water changes. ph is 8.0, calcium 400, alk 8. how many fish would be recommended for a 60 gallon then?

this is a

How old is the tank?

tank is about 3 months into the setup. I had a 60 gallon marinland with HOB filter running for 2 years and basically just transferred everything over.

 

[ccombs]

Hey!

Welcome to R2R.

Before jumping to conclusions about the disease, I think there might be some other issues we need to address.

To help you out more we need the following info.

Tank Size and Sump Size
Time Tank Has Been Running
Last Addition
Parameters (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite)
Symptoms of Disease

EDIT-You answered most of these while I was typing. Sorry for redundancy.

 

[Saltwada]

Hey!

Welcome to R2R.

Before jumping to conclusions about the disease, I think there might be some other issues we need to address.

To help you out more we need the following info.

Tank Size and Sump Size
Time Tank Has Been Running
Last Addition
Parameters (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite)
Symptoms of Disease

EDIT-You answered most of these while I was typing. Sorry for redundancy.

Hi! thanks for the quick response! Here is the answers:

Tank Size and Sump Size 60 gallon and 20 gallon sump i think
Time Tank Has Been Running 3 months, but had a 60 gallon marinland tank with HOB filters up and running prior for 2 years.
Last Addition Blue tang
Parameters (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite) 0, 10, 0
Symptoms of Disease: White spots all over just the yellow and blue tang, yellow shook them off, but the blue got covered and one of its gills stopped working and died. now the flame angel has some white spots on its face and tail.

 

[Jon Fishman]

That's some cramped quarters for a tang, but doesn't explain why they keep dying unless you're buying big ones to start.

 

[ccombs]

I will add this as well. Keeping Tangs is more about swimming space than it is actual water volume. Both are important, but many (myself included) would argue that having a long stretch to swim is more important than a rule of thumb for volume.

I personally believe your tank is too small for a blue tang. What are the dimensions?

 

[Saltwada]

That's some cramped quarters for a tang, but doesn't explain why they keep dying unless you're buying big ones to start.

hmm really? i always thought 60 gallon is fine for one. but yeah im buying decent sized ones. doesnt buying a fish that big typically show it has lived a while?

 

[ccombs]

Hi! thanks for the quick response! Here is the answers:

Tank Size and Sump Size 60 gallon and 20 gallon sump i think
Time Tank Has Been Running 3 months, but had a 60 gallon marinland tank with HOB filters up and running prior for 2 years.
Last Addition Blue tang
Parameters (Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite) 0, 10, 0
Symptoms of Disease: White spots all over just the yellow and blue tang, yellow shook them off, but the blue got covered and one of its gills stopped working and died. now the flame angel has some white spots on its face and tail.

I recommend a freshwater dip for flukes.

Get a dark container, fill with RODI water and match temp of tank. Put fish in container for 5 minutes max. Dark container is important because you are looking for white seeds like things to fall off.

It sounds like you actually saw this happen on the yellow in salt water.

I would start here and then we can move forward with some additional advice.

@Frtdrmrose7 is a pro at this. This sounds like flukes to me if they are falling off and attacking gills.

Do you have any pics, that would help as well.

 

[Saltwada]

I will add this as well. Keeping Tangs is more about swimming space than it is actual water volume. Both are important, but many (myself included) would argue that having a long stretch to swim is more important than a rule of thumb for volume.

I personally believe your tank is too small for a blue tang. What are the dimensions?

yeah that makes sense i recently sold my 60 gallon that was 4 ft acorss the dimensions of this tank is 24 across and 24 the other way

 

[Jon Fishman]

Although not "gospel" an immediate google search instantly takes you to live Aquaria, and they recommend 180g minimum tank for a Blue Tang.

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/330/?pcatid=330

 

[Saltwada]

I recommend a freshwater dip for flukes.

Get a dark container, fill with RODI water and match temp of tank. Put fish in container for 5 minutes max. Dark container is important because you are looking for white seeds like things to fall off.

It sounds like you actually saw this happen on the yellow in salt water.

I would start here and then we can move forward.

@Frtdrmrose7 is a pro at this. This sounds like flukes to me if they are falling off and attacking gills.

Do you have any pics, that would help as well.

how do i know its flukes? i freshwater dipped all three of them and no spots came off. i was told i should qt?

 

[Saltwada]

Although not "gospel" an immediate google search instantly takes you to live Aquaria, and they recommend 180g minimum tank for a Blue Tang.

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/330/?pcatid=330

yeah i guess i really just want one. i had contained one for about 1 year until disease hit it bad. specially a diseas ethat made its face turn purple and sit on the bottom of tank with no ich

 

[ccombs]

yeah that makes sense i recently sold my 60 gallon that was 4 ft acorss the dimensions of this tank is 24 across and 24 the other way

So long term you should avoid tangs in that one (my personal opinion)

Short term we need to look into the fish getting better. Typically we see white spots as ich or velvet, pictures will really help.

Although not perfect, the general rule of thumb is if you can count the spots it is ich, if there are a ton it is velvet. There are also some other considerations.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/

Good news is that both of these are treated with copper. So even if you diagnose the wrong one, you can still treat properly.

Velvet moves much quicker and can wipe out fish quick.

I would recommend getting some copper power and getting your fish into QT. You should slowly ramp up the dose to 1.75 over the course of 4 days.

If you can only get cupramine where you are, it is a different type of copper and has different dosing requirements. Most people on the forum find more success with copper power.

 

[Jon Fishman]

what did you add to the tank during that year? A parasite/disease/etc won't just "happen" they're introduced. Think of yourself put into an 8' x 8' glass box with a few air-holes and some fans to recirculate the air, and then one day someone throws that monkey from Outbreak in there to give you company......

 

[Saltwada]

So long term you should avoid tangs in that one (my personal opinion)

Short term we need to look into the fish getting better. Typically we see white spots as ich or velvet, pictures will really help.

Although not perfect, the general rule of thumb is if you can count the spots it is ich, if there are a ton it is velvet. There are also some other considerations.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/

thanks for your help! also if i do decide to get a bleu tang and lets say i qt it and have good water what can kill it in the long run if its stresed, but eats good

 

[Saltwada]

what did you add to the tank during that year? A parasite/disease/etc won't just "happen" they're introduced. Think of yourself put into an 8' x 8' glass box with a few air-holes and some fans to recirculate the air, and then one day someone throws that monkey from Outbreak in there to give you company......

i think i threw in a moorish idol because the fish store told me i could do it and i foudn out after it got ich bad an brought a disease into my tank. and moosih idols carry alot of diseases

 

[ccombs]

thanks for your help! also if i do decide to get a bleu tang and lets say i qt it and have good water what can kill it in the long run if its stresed, but eats good

At the end of the day it is your call. I think you are looking at this the wrong way. We shouldn't look at our tanks and think which fish can I cram in here and survive. I think we should look at our tanks and ask ourselves what can thrive and live a full, happy life in the tank.

This is debated some, but many argue that a stressed fish fights off disease less efficiently. The reality is that there are probably diseases in a lot of tanks, but fish are healthy enough to fight them. Other than that, I am not a tang expert, maybe @4FordFamily can give you some insight on the downside of having a large tang in such a small tank and expand on my post.

Also, a Moorish Idol is quite a large fish for your system as well. Is that fish still alive?