Need Advice on New Tank, Possible Need to Stock Immediately

[najer]

Ensure highest water quality and a varied diet, rich in nutritious marine-base vegetables to keep your Blue Tang in optimal health.

Diet, I had a baby 1 inch scopas in my Evo for about 6 weeks or so to fatten it up before going into my big tank, as stated baby tangs want to graze all day and there are 4 types of macro in my Evo as well as micro algae, unless you get really grubby rock I would move it on.

 

[laverda]

A 1 inch tang in a 13g is troublesome. Just no space and they need a lot of food at that size to stay healthy and grow. They are prone to disease and tiny spaces can be stressful. The tiny hippos are actually more delicate.

Your 70g would be better off with a tomini or kole than a hippo anyways.

I have to agree 100%. I did not realize that tank is so small. Why not buy the sellers whole tank?

 

[ReefRusty]

Also, to add more information, here are my current parameters for the items I have been testing.

I have not tested after dosing Seachem Prime or Stability as I wanted to wait 24 hours to let it work through the water column.

Temp - 78, had a ramp up to 80 because I was testing my reef-pi to see if I could increase the temp.
PH - has been stable at 8.4
Salinity - stable at 1.026
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 1
Nitrate - 50

What app is this ?

 

[Cell]

As great as the deal may be, I would pass on it if I were you. This is your first reef tank, you are 3 weeks in and are about to stock it full of fish and coral all at once. You atent doing the livestock a favor if your tank is not ready for them.

 

[Cell]

You say you are "in the process of establishing" a Redsea e260 next month. What does this mean? It's on order? Not many new reefers upgrade before they even finish cycling their first tank. And it's only a 3 ft tank anyway which is not great for a hippo.

 

[3sgterror]

Theres a million different opinions on care/issues/etc, but I would agree with what LiveAquaria has to say about them:

Although Tangs will eat meaty foods along with the other fish in the aquarium, it is important that they are offered plenty of marine based seaweed and algae. This will strengthen the Blue Tang's immune system, reduce aggression and improve their overall health. Offer dried seaweed tied to a rock or use a veggie clip, and feed at least three times per week. Sea Veggies, Seaweed Salad and Ocean Nutrition are all ideal products and are very easy to use.

Proper care of the Blue Tang requires a slightly higher degree of dedication and attention as it is more susceptible to lateral line disease, fin erosion, Ich and other skin parasites than many other fish. Ensure highest water quality and a varied diet, rich in nutritious marine-base vegetables to keep your Blue Tang in optimal health.

Many of the Tangs are known as 'Ich Magnets', because they are more susceptible to it than heartier fish like Damsel/Clowns. If the tang gets sick it could easily spread to the other fish in the system

Thank you again for this response. I will take the hippo in today but will look to re-home the fish immediately.

 

[3sgterror]

A 1 inch tang in a 13g is troublesome. Just no space and they need a lot of food at that size to stay healthy and grow. They are prone to disease and tiny spaces can be stressful. The tiny hippos are actually more delicate.

Your 70g would be better off with a tomini or kole than a hippo anyways.

Completely understand this issue. That was one of my immediate concerns with this dilemma. Based on other feedback, I am going to look to re-home the tang immediately.

 

[3sgterror]

As great as the deal may be, I would pass on it if I were you. This is your first reef tank, you are 3 weeks in and are about to stock it full of fish and coral all at once. You atent doing the livestock a favor if your tank is not ready for them.

I do absolutely agree with you. I had no intent on stocking this soon but in regards to the fish, its I either try to care for them or they are left unattended, thus die.

For whatever reason, the current owner can not care for them and has not been able to find a home. I have no clue how hard they looked / tried to. I was going over to buy something unrelated and happened across the tank.

My intent on buying the fish was not to score a great deal. It's all about trying to help the fish and a person in need out.

 

[3sgterror]

You say you are "in the process of establishing" a Redsea e260 next month. What does this mean? It's on order? Not many new reefers upgrade before they even finish cycling their first tank. And it's only a 3 ft tank anyway which is not great for a hippo.

The e260 is already in my possession and completely built, leak tested, and ready to go. I can not fill it with water at the moment because we are having work done to the room it will sit in and needed to be able to move the tank around. That work will be completed mid January.

In the meantime, I bought this Fluval Evo to get started in the hobby and to use it as a QT tank once my main is established. I do have new rock that will be used in the e260 cycling at the moment so that it is ready to go come mid January.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If the tank is not cycled, I would not rely on aged water. Your nitrate/ nitrite will be that way until you have fish producing waste but on other hand I would finish out the cycle
You know the effects of stocking too soon despite your situation.
I would get a second opinion and take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test the water for you and see what results they get
The hippo in an EVO should be ok temporarily but may impose a little stress.
Feed sparingly and monitor tank water if you need to move forward

 

[3sgterror]

I have to agree 100%. I did not realize that tank is so small. Why not buy the sellers whole tank?

I do not have the ability to purchase the whole tank. I already have my main tank (Red Sea e260) in my possession. I do not have the room or funds for the whole setup.

The other party intends to keep the tank as well so that they can start again when they return from out of state.

 

[3sgterror]

What app is this ?

Aquarimate is the app. Its nice and can track everything you want, but there are other free alternatives.

This costs $10 to download and then $10 for their cloud service per year. I had Play Store dollars that were about to expire so I used that to purchase the app. Otherwise, I don't think I would have paid $20 for the app.

Aquarium Note is a free alternative (pay to remove adds) that does all the same as Aquarimate. The only thing in my opinion that Aquarimate tops them on is the cloud backup and ability to access from any device.

 

[Brew12]

A few quick comments....
Transferring water with the fish will help reduce stress on the fish but will do very little for cycling your system. Getting a few pieces of live rock and keeping them wet will help with nitrite and ammonia control.

If I were in this situation, I would get a small bottle of Biospira and add it to the tank immediately, along with keeping Prime on hand in case you start getting a spike.

And yes, rehoming the Hippo is absolutely the right thing to do. Wonderful fish but easily stressed and needs a lot of room to graze, swim, and hide. I push my luck keeping one in a 187g system.

 

[Anubisxii]

I very much agree with the last post I would also add that I couldn't hurt to get a bottle of cheaper bacteria something like microbacter 7 or API stress zyne and add a little bit everyday just to keep more bacteria coming in to help with any of the extra levels that occur from a partially cycle tank and mixing in the fresh tank.

 

[3sgterror]

A few quick comments....
Transferring water with the fish will help reduce stress on the fish but will do very little for cycling your system. Getting a few pieces of live rock and keeping them wet will help with nitrite and ammonia control.

If I were in this situation, I would get a small bottle of Biospira and add it to the tank immediately, along with keeping Prime on hand in case you start getting a spike.

And yes, rehoming the Hippo is absolutely the right thing to do. Wonderful fish but easily stressed and needs a lot of room to graze, swim, and hide. I push my luck keeping one in a 187g system.

I will be getting all the rock from his tank. The tank is very well established and has been running for over 1.5 years . My plan is to swap pieces of my cycling rock with his established rock to help with the transition. I will also stick the remaining rock and my rock in a bin to continue to cycle.

Thanks for the response and insight.

 

[Cell]

Also consider if you have LFS in the area, the seller has options other than you.

 

[3sgterror]

Also consider if you have LFS in the area, the seller has options other than you.

I think that is going to be the path that I take. I don't know the circumstances around his impending move and if he explored that option himself, but with how little I am prepared for a tang, that will be my easiest and quickest resolution.

 

[Fink]

I think that is going to be the path that I take. I don't know the circumstances around his impending move and if he explored that option himself, but with how little I am prepared for a tang, that will be my easiest and quickest resolution.

Where are you located? It's possible that someone else on here would take the tang, and you can still get the other stuff if you actually want it.

 

[3sgterror]

First of all, thank you to everyone that has responded and given advice and direction. Here is the update that was promised.

Transport of the livestock went off without a hitch. I was able to get all of the previous owners live rock, bio balls, and water from his tank. When I got home I removed everything from my tank except the sand bed as I still needed that.

I filled up my tank with his water and brought it back up to temp as it had lost some in the transport. It was sitting around 75 degrees or so when I got home. Once it was back up to 78 degrees, I started to acclimate all of the livestock to get them warmed up again. I assume they were at the same 75 degree area in their containers, maybe a little colder.

After about an hour or so, the tank was back up to temp and I was able to get everything back in the tank. The fish seem fine and have been very active swimming around the tank. They have taken food just fine and I have done two smaller feedings so far. I am trying to limit the feeding at the moment to help with ammonia and nitrite spikes. I dosed Seachem Prime and Stability to help with spikes also.

All of the corals started opening up and seem happy and healthy. I still need to rearrange all the rock and corals as I was just trying to get everything back in a tank and get everyone happy. Everything has been in the tank for roughly 24 hours and seem happy and healthy for the most part. Testing for ammonia was at zero, nitrite is showing 10 at the moment. Hopefully the prime neutralizes that and it will come down over the next couple of days. I also have plenty of water on hand to do water changes as needed.

The tang will be posted to this forum to see if there is any interest. I am in the King of Prussia, PA area if anyone reading this thread would be interested in the tang. If I do not receive any interest by end of day, I plan on taking it to my LFS later on tonight / tomorrow morning.

 

[Cell]

Tang looks tiny. You have some time