New Tank issues

[revhtree]

Cleaned this thread up a little.

Let's please remember that if we are here to receive help or to give help to do it gracefully and peacefully. I understand that passions sometimes cloud our judgements in how we respond and feelings can get hurt quick. The written word is already hard enough to decipher without emotions taking over.

Thank you all for being members here, for the knowledge you share, and for coming here to learn.

PS. I understand tough love is needed sometimes but "tough" doesn't have to be mean or rude. Also I'm not saying everything deleted was mean but it either contributed to a derailed thread or it quoted parts of it.

 

[nereefpat]

Phosphate .01

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Ammonia .02

Calcium 444

Alkaline 5.7

Salinity 35

Temp 79

Nothing there in the parameters that would kill fish. Alkalinity could be a point higher, but neither fish nor your bubble tip anemone or zoas/polyps should care too much.

Both convict tang and hippo died

3 cardinals died

1 clown died



I have bubble algae tank is 2 months old.

Wanted to know if maybe they just died since all my fish are online ordered and maybe they just couldn’t take the stress they died a week later. One per day ish until I have what’s left now.

Sometimes fishes die, and we will never find out why. You are right that shipping is hard on them. Depending on how they were acclimated, that has a huge impact too. There's also the possibility of disease. For now, I would take things slowly and monitor your current fish for a couple months before trying to add any of fishes.

Do you feel like I’m ready to replace my tangs etc. should I just let the tank mature for a couple more months.

The bubble algae/dinos? seems to be manageable with water changes 20% per week. Plus syphon

I would just go slow for now with the fish.

Letting the tank mature and get through the ugly phases is a good plan for now.

 

[Lavey29]

Nothing there in the parameters that would kill fish. Alkalinity could be a point higher, but neither fish nor your bubble tip anemone or zoas/polyps should care too much.


Sometimes fishes die, and we will never find out why. You are right that shipping is hard on them. Depending on how they were acclimated, that has a huge impact too. There's also the possibility of disease. For now, I would take things slowly and monitor your current fish for a couple months before trying to add any of fishes.

I would just go slow for now with the fish.

Letting the tank mature and get through the ugly phases is a good plan for now.

Not exactly...

Alkalinity is one of the most critical parameters in a reef tank. Unstable levels will cause an aquarium's pH to fluctuate, which can cause damage or even death to corals, fish and other livestock.

 

[Idoc]

Nutrients do seem low for a tank with that many fish. I'd expect your nitrates to be up there quite a bit...and phosphates depending on how much you are feeding. One possibility

A new tank takes quite awhile to mature. You should probably only add a couple of new fish every few weeks to a month in order for the system to catch up to handle the added bioload. Go real slow in the beginning.

A few problems you will probably encounter looking at that stock list and parameters:
1. Anenomes need a really well established tank to thrive. It is kind of early to be adding these to the tank.
2. Dragonets are very finicky. If you got one that eats frozen or pellets, then that improves its chances of survival. But, typically, they need to graze on pods all day long and a new system can't support this...these fish tend to starve to death in a new tank. If you notice its belly starting to sink in, sell it asap to someone locally or a local fish store.
3. Low phosphate and nitrates in a new tank is a death wish for dinoflagellates. If you can't feed more, then maybe consider dosing these nutrients.
4. Bubble algae - it's a nightmare if it takes a strong hold. Take out as much as possible manually for now. Your system is a bit too young to be jumping on Vibrant, probably.

 

[Dburr1014]

Nothing there in the parameters that would kill fish. Alkalinity could be a point higher, but neither fish nor your bubble tip anemone or zoas/polyps should care too much.


Sometimes fishes die, and we will never find out why. You are right that shipping is hard on them. Depending on how they were acclimated, that has a huge impact too. There's also the possibility of disease. For now, I would take things slowly and monitor your current fish for a couple months before trying to add any of fishes.

I would just go slow for now with the fish.

Letting the tank mature and get through the ugly phases is a good plan for now.

+1

Let it coast.
You will find out in a month or two if there are any diseases, they always have a way of showing their ugly heads.

After the 2 months, add one fish per every two to four weeks depending on the size. The bigger the fish the longer the wait.

 

[nereefpat]

Not exactly...

Alkalinity is one of the most critical parameters in a reef tank.

I agree, but this isn't exactly a reef tank. We aren't diagnosing why OP's SPS are not growing quickly enough.

Unstable levels will cause an aquarium's pH to fluctuate, which can cause damage or even death to corals, fish and other livestock.

There is zero chance that an alk of 5.7 dKH killed OP's fish.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Starting in this hobby can be difficult, confusing and aggravating. The desire to get it up and running, and especially adding livestock can be very difficult urge to control. But take it from those that have been through this before, slow down.

OK, you've had lots of responses. My advice is to consider it all and slow down. And I mean slow down even more than most of the posts above have recommended. A new tank isn't really settled in for at least 3 to 6 months and not fully mature for 9 to 12 months... usually.

I don't think you really need to do anything special here, unless some of your fish start to display obvious signs of disease. Just do some regular water changes and keep testing the parameters, but DO NOT add any new livestock for at least 2 or 3 months... and even longer if things continue to die.

Good luck and I hope you don't get too discouraged.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree, but this isn't exactly a reef tank. We aren't diagnosing why OP's SPS are not growing quickly enough.

There is zero chance that an alk of 5.7 dKH killed OP's fish.

Most certainly it was a contributing factor to the fish deaths. Fish come from stable LFS environments and are very stressed during shipping. Now, add way to many fish way to fast into a tank with 5.7 DKH (don't forget test error ratio too) and a PH of 8.9 and their stress factor increases 10x thus resulting in fish deaths. May take a few days or weeks but the stress causes immune systems to fail and disease sets in or other anatomy decline and you end up with 7 fish dead now and more to come.

 

[nereefpat]

Most certainly it was a contributing factor to the fish deaths. Fish come from stable LFS environments and are very stressed during shipping. Now, add way to many fish way to fast into a tank with 5.7 DKH (don't forget test error ratio too) and a PH of 8.9 and their stress factor increases 10x thus resulting in fish deaths. May take a few days or weeks but the stress causes immune systems to fail and disease sets in or other anatomy decline and you end up with 7 fish dead now and more to come.

Saying that 5.7 dKH alk "Most certainly it was a contributing factor to the fish deaths" is a ridiculous take. Alkalinity, as far as fish are concerned, is just a measure of how much acid it takes to drop the pH of the tank's water. The pH in the tank is plenty high enough (even though I don't believe 8.9 pH). It is really dumb to suggest that alk killed his/her new fish.

 

[Lavey29]

Saying that 5.7 dKH alk "Most certainly it was a contributing factor to the fish deaths" is a ridiculous take. Alkalinity, as far as fish are concerned, is just a measure of how much acid it takes to drop the pH of the tank's water. The pH in the tank is plenty high enough (even though I don't believe 8.9 pH). It is really dumb to suggest that alk killed his/her new fish.

We will just agree then. I will stick with proven reef aquaria facts that have been long standing and you can go with your opinion....good luck

 

[thurstonl041]

Thank you to the guys that gave advice on what to correct with instruction.

I’ve got my alkalinity to 8.5
Ph Down to 8

Changed my lighting ratio with my 160 red seas to 60 blue 25 white as recommended on some other threads if that’s wrong please advise me.

I did a water change and took out as much Dino’s as possible I believe it’s not bubble algae just Dino’s.

Anemones blew up really big after alk changed and fish seem more comfortable leaving the anemone and exploring the rest of the tank. I’m going to do smaller 10% water changes until nitrate raises and increase feeding.

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you to the guys that gave advice on what to correct with instruction.

I’ve got my alkalinity to 8.5
Ph Down to 8

Changed my lighting ratio with my 160 red seas to 60 blue 25 white as recommended on some other threads if that’s wrong please advise me.

I did a water change and took out as much Dino’s as possible I believe it’s not bubble algae just Dino’s.

Anemones blew up really big after alk changed and fish seem more comfortable leaving the anemone and exploring the rest of the tank. I’m going to do smaller 10% water changes until nitrate raises and increase feeding.

Exactly......lol and that's not dinos

 

[Manpeckz]

Do you only have one emerald crab for clean up? Just curious. Sounds like this tank could use more help in the CUC department.

Possibly chrysophyte algae?

 

[thurstonl041]

Exactly......lol and that's not dinos

They are long strings with bubbles on top if they aren’t Dino’s what are they?

 

[Lavey29]

They are long strings with bubbles on top if they aren’t Dino’s what are they?

Doesn't look like dinos in those pictures. New tanks have a lot of silicates in the sand so generally the first month maybe two, you get diatoms which typically last 2 to 4 weeks until the silicates are gone. With Diatoms present you are very unlikely to have dinos because Diatoms outcompete dinos. Usually around the 4 month mark GHA shows up and then people start using chemicals to get rid of GHA and bottom out their nutrients, then the dinos set in.

The only way to ID dinos is with a cheap Amazon microscope.

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/dinoflagellateid12_12_2019-pdf.1324729/

 

[Dburr1014]

Looks kinda like lyngbya. But I'm no expert.

 

[thurstonl041]

Here are some better photos?

 

[thurstonl041]

Here are some better photos?

 

[Reefering1]

I question how you had a ph of 8.9 with alk of 5.7, something doesn't sound right with testing.. how was that accomplished?

 

[Lavey29]

Here are some better photos?

It's diatoms producing oxygen gas bubbles. If you google diatoms and air bubbles you will see the similarities. Diatoms go away in 2 to 4 weeks usually in a new tank. The key to getting off on the right path with a new tank is weekly water changes along with proper parameters including light and flow. The first year sucks with a variety of ugly phases and if your parameters are off or bottomed out then those ugly phases continue and get much worse. Blow it off, siphon it out, work on building biodiversity and microfauna not stuffing fish in to soon.

Diatoms producing oxygen gas bubbles, timelapse - Stock Video Clip - K011/1814

Timelapse footage of a film of diatoms producing bubbles of oxygen gas through photosynthesis. Diatoms are single-celled algae that are found in marine and freshwater habitats worldwide. FRANCIS CHEE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

www.sciencephoto.com