Tang HLLE not getting any better

William Spak · Sep 17, 2019

Hello all,

My tangs HLLE has not gotten better after several months... in fact, it’s only worsening. We had bad nitrates for a while, now they’re down to 40(which is still a little high but not as high as it was)
The tang was only eating green seaweed for a while... but I’ve been varying his diet for about two weeks (ish). With pellets, flakes, green and red seaweed, mysis and spirulina shrimp.
I have been dosing vitachem into the aquarium for about 3 weeks now, I have been saturating his seaweed in the vitamins as well.
What else is there to do? Maybe I should test for voltage in the tank? How do I do that?

Thank you for reading

P.S.
Below is a picture of the tang’s HLLE end of July, and there is also a picture of him right now.

Montiman · Sep 17, 2019

Do you run carbon? What is your salinity Level? What is the Tang's current diet? What kind of lighting do you have?

nereefpat · Sep 17, 2019

To test for voltage, you need a meter. Set it to AC (wavy line). Stick one lead in the tank, and the other lead in either the ground or neutral of the nearest outlet. It should read close to zero.

Other than that...give it all it can eat nori and Mysis. Give it good water quality, including flow and oxygen.

How big is the tank?

James Tucker · Sep 17, 2019

My regal tang is recovering from it after a massive tank crash last year, but slowly. Very very very slowly. Been a slow 4 month process.

I stopped using carbon completely. I checked for stray voltage, but found nothing abnormal but I I installed a titanium grounding plug anyways.

I feed a variety of extremely nutritious food, over feed even, and water changes biweekly to keep Nitrates sub 10ppm. (Currently 0)

It’s working and I’ve recently started soaking all of its food in Selcon to see if I can make it go a bit quicker.

nereefpat · Sep 17, 2019

James Tucker said:
but I I installed a titanium grounding plug anyways.

Hopefully you are using a gfci receptacle with that ground plug.

William Spak · Sep 17, 2019

Montiman said:
Do you run carbon? What is your salinity Level? What is the Tang's current diet? What kind of lighting do you have?

We run the carbon that came with our filters- we have 2 hang on the backs. Salinity floats around 1.023. The tang has been eating red and green seaweed coated in vitachem for a couple weeks, we also feed pellets and flakes, mysis and spirulina every 3 days. We have a Current(thats the bran name)light - its not that high quality.

William Spak · Sep 17, 2019

nereefpat said:
To test for voltage, you need a meter. Set it to AC (wavy line). Stick one lead in the tank, and the other lead in either the ground or neutral of the nearest outlet. It should read close to zero.

Other than that...give it all it can eat nori and Mysis. Give it good water quality, including flow and oxygen.

How big is the tank?

The tank is as 75 gal.

Peace River · Sep 17, 2019

William Spak said:
We run the carbon that came with our filters- we have 2 hang on the backs. Salinity floats around 1.023. The tang has been eating red and green seaweed coated in vitachem for a couple weeks, we also feed pellets and flakes, mysis and spirulina every 3 days. We have a Current(thats the bran name)light - its not that high quality.

My understanding is that there is a suspected connection between HLLE and carbon.

James Tucker · Sep 17, 2019

nereefpat said:
Hopefully you are using a gfci receptacle with that ground plug.

Had an electrician redo the outlet when I had them do my electric car plug in.

William Spak · Sep 17, 2019

Peace River said:
My understanding is that there is a suspected connection between HLLE and carbon.

So I should just remove all of the carbon?

Montiman · Sep 18, 2019

Carbon dust can cause HLLE but well rinsed carbon shouldn't be an issue. I would stop the carbon usage just in case.

I can not provide evidence of this but I have seen HLLE in many hypo saline tanks (1.015-1.020) and I believe that the fish may be deprived of some essential element in the sea salt mix. Your salinity is not crazy low but I would raise salinity to normal reef aquarium levels of 1.025-1.026.

Diet wise, feed heavily with vitamin enriched food. I try to feed my tangs 5 times a day. It is neat impossible to overfeed a tang and yours looks like he could put on some weight so keep the food coming.

William Spak · Sep 18, 2019

Montiman said:
Carbon dust can cause HLLE but well rinsed carbon shouldn't be an issue. I would stop the carbon usage just in case.

I can not provide evidence of this but I have seen HLLE in many hypo saline tanks (1.015-1.020) and I believe that the fish may be deprived of some essential element in the sea salt mix. Your salinity is not crazy low but I would raise salinity to normal reef aquarium levels of 1.025-1.026.

Diet wise, feed heavily with vitamin enriched food. I try to feed my tangs 5 times a day. It is neat impossible to overfeed a tang and yours looks like he could put on some weight so keep the food coming.

What stuff do you feed your tang? Is what I’m feeding good enough?

William Spak · Sep 18, 2019

nereefpat said:
To test for voltage, you need a meter. Set it to AC (wavy line). Stick one lead in the tank, and the other lead in either the ground or neutral of the nearest outlet. It should read close to zero.

Other than that...give it all it can eat nori and Mysis. Give it good water quality, including flow and oxygen.

How big is the tank?

Aren’t you not supposed to feed mysis to the tank that often... thought it was bad?

Thanks

alton · Sep 18, 2019

My tangs get spiralina brine everyday.

Montiman · Sep 18, 2019

The only problem with feeding your tank often is that your tank can get dirty. Most everyone will agree that in an ideal world we feed as much as we want and have a strong enough nutrient export system that we don't need to worry about overfeeding.

For more info on this I would watch BRS videos on the WWC system where they emphasize heavy in heavy out.

I feed my tangs 4 times a day with pellets or flakes in an autofeeder and then once per day with frozen.

nereefpat · Sep 18, 2019

William Spak said:
Aren’t you not supposed to feed mysis to the tank that often... thought it was bad?

Thanks

Mysis is an excellent food. I would recommend it daily.

William Spak · Sep 18, 2019

nereefpat said:
Mysis is an excellent food. I would recommend it daily.

Should I change my water more if I feed mysis daily?

nereefpat · Sep 18, 2019

William Spak said:
Should I change my water more if I feed mysis daily?

No...shouldn't have to.

What do you have against Mysis?

William Spak · Sep 18, 2019

nereefpat said:
No...shouldn't have to.

What do you have against Mysis?

Nothing hahah...
It's just said on the box not to feed it that often I'm pretty sure.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

William Spak · Sep 18, 2019

So just to mentally organize my plan of action.. I need to;
-Get rid of Carbon
-Feed Mysis/Spirulina every day along with pellets,flakes, red+green seaweed(soaked in VitaChem)
-Get salinity up to 1.025/6
-Check for stray voltage

Also.. I've heard water quality is an issue.. any tips on lowering Nitrates... mine lay at 40 ppm in both tanks, and I don't know what else to do.

Thank you everyone