Morning Disaster

Ok, every night I go to bed I fear I will wake up to an event like this. A couple of days ago I added a flame angel and a cleanup crew to my tank, the angel was in bad shape when he arrived, after speaking to the owner of the FS I got them from I acclimated them with a slow drip, the fish seemed to spring back to life. Anyway, this morning I wake up to find my angel dead, my regal tang dead and my large yellow tang lying up against the glass with white blotches(not spots), breathing heavily and it looks like that faint white live he has on his sides has some brown on it. I just checked some water parameters:

ammonia : 0.0-0.1
nitrites: 0.1
ph- 7.9-8.1 It seems as though my PH has dropped the last couple of days from 8.3.


I have a 90 gal, with 80lbs live rock, MH/PC lighting. What to do? I really don't want to lose any other fish !!

HELP!

Thanks.

 

1) qt new fish
2) how big is your tank and how many fish do you have?
3) have you tested your oxygen level?
4) are running a Ca reactor?

 

Tanks is 90 gal, I am not running a reactor, I have not tested Oxygen. I had 5 fish before I lost the regal and the angel.

 

Dosing kalk is tricky with such a big tank, I have to look into the "reactor" attachment as well. Can you simply use a slow drip (siphon) or will that end up overdosing? The LFS here in Lansing said that's a cheap and easy way to dose calcium (kalkwasser). I wasn't interested at the time (had 29g), but it appeared to be a big container with a hose coming off it.

 

after reading your replies I tested Calcium, 460 was what I got. I dropped an airstone in the tank as well as opened up one of my powerheads a bit to blow some air in the tank.

 

How old is this tank ? and did you order all of these fish and just put them all in at once ? what fish did you have before the new one arrived ?

I guess what I'm asking is has the tank been up and running with some fish for awhile ? or did you just start it and add all of theses fish at once ?

 

Tank is almost 4 months, and no I did not order them together, the only things that went in two days ago were the Flame angel and the cleaner crew. I have a yellow tang, sailfin tang, both of which seem to be doing much better now and a cleaner wrasse.

Thanks for your help!

 

Sorry to be writing you a negative post, but for a 90g tank, you have too many large fish, especially for such an immature tank of four months, and, adding a fish that normally exhibits territorial defenses quite strongly, to a tank with all those tangs, is just asking for trouble sooner or later. Not only too much, but too much, much too soon.
Also, you have no where near enough live rock to handle the biological filtration needed for such a load, even if it was the best quality, most porous rock available.
If the LFS knew that you already had the tangs in a 90g tank and he still sold you that angel, I'd be finding another LFS, or at least, never depend on that store for advice.
For now, you need to find another home for one of the tangs, and then closely monitor the tank for some time until everything stabilizes again, but be ready to treat fish in a hospital tank if something goes wrong again.
You also need to get more quality live rock, cure it in a separate container and add to the tank when ready.
I'd suggest researching before any further purchases to make sure everything is compatible with what you already have, and, is suitable for that size tank.
Also, quarantining of livestock before you place them in the show tank can lead to fewer problems down the road.
Good luck in the tank recovery.

 

i got a flame angel once and it introduced oodinium to my tank - murdered everything!!

 

Am afraid I have to agree with all that Ray said.

Expect your Nitrite (No2) and Ammonia (Nh3) are much much higher then your tests are showing.

Go slow...give fish time to recover from long trip from reef to your tank. Verify tank water params...

Good Luck.