new fish going to top of tank for air

Whats up guys, I am a newbie here on this site and am a newbie when it comes to aquariums. I have just recently moved back home to my parents house after graduating college and am taking over our 100+g coral reef tank.

We have some large coral pieces and some cool fish. The tank hasn't been doing really well we had a fish die not too long ago and the tank hasn't been doing all that well since. We have a guy who comes once a week to look after the tank. Just the other day he brought over 2 new clown fish that he put in the tank. I have been feeding them regularly for 2 days now. One of these clown fish is actually pretty large in size. I have noticed that he keeps going up to the top of the tank for air. I think this could be due to lack of oxygen or maybe poor water quality. Is there any way for me to know for sure?

I am currently in the process of finding a new person to look after our tank. Someone who can maintain the tank for my family and someone who can also apprentice me at the same time so I can learn.

Appreciate your guys help, look forward to reading your responses and just browsing the forums to expand my knowledge.

Laterr

 

How is the flow on the surface? Is it turbulent? Do you have a protein skimmer or sump? What fish do you in the tank now? What temperature is the tank at? Are any other fish doing it?

 

Forgive me for my lack of knowledge. I am pretty sure we do have a protein skimmer under the tank. The top of the tank isn't that turbulent but we definitely have things blowing air or filtering in air on both sides of the tank. From what I can tell, the movement is pretty good up there but I am not really sure... Fish we have in the tank are: 1 extremely small lion fish, 1 small orange fish, 1 really small purple fish with yellow tail, 2 clown fish, 1 shrimp, 2 different kinds of star fish. This new large clown fish is the only fish I have ever seen do it.

 

Not too sure about the temperature of the water. I do think the lights we have above the tank are pretty old and generate a lot of unnecessary heat and use up a lot of electricity.

 

Ok, well it sounds like you have a sump and skimmer (the skimmer's under the tank in a smaller tank right?) If that's correct, then you should have enough oxygen in the tank especially considering that you really don't have a huge bioload. My clowns hang out at the surface sometimes too, but they don't gasp. It could potentially be seeing food on the surface and trying to get at it. Mine do that as well when I feed them.

 

Also the fact that the other fish aren't doing it makes it seem to me that is probably isn't a lack of oxygen.

 

We definitely have a smaller tank under there... it has rocks in it.

 

Nope. Before I even opened the thread, I said to myself, "I bet this is a clown" based on the title alone.

99.9% of the time, the clown will become more brave in a few days and will go to a host lower down in the tank. It's not an Oxygen issue.....it's the fact that clownfish are just "clowns".

 

Pretty funny. This clown fish is HUGE compared to most other clown fish I have seen on a regular basis..

We have a good amount of hair algae growing in this tank.. on the back of the tank and on some of the rocks. Gets me concerned.

Also, when one of our fish died it took a day to get it out of the tank, the shrimp started eating the dead fish. We have had a lot of algae on the rocks that at the bottom of the tank. Think we might need to take all the rocks out clean the algae off and replace the gravel at the bottom. I feel like that fish that died really harmed the tank.

 

Well, you're algae problems are a different issue. If you have that much algae, they produce Oxygen during photosynthesis so you're not having a Dissolved Oxygen issue.

To fix hair algae, there is a lot of info people need to help. I.e.;
Are you using RO/DI water?
What are all of your water parameters?
How old are your bulbs?
What do you feed?
What is your filtration?
What do you have in your clean up crew?