really need advise asap!!!!

ok so i have a BIG problem. i have 2 tanks... a 90 and a 55. both are fish only. ok so a while back i had a star fish die and nuke the whole 90. there were no survivors. this was about 6-8 weeks ago. i did a tone of water changes and changed the carbon, waited another couple weeks and then put in my firends 6 line wrasse and his dragon goby in (he was moving his tank and wanted to wait for it to cycle). they seemed fine for the first week so i bought a juvinile pb tang and french angel (they were a total steal). WELL it would seem that i moved too quickly and the dragon goby and french angel bit the dust. (they looked the same way the nuked fish did so i KNOW thats what they died from) i kinda paniced and caught the pb tang and wrasse and threw it in the 55 so NOW my 55 has A LOT of fish in it.

a niger trigger, dragon wrasse, p owder brown tang, blue tang, yellow tang, 2 clowns, a cromis, royal dottyback, cardinal anthias, 6 line wrasse (WAAAAAAY TOO MANY FOR A 55) i dont have anyone who can fish sit until i figure out what to do about the 90 and my lfs does not give credit if i gave the fish up (plus im very attached to them)

my question is how long can my 55 handle this load... i have a fantastic filter and im not planning on leaving them this way any longer than necessary... any advise would be greatly appreciated

ps the yellow and blue tangs are small which is y i was keeping them in the smaller tank until they matured.

 

Well, time will tell. You can skim and skim and skim and keep the water clean, but it still will not change the fact that the oxygen saturation of the water is going to drop. I would do a few things now. Make sure you are skimming. That will oxygenate water. Use some airstones. Also, I would dip the SG down to about 1.018 for the time being (no more than 0.02 drop per 24 hours). You can get better O2 saturation with lower SG. Make sure you have great water surface movement; that will help most. If you want, you can get an Oxygen test kit. Saltwater has O2 sat of about 6ppm. When it dips below 3ppm, the fish will get in trouble. Also, keep the lights off. No corals, no problem. Lights out will but them into mellow mode where they are not moving around so much. That's the best I can do for ya. Good luck.

 

go get a cheap 10 or 20 gallon set-up (Kit) at Wal-Mart or Petco--10 gallon is about 30.00. They come with HOB filter and everything. Transfer 10 gallons of your 55 gal water to the new tank along with a new bag of live sand and 3-4 of the smaller fish. Then top-off your 55 with fresh ro/di fresh salt--You just did a partial water change on the 55 and thinned out the tank. It is temporary.

 

now when where saying the animals died the same way. are we blaming poor water quality from ammonia spikes or something else?

i would assume could last a while but algae may get out of hand.

but what is a fantastic filter per say? as we could have different definitions of fantastic filtration

 

Water changes will be your best friend...try to maintain a stable water parameter regimen!
Good luck!