Sailfin Tang - Heavy Breathing - Urget Help needed!

Hey guys,

Well a bunch of things have happened since Friday. I received all my new goodies i the mail then. I hooked everything up and started filling up my 32g brute trashcan right away. I was running low on water, and had to turn off and disconnect my sump. (So, I had no sump for 2 days) I assumed that running my newly purchased Maxijet 1200 with the airater going (shoots out bubbles every 5 seconds or so) my fish would be okay. I had a maxijet 1200, tunze, and a korilla (sp?) 2 powerhead all going at once in the main tank to keep everything moving. Anyways, this morning my sailfin tang seemed to be breathing very heavy and hanging towards the top of the tank...he seemed to be "out" of his caves all day. This is not usual. He was acting strange. His breating got worse throughout the day. At around 4pm i finally had the saltwater mixed and the sump cleaned and ready to go, I added the water, cranked up my skimmer, started my phosban reactor and everything started to look better. The water quality has definately improved since i have had the skimmer going. My tang hasn't changed though. He is still breathing heavy (just checked at 3 AM) Please advise what I should do! Was the water not airated enough? Will he get better in the upcoming days now that I have the sump running again? Please help! Thank you! This is all i had time to test for:

Phosphates:0 (algae is just eating it all)
Calcium: 340ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 9dkh
Magnesium: 1200ppm

Yes, i know calcium and mag. are low. I dosed for both of them today and yes, i'm keeping an eye on my carbonate hardness level.

Thank you so much!


Other Info:

Have had tang since February. Has been doing great since Sunday morning (yesterday). Has stopped eating. Nothing changed/added except the fact that I stopped the sump on Friday due to lack of water.

 

Rapid gill movement could be anything, but it certainly is a sign of stress.

Tangs i know dont like change, so it could be the fact that you added more equipment and had your hand in the tank.
But it could also be not enough oxygen in the tank as you did turn the skimmer off.
But its now back on, i would just give it time.

Have you noticed any scratching?

 

i dont have good luck with sailfins in my opinion its not a very hardy fish