upside down fish

I have had my 35 gallon saltwater tank running for 5 months. I have 2 damsels and 1 clown fish as well as a flame scallop, an urchin, a crab, and 2 snails. I have tried to add a yellow tang, a butterfly fish, and 2 sweetlips clowns but within 2-25 days they all seem to not be able to swim upright and shortly die. I have tested the water and it appears to be fine. Does anybody have any suggestions on what could be going wrong?

 

First of all welcome Heather!

I know I'm going to sound like the reef tank Nazi here so I apologize in advance.

Butterlfly fish I would list as medium to expert fish.  The tank is definitely too small for tangs and groupers (sweet lips).  That cute little brown and white sweet lips can achieve a lenght of 30" in an aquarium, yikes.  A 300 gallon tank is a minimum for that fish.  Tangs need a minimum of 48" or 4 feet of lateral swim room.  Here is a link to a tang related thread:

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Fish;action=display;num=1070655612

Your 35 gallon won't support more than 3 or 4 small fish.  Damsels, clowns, and flasher/fairy wrasses are good choices.  Five months is real soon to be adding that many fish and you are probably at the limit of your tank to handle the bioload od the fish you've added, hence the loss.  Each and every tank is different and as fish grow or are added the bioload capacity or denitrification capacity will change.

All tanks have a limit as to how many fish that they can support and you may be experiencing the ONE MORE FISH phenomenon, where your tank cannot not support that one additional fish.

How much biologoical and mechanical filtration do you have.  Any other information about your tank would be useful.

You can add your tank set-up description to your signature by editing your profile so we don't have to pester you.

Again, welcome!

 

I am not sure of the name of my filter but it has 2 carbon filters in it. I also have a small amount of live rock. What kind of filtration do you reccommend for small tanks?

 

I have a 20 gallon long, used to be a 30 gallon long, with an Aquaclear 200 filter with all of the filter media taken out and live rock rubble in it's place as a small HOB refugium. I also have a Seaclone 100 skimmer and an Aqua Clear 150 Power Head.

I have a 4" deep sand bed with about 35 lbs of live rock. It is lit with 110 watts of 10,00k Power Compact lighting. I have 2 small Damsels, polyps, Xenia, and mushrooms. Various snails, Scarlet Hermits and one Cleaner Shrimp make up my maintenance crew.

I strongly recommend a skimmer for any set-up with fish. HTH Heather

 

Thanks for the imformation. I was wondering if it is possible to use regular sand as my substrate if live sand is not available in my area. Right now I have crushed coral in my tank.

 

The thing is that live sand helps you in the whole filtration process, as will the live rock.

Hence the reason you should have about 1 lb of live rock (LR) per gal of water your tank has (example, 35 gallons need around 35 or more lbs of rock). It helps to keep your water clean.

Good idea Craig about the Filter as an HOB Fuge. I will be looking into that. Much Karma for you.

 

Good live rock will "seed" your sand over time making it "live". You can remove your crushed coral in thirds, three stages over a month or two, and you will have a more stable environment.

I recommend 1.5 - 2 lbs of LR per gallon. Again my 20 has 35 lbs of LR sao thats about 1.75 lbs per gallon. HTH

 

Can I use regular sand or does my tank need a specific type?

 

A good dolomite sand (50% Calcium Carbonate and 50% Magnesium Carbonate), aragonite sand, or oolite sand would be the best options.

 

I took your advice and just replaced my crushed coral with 3' of Carribbean aragonite. It looks great. I am in the process of buying more live rock to stack in the back of the tank. Is there anything I can do to help the biological filter rebuild itself faster or will it be fine with the animals and the rock?