New to this, please help

[chowe]

Hi all,

I have a 4ft 260l tank, with a small yellow tang, small box fish, small copperband, 5 green chromis, 1 yellow tailed damsel and a blue cheek goby. My clean up crew is currently 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 hermit crab and an emerald crab (although haven't seen him for a couple of days).

In the last couple of days 2 turbo snails have died, and this morning a cleaner shrimp was dead too.
I added the copperband on Tuesday.

My water is:

pH 7.7
KH 10
Amm 0.05 - 0.1mg/l
Phos 0.5mg/l
Nitrite 0.2mg/l
Nitrate 0.00mg/l

Temp 26
Salt 1.027


I have done a 5% water change this morning (ran out of ro water), will do some more later so its a 10%

Last week water perams were fine so I guess its adding the copperband that's made it go up, but any ideas why the snails should have died (befor e copperband went in) and the shrimp too?

Do I need to do water changes daily until nitrites and ammonia comes down?
How do I get the pH back up, it was 8.2 last week.
Could all of the above explain why button polyps aren't opening at the moment too?
The water has gone a bit cloudy too. Not sure what to do about that either.

Sorry it's so many questions but better one post than lots. My tank has only been going since November so I'm new to this and up til now things seemed ok.


Thanks

 

[Holygral]

how long has the tank been up, it is still cycling, you need to get all living creatures out of there for now. The ammonia will kill all of them or permanently injure their gills. That needs done asap, then we can start to get up on the right tract.

 

[chowe]

Tank has been running for about 8 weeks. I have no where to put the live stock and until this week everything had been doing well. I have mushrooms and an acan that are doing ok. The button polyps had been opening up until now and was in a smaller tank.
Would daily water changes not be ok?

 

[Holygral]

At 8 weeks there shouldn't be anything in it. Daily water changes with RODI and maybe try some Prime (have never used it but others on here have) See if you local shop can house them temporary maybe. It takes 6-8 weeks to cycle and them only a cuc and ONE fish 2 weeks after that. Fish should not be added more than 1 every 2 weeks or so. Everytime you add a fish you put a strain on your biological filter system and it needs time to adjust.

 

[hackteck]

At 8 weeks there shouldn't be anything in it. It takes 6-8 weeks to cycle

this is not always true there is no set time on how long a cycle lasts it ends when it ends

 

[Holygral]

this is not always true there is no set time on how long a cycle lasts it ends when it ends

speaking in general terms to help out a newbe

 

[bribo12]

The main issue IMO is that your tanks beneficial bacteria cannot keep up with the current stock and thus your levels are off. The water atm is toxic to all life. If you cannot take the fish/inverts out you will need to maintain a vigorous water change schedule to keep the harmful levels down.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

The main issue IMO is that your tanks beneficial bacteria cannot keep up with the current stock and thus your levels are off. The water atm is toxic to all life. If you cannot take the fish/inverts out you will need to maintain a vigorous water change schedule to keep the harmful levels down.

+1. You essentially have a fully stocked tank in 2 months. Slow down

 

[Macscale]

Right. You stocked much too fast. Also, the boxfish and tang require bigger tanks. That may cause a problem.

 

[Redwolf91]

Just an opinion, but if it were me, I'd take the copperbanded back to the lfs if possible, they are really fragile, and require a VERY established system to thrive. The answers you have gotten are correct, way to much, way to soon. Someone mentioned using prime, I personally swear by it, it works. I would like to know what you are running for a filter, sump, skimmer, etc also. I've never had a box fish, I've always been of the belief they are toxic when stressed, perhaps someone here can let me know if that's true, or just my paranoid brain lol. Best of luck, build it slow, it always works best that way.

RW

 

[chowe]

Sadly I lotst the copperband, but after 2 X 50% water changes things are looking better, all fish feeding except blue cheek goby who is not looking well.
All things considered (had another spike of ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite) loosing two fish doesn't seem so bad.
As far as the box fish goes, he never looked stressed! was still waiting to be fed twice a day. He is used to my hands going in and out and comes to investigate what I'm up to.
I have upgraded skimmer to Vskim600, and also have external canister filter - fluval 405, with floss, live rock and poly filter.
I have added some pure marine pearls too.
I think the copperband was one step too many for the original filtration system, but to be fair everything had been happy up til that point.
Decided to upgrade so it doesn't happen again, if I add any more fish.
I agree the copperband is a difficult fish - it was a bit of an impulse buy. We all have to learn though.
Thanks all

 

[donniea1800]

You will have to monitor your water chemistry everyday for the next several days to make sure your ammonia and nitrite stay at zero. Also make sure you keep that canister clean every week. They will start to produce lots of nitrate unless they are kept clean. I would say that you are fully stocked now. I would not even think about adding anymore fish to the tank anytime soon. Just focus on keeping the fish you have now alive and happy and keep an eye on your water chemistry.

 

[chowe]

The water perams are back to 0 now, but the goby died too. I think his gills were damaged by the ammonia, 2 chromis aren't looking too good now either.
Like you say, lots of water checking and leave it all to settle now.

Thanks