help with my new tank

[army6192plt]

I started the tank about 3 weeks ago using biospera. I know that was bad to do but i hadn't heard about you yet so..... advice form a lfs sold me wrong.

Everything had been going well until three days ago, and now my water is all off the chart

Ph 8.0 at 7pm
temp: 79
SG 1.022
but now amonia at .25
nitrite .5
nitrate 80

that was after 2 days of 20 gal a day water changes in a 65 gal tank

and now to boot my blue tang and puffer are showing signs of ich and i have brown alge taking over my rocks

I also have tp Ocelarous clowns a koran angel and a heniochus

now have 20 lbs live rock
about 10 lbs dead rock


what should I do???? u have seen lots of people with lots of advice on here but what is the most effective way of helping this out??

Thanks for your help

tj

 

[melosu58]

It almost sounds like your tank did not cycle all the way yet. You`ll most likely want to do a QT if you can. If not cut feedings back to every other day. And keep with those water changes

 

[army6192plt]

i have cut to every other day feedings i can't do a qt right now as i think i am moving tomorrow and will have to drain the tank

 

[austinsdad]

In spite of doubts about Bio Spira, I believe you've got way too many fish in there - even if you were to cycle properly, that's still too many fish.

Most effective way IMO is to take fish back if not too late. I think your tank did not cycle and all may perish. Clowns might make it. Maybe.

 

[flame82]

Yep take everything back and leave the rock in the tank wait at least two weeks do a 20% water change and then start with one fish. Make sure you test and everything remains at zero before adding the fish. After the first fish has been in the tank for at least a week you can add another. Correct me if i am wrong, but the koran angel gets a 12 inch plus right ? Also the regal tang can get pretty big and the puffer what kind ?

I would stick with the clown fish to start the tank and then go from there.
good luck!

 

[army6192plt]

hea it's to late to take the fish back esp if i have ich on them puffer is a box puffer what would be the proper procedure to move them only a 10 min drive?

 

[flame82]

Well shoot they are already really stressed no way your moving the whole tank is there ?? I wont tell anyone to do this but me personaly moving my tank twice, i take everything out besides sand, two inches of water, and move the tank very cautiously. I feel that trying to catch all my fish is very stressfull and just leaving them in the tank is stressfull to but i only move about a 5 to 10 min move and never lost any fish. Also, i had a regal tang which are in love with ich and never had it break out with ich after the move so it must of not be to stressful. Just incase you wonder i traded that fish back due to aggresion. Really your suppose to take the fish out and move them seprate in a bag or container while keep them warm enough and back in the tank asap
good luck

 

[army6192plt]

thanks flame i do appreciate the help

i have seen a great deal of discussion on this site about the proper treatments for ich... what are the options and the pros and cons of all?

 

[flame82]

Well i will tell you what my experience is and let you decide what you want to do. I personally dealt with this ich crap for umm month and half battling it with some stuff called ich gone from the lfs. However at 20 bucks a bottle i was 40 bucks and not a single result of good came from this. I finally broke down and slammed the ich with copper and within a month every sign was gone and never came back. Although not sure if you know the following so just play along if you already now this. The reason for ich is stress on a fish from some aquarium source from temp to moving lr around, also depends on what fish you have some more readily get and others do not. So if you go the copper way flow the instructions when adding, have a test to check levels to maintain safe levels, feed food soaked in selcon or garlic. These are immune system boosters. Try to use copper in another tank and not your main tank, if you do use the copper in the main tank get a couple of polyfilters after your treatment is done to remove the copper. Also continue soaking the food four the next three weeks at least. Make sure the tank remains completely steady as possible this is the only real way i feel to keep ich at bay. Always QT any new coral/fish before adding them to the tank for 2 to 3 weeks. You will have to be judge of how bad the ich is, if its just beginning than you maybe able to just use immune boosters and stabilize the tank quickly to relive further stress. However if its covering more than 10% of the fish i would just go to copper to solve the problem. I hope i made this read able for you, and this is just from my experience and the problem i have is in a tank that is running for year and half with no issue of ich since month 2 when i did what i described. also i apologize for the big blob of info and how your able to read through it with out to much problem.
hope that helps

 

[flamingonhot]

For getting rid of the ich just raise the temp up for a while. ich medication only works on the free swimming stage so it's not going to help much since your fish already have it.

One of the number one rules of bio-spira... YOU DONT ADD FISH RIGHT AWAY.Bio-spira is not bad, the only bad thing is how they advertise it. they say you can add the fish and bio spira right away. But it still has to attach its self to surfaces and establish itself and go through a small cycle.

Like flame said, always put new fish in quarantine if you can. If you get ich or some other disease it'll be a heck of alot harder and money consuming to get rid of it. There is a heck of a lot more things in sw tanks that can be killed by ich medications and other things.So adding some sort of medication to a display tnak is going to cause some problems. But in a quarantine there is nothing else to worry about and its well quarantined lol.

 

[army6192plt]

well i woke up this morning and the puffer was dead. the ich on the tang looks much much better. I didn't think it could change that fast

 

[seaham358]

just becasue its not on the fhis does not mean it all gone. It is now in the tank, in the sb on the lr. You really need to cycle the tank properly, having fish in a uncycled tank just causes stress as you now know.

 

[lando]

Sorry to hear about your mis-guidence. The very first thing to do is to find a new LFS. It is abvious they are only interested in taking your money, not educating you. It is time to start over and chalk this up to lessons learned. Take the fish back to the LFS, if they are the ones that sold you them knowing the age of your tank they should own some of the responsibility. Pick up a copy of "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner it is a great resource. Time to start from scratch. remember...nothing happens fast in this hobby.