My poor yellow tang...

[jimandjess3096]

Hi, we are having trouble keeping the temperature the exact same all the time. It keeps fluctuating a few degrees. The highest it has been is 81.5 and the lowest is 76.4. I'm not sure what is going on, but we don't even use the heater. It is always staying warm by itself. I'm not sure how to keep it the same temp. Thanks.

 

[jimandjess3096]

Well last night we went to the store and Jim got some kind of medicine the guy there said it wouldn't harm the tank or the other fish. It's called Mela Fix. Did we do the right thing by getting that?

 

[Salttanker]

You can get a 5-20 gallon tub at walmart for next to nothing. It is better to use aged saltwater for water changes. As far as a power head, or pump goes, these are really cheap as well. You can go to placed like aquaria.com anf get these for around $12.
You need to get a heater and adjust it so there isn't too much fluctuation in temperature. I keep my heater at 78, so if there is fluctuation, it won't be much. Temperature changes can be detrimental to the health of fish.
The spots on the Tang..are they black, or white?
I haven't used Mela Fix personally, but I have heard some good things about it. Read up on it and make sure it will be safe for your tank.
I used all natural stuff to cure my Tang. Nori, and seaweed soaked in Selcon works really well. I use Garlic Extreme once a week for added benefits as well.

 

[quarryshark]

Well last night we went to the store and Jim got some kind of medicine the guy there said it wouldn't harm the tank or the other fish. It's called Mela Fix. Did we do the right thing by getting that?

Not familiar with tis product, but usually any med that claims not to harm you tank is not strong enough to heal your fish. Any med that is strong enough to cure a fish will hurt your tank.
IMO, its not a good thing to pour any med into your display, no good can come of it. Sounds like you may need a qt tank.
Are the spots anywhere else on the body? Are you fish "flashing" or scratching?

 

[Salttanker]

Very true Quarryshark. Any med that will really kill off diseases in the tank, will most likely wipe out anything else. I never use meds in my main tank.
As far as the spots on him..When my Tang was ill, he had these little black spots on him, and he would dart real quick and rub himself up against the rocks. This is usually the first signs of disease, unless he was just being territorial.
You really do need to get your temperature under control though. Too much fluctuation can stress your fish out. Heaters are really cheap too online. HTH

Mike

 

[quarryshark]

Very true Quarryshark. Any med that will really kill off diseases in the tank, will most likely wipe out anything else. I never use meds in my main tank.
As far as the spots on him..When my Tang was ill, he had these little black spots on him, and he would dart real quick and rub himself up against the rocks. This is usually the first signs of disease, unless he was just being territorial.
You really do need to get your temperature under control though. Too much fluctuation can stress your fish out. Heaters are really cheap too online. HTH

Mike

Thanks, I have had more than my fair share of battles with parasites and the qt tank is the only way to go. Much better control of treatment and you can use proven treatments. A lot of "witches brew" meds out there that some of the lfs are pushing. Seen more than a few posts of people loosing fish trying to use these miracle cures.
Proper treatment takes a bit of effort, but it works.

 

[steve-s]

Well we don't have glass covers. We have a plastic lid.

They both do the same thing. Lids trap CO2 and supress pH. No lid or preferabley an air permiable barrier like eggrate will allow CO2 to escape and not cause problems with the pH.

Also, we do have a powerhead. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it from what I can tell.

I was more trying to find out the GPH of the powerheads in the tank (not including the skimmer) not how well they worked. The water flow is quite important and should be minimum 10x the volume of the tank. ie.. a 50 gallon tank should have 500 GPH.

All of the fish seem to be breathing a little fast. But I'm not sure what is normal for how fast their gills and mouth should be moving.

If the new SW is not allowed to age for a minimum of 12 hrs after being prepared it can cause a fairly decent pH spike which will stress the fish and cause rapid breathing.

we are having trouble keeping the temperature the exact same all the time. It keeps fluctuating a few degrees. The highest it has been is 81.5 and the lowest is 76.4. I'm not sure what is going on, but we don't even use the heater. It is always staying warm by itself. I'm not sure how to keep it the same temp.

As mentioned you need to get a titanium submersible heater. If the max temp is running 81.5°, set the heater close to the same or even 81°. The constant changes in temp are quite stressful to the fish.

Well last night we went to the store and Jim got some kind of medicine the guy there said it wouldn't harm the tank or the other fish. It's called Mela Fix. Did we do the right thing by getting that?

In this situation, Melafix won't do anything. For the most part it's simpley a topical treatment (tea tree oil) that can occasionally help with open wounds. I would just run some carbon and remove the med. It won't hurt the animals at all but will gum up equipment something awful as well as sending the skimmer into a frenzy.

Cheers
Steve

 

[jimandjess3096]

Steve,
How do I find out the gph? And also, what I meant with the heater is that we do have one in the tank, but it never kept our water at a certain temperature. We set it at 78 one time, and the temp went up to 80. So then we set it lower, and it still wasn't doing much. Maybe we just got a bad heater? Or I'm doing something wrong? So after the water kept staying real warm, we just turned the heater off, since it didn't seem to be helping with anything. With the lid situation, I don't really know anything about the different types of lids, much less the eggcrate. Is there one for a hex tank? Does a section of it hold the lights? And would there be cut outs for all of the equipment and cords? I'm looking at the tang right now, and he looks pretty good and isn't breathing as hard. But that seems to change on a day to day basis with him. What is the minimum size tank you need for a qt? Mostly I'm asking this since we live in a 1 br apt. and don't have a lot of room for another 50 or 60 gallon tank. And would it just need to be the coral sand and nothing else in the tank? Just that and a powerhead and heater and I guess a thermometer? And also, what do you mean by adding carbon? Thanks, Jessica

 

[jimandjess3096]

P.S. I tested the water last night with the tests we do have, and the ammonia and nitrite were 0 and the ph was at 7.8 and the calcium was about 360-380.

 

[jimandjess3096]

Salttanker,
Yes, lately my tang has been darting at the glass and wiggling around it. I thought maybe he was seeing his reflection. We don't have a background or anything on the tank, so I'm pretty sure they can see their reflection. But he might also be rubbing himself against the glass too. I'm not sure. Hopefully it's just him being territorial.

 

[Salttanker]

You definitely need to get your pH up. 7.8 is really too low. It should be at least 8.2-8.3. This can cause many problems being too low. I forgot, but do you have any live rock in the tank at all? If not, pH is hard to maintain without a buffer of some sort. Before I got live rock, I was using Kent's pH buffer to stabilize the tank with. This can resolve many issues. I would take any cover you have on the top of the tank off for now to see if pH will fix itself.
Also, GPH should be on all powerheads, pumps, skimmers, etc. For proper flow, you want to have a total of 10x the number of gallons. 50G = 500GPH. Many people buy a few powerheads, such as the Maxi-Jet, which puts out 295GPH. Two of these would help with the flow for you. $21.95 each at liveaquaria.com.
Eggcrate, as Steve mentioned is great. Home Depot sells them cheap, and you can cut it to your needs. This will help with proper gas exchange, and a more stable pH.
Usually a 20G qt will suffice, unless you have some larger fish. HTH

Mike

 

[jimandjess3096]

I can't take my lid off bc the light fixture is built in to it. it's got a flip top on one side, and i've been keeping that cracked. i don't know what to do to fix the temperature problem though. it keeps wanting to rise to 80-81 for some reason. when it gets colder at night it drops to about 77 but during the day it wants to be around 80. i have a fan blowing on it if that helps any. i don't know if i have room for another power head. jim was saying something about a bubbler?? the only fish we have are the little hermit crabs and emerald crabs and then the tang and 2 damsels and 2 percula clowns. they're all pretty small. what am i suppose to do about lighting when it comes to getting an eggcrate to go over the tank? luckily my 2 cats aren't too interested in the tank anymore so i shouldn't have to worry too much about not having a lid on it. lol but since the lid i have now has a built in light fixture, i don't know what i would do for lighting. other than the lid is there anything else i can do to bring the ph up? thanks, jessica

 

[jimandjess3096]

ps i just looked on the powerhead and it says 100-270 gph. but i think that it's mostly giving waterflow to the back side of the tank. it's sitting right behind the main fixture of liverock. and yes, (obviously) i do have liverock. i'm not sure how many lbs though. if you look at one of my earlier posts, you'll see a picture of the tank. the power head is sitting behind it. so i don't know how much waterflow is going in front of the liverock.

 

[steve-s]

Your pH issue really seems to be that lid. Given the deapth of the tank, it's only going to make it harder to aerate. Keeping the lid slightly ajar isn't going to help much either. I would seriously suggest you replace the light with a cheap striplight and the eggcrate for now if all you have is LR and no coral. The eggcrate will support a simple striplight easily.

On a 60 gal hex tank, I can assure you your water flow is far too low and will also contribute to your pH problems. Buffers and such will not help and at best would be a tempoorary bandaid. Your toatal flow not including the skimmer should be minimum 600 GPH or higher.

As far as your heating, 80° is just fine and nothing to worry about. 77° is far too low and I would eek that up daily until it's up to the 80° mark. That will mean a much smaller temp swing and less stress on the fish.

GAC will help remove the Melafix from the water without any hassle on your part. It can be placed in the Fluval. As for your test kits, the only one you still really need is a nitrate kit. That will be very important if your going to keep problems down. Having a Ca test wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Salttanker]

I would plug your heater back in and set it to either 78-79 so the temperature only fluctuates a couple of degrees. As far as the lighting is concerned, as Steve said I would buy a strip light to go over the egg crate. This will give you much better airflow, and your pH should stabilize. Strip lights are cheap enough, and you can most likely use the existing bulbs you have now.
Do you only have one power head? If so, you might want to consider getting a couple more to cover the GPH requirements. Other than that, your pH will never stabilize with the lid on, and the water flow is too low. The temperature changes will stress your fish out terribly as well. HTH

Mike

 

[jimandjess3096]

how do you find out the gph for the protein skimmer and the fluval filter? I didn't see it anywhere.

 

[jimandjess3096]

also, would it be a good idea to get a fluval surface skimmer?

 

[Salttanker]

Your skimmer should have the gph listed on it. What kind is it? Depending on your Fluval model, if you let me know what it is I can get that info for you.

Mike

 

[jimandjess3096]

i have a fluval 404 filter and a red sea prizm protein skimmer. i couldn't find the gph on the skimmer.

 

[steve-s]

The skimmer is not going to really contribute anything in the way of "in tank" water flow. It will at best help aerate water already being moved by powerheads.

As far as the Fluval 404, it's rated at 340 GPH but that is when empty. Once you add media and the necessary head pressure from the hose moving water back to the tank, you'll be below 300 GPH.

Cheers
Steve