Combined a tank added some fish, water quality is a bit off?

[AkainePSP]

I had a 30 gallon saltwater tank with good water quality. I recently purchased a 20 gallon tank with excellent water quality (we saved all of the water) as well and about 30lb of rock. Well what I have done is combined the 2 tanks and put everything into my 44 gallon corner tank. So now I have about 50lbs of rock, a 3-4" crushed coral and sand bed. I originally had 2 small damsels, so those were already in the 44 gallon tank.

Yesterday I went to the pet store and purchased 1 scarlet reef, 4 Nassasarius (sp) snails, 2 turbo snails, 3 what the lady called brown hermit crabs, not sure that I've heard of these, 1 brittle star and a mandarin.

I did a water test this morning and these are my readings.

PH 8.2
Ammonia .50
Nitrite .50
Nitrate 5.0
Salinty 1.022

Are these water quality changes due to the combining of the 2 tanks or adding all of the new creatures or possibly both? I'm thinking I should have waited a few days before adding anything new.

Should I do some water changes or leave things as they are. The test kit says to use some stress zyme but I really don't want to add any chemicals if its not neccessary. I would like things to work themselves out naturally.

Thanks.

Kelly

[badfish]

Hi Kelly, and welcome to AA.

I would guess that combining the two tanks caused the increase in your water quality, by mixing the sandbed around. I would have waited a while before adding anything. How long have the other two tanks been up for? The reason i ask is because i have done a lot of research on Mandarins because i really want one, but they need a well established tank with plenty of food source, which needs around 100lbs of Liverock. I would take him back and get some credit, look into the scooter blennies, i beleive they are a little more hardier, although they need a well established tank as well. HTH.

- Jeff

[AkainePSP]

1 had been up for about 6 months the other over a year. I guess I just assumed (stupid thing to do) that because both tanks had such good quality combining them wouldn't make a difference. Around here where we live they aren't real keen on returns. I will give it a shot though. If not I'm goig to try to teach it to eat prepared foods.I found an article last night that they can be trained to eat prepared food. I knew about he estabished tank and lots of live rock just wasn't aware it was that much needed.

Should I do a water change? Or just leave things as they are?

[badfish]

you might be able to get away with the mandarin, maybe someone else has more experience with them, Do you have a fuge or a sump? i would say your increase is from combining the two tanks, maybe do a 20% water change ASAP with well aged water. Inverts dont cause levels to jump around that much.

[AkainePSP]

maybe do a 20% water change ASAP with well aged water. Inverts dont cause levels to jump around that much.

What do you mean my well aged water?

[Brodie]

Use RO/DI water for a water change. You can buy this water at your LFS (local fish store). I would do a water change as soon as possible.

[badfish]

basically you should mix the water up and have a heater in it and mayba a powerhead and let it sit for a day or two. Actually after the temp and salinity are right you can go ahead and change it out because of your high levels. Anybody else have any ideas?

[lando]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!

Are these water quality changes due to the combining of the 2 tanks or adding all of the new creatures or possibly both? I'm thinking I should have waited a few days before adding anything new.

You most likely disturbed the natural biological filtration of the tanks during the move. You are experiencing what is know as a "mini-cycle". You really should have waited until things stabilized a bit before adding anything new. For now, as mentioned, do large PWC using well-aged SW to keep water parameters down. Try to decrease the bioload in the tank as well. Feed lightly once every two or three days.

mandarin.

YOu should really consider taking this fish back. It has very specific dietary needs and will most likely die of starvation in your tank. They require a very healthy pod population, 100lbs of LR and a very mature tank to survive.

[seaham358]

Agree with the others... Take the fishback ...

[AkainePSP]

Well they would not take my mandarin back , however he does seem to be eating prepared squid, brine plus, formula one and marine cuisine. I have also seen it eating of of the rocks. I have been alternating daily each of these foods. Everyone seems to enjoy the variety.

My water has stabilized:

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I have a powerhead that airates and pushes the water around, quite well I might add. But what I was wondering is it necessary to airate the water? What does this do?

[schoeplein]

Not necessary to aerate the water.

[lando]

Well they would not take my mandarin back

Time to find a new fish store.

[AkainePSP]

I live in a very small town and the closest good fish store is 2 hours away.

[lando]

I live in a very small town and the closest good fish store is 2 hours away.

Time to start ordering online
You may need to find ways to cultivate your own pods to keep this manderin long-term. You can get pods at various sites including ebay, reefermaddness.us and others.