Dead lipstick tang

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MANCUNIA13

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
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101
Came down this morning to find my lipstick tang was dead, my urchin and neon crab was eating it,,,,,, we did a 10% water change yest as my levels were as follows,,,PH-8, PHOSPHATE-0.5-1,NITRATE-10-25,NITRITE-0,AMMONIA-0,S.G-1.022....should I do another water change and need advise as I'm new to the hobby and just fear I may have over stocked to quick....
 
Your tank has only been set up 2 weeks correct? There shouldn't be nothing in your tank but lr. It takes 4-6 weeks for a tank to cycle. Yours probably has not even started yet. I would take all fish and corals back to where you got them, them most likely will not make it thru the cycle. 4-6 weeks for a cycle, then only a CUC, 3-5 weeks later then add 1 fish, wait 3-4 weeks before adding the second ect. Your biological filter is strained everytime you add something, it needs time to grow after each addition. So from the day you start you tank, it should be 10-12 weeks before any fish are introduced.
 
The tank is in its 4th week,,, their is no corals only fish an clean up crew, I feed them every other day. I did a 10% water change yest and another 10% today. The lfs said it would be fine if we fed them every other day but won't take them back, we check our water every week and all seems well until yest hence the 10% yest. Thank you for your comment.
 
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Keep in mind your lfs is in business to sell you everything they can, fish and corals before the tank is ready magic potions, unneeded equipment ect.,
 
Thanks again for your response. In your experience do you think I'll loose every thing in the tank. Wots the best thing to do the ls all seem well and have do since they were introduced to the tank, thank again for your comments..
 
About all you can do at this point is keep testing, if you get ammonia readings you will have to do water changes, but doing water changes during the cycling will slow the process down. How many and what kind of fish do you have left. Do you have anyone else that could house your fish for 2-3 weeks.
 
We have 2 maroon clowns pair of common clowns (nemo) regal tang, blood shrimp, boxer shrimp 7 snails 6 crabs 1 sandsifter and a long spine sea urchin we also have around 22-25k of lr... Unfortunately nobody we know can house our fish.
 
you will just have to do testing every day and be prepared for water changes. I also have a huge black spiny urchin that I have had for 8-10 years. He will eat all your Coraline when it starts to grow. Since you have none he will need fed dried seaweed, also they will not tolerate nitrates at all, if he starts to lose his spines, that is not a good sign. They are nocturnal.
 
MANCUNIA13 said:
We have 2 maroon clowns pair of common clowns (nemo) regal tang, blood shrimp, boxer shrimp 7 snails 6 crabs 1 sandsifter and a long spine sea urchin we also have around 22-25k of lr... Unfortunately nobody we know can house our fish.

What size is the tank? You probably shouldn't have two pairs of clowns. Especially those two. Maroons are mean and get big.

Edit; sorry to go off topic. But it seems you've rushed in too fast.
 
What size is the tank? You probably shouldn't have two pairs of clowns. Especially those two. Maroons are mean and get big.

Edit; sorry to go off topic. But it seems you've rushed in too fast.

He's aware of that now, he's just trying to keep everything alive till he is done cycling. LFS wont take them back and he has no one else to take them.
 
Holygral said:
He's aware of that now, he's just trying to keep everything alive till he is done cycling. LFS wont take them back and he has no one else to take them.

My bad.
 
Thanks again for everyone's advise,,,, I know it's been rushed a bit fast but that's a couple of novices but were learning from our mistakes, thanks again...
 
It is what is, you have them now. You can take care of the current issues at hand for now. Then you can address your tank mate issues later. I'm assuming they are not that large at present. Just do the best you can. Good luck and hope goes well for you.
 
Just another question guys, how an when to spot when cycle is starting as i have no idea, my tank is a juwel trigon 190 corner unit with juwel 3.0 filter system wich is internal same goes for my juwel skimmer 3.0.
 
Ok, so I looked up your tank and found that it is only 50 gallons and a corner tank at that. That's a big problem. You have a small fish tank and wayyy too many fish to even consider taking through a cycle.

I gotta say, the 5 fish you have in there are going to be sacrificed in the name of beginner mistakes. Especially that Regal Tang. Both he and the lipstick (Naso) have no business being in a tank that small.
 
If nobody can house them and the LFS that sold you those fish won't take them back, I'd suggest Craigslist. Try to sell them to get some money back. Then, moving forward, ask lots of questions here prior to purchasing anything. You will get good advice and probably avoid these types of mistakes.
 
Definately agree with Todd.

Try gettign rid of the fishies so they will go to a safer home and start a fresh slate. You need to be testing for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite for the next few weeks and only when you have zero nitrites and ammonia then you can add live stock. Nitrates should be kept as close to zero as possible however not as deadly as the other 2.

Like Todd said take full advantage of this site before making any decision. There's some really clued up aquarists on here. Its how i got to where i am now!
 
Thanks for your msg, all advise is taken onboard so won't be making same mistakes twice, also found new shop who has better info on marine tanks, ie, fish keeping, cleaning basically everything we needed to know this shop has answers with over 27yrs of marine exsperience I'm sticking to he tells me, but thanks again for comments all are very welcome ones.
 
It is great that you found a better shop. I suggest a combo of their advice mixed with advice from here. I have learned that there are places out there that have years of "experience", but that still give questionable advice or suggest things that are more sales-based.

I recently lost a bit of respect for a local place that had someone with a tank that was still cycling (from what I could hear) and this guy wanted some fairly rare puffer that they have had for months. He kept asking if they thought it would be okay and he was being told "it might". I feel that they should have told him to wait and that, No, it probably would not be okay right now. Technically they were right, there is a chance, but I'm betting it did not make it.
 
Hi thanks again for comment, we had the same thing happen to us, we went to 1 shop who told us after a water check that it would be fine to add fish?? We didn't!! As we came across our new shop the i was talking about, we asked the owener to check our water(second opinions never harm). To our surprise and shock our water levels were all over the place(hense that's why we're sticking with this guy). So as you no not 1 fish was or could've been added an we did the nessacary water changes, guess some shops dive in for the hard sale.
 
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