having hard time with new tank HELP

[aj1356]

I've been reading the posts and trying to find some solutions to my problems, however i could not come up with anything. anyways, i got this tank 72 gallons about 2 months ago it is a reaf tank we put sand and liverock in it that has some shells on them and also some without anything on them. we had the local fish store comeby and set up and do thier mumbo jumbo or whatever. long story short it seemed like they are trying to scam scam us for soo much money so i decided it is time itake care of myself. i got some fish in there just trying to see how things work , they were doing fine , at the same time some of the rocks were getting a burgundy color to them so we were like cool they rocks are doing well and water is doing good and all, so i went and got some more fish and put them in the water. A week passed and the fish starte going belly up and the burgundy color ended up being some kind of bacteria and now i have some hair algie. here is what i have done so far to fix things, i have beenreplacing 10 gallons of water every other day or so since last friday. i added PH buffer about 2 spoon every 5 days since begining of April, i add about 2 spoons of this stuff that is suppose to lower the levels of nitrite, nitrate and alk. using a gravity pump i sucked out some of the bacterial growing on the rocks while replacing the water and add this chemical that is suppose to kill the bacteria. the tank is doing a bit better now the fish has stopped dieing and the bacteria does not seem so strong any more. however i got some white spots on the rocks some even covering as much area as a hand. i read here that someone got all the rocks out and scrubbed them with a tooth brush, is that adviced? or does anyone has any better advice for me? any help would be appreciated.
thanks everyone
aj

 

[Juck]

Hey AJ,, welcome to RDO

We need some more info about your tank.

How much Live rock & what type is it? Was it fully cured?

What kind of sand & how much is there?

What kind of lighting?

What are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates, PH, Temperature, Alkalinity, Salinity etc.

Are you using RO/DI water for your topoff? Or tapwater?

What kind of filtration do you have? A skimmer or sump or both? What size & brand?

How much circulation/current is there in the tank?

How many fish did you put in there & what type? Which ones died?

 

[aj1356]

Juck, thanks , here is as much as i know about the tank.
it is 72 gallons i am not sure what brand. the filteration system is , well i dunno the name of it but it is a complete unit where water comes from the top of the tank goes to the filter unit and after going through some filters and these little ball thingies it gets pumped right back into the tank.
i think we have about 60 or maybe 70 pounds of rock in there the rocks are cured , ( well that is what we were toldwhen we bought them) at first we got some basic rocks they were sprayed with some chems about 40 pounds and then the local fish store guys sold us about 30 or so pounds of rock that had redish color and had some clams on them.there is 6 bags of sand in there. when we first filled up the tank we used drinking water( arorwhead) that is why we left it for a month so tha salinity and ph get good. the salinity and ph has been good gor about 3 weeks now.( i added fish about 2 weeks ago) i started testing for nitrate, nitrite, and alk. last week. they are all one color above zero and i am trying to get them as close to zero as possible. i buy the water from the local fish store now to replace the tank water with. i think some of the problem was because of the lighting cuz when the guys from the aquarium set up our lights and timer, they had the moon light on 24 hours aday and the day light on for 8 hours or so. and i read somewhere that the moon light helps the growth of bacteria and algie. so last friday i reset the timer now there is day light from 10am to 7pm then there is the moon light but the moon light turns os 4 times a night 2 15minutes and 3 30 minutes.( i think i may be wrong for doing so since the healthy rock have become lighter since my set up)i started with 5 damsels left them for a week they were doing good so i went and got 7 more damsels and 1 yellow tank.out if the second batch of fish that i got the yellow tank and one black damsel died this weekend. one black and white striped damsem died yesterday 1 black damsel died last week and one more lack damsel died monday. however since yesterday i have not lost anything. monday i replaced 10 gallons of water and also added more antibacteria chemicals ( it is this white powder with this tiny littlespoon) oh and i forgot i put in some sea snails and hermit crap to clean up the tank abit but they all seem to had disappeared maybe they are hiding. that is all i know about the tank. i am a fast learner so i hope i can stop the fish from dieing so fast and help the rocks get healthy again. thanks in advance for the help
aj

 

[Juck]

Hi AJ,

OK,,,, it could be a dozen things going wrong so it's difficult to be sure exactly what's killing your fish,,,,, I'd have to guess it's either high ammonia or nitrites brought on by putting too many fish in a relatively new tank.

Adding 12 damsels and a yellow tang in the space of a week is taking things way too quickly,,, even a fully mature 72 reef is just barely big enough to support 13 fish. Remember that saltwater aquariums aren't like freshwater,, you must choose your fish carefully. Damsels can be very aggressive and tangs need a lot of swimming space. 7 or 8 carefully chosen small-medium sized fish is a more realistic bioload for a 72 gallon reef.

My advice is to try and get some of those damsels out of the tank and monitor water conditions carefully. When everything tests within normal parameters, then begin to add fish at the rate of 1 per week. This will allow your tank's natural filtration to keep up with an increasing bioload.

Are you buying ready-mixed saltwater from your LFS? If you are topping-up evaporated water with saltwater then you need to get a hydrometer and test the salinity of the water in your tank. Evaporated water should be replaced by freshwater,,, not saltwater,, otherwise the salinity in the tank can increase to dangerous levels in no time.

You can deal with the algae/bacterial blooms in due time,,, first you need to get the tank conditions balanced. I'd stop adding chemicals like PH Buffer and chemi-pure for the moment.

You should be testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Salinity, Alkalinity and PH at the bare minimum. You should post the EXACT test-kit readings for all these parameters here,,,, it could help greatly in finding the exact problem.

What is the water temperature?

 

[Juck]

Also, the best advice I can give any new reefer is to make a pot of coffee, sit your arse down, and read some of the articles in the RDO library:

http://www.reefs.org/library/


Additionally, the wet web media site has proven (for me) an invaluable source of info:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm

 

[Jolieve]

I'm with Juck on this one. Do read as much as you can before you try to add anything else. It sounds like this lfs also failed to advise you on how the hobby works, and there's a slight learning curve in this hobby that separates it from freshwater fishkeeping.

Do read as much as you can before moving forward, and if you have any further questions, feel free to post your questions here.

Good luck and welcome to RDO!
J.

 

[aj1356]

Thanks guys, it was my bad wanting to rushthe whole things and adding a bunch more fish to a tank that was not ready, and thus creating more headache for myself. when we got the tank this guys was suppose to take care of it but it ended up he did nto know anything about saltwater or reefs. so we seeked the help of the LFS. and that cost me like 1000 bux in like less than a month so i was like let me take care of it. anyways. i have started reading the links which are helpfull. last night i removed the dead fishes out of the tank, replaced 15 gallons of water, and cleaned the skimmer and the filter, also tried of suck out as much junk out of the tank as possible. the LFS sold me a sea hare for the hair algie and today i am going to retest the water again. and also i am going to read more about keeping a reef tank. thanks you guys again and i'll keep you posted on the chem levels and the progress.
aj

 

[Jolieve]

Good luck AJ If we can be of any more help don't hestitate to ask.

J.

 

[aj1356]

Ok guys i just finished doing the testing and this is the results.
nitrite--------0.4
Alk-----------High ( bright Blue)
PH------------between 8.2 and 8.4
Nitrate--------between 5 and 10 ( lower range) i say about 8
temp----------25 degree celcius about 75 degrees F
ammonia-----0.25 I did the formula 0.25x14 / 100 and i came up with 0.04
after i changed the water last night and all the water looks much cleaner today so does the tank and the fishes are happy.

 

[Jolieve]

Keep doing those water changes. In a system with live rock that is fully cycled, you should not be seeing any ammonia or nitrite. This means your tank is still cycling, and you will need to be on an aggressive routine of testing ammonia and doing water changes to keep your fish alive. Do a small partial water change (five to ten gallons) every time you test for ammonia and it reads anything higher than 0. If I were you, I'd test the ammonia daily. Keep doing the water changes until it reads 0.

I cannot overemphasize how important this next sentence is.

*** Do NOT add anything else to your tank until ammonia and nitrites test 0!***

Also, do NOT use those ammonia removing chemicals such as ammo-lock or ammonia absorbing sponges. Using these can give you false positive results on ammonia tests.

If you don't keep the water changes up, the ammonia and nitrates in the tank will rise to lethal levels and you will end up with more dead fish. Be religious about it.

Good luck!
J.

 

[mattstewart]

also you should add your salinity level to your test results.

 

[Anonymous]

your temp at 75 seems a bit too low. Try and slowly raise it over the next few days to around 80

Also, what is your salinity? that should be around 1.025

Good luck...you got lots of good advice on everything else.

 

[ChrisRD]

temp----------25 degree celcius about 75 degrees F

25 degrees C is actually about 77 degrees F and that is fine for temp IMO. Some like to run a bit warmer, but for most of the tropical reef organisms that we keep, anything from upper 70s to low 80s should be OK.