URGENT!!!Help Tank Crashing!!!!!!!!!URGENT!!!

[iamdickie]

Ok my tank isnt crashing but My friends is. He set it up about a month ago with cycled sand and rock. IMO i think he moved too fast, and i warned him of this here is what happened. After everything leveled off, he went to the pet store bought a white cheak tank, and a large kole tang, 2 percs. I thought explained that this was borderline too much, but the lfs owner explained that it should be fine. ( i wouldnt have put all that load in at once) A week went by and he went out and bought a ton of coral, nepthia, toadstool, weso, xenia, zoas, hammer torch. Also a large 6 line wrasse.( i didnt know about all of these, but the toad and the xenia i did) My alarm went off thinking may be too much too fast. weil right off the bat the perks kicked the bucket. he went out and bought another 2 from ora. About a week later the tangs had a fungal bloom of white spot. not ich, but white cotton spots. Treated with pimafix, no problems. the white tang kicked the bucket ( stayed dead in tank over night), and overnight all hell broke loose. Shortly after the kole kicked it that same day. Now the xenia is sagging, and so is the nepthia. Im thinkning the worste at this point any recommendations?


After the tang died, pima dosing stopped, changed carbone, and turned up skimmer. what could i be foregetting, at this point i think all the coral may need to be transplanted to one of my tanks, along with the clowns

[SeaDog]

I'm sure the experts will give better advice but here's my novice ramblings

Can you house some of seemingly doomed livestock for him before it all goes the way of the big white pot? Sounds like there are some major issues with chemistry and bio-load there, so water changes might not be enough in the short term

[Phishnoob]

Too much too soon...if possible have him take it back for store credit.

It took a few months to get my tank cycled and even after the test kits seemed fine the fish mortality rate was high.

Sitting on your hands is tough and I understand that big time.

[iamdickie]

Originally Posted by Phishnoob

Too much too soon...if possible have him take it back for store credit.

It took a few months to get my tank cycled and even after the test kits seemed fine the fish mortality rate was high.

Sitting on your hands is tough and I understand that big time.

yeah that is just waht i though, well ill house the corals for as long as i can, but i am very afraid of some of them dieing and him getting upset about that. ill problay go get them tonight.

[iamdickie]

im sorry, it is a 75g with sump. all water was ok, ammonia is now at .25

[Phishnoob]

It has to be 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. Ammonia could still be on the way up at the start of the whole cycle thang.

[SPC]

Originally Posted by iamdickie

yeah that is just waht i though, well ill house the corals for as long as i can, but i am very afraid of some of them dieing and him getting upset about that. ill problay go get them tonight.

Keep in mind that these corals will most likely slime some(best case scenario), so make sure you have a way to get this stuff out of your system so that it dosen't overwhelm your current animals. Worst case scenario (which is very possible at this point IMO) is that the corals will begin to rot and take your whole system with them.

I'm not exactly sure what I would do if I were in your situation iamdickie, other than I know I wouldn't house his dying corals in my system.
Steve

[SeaDog]

good point SPC, that's a big chance to take. Have either you or your friend got a QT running?

[SPANKYSREEF]

I agree iamdickie------I would NOT put his corals in your tank. If anything, set up a small 10g. with water from your 75 and house them in there. Putting his pieces in your system is like playing Russian Roulette...Only my opinion.. ...Anthony

[RobinsonFam1]

get the softies out first. they melt the worst. do a water change a day of 10%-20%.
run carbon like its going out of style. add flow to combat the sliming. run the lights less. check the water parameters atleast once a day. hope for the best. be aware you (your friend) is on a crash test dummy track awaiting for the brick wall!

let us know how he ends up!

[reefworried124]

wow, I don't know what to say. This post is good though, because It shows how much patience you have to have in this hobby. It is pretty amazing how I have never had any patience for anything, I always had to have things right away, but this tank has taught me otherwise. I now realize that I must stock the tank little by little, making adjustments on the way. Whenever I get impatient, I should go back and read the posts of tanks that crashed because of too much too soon. I put a bunch of snails in the first day with my lawnmower blenny, and the lawnmower blenny died! So (I can't believe that I can say this) I am going to wait another 2-3 weeks before I put any kind of fish in there. RIP lenny the blenny...

[Doug1]

Even setting a tank up with cured rock and substrate you need time for everything to settle down, even after a major redo on an existing tank, keeping senstive animals in quarantine and monitoring parameters closely, slow caution is always prudent.Having enough SW made up to do a complete water change is not paranoid in my opinion.
Even if your friends tank was showing "normal" ammonia and Nitrite/nitrate readings that simply means that the bilogical filter was ramped up to deal with conditions in the tank at that moment in time. Adding several fish in a short time span is sure to overwhelm the bio filtration,hence the constant repetition of "Go Slow"
Tangs esp are about the worst candidates for going into a new system, they are very senstive to water quality issues and are often the first to show stress, when things go awry, and 2 tangs in a 75 is a recipe for disaster
Hope you can help your friend salvage his tank, if he doesn't give up, tell him, SLOW,SLOW,SLOW