Big problems, ALGAE, and Nemo is real sick.

[raidencmc]

For about a month or so my clown has been sick. My tank prameters where all fine. The only problem I noticed was I started getting a lot of algae. I got a Chocolate chip starfish to help and couple of snail. They did not help. I have had some snails in the past and I think that my hermit crabs are eating them. So first I am looking for some other ways of controlling the algae. The clown fish looked healthy most of the time and his behavior was well. The only thing I noticed was in the morning he was floating facing down. In the beginning I thought he was sleeping or what ever they do at night. But he would take longer and longer to get moving around. Once he did he was fine. So yesterday I got from work and I noticed something was very wrong, all the fish were near the bottom of the tank. After closer inpection I found the tank to be about 100 degrees. My heater failed to shut off. The all fish died but the clown survived. He is still showing the same symptoms but he floats more often then swims. Last night I did do a 50% water change to help reduce the temperature and decided not to put him in a rescue tank cause he is the only one left. So any thoughts on the clown as far as anything I can do to save him? And any thoughts on controlling the algae? I am going to the fish store tonight or tommorrow to replace the heater and figure I would hold of on getting any new critters till the clown situation is taken care of but I still need to figure out the algae situaiton.

[JellyMan]

is it a reef tank a fish only tank or a fotwlr?

[raidencmc]

Fish only.

[JellyMan]

any decor?

[raidencmc]

15-20lbs of live rock and 30lbs of live sand. 2 other rocks they are real but not live(bought at a fish store)

[JellyMan]

if you dont have any life on the rocks Id scrub the rocks clean the glass and do a water change then run test on your params check your phosphates.

[bobby]

You need to bring the temp down but you cant do it fast, Your only supposed to take it down 2 degrees a day. What are your water perameters? The clown might be having a effect from either the temp it was in, doing a large water change and the new water not being the same, or bringing the tamp down to fast, however these are just guesses though. Just bring the temp down slow, check perameters, and hope for the best.

[JellyMan]

Bobby I like the way you think.

[Bifferwine]

Wow, I'm sorry you lost your animals. I think what happened to you is one of the biggest fears in this hobby (at least it is for me). Heaters going bad is a big source of worry for me, you never know...

For the algae, you need to work on getting either (or both) your nitrates and phosphates down. Something happened to your water to cause a spike in one of these. I agree with you though on waiting to get things under control before adding any more animals -- algae itself will not hurt your fish, so if you work on getting your clown back on its feet (or fins) you can focus on getting rid of the algae next.

[d.french]

tangs love algae i have yellow tang and sailfin tang, and my flame angel loves it to, so until my phosphates come all the way down their eating good