Chad Cantwell

[[email protected]]

How y'all doin?

I'm Chad and I'm a new owner to a 30 gal starter salt water fish tank. My soon to be fiance and I are having trouble keeping fish alive and are experiencing a black slime / algae all over the rocks (live coral). Any advice would be great..

Thanks,
Chad and Ali

ps. we have room for a 200+ gallon tank if anyone can help us get this starter one right...

 

[ErinCahir]

Hello and welcome.

Can we get some background information? How long has the tank been set up? Did you cycle it? What kind of fish do you have/have you lost? What are your parameters?

 

[Ted]

Need much more info...what type of water are you using, what is your filtration, how long has the tank been running, what type of lights, how much do you feed? Welcome to the forum we are all here to help each other...

 

[Northstar24]

Welcome to the site! We need a lot more information before we can help you. Take a look at this thread and post back here with the answers to the questions

https://www.livingreefs.com/sticky-oh-noez-mah-fish-sick-threads-t34819.html

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard.

 

[chichimom79]

Welcome aboard! I am sure we can help you get your tank going in the right direction :)

 

[little_fish]

Hello and welcome! With a little bit more info we can help get you set strait!

 

[FishyReef]

Welcome! And one more question to add to those already posted above - what do you have for flow in your tank (number of powerheads and how many gallons per hour they are each rated for)?

 

[[email protected]]

WOW!!

Thanks for the welcome and I will find out the answers to your questions and get back to you on the specs of filtration system and lighting. What I can tell you is that the tank is 11 months old, saltwater (R/O) water. It has cycled and was doing well in the beginning. We started out with an anemone, 2 clowns, and a damsel. We added some rocks - some live and some not - and that's when the trouble started. Since the original 4 fish, we have added and lost the following fish:
6 clowns, 2 yellow tangs, 3 gobies, 5 chromis, 2 more blue damsels. Forgive me on spelling as I'm a rookie. We have had as many as 7 fish living at one time in the tank.

We do have 5 snails, 5 crabs, 3 mushroom rocks, 3 other various live rocks and 1 chromis living in the tank. The new "fish tank maintenance guy" brought us a chato plant that goes in the bottom filter tank??? And then he suggested we buy a light that should stay on for 24 hours straight??

The original guy I bought the tank from and hired to do the maintenance fell off the face of the earth and I am at the breaking point with this new guy as it is getting frustrating and expensive......Tanks in advance for all your help!!

Cheers,
Chad

 

[ErinCahir]

How long were you waiting between new fish? Three weeks is recommended so your tank can keep up with the bioload.

Did you lose your original three fish? You really can't keep more than a pair of clowns at a time.

(Also I just read that your tank is 30 gallons).

Three fish is your limit for that tank. One small fish per ten gallons is what is recommended. It is absolutely too small for a tang (of any kind) and there is a chance your damsel (a fish that has a terrible reputation for bullying) killed the others off if the water quality didn't do them in.

 

[little_fish]

+1 Erin

Also, nems arent recommended for new tanks because they require mature, stable tanks with pristine water quality. They can be very challenging to keep alive and when they die, the toxins they release can wipe out the entire tank.

 

[Northstar24]

The wonderful ladies of living reefs have you covered, I would just like to add that you should go out and buy or borrow a copy of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner

Post back with the other details we've asked about but it does appear that the issues you're seeing could be related to overstocking and/or the wrong stocking choices

 

[Amba]

+1 to north that is a great read

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Welcome!