have a tank that is in need of help

[miker]

so the store i work in has a 75 gallon salt water tank.. we have had it for about 2 years now.. when we first got the tank.. it was all live rock.. i would say about almost 100 lbs of rock.. in the tank was a bubble tip anemone, yellow belly damsel, clown (nemo), 2 marone clowns 1 male n female.also a star fish not sure the kind, and i would think its a cardinal fish black and a silver color. mostly just floats around and dashes. the female roamed the tank n terrorized the other clown.. that tank set up been the same way for 4 years previous. for a while the tank has not been taking care of properly. it looked like a someone gave up on.. I took the liberty of cleaning out the entire tank myself.. i took out about 30lbs of the live rock that is now just rock. did a complete water change bought a new light cause the old one was for the live rock and it was also broke. Basically re did everything in the tank.. once i redid the entire tank i added all my old fish back in the tank.. ( the nemo clown died months before from the large female clown chasing him and biting him) also the bubble anemone died.

i went out and bought some new fish. 2 electric blue damsels and what i believe is a large chromis. and a new nemo clown.. everyone one was swimming and eating and the tanked looked awesome. a week later the maroon clown boy died out of no where. i came in and could not find him. i found him between 2 rocks at the bottom. I also noticed that the large female clown was just floating in the back of the tank which this fish never does.. i tryed to feed her but she didnt eat i new their was a problem. next day that fish also died. now the 2 fish that were in their the longest now died. So i went out and added some more fish.. came back with a tomato clown and a yellow tang.. yellow tang is so beautiful. Everything is wonderful up until today.. i found my yellow tang at the bottom of the tank up on the side of a rock. he passed and now im getting frustrated as to why the fish are dying.. i have checked the salt daily it is perfect.. i do not have a water test kit as i just found out that its a must the keeps levels in good condition.. i dont know if the new tank mates made most of the old fish stressed but i had 11 fish and now i have 6.. i Also have alot of that aiptasia all over the place.. before i did the change it looked like it was taking over...after the water change not as many but they are starting to come back fast and are getting bigger.. Does anyone have any ideas or advise i can use.. Im just feel bad for the fish n the tank that looked horrible.. I know that thier is going to be alot of question for me, so i will try to answer them the best i can.. thanks alot for your time

 

[Cheeser]

Get urself a test kit. Go with a liquid test. That's the only way ull know what's going on. What kinda filtration r u running? Also u need to get rid of that aiptasia. Go buy aiptasia-x. I wouldn't add anymore fish until u figure things out.

 

[miker]

as far as filtration goes im not sure im learning on the fly.. i know i have a protein skimmer it pretty big with 2 chambers and a cup at the top that i empty out when it fills up with green water . at the bottom of the tank it says amircle where i add water every other day. their is another chamber that holds the duel action pre filter polyester pads. and some bacteria balls on the bottom of that. i have did some reading in the aiptasia and they say that it not 100 % that it will all go away and some chemicals may harm the fish. Sorry for the lack of knowledge i have with this. please bare with me.

 

[daugherty]

get some good test kits as cheeser has said. sounds like a bakpak skimmer. aiptasia x will not harm any fish. you put it into the mouth of the aiptasia and it will kill it. but first things first test the water. and what kind of lights are on the tank. as for fish dont put different kinds of clowns together and no more than two of the same species.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hello and welcome to the site! I'm glad you came here looking for help.

First off, stop adding more fish. You have to find out what's wrong before you can add more animals. They will just keep dying unless you get to the root of the problem.

You want to make sure that you are not overstocked. In saltwater, a good rule of thumb to follow is 1 fish per 10 gallons. So you can keep 7 or 8 fish in your tank.

Daugherty is right about the clowns -- usually different types will not live together. If you can catch some of your fish, I'd recommend taking them back to the store, whether you are overstocked or not. Getting your tank in shape will be easier the fewer fish you have.

The first thing you have to do is find out what your water parameters are. These are what you need to test for, specifically:

pH
Alkalinity
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitrates

Get those 5 test kits and report back here. Then we will go from there. Don't worry -- we have all been though horrible tank disasters! You can fix this. :)

 

[miker]

the lights that i just recently just got are Solarmax HE double t5 lighting system. the light that was on the tank was K-2 viper hid lights. 2 of them.. but both ballast blew out and they dont make them no more and are very pricey..

 

[RockStacker]

When you did a water change, where did you get the new water?
Did you buy it from a store? did you mix it yourself?
If you mixed it yourself, what did you use?

Also, try to avoid making complete water changes. If you want to replace all the water, do it gradually with a series of smaller water changes. Try not to change more than 50% of the water volume as it may shock the inhabitants of the tank.

It is even possible that the complete water change wiped out the bacteria colonies in the rocks that are processing the fish waste. (Read about the Nitrogen Cycle for aquariums)

When you took out the live rocks, did you put them back in after cleaning?
How did you clean them? with fresh water? saltwater?

You will be bombarded with many questions. But the more information we have, the better chances of us being able to figure out what went wrong with the tank.

 

[RockStacker]

The first thing you have to do is find out what your water parameters are. These are what you need to test for, specifically:

pH
Alkalinity
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitrates

He also did a complete water change.
Salinity/Specific gravity readings would help too.

 

[miker]

sorry for the delay.. water parameters are :

ph 7.5
alkalinity is reading high at 300
hardness is reading 1000 its very red
nitrite 0
nitrate test shows 20 but hard to say cause the color is off more toward a brown color
ammonia is 0

i used sentry test strips 5 in 1 and api ammonia test kit..

 

[miker]

when i cleaned the rock i put them in the old salt water in a bucket. and used a small brush with salt water to wash them. ive put most of the rock back in their except for maybe 25 -30 lbs of it.. left that in a bucket with old salt water and a hydro head. mixed the salt myself with tap water. the kind of salt im not sure.. i asked the guy for salt and he gave me a 20lb bag.

 

[miker]

update. also i have found out that one of the fish that i stated was a chromis. its not its a full adult size damsel.. that probably why this fish is very aggressive. also i am down to 3 fish. 1 electric blue damsel , the adult damsel pick in color.. and a nemo. very sad that the rest of the fish have passed on..