Hippo Tang upside down

[mitruff]

I recently moved into a new apartment and with that, I upgraded from a 46gal to a 72gal. I had my original 3 fish, a empreor angel, hippo tang and maroon clown(all 6yrs old) in the old tank and decided to introduce 3 more with the new tank. I added a naso tang, lunar wrasse and a bengai cardinal. I'm using the old sumpump filter and old rocks.

1st week, everyone getting along great, looking healthy, enjoying life.
I go away for the long 4th weekend, friend swings by and feeds fish.
Come back, everyone is sluggish. No one is eating. Everyone is hanging out in a corner. My hippo is upside down sometimes in between rocks but mostly lying on its side. I've seen sick and/or dying fish...but he's still colorful and doesnt look like anything is wrong with him. My emperor had cloudy eyes for the past 36hrs....but those cleared up this morning.

I did a small water change (about 20gal) and that seemed to help the emperors eyes, but no one is eating and there just doesnt seem to be the vibrant life that there was last week.

Am I missing something?

My friend left a piece of romaine lettuce in the tank over the 4 days I was gone. I'm concerned that the lettuce rotted and now I'm dealing with some sort of disease.

My plan is to continue to do small water changes each day until whatever it is goes away. I also want to invevst in another filter as my water circulation isnt as good as I would like.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[wontonflip]

Welcome to the site, Mit....

You need to post your parameters. Did you cycle the new tank? Even if you used your live rock, you could still be having a cycle. AND Adding that many fish to the new tank in a short period is a definite way to cause an ammonia spike. Test your ammonia and nitrites. They sound like they're suffering from ammonia poisoning.

Just FYI, another thing that will come up on this forum is that for starters your 46 g was already too small for an emperor angel AND a hippo tang....but a 72 g, while being bigger, is still not large enough. Plus the addition of a naso tang is not a good thing either.

Hippo Tangs and Naso tangs need 180g, while an emperor requires 220g (refer to Liveaquaria.com for minimum requirements).

I know you had luck keeping your hippo and emperor in a small tank. But again, with the addition of this MANY fish in a short time in a new tank is very bad for the fish, and you really should return them, properly cycle the tank, and slowly add fish that are appropriate for a tank that size.

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the site first of all...
I'm sorry to hear about your fish, and the best thing you can do at those point is continue with the water changes...have you checked all your levels? can you post them for us to see?
Maybe he over fed which raised youre ammonia, nitrites, nitrates...and kicked off another cycle, which is making your fish sick, so multiple water changes should help.
Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[mitruff]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Unfortunately, I didnt cycle the new tank due to the time constraints of moving in two days, but I did bring my water into be tested before I added the new fish...who gave me the ok. My guess is that the levels werent registering because of the newness of the water. I will do some more testing when I get home tonight and post up numbers.

I hear ya on the small tank size and you're 100% correct, I am lucky they've done so well in such a small tank. My reasoning for adding so many fish at once was that if I didnt do it when I put them all in the new tank, the orginal 3 wouldve gotten territorial and wouldnt have allowed me to add fish in the future. I guess I pushed the envelope a bit too much. I have plans to upgrade again to an even larger tank in the future.

I will continue with the small water changes, look into my options of returning the fish, and test the water further.

Thank you all for the helpful feedback. Its greatly appreciated. I will heed your advice and repost in the next day or so.

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

+1 to the above, especially on the minimum tank size.

 

[marcah]

howdy and welcome to the site..:D
they have you covered on the fish and waterchanges, I was wondering on what you meant by upgrading your filter? your sump? how large and what is the flow rate through it? circulation in the tank you could just put a powerhead or two in...

 

[wontonflip]

Thank you all for the helpful feedback. Its greatly appreciated. I will heed your advice and repost in the next day or so.

You are NOT normal :shock: :mrgreen: Kidding. Glad to know at least that you know what you need to do.

The water changes should help. Did you at least move your live rock from the old tank to the new? It will help out a lot if you had. Plus it would've helped to put some of the sand in the new tank -- maybe a cupful or two. Anything to increase the nitrifying bacteria would help a lot.

If anything, return the new fish you got, and just concentrate on getting your old ones more comfortable.

 

[mitruff]

howdy and welcome to the site..:D
they have you covered on the fish and waterchanges, I was wondering on what you meant by upgrading your filter? your sump? how large and what is the flow rate through it? circulation in the tank you could just put a powerhead or two in...

I bought it so long ago, I forgot exactly what it is but its one of those wet/dry filters with a protein skimmer tower that is for tanks up to 75gal. It just feels like the water doesnt circulate as well as I would like it to, especially on the bottom so I was thinking of purchasing a canister filter as well to get water flowing on the bottom.

I did transfer over the live rock from my old tank to my new one, but I threw the gravel away and started anew. Bad call on my part. I thought the live rock and the old filer were enough. Lesson learned.

I guess I just dont move as much as I should.

Thanks again for the feedback. Much appreciated.

 

[Northstar24]

Welcome to the site

I have to agree about the tank size recommendations, especially for the Naso and the Angel

If you want to move the water around more in the tank, you dont need a canister filter, you can use powerheads such as Koralias

 

[marcah]

you should lose the wet/dry filter and the skimmer(for larger skimmer)...
you should go with a sump and refugium plumbed in with an overflow and nice return pump.. there are quite a few posts about D.I.Y. sumps or you could buy one.. the skimmer should be close to twice the tank size for it to really bennefit you.. reef octopus makes a nice skimmer which can hang on the back or one that can go in your sump.. Protein Skimmer, Protein Skimmers, Aquarium Marine Reef Foam Fractionators
Most people like it in the sump so it is not seen anymore..

 

[ErinCahir]

Hello and welcome!! And +1 everyone.