New and overcoming problems!

lilpooh142

Reefing newb
My mother and I decided to change from fw to sw about two months ago. We had no idea about what it took to begin this process. The fish store told us what we needed, and we bought it. He said if you put live rock in the tank that you could immediately put fish in. Big Mistake!! Yes...we no longer go to that fish store!! Then we had a friend give us sand and we put that in there, only to find out later that he had put something in the tank to make bacteria grow at a very rapid rate which ended up killing 2 clowns, 2 regal tangs, a yellow tang, and almost our 2 stars and 2 anemone's. Then come to find out which no one had told us that anemone's and live rock need special light, which we now have. We had to completely empty the tank, make nice with a new fish store who is now our best friend, the owner has been doing this for 23 years, and our stars and anemone's are great.

It's been about 3 weeks now and it looks like were starting to grow brown algae. Any advice on what to do now? Wait longer, clean the algae, when to put fish? We currently have 2 biowheel filters, although in about another two weeks were going to buy a bioball. Although I am a little confused regarding protein skimmers. Do we need one of those too or not with a bioball filter. I have been reading a lot...although there is so much information that it takes a while so I haven't gotten that far yet.

Thanks for any help and it will be very much appreciated!!!
 
Hi and welcome! Brown algae outbreaks can sometimes follow a cycle... I'd make sure your water parameters are in check (nitrates close to 0, phosphates close to 0) and make sure you have enough flow in the tank (powerheads). I would skip the bioball altogether and get a good skimmer instead. If you have a good skimmer and enough live rock, you don't really need any other kind of filtration. If you are not religious about cleaning biowheels and bioball chambers your nitrates will climb. With a skimmer you don't need to worry about that. Whatever you do, don't buy a Sea Clone. Huge waste of money, worst skimmer out there. If you want a hang on back skimmer, the Aqua C Remora Pro is the way to go.

You could try to clean the algae off in the meantime with a toothbrush, if you want.

As for when to add the fish, I would wait until your ammonia and nitrates are at 0 (when your cycle is done). And then, start with hardy, easy fish. Tangs can be prone to disease and infection. Clowns are good. What are you water parameters now, anyways??

Also, in the future, I'd say that 3 tangs in a 55 gallon is too much -- they need bigger tanks. I have 1 yellow tang in my 55 gallon, but some say that a 55 gallon is too small even for one tang (I'm sure you'll hear from Bobby about the size tanks tangs need! That's one of his favorite things to talk about ;)).

What kind of lights did you end up getting?

I think you'll like this forum -- we're useful. I've found it very helpful to post if I'm thinking about buying an animal or piece of equipment, that way you get the truth about whether it's a waste of money, if that animal is hard to keep, and what alternatives are out there.

Again, welcome!
 
Welcome to the forum.. we are all at various levels of knowledge so we are always eager to learn more over here!

It would probably be best to start out and tell us more about what your current system is like.

Tank size:
Lighting:
Filtration:
Current 'residents':

Also - what you intend to keep in the tank - that will help everyone better understand what your needs are.
 
We test about once a week to see where we are. According to the test kit all of our levels are ok now. We have about 45-50lbs of live rock, a cleaner shrimp, red general star fish, sand sifter star, carpet anemone and another anemone, I can't remember which one although I posted a pic of him in the photo gallery as well as the red star and a tank pic. We only had one blue tang at a time and one yellow tang with a clown, when the blue tang and the clown died the first time we bought another set, then learned that due to the anemone only being able to survive 10-14 days with out photosynthetic light, that they were killing everything in the tank because they were dying. Thank goodness we saved everything else before that happend. All tank mates are doing very well now. The yellow tang lasted almost until the end...we had moved everything into a quarantine tank to redo the 55, then that's when she kicked the bucket. I found that yellow tangs are very hardy. Definitly want to get one of those. The main thing we want to get is a blue tang(Dory), false clown(Nemo), and definitly another yellow tang. I have a 4 year old who was amazed when we had those fish in the tank. I would love to be able to get them again now that we know a lot more about what it takes to keep a sw tank. Right now we have two hang on the back biowheel filters and two powerheads for water movement. The photosynthetic light for the anemone and live rock. We keep that light on for about 8-9 hours for the anemone's. By skimmer, you mean protein skimmer? So that's like a filter, and between that and the live rock that's the filtration? One thing that I have to mention is when we still had the yellow tang, it would swim next to the cleaner shrimp, and get cleaned. Although the cleaner would not clean any other fish. Do they attach themselves to one fish only, or is mine just picky?
 
Questions on your lighting -

What type of bulbs are you using and what is the wattage? A fish only tank does not need a high amount of watts per gallon (for most fish you can use the bulbs that Petco carries) but when you add anemones the lights are much more important.
 
Yeah, the specific brand of the light fixture would help too. And the specific numbers that your test kit is reading.

The most important thing to remember is to add animals very slowly in a new tank: Start with one fish, wait a few weeks, and if it stays alive and healthy, add one more. Then do the same thing. Stocking too quickly will cause your tank to crash. Anemones are pretty hard to keep and require immaculate water conditions, not usually do-able in a new tank, so hopefully you will have better luck with those guys, they are an amazing addition to the tank.

Having a good protein skimmer and around 2 lbs live rock per gallon is a very effective and efficient filtration system. Plus it takes minimal maintenance. My personal opinion is that it is worthwhile to invest in one good skimmer and skip all the other stuff (canister, trickle, power, wet dry filters etc.). They don't work as well for saltwater as they do for freshwater.

Just FYI, it can take anemones several weeks to months to die, so you might not be out of the woods yet with those guys, they just slowly rot away... I'd keep a close eye on them and remove them to the quarantine tank (or move your other animals to the quarantine tank) at the first sign of nastiness.
 
Welcome to the site. At this point do not add anything to the tank that does not contribute to the upkeep of the system. concentrate on cleanup crew, snails, conchs, sand stirrers and the like. Let your system mature and settle in for at least 3 to six months without any losses before adding anything else and then only if your water parameters are good. If you do not yet have one I would recommend a protein skimmer. good luck keep us posted.
 
Gainsville huh? My hometown is Crestview My first tank I went to the boardwalk out near Eglin AFB and Brought home tons of sand right out of the ocean floor best type of sand to have in a tank in my oppinion. The live rock trick does work if the rock is fully cured and you have a large amount of it along with bacteria in the water and sand the only way I have found to incoorperate this is too use cycled sand and water and filter pads out of another tank (just like doing a water change) as for you algae get some good snails such as turbos or margaritas. You have had alot of die off I would run something like chem pure or carbon filteration for a little while (at least 2 weeks- a month then stock slowly start out with a hardy fish see how he does and go from there general rule of thumb wait 2 weeks in between adding live stock gives your tank the oppertunity to catch up on the bio load. Other than that nice to meet you and welcome to the reefs. Hope this helps.
 
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