Newbie inheriting a tank!

A

AundriaM

Reefing newb
We recently bought a house and discovered that a saltwater aquarium was coming with it because the owner does not want to move it. It is a 55 gallon tank, and I know little to nothing about it other than:

4 fish - 1 Yellow Tang, 2 Blue Damsels and 1 Hawaiin Humbug
Undergravel Filter
Canister Filter

I spoke to the owner tonight, and all he could tell me was that in the year and a half that he had it he had never done a water change, never changed the filters, and never tested the water. The tank is covered in what I can only assume is green algae, and there are rocks, but I cannot tell if they are coral due to the algae, and honestly I don't know that I could tell the difference anyway.

The fish are surprisingly well, although he said the Yellow Tang is very aggressive and killed fish in another tank he had. He feeds the Yellow Tang Romaine lettuce, and the others some sort of flake food.

I have experience with freshwater tanks, but haven't even considered a saltwater setup before. The condition of the tank scares me, and I am wondering if it can be saved - and if so, where do I start? - or if I should turn the fish in to a local store and start over.

I look forward to your advice and apologize in advance for any glaring errors - this is not a subject I am familiar with, but I am willing to learn!
 
Hello and welcome. Hopefully this new addition won't be too stressful, believe it or not, messes like this can be fixed, it just takes a looooong time (and sometimes a lot of money, unfortunately).

In my opinion, removing the undergravel filter is the first necessary step. In saltwater setups they lead to very poor water quality (as does not doing water changes). This could be messy and can unleash a lot of previously trapped water pollutants so if you can catch the fish and have someone "babysit" them in the meantime, I don't think that would be a bad idea.

If you want to leave the fish in while you remove the undergravel filter, you will have to buy a bunch of buckets and buy premade salt water from a fish store (or make your own saltwater) to keep the rocks in (don't let them dry out), then pull out the UG filter. The water will be cloudy, but this shouldn't have negative effects on the fish and it will clear up in a couple days or so.

Either way, I think that's the first step. After you remove the UG filter, you should buy a test kit and test the water for pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and alkalinity. Then do a relatively large water change (20% to 50%) depending on how your water parameters came out. It may take several large water changes to get the water parameters to an acceptable level (pH should be 8.2, ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate less than 20, alkalinity around 10).

You may want to go buy these test kits and let us know how they come out before you do anything else, come to think of it. Oh yeah, and you want the temperature to stay between 76 and 80...

The algae will take a long time to beat, but the first step to that is cleaning the water up.
 
I agree with Biff, but before you do the water changes srape all the algae you can off, that way when you do the change you will remove it. DO it first though, that way its not staying in the water. Also clean the canister and replace the media and filter cartgeges but not all at once, that way you dont kill all of your good bacteria, I would do half now and the other half in 3 weeks or so. If the tank has been running that long with the same media and pads I would say alot of the bacteria is on them and you dont want your cycle to start over, however that might be unavoidable. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Hello and welcome, first and foremost congratulations even though it may look unbearable it can be saved though it will take you some time. Yes as previously stated remove the UG filter very bad news. Try to clean the glass as much as humanly possible, you can clean your rock with a soft bristled brush if it bothers you that bad I have done it you may break something off however it will grow back. Do a large water change my suggestion 50% check your lights they may need changing, check your filter it may be clogged or dirty that will need to be cleaned you can take the time to test it if you want but if it has never had a water change and there is that much algae its going to require one anyways hope this helps.
 
Thank you all for your replies! It sounds like I have my work cut out for me, but now I at least know where to start :D I will have access to the tank Wednesday the 24th and will test the water then. I will post with my results and some pictures of the tank. Until then I will be reading articles and trying to get some knowledge under my belt.

Regards,
Aundria
 
Thats a good start. I hope it goes well for you. Keep us posted on any updates. I cant wait to see the pics. :D
 
Yeah, I'm actually very curious to see what the tests will show on a tank that hasn't had a water change or filters cleaned in so long. The ammonia and nitrite levels may well be at 0 but I bet you anything those nitrates are off the chart!
 
Hi, just an update - I am calling in an expert! A local Aquarium store makes house calls, so they are going to come by on Sunday to see what we're up against - I will let you know what they find! I was just worried that I'd kill these poor fish due to a stupid mistake - everything I've read makes this hobby look like a pretty exact science.

One quick question: The Yellow Tang has developed a white horizontal stripe down its sides and goes back and forth from regular color to pale yelow since yesterday. I was thinking that it was due to stress, but the person at the store said that it's a disease (starts with an "R" - rigatosis??) the fish has developed from malnutrition since it's only been fed lettuce. Does that sound right? I only ask because no one else has said anything about the diet (although I did read that this fish was a carnivore).

Thanks again for your help. I will dig my camera out of a box and post pics & the test results on Sunday.
 
It could be lateral line disease. The yellow tang is an herbivore...I think the information you got about it being a carnivore was wrong, although it will eat small amounts of mysis shrimp and stuff, although if it does not get a proper diet rich in vegetables it will suffer from malnutrition. It's color will also fade if it's malnourished. You should stop by a pet store and pick up some packs of dried seaweed for fish, there are lots of different colors, my yellow tang likes the Julian Sprung sea veggies brand the best. Then you can rip off a piece of the dried seaweed and either use a suction cup and clip to attach it to the glass or wrap a rubber band around a little rock and tie the seaweed down that way.
 
I seem to be a little late in chiming in.. but no worries!

Step one should be sitting down and asking yourself if you have the time and resources to dedicate to a saltwater tank. Also ask yourself what type of tank you would like to keep. A fish only tank can be considerably less work than a reef tank.

You will be spending much more time regulating your saltwater tank then your previous exprience with freshwater - time is a big factor. Also.. there are a much, much higher cost with saltwater. I'd recommend sitting down and taking that into as much of an account as anything. There is a reason most of us don't readily keep available receipts for what we put into these tanks.. if I knew off the top of my head what I have put into my saltwater tank over the past 4 years.. I think I'd need a stiff drink.. maybe two.
 
Too funny, my husband tells me about 50% of the costs for his hobby (cars) - maybe this is a chance to even the score :mrgreen:

Thanks for the info on the fish - I will see about some seaweed tonight!

And yes, the upkeep and cost factors have crossed my mind. When I spoke to the person coming out to look at the tank, I asked that he please be honest and let me know what I was looking at long term for this tank. I can already see needing a new filter system and heater, let alone what it would take to get everything healthy & clean. Saltwater setups are so beautiful, but when it comes down to it, I don't want to torture the fish if I can't keep up with everything.
 
Your lights will probably be the biggest expense, at least for now. If you keep fish only for a while, you don't need expensive lights.
 
So, a very cool fish guy came out today - sadly too late for my Yellow Tang. Apparently the heater in the tank was malfunctioning and there was no thermometer - the tank was at 90 degrees! So I cooked him :shock:

The amonia & nitrites were both at zero, and he said the PH was fine and should stay stable due to our hard water, but the nitrates were 90 parts per million. Judging by his face, that's pretty bad. I also have a blue green algae problem, but we were able to clean most of it off.

We did a 70% water change and he explained that I have 3 powerheads and a Fulval 404 Canister Filter to work with. I will be removing the crushed coral and undergravel filter this weekend and replacing it with live sand. He said the filter should be ok with the sand as I can get snails, crabs and a gobie or two to keep everything clean. Geez I have a lot to learn!

I plan to add live rock in a week or two once I get everything clean and stable, then the cleanup crew. I may even be brave and add some fish eventually :D

The water change was evidently a little dangerous, as I am now short a blue damsel. A bad day for my fish I guess! The scary part? We never found him. Checked the carpet and the rocks we pulled out to bleach. I'm a little weirded out by that....

If you have any suggestions as to changing out the coral for sand, types of sand and/or clean up crews, I would love to read them! I've been keeping up with other posts so feel better at this point (and I plan to avoid the Sally-something crabs). Oh, and he said the lights that I have will work for now since I don't have coral. There are two tubes and one is a daylight? Not sure what that means.
 
Well it sounds like you are on your way. Yep, 90 nitrates is high. That's probably the cause of your algae. You may have removed it for now, but it'll probably be back!

It's good that you have someone to help you out, I bet you'll learn a lot through this ordeal.

As for types of sand, I would use aragonite. Clean up crews, you will have to wait until your nitrates get below 20 to add those, as inverts are especially sensitive to nitrates. You might think of adding hermit crabs, but there's a downside to them, they will kill snails for their shells. A better route might be to go all snails, and get a mix of different species. You could try turbo snails, astraea, nassarious, conchs, trochus. Those are some of the kinds I have in my tank... And yeah, avoid the sally lightfoots :). The lights you have now are just fine for fish only.
 
Wow, this sounds like a lot of work but it could end up being incredibly fun!

You're better off without that damsel, by the way...they can be terrible little creatures :)
 

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