cthoughts1

Hey all.. I've had my tank for about 3 months now. About a month into it I thought the tank cycled completely. I slowly added fish until i got to 4 clowns, 2 cobies, 1 skunk shrimp, 1 small hippo tang, a dart fish and a bi-color blenny.. About a week ago I got a little carried away and picked up a small 2" yellow tang and a powder brown tang (3-4") and a Naso tang.

Since I added those last 3 tangs my readings went up the roof with the Nitrites and Nitrates. My ammonia is still at zero, but my nitrites are between 1 and 2 and my nitrates are around 30. I know that is way too high. It's been like this for a few days now and I'm panicking quite a bit now. I've put in Bio-Spira as well as One and Only by Dr. Tim's and it doesn't seem to be helping the situation. I initially did water changes daily when I discovered this about 5 days ago but when I went into the pet shop they told me to stop doing the water changes.

I have an Eheim 2217 cannister filter (rated 125 gallons), an under gravel filter with two powerheads, a tetratec hang on (rated 125 gallons), a Berilin X2 turbo skimmer, and a UV Sterilizer.

Please give me some advice or ideas as what to do? So far I moved my blenny and the yellow tang to a 24 gallon nano-cube I have, but I don't wanna put any more fish inthere for fear of the same thing happening. Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, or similar experiences? I'd hate to lose any of my fish...

TFA101

how big is this aquarium?

cthoughts1

it's 75 gallons..

angelfish220

Is your skimmer still working properly?

cthoughts1

I turned the skimmer off because i added Bio-spira this morning, should I turn it back on?

TFA101

I would make water changes daily and use either the water conditioner Prime (a good favorite) or Ultimate (reccomended by my LFS) until your readings are back to normal.

I think the cause of this might be the large load you so suddenly put on your tank by adding the three tangs.

cthoughts1

TFA101, I agree it must be the large load I added. The LFS said not to do any more water changes for like a week because I did 3 20% water changes for 3 days in a row.. They said I may be "keeping it too clean".... Should I continue with the water changes? I'm getting Prime first thing in the morning.. Should I turn the skimmer back on or leave it off?

cthoughts1

Any suggestions or advice on keeping the skimmer on or off? What about the UV sterilizer? I have that off as well.....

angelfish220

I would turn the skimmer back on...

'Course I don't actually have a SW tank, I don't have enough money, but have read quite a bit on them.

TFA101

I would continue with the water changes and do your best to remove those harmful nitrites. the nitrates are still toxic, but not when you get them down to low levels (which will be achieved with the daily water changes)

cthoughts1

TFA do you agree that I should turn the skimmer back on? What about the UV steralizer - on or off?

TFA101

the UV sterilizer is the one that kills algae spores right?

if so, i wouldn't turn that back on, as it will benefit your tangs with the nitrates your have. some algae will grow and it will be consumed by your tangs. however, you you notice the algae growth is too dramatic or too much, you can turn it back on.

I'm not sure about the protien skimmer, i'm a freshwater enthusiast and a salwater keeper wannabe but i haven't learned about the protien skimmer yet

cthoughts1

ok, thanks for your help guys..

nemo addict

You have 3 tangs in a 75 ,,, The only one that should be in there is the yellow tang,,,

The tank is to small for the powder blue and naso and as they grow they will become aggressive due to lack of space and will proberbly kill eachother if they dont get to stressed and die of white spot first ,, for a naso fully grown (12-20 inchs) you would require a tank double the size of yours,, powder blues are known for getting white spot as they are easily stressed ,, please read nasotang profile

cthoughts1

Hey Nemo Addict.. I try to do all my research before buying any type of fish:

http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/tangs/nasotang/

I don't just buy them to buy them. And it's not a powder blue tang that I have it's a powder brown tang (which I hear are rather peaceful). The reason I got three is because the LFS told me that 2 alone would likely not get along but if I got at least three it would neutralize their aggressiveness..

Anyway, that being said, do you have any input as to how to lower my Nitrites?

agsansoo

Hello cthoughts, first thing you should do is turn on the protein skimmer and shut off the UV sterilizer. First question. How much live rock do you have in your tank ? Second thing I would do is take back the powder blue tang and a Naso tang to the LFS. They will get too big for your tank. You can keep the yellow tank, he's a great addition to any tank. Also you really shouldn't add so many fish at any one time. One fish every five weeks is about right in a saltwater tank.

agsansoo

I would not use that ^ website as a guide in the future ! Try reading this site, for further research. It's really been helpful to me.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/nasoselfaqs.htm

cerianthus

Adding 3 fish in 75 G should not have caused spike of nitrite if tank was well established.

As Far what fish should go and should'nt go in the tank , i will leave it up to the keeper. What I end up doing was as fish got bigger, provided bigger home.

As far as adding 3 tangs at the same time, i believe lfs was right since adding 3 or more tangs at the same time resulted in less aggression toward one particular tang (break up the fight), at least w/ my experiences.

Leave the skimmer on at this time. When you are adding any additves, just watch the collection cup since it can skim lot more due to organic matters in additives (Bio-Spira for Ex.).

Partial Water Changes? if nitrite is somewhat reduced, I would stop. If nitrite is not lowered or getting higher, would continue to do PWC. You probably noticed that PWC does not really lower the level that much. That does not mean you should do massive water changes which can disturb whatever propagation of bacteria is going on.

UV, would leave it off since will kill inactive beneficial bacteria in the water which will become active once attached to media.

As one of member pointed out, do you have any live rocks?

Although, Eheim , UGF and HOB filters can be used in S/W (Actually, these were only available filters before W/D came into market sometimes in late 70 or early 80's)), these do require constant maintenance since organic matters will breakdown in the filter becoming nitrate factory.
Make sure to vacuum substrate partially w/ PWC to suck out the organic matters trapped in the substrate. Like I said, your system can handle it but does require maintenance more often.

Hope this help a bit and hope that your tank stablize soon and would love to hear that all the fish are doing fine!!!