FishChannel Forums / Saltwater Forums / Saltwater Emergencies

Manjano's

Butterfly71756 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:46:37 GMT

I have a 55 gal saltwater, fish and reef tank. I've noticed I have about 6 Majano anenomes. What is the best method of removing these, without taking the live coral out on the rock?

bubbles!

reeffreak — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:14:06 GMT

Hi! Just set up a Sea Max 34gal. and the protein skimmer is just spitting bubbles into the tank like crazy. How long will it do this and how can I stop it? I'm used to a different type of skimmer that did not use an air tube. Thanks for any suggestions

Cloudy Water

Narazbad — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:11:06 GMT

Got a question about my tank. Came back from the Philippines about 10 days ago and noticed my water was cloudy in my main tank. Fish were fine, and all water tests checked out. (0 Amm, 0 Phos, 0 Nitrites and 20 nitrates, 8.3 pH) Did a 25% water change a few days ago and added some coppersafe to the tank because my clown trigger has started getting ich recently. All the other fish are fine but i still have the cloudiness in the water. New filter sponges, no carbon (because of the coppersafe) and old biological filters. Any ideas what could be causing the cloudy waters? Could it just be algae blooms or something, and in that case, maybe add some algaefix? Advice would be welcome, thanks guys

Moisture in Heater, Temp is High

j1zip — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:36:21 GMT

I noticed the water in my tank felt warm when I was adding a sheet of algae to it today. Then I took a peak at my thermometer my temp was up a good 2 degrees reading 80 Degrees. The normal tank temp is 76-78 degrees (saltwater set-up). Also I noticed the heater was still on so I disconected and hooked it up to timer for the night. I set it to stay off for 3 hours then go on for a half hour then back off and on two hours. I figured that it shouldn't get too hot or cold in that amount of time, which would give me enough time to check in in the morning before work. I also noticed some moisture in the form of bubbles inside the unit. As of now I plan on getting a new heater in the tommorow. Can anyone suggest a good quality heater that will last more then a year like my last one? My tank is 45 gallons, my current heater is 150w Aqueon submersible heater which I think may be too small. All help is appreciated, thanks.

What do you do when the power goes out?

fishtk75 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 10:12:37 GMT

What do you all do when you have no power?
As for hour or day.what is there that out there to use?
I have reefs 75 and 120.

Massive emergency

Narazbad — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:18:27 GMT

I need help, badly. My reef tank just had a MASSIVE die out of every fish in there. 6 hours ago I added about 45 pounds of new rock that had been used in an old tank but dry for several months. I washed the rock before inserting it into the tank and then put the fish and coral back in. I just looked at the tank and all of my fish are dead. Ive lost a purple fire fin, two blue green chromis and my blue damsel is on his way out right now. I've no clue what has happened to my tank! My salt is at 1.027, (normal for the tank) my phosphate is at 1.0, my nitrites are .25 and nitrates 80. The temp has been a steady 75. Please help!

Feather Duster not coming out

LongIslandFirearms — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:22:47 GMT

I had purchased this feather duster over a week ago and he is not coming out at all..

He came out once when I put him in the tank, but now all I see is the end of him in the tube.

I do see him moving in the tube, so I know he's alive.

Can anyone tell me whats going on?

Bump on my Lionfish's Tail.

marineobsessionidaho — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:32:57 GMT

My lionfish has a bump on the right side on the back of his tail. His colors have went all funny. I believe he may have snagged himself on the rocks but no evidence to support that. I do not believe that it is a parasite but what do you think?

TOO MUCH CO2 IN MY TANK?

TopDizzle — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:40:15 GMT

I just hooked up a calcium reactor to my 45 gal salt water tank. two days later the co2 stays on for a while and I come home to my fish laying at the bottom of my tank. What can I do?

I have turned off the knob to the co2 and the clcuim reactor already.

Flame Angel ich

Dertotschlager — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:35:42 GMT

Hi, my flame angelfish keeps getting something on its fins. It looks like ich, but I don't think it is, because none of my other fish have it and its keeps dissapearing and reappearing. Anybody know what it is?

Missing Goby

chwmiami — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:28:07 GMT

I have had a goby in my 75 gallon tank for a week now. He looked very active and eating and stirring up the substrate. He had even established his home. He has been missing since yesterday. How can a 12 inch (approximately) goby just vanish? My luck with my tanks has been continually challenging. Two flamehawks committed suicide. One jumped into the filter and one jumped outside of the tank. My tang lasted a day when I brought it home. I test my water several times a week. And I have had tank help come in every other week to help establish the tanks. The water tests are great. Do you think he will reappear or could he have passed on underneath the sand?

Is My bubble tip Anemone dying or is it just stressed Out

robsplosive — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:15:56 GMT

Please! can anyone tell me if my anemone is dying or stressed ? I just bought a bubble tip anemone 2 nights ago I added him to my tank. I turned off all of my power heads, and my filter. I placed him in a hole, and held him there untill he latched on a peice of live rock. He did a little moving during the night, and finally found a place to settle, on a piece of live rock. He stayed there for about a day. When my anemone was fully expand it was the size of a softball. When I came home today I found the anemone the size of a golf ball, sucked in a rock, and it looks as if it was melting. I've checked all levels and they are perfect. I have one tomoto clown fish, and I've noticed that it is constanly swimming inside the anemone. Is this a problem?? I have thirteen other corals, that have all been doing fine for the last six months. I have proper lighting, and filtration. Can anyone please tell me if he is stressed or dying.

I NEED HELP!!

ssggrub — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:17:36 GMT

I do not know whats is wrong with my tank. Do you have a minute? I have been doing salt water aquariums for over 20 years and never had anything like this happen. Here is whats is going on. My tank is a 135 gallon reef ready Oceanic, I have a sump on it with bio-balls, a protien skimmer, uv lamp. I the tank I have well over 250 pounds of live rock. I bought some "live sand" from a guy in Florida off of e-bay. That sets the stage for the rest of the story. Here it goes....way, way back in the 30's (oh wrong story)!
I sat the tank up about 8 weeks ago. I put the live sand in first and filled the tank up with water. I let it go for a week or so and added 2 clowns. Here about a month ago I bought a complete setup from a guy and brought it home. He had about 80 pounds of live rock with very nice coralline algae on it. I got up the next morning and had 100's of dead bristleworms (could be good or bad). A few days later the bright coralline had turned a very dull pink. I took a water sample to my friend who owns a reef shop. The ammonia was sky high. We thought ok this could be part of it right? No...the tank went through a complete cycle every thing came back down. I had to raise my ph, so I did.
Two weeks ago I bought a 75 gallon complete with over a 100 pounds of live rock. I brought it home got the rock into the tank and the coralline did the same thing. It turned a very light pink if not completely die. Ok...now I am thinking another ammonia spike. I took a water sample in this past Sat. and everything checked out ok. I buffered the PH again.
On that Sat. a guy called my and told me to come and pick up a 40 gallon nano from him. He had to deploy to Iraq. I went and got his stuff which had huge leather corals, zoo's, mushrooms and other stuff. I brought the stuff home put it in my tank, and everything just evaporated! My fish are fine. I can't keep corals or any soft leathers alive.
It is not my light, I have over 5 watts per gallon with actinic,50/50 and 12000ks.
I am thinking of two things here.
1- The sand I got off of ebay was bad.
2- The tank has a deadly level of cooper in it some how.
3- Some other toxic chemical was in the stuff Used to plumb the tank.

I have no idea, I am going to get the copper level checked soon. What are your thoughts as to what could be wrong? I need help........ I can be emailed at: calegrauberger@hotmail.com

Eye Problem with a Rainbow

Lab Rat — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:55:32 GMT

First, I'm sorry for the long message!

My favorite fish- out of several dozen, (5 inch turquoise rainbow) has a significant issue. It developed velvet about a week ago, and was moved to a "hospital" tank immediately, along with three other Rainbows that were showing a very mild infection. For two days I tried a proprietary treatment, with the main ingredient Victoria Green. I noticed small lesions and cloudyness on both eyes of this particular fish during treatment, and he seemed disoriented, and would not feed. Perhaps temporary blindness.??

After three days with very little improvement, I went to my LFS and they recommended Binox (nitrofurazone), and raising the temp to 84. They also suggest a concurrent dosing with an antibiotic to ward off any opportunistic bacterial infection, and one table spoon of aquarium salt oer 5 gallons. I used Maracyn. All patients improved quickly, including this one with the eye problem Three days later the velvet is virtually non-existent. After a few more days in quarantine, I was going to move them back to the display tank, and was jumping with joy!

However; yesterday, I noticed one of the turquoise's eyes is COMPLETELY clouded over. The other eye appears unaffected. It's very difficult to see, since he seems to want to keep his "good eye" pointing toward me during exam. It's looks completely opaque, and doesn't appear to be swollen in profile.. or notably concave either. I'm really afraid he may have lost it, which just makes me sick to think about.

Hospital tank-- 20 gallons, 25% water change daily, fresh water dosed with medications to maintain the proper concentration. Heavy aeration.
pH 7.5, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all below detectable levels

Is there any way to diagnose and treat the problem if it is not too late? Would Maracyn 2 be a better choice? ... Any and all constructive advise will be GREATLY appreciated!

Treating ich

robsplosive — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:40:08 GMT

So i finally bought another 55 gallon quarintine tank to treat my yellowand blue tang for ich. i bought some copper to treat the fish it is called copper power. i filled up the 55 galon quarintine tank with water from my original tank( all levels are perfect), added some live rock(actually it has been out of my tank for weeks) to give them places to hide, threw in an air pump, and threw the amount of copper needed.

Am i doing this wright? is there anything else i should be doing? thx

Help My Blue Starfish

Butterfly71756 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:59:48 GMT

A couple of days ago, my blue starfish, I've had for a couple of months now, got a white spot on it, with in a few min. its leg started to break open, and then it just severed part of its leg! Why did it do that? It seems fine now, and is moving around still, but this is confusing to me, being everything else is doing fine, "corals, fish, anenomes".

Please Help!!!

robsplosive — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:07:21 GMT

My yellow tang has been doing perfectly fine untill today. I came home to find him bouncing around eratically non stop. I came back 20 min later to find a big white stripe across his stomach on both sides mixed with some brown coloring below and above the the white line.

I checked all my levels and they a perfectly fine! can anyone please tell me what is wrong or what i can do!

clown fish always at the surface

diverdown2 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:38:59 GMT

I have two clownfish that constantly stay at the surface. My nitrites are 0, my amonia is 0. I have good oxygen levels in the water and also good flow. Water temp 80, Ph 8.2, salinity1.023. Does anyone have any thoughts as to why they stay at the surface? They do appear healthy and they do eat well.

New Fish Has Ich

robsplosive — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:27:26 GMT

Hi i am new to the fish forum and hoping to get some feed back on curing ich. I have a 55 gallon saltwater fish and live rock setup that has been running for over 5 months. i have a blue tang, yellow tang, and a clown fish. i have a cannister filter, protien skimmer and all the proper equipment. I check all my levels every other day( levels are perfect) and do proper water changes every week. as of yesterday i started to notice small white spots on all my fish and as of today i noticed the spots have now doubled. what did i do wrong? what is the best way to cure it??? if someone can please help me i would really appreciate it thx!

brown spots on my yellow tang

libralynn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:41:34 GMT

i have a yellow tang, but hes got a few brown spots on him.... we just moved him a few days ago... and he had big brown blotches, but that i was told was him being stressed from moving... these spots are darker, and look more like freckles.... should i be concerned?

new to saltwater & have some questions

ziggy — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:44:42 GMT

I was given a 92 gal. bow front corner tank by a freind that no longer had time for the hobbie. Along with the tank came a yellow tang, 1 hippo tang, 1 sixline wrass, 1 osolerous clown (I'm sure I'm spelling some of these wrong), 1 hawkfish not sure what kind, red spots, 1 rosetip anenomi and a bright green mushroom. Also there are approx. 6 small crabs and about 6 assorted snails.

overflow filter into a tank below, #7 pump, 2 powerheads for current. Current light with 2 white bulbs & 2 blue. Aprox. 100lbs. of live rock. A sand bed of fine sand aprox. 2-3 inches deep.

Would like some suggestions for a good book for someone new to salt water. Also, what (if any) other fish can I add too the tank? Should there be more cleaners i.e. crabs ,snails...? The water from my well is very hard, is this a problem?

Thanks for any help!!

Figure 8 puffer stopped eating

pufferstuffer — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:10:47 GMT

I have had this little puffer for only 2 weeks.

He was gobbling up mosquito larvae at first, now for the last 2 days or so, he won't eat. Just watches the food float by.

He swims and moves around mostly normal. But, knowing puffers, he isn't as active as he should be.

I treated the tank with Maracide, which is malachite green.

He's just over an inch long, and right now in a 10 gallon tank, at 1.000 SG.

He was freshwater, but I changed him over to that slight salinity, AFTER he was feeling bad, and he doesn't seem to be doing any better yet.

Is there a specific medication I should be giving? Or any other advice would be great!

PLEASE HELP

danf1973 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:26:36 GMT

Ok guys I'm having a very ruff time with both my 75g tanks and need some help before just tearing them down for good. I have lost every fish with 24-48hrs. Here is my story... I started with a 55gal and transported live rock from a tank that had been up for yrs as well as some live sand and and reg crushed coral/mixed. It had been up and running for about 2mos and all the fish were happy.(Clown, yellow tang, gobies). My gf wanted her Blue Hippo tang that her daughter had in her tank which wasn't doing good at all. The fish against my better judgement would have been flushed but she wanted it. You could tell it was sick maybe hole in the head and so on. The Hippo lasted about 1wk before belly up. All my fish started dieing afterwards 1 at a time=( It started with the gobies,clown fish. I though maybe it was there time then bought 2 firefish and one at a time days apart they went everything bedsides the yellow tang. The 75gal now had been up and running with 150lbs of sand with 5lbs of live sand thrown in. It had around 60lbs of live rock and i was going to use this tank more for a few fish. So the yellow tang went in (all levels normal) and looked better for about 5days before the color started looking bad. I then tested the levels at a marine place against mine and everything looked great??? I added the tang back in and with in days the tang was dead! I tested the 75gal against the marines test kit and again all levels were fine??? So I waited a few weeks and decided to try again... Bought a soliderfish(popeye) and 2 saddle back mated clowns. The next morning woke up to one of the clowns on the floor=( The next day the other one dead in the tank??? That dead I had traded for a nice light set plus 2 tangs for my 75 gal and the fish seemed good in the 75 swimming eating etc. I figured the 75gal was safe??? So i started to notice the popeye solider fish was getting popeye the bacteria infection on his eye? Come on man!!!! I treated it and thought the fish looked better after 4 days then belly up! 4 days later the Sailfin Tang had red ucler like around the mouth spreading up to the top area of it's head? Treated it and day4 dead along with the scorpin tang! The guy at the marine place told me it had to be a bacteria infection that had spread throughout being transported from one tank to the other from the tang. So as far as the tank set ups all are fine plenty of live rock good filtration and so on. I posted this on another board and my replies said that the tank was not cycled which i saw my spikes then dips and respikes of ammonia and nitrates./nitrites and so on. I was told to wait 6mos before fish and a yr for coral? I agree somewhat but how many marine places set up saltwater tanks all the time brand new? I'm not to new to saltwater either. Also was directed towards adding Floramin to the tanks to kill whatever? I'm very losted and confused please help.
Thanks in advance,
Dan

moving a tank.

libralynn — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:43:13 GMT

My friends is selling his saltwater setup to me. I know enough to keep a tank going. But, I know we have to empty the tank (we were planning of leaving like 25-30% of the water in there) but when we replace the water then add the fish, corals, and live rock back, aren't most of them gonna die? I have a post in the beginer section. any help would be apreciated, mostky how to safely transport and introduce the fish.

Help!

reef aquarist — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:56:41 GMT

I currently have a 20 gallon and a 75 gallon saltwater tank that both have external power filters and live rock for filteration. I do a 5% water change for both tanks each week. Many of the fish that I have had in both tanks were killed by a strange disease that I can't identify. The fish are fine one day but later on I find them floating around or lying on the bottom. They seem to have lost the ability to swim and they are struggling to stay off the sand bottom. After being like this for some time I find them dead. I have lost many fish like this and I don't know why. The nitrite and nitrate levels are good but the ammonia is always 0.25 ppm. Could it be the ammonia and the lack of a protein skimmer? If someone has an explanation please share. Thanks.

Brittle starfish getting attack by lawn mower blenny

Tigerpaw33 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:15:34 GMT

I was wondering what to do with my brittle starfish i know legs grow back but it has a hole on the body of it and was wondering if by some chance that would grow back. any help would be appreciated

High than normal Nitrates

nfiore — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:56:42 GMT

Morning Everyone,

This is my first post although I have been using the site for research and found it and everyone's comments/feedback to be invaluable.

Here is my issue. I am new to Saltwater although not new to fish. I have had my tank up and running now for almost a year and to this day still have issues with higher than normal levels of Nitrates.

I have a Fluval 404, used live sand and have probably about 60-70 pounds of live rock in the tank. It is a reef tank so I have a variety of soft coral, anemone, etc. I have gone through many different fish over my time with the tank (unfortunately due to lose of life, poor fish...). I used CF lighting and it is a 75 bow front tank.

Although I don't think I have lost fish due to the higher levels of Nitrates they are probably at least struggling.

I have done everything, I perform a 25% water change every 1-2 weeks, filter media change every 2-3 weeks, various nitrate removers in the filter, etc... No matter what I try nothing seems to bring the levels of Nitrate down closer to zero. They are certainly not off the chart but nothing seems to make them vary which I find odd.

Last week I noticed my ammonia and nitrites have escalated a little as well although just above zero, not that bad in the grand scheme of things. That being said I am sure they are now contributing to my higher than normal levels of Nitrates.

The guidance I need is, how to work towards driving down my Nitrates? I have tried some many things with no luck to this point.

Thanks

Nick

Star Fish Help

cybrchic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:34:05 GMT

Hi there,

Its been a while since I have posted and I am hoping you all can help.

I have a very sick star fish. I have had this star for over 12 months now and it was doing awesome. Very active and just beautiful. But since about 1 week ago, it just stopped moving. It doesn't bury itself anymore and it is just not moving at all. I turned it over and can see the little feet move so I know its still alive. I want to see if I can help it. I have moved him to the refugium tank for now.

I also have no idea what kind of star fish it is! Here are 2 pics of it when it was healthy. I bought it online as a Purple and Orange beaded sand shifting star. But i have never seen these and would like to get another one as well - hence I need the name and where I could find one.

Thanks ya'll.

choc chip star being eaten?

blenny123 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:44:40 GMT

i bought a chocolate chip star from a dealer who has kept them and has success keeping them, it keeps eating whenever i give it a silverside and likes to move across the aquarium but when i took a look today it seemed some of the flesh in two small areas show bones and as i looked i saw many of these small shrimp looking things that are bug like on ithe star and in some of the areas of dissapearing flesh i moved the star to a different location and the shrimp still found it and kept bugging my star is the shrimp eating my star?

Ich and possibly Brooklynella

jsmith11618 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:07:45 GMT

I have 2 fish, one is a clown (perc) and a pygmy angel which I beleive is a Black Nox (the stores here make common names up since most of the time they have no idea what they are getting, they called it a black pygmy).

The angel has white spots on it, looks like salt grains, so I believe this is ich.

The clown has something I have never seen before, its a whiteish filmy looking and appears to be pealing away, only one side of its body is affected and it tends to hold its fins in a clamped position.

Both fish are new and looked fine at the store, and Saturday night when I went to sleep, but come Sunday both where showing symptoms.

They are in quarantine since they were new, and I am treating with copper at the moment.

The clown is acting normal and still eating.

The angel swims and appears normal but refuses food. It has approx 15-25 white spots total and has not gotten worse since I first noticed it.

I tried soaking the food in garlic but the angel still refused it.

The params are:

SG 1.025
Temp: 78
pH 8.1
Ammonia is 0ppm (possibly 0.25ppm as I can't really tell the 2 colors apart)

Nitrite- 0ppm

Nitrate- 0ppm

The clown is the one I am most worried about, doing some searching online Brooklynella is the closest I can find that looks like what the clown has.

I have attached some photos, the quality sucks as the camera is not very good.

Brooklynella makes me nervous as I have been reading that copper isn't effective against it, and to use a formaldehyde solution dip, but being where I am its not available locally.

My brothers tank "sprang a leak", so to speak.

Conner — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:42:18 GMT

So I got a text from my brother this morning around 9am. Saying that his 125g reef tank had "blown a seal", and had emptied into his living room. He managed to transfer any fish and inverts to other tanks in the house, and so far hasn't lost anything, although one clownfish did get popeye, he said. Apparently there was a bad enough leak that water was "jetting" out of the side! He said the stand is ruined, the carpet and padding underneath are ruined, and the tank probably can't be saved.

Fortunately, he's talked with the makers of the tank, and since it is only about 6 months old, they are replacing the tank, paying for a new stand, and paying to replace all the carpeting (and anything else that is damaged) for free. Thank heavens for warranties, eh?

Nitrate Help

caveman — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:00:53 GMT

Hello,

I just recently found out about this website and I am excited to exchange information with other enthusiasts.I have been doing this since I was five years old, I remember when underground filtration was state of the art. I currently have a 155 gallon fish only saltwater tank. Unfortunatley I just had a major wipe out due to a phosphate bag getting caught up in my sump. I have restocked and I am back on track. The major problem that I have are Nitrates,I do not overfeed and I do 25% water changes once a month if not bi-weekly.The levels were high 80-100ppm so I did a 50% water change but they ares still between 20-40ppm.I just changed my uv light (18w Turbo Twist )and my vho lights.Any Suggestions would be appreciated.Happy Holidays to all

Tank not cycled after 6 week's please help

Corona — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:31:49 GMT

Hello, please help me out here I'm new to this forum and well "new". I have a 55gal with built in wet/dry system. I've got an 1" of live sand also added cured live rock and bacteria in a bottle. 4 weeks after I've added 5 cromies and some hermit crabs and 3 turbo snails. Last week two snail died and follow by one fish. My ammonia level is .050, Ph 8.2, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0 and salinity is 1.025 ish. I did a water change first 5gal and another 5gal the next day this was last weekend. I keep a close eye on my Ph and ammonia but they are still at the same level they are 5 days ago. Last night one more cromies died.

Please help me out here I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong....Almost forgot I have a Metal halide 250w and atinic.

ick!

ziggy — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:47:56 GMT

I have a real bad ick problem in my 92gal saltwater tank. Has anyone ever heard of & or used a product called nosickfish? I read the testimonials on their web site & it sounds like it may be what I'm looking for.

fish dying

woodys16 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:08:38 GMT

i have recently lost 2 of my fish. the first i came home one day and discovered the other fish eating them. the other fish was being attacked by the others. is this a sign of disease? these fish have been together for over a year, and no indication of this kind of activity before.

i started with a four striped damsel, clown fish,lightning wrasse(just found out what it was tonight) in one tank. about 9 months ago i acquired a new 55 gal tank and its inhabitants. a bi color blenny, domino damsel, and what looks like a javanese damsel. i have two snails and 7 hermit crabs. i know its not enough cleaners but right now they seem to be working. i actually acquired the fish about 2 weeks before the tank. acclimated and never had a problem. then transferred everything back to the new tank. i probably didnt do that the way most would have but i moved setup water and all(water already stable and set). in nine moths have not had one problem. water quality has been steady, right were it should be. so thats the story behind my tank.

green hair algea

clownfishkid — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:40:39 GMT

I need suggestions on what to do to get rid of this terrible green hair algea that is growing all over my live rock. It has covered all of my live rock but has stopped growing on the tanks glass. I have told my lfs about this algea problem but all they have suggested is that i close all blinds in the room so there is no direct sun light, and they told me to buy some snails, witch i did yesterday. I bought 5 little turbo snails and one big mexican snail. So far they have not done anything but crawl around on the sand and the glass. I have had the blinds in the room closed for about 3 weeks and it has seemed to stop the algea from growing on the glass , but it still remains on the live rock. I have tried to pick it off and i have removed a great deal of it, but i just can't get it all. My local fish store also tested my water and said it was one of the best samples they had seen and that every thing was fine. I really dont know what else to do, besides maybe lowering the amount of time my light is on. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know i would really like to get rid of this algea.

small spot on powder brown tang

10 acre woods — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:59:45 GMT

I have a newly set up 75 gal tank(3 months) all parameters are normal but had a slight drop in ph for a few days (it was only 8.2 insted of the usual 8.3). I buffed my tank to bring up my ph and then noticed the tang had a slight discoloration on his side. This is my first tang and he likes to swim eraticly around the tank and also flair his tail and shake wildly while point his head to the top of the tank (this only last a moment then he returns to swiming around). This may sound strange but didn't know if there might be something wrong with him. I have read a few articles about fish illness and the only thing that it sounds close to is a fungus but this is not a legon on his side but just a slight discoloration. I don't think it is a burn either I mixed the buff in to the sump/refugeim.

I have also been keeping fish for 13 years. 2 year of salt water.

nitrate out of control.

10 acre woods — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:38:45 GMT

Ok thought I didn't have ick then thought I did. Tang acting funny and started to see white spots. So I added some malachite green to water to stop infection spreding to other fish. Then Pow nitrate out of conrol and water cloudy. Amonia 0 ppm and nitrite 0 ppm and ph 8.3 all in line but every few hours nitrate jumps 10 ppm. So rushed up some salt water mix and put a heater to it seeing all my RO is cold in a garage.

100 gal tank with home made sump 900 gph pump system is 4 months old with rock and water added from other tanks that have been in operation for 2 years. I am almost 99% shure that tank is cycled. Lighting might be only other factor. After talking with friend he told me a quicker way to break the cycle is to leave lights on for 3 days or more. I guess Ick don't hatch in the day so eggs die after a few days. So I decided to try this. But lighting is only a 40 watt t5 and has been on for only 24 hours. Really don't think that this is it.

Questions

1. Do you think malachite green had any thing to do with spike?

2. If so will water change bring back into alinement?

3. Should I expect to see another spike?

4. What % water should I change out?

I know I should have a hospital tank but new tank and trying to get it up and running before investing in hospital tank. I know it is not that much and should have gotten it but I guess this is just another dumb mistake.

Mushrooms Shrinking

BEBOX14 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:00:56 GMT

I have about 10 blue mushrooms that won't open up. I did a water change and turned my lighting system on(750w sysetem halide and atinic) the mushrooms were fine. I did leave my halides on 2-3 hours more than what I usually run them which is usually 4 hours. The next day when looked at the tank the mushrooms were all curled up very small. More than what they are when the lights are off. I left my system off for a while to see if that would help heal them. about 2-3 days the lights weren't on except for the moon leds. I turned them bak on and the same thing. Im now wondering if maybe there are enough supplements in the tank for mushrooms. Everything else is fine.(bubble coral, two annenomes, and two zoos) really need help.

My eel is starving

ScottandBrenda — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:15:53 GMT

I upgraded to a 240g two weeks ago and my everything made the transition well except my Zebra eel and he has not ate since the move!!! Any suggestions on getting him to eat again. He used to have a voracious appitite and ate frozen shrimp from a feeder stick. It appears as he no longer trusts me since I had to remove him from his old home (He did not appreciate me moving him and one point he landed on the carpet!!). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I truely enjoy him!!