new fish in reef tank

[janet58]

i'm a new member to this site (1st time to any site), but i've been an reef hobbyist for more than 10 years. I've usually kept more inverts than fish, but recently i've introduced a yellow tang and coral beauty into the tank that have'nt lasted more than a month. i have a blue wrasse and a lawmower blenney which have done fine for more than a year. the wrasse is a bit aggressive, but did fine with a semi-aggresive maroon clown that i had for more than 10 years. I have some macroalgae (the one that looks like little grapes) and a bit of hair algae i want to keep under control, which is why i chose the tangs for my tank. are the wrasses a bit too aggresive for the tangs, or do i need a more dominant species of tang? maybe they need a different type of macroalgae, or never really adjusted to a new environment. how long should i acclimate a new fish to the tank?
any suggestions?

tank specs
90 gallon
aqua c protein skimmer
iwaki circulating pump
2 maxi jet 1200s
ph 8.3
alk 2.5 (stable)
cal 450
phos .0-.1

several finger, kenya trees
3 acrapora
4 torch and wall corals
many purple mushrooms
plate coral
leather coral
open brain coral
devils hand (lobo..something)
clam
plenty of corralline algae
(obviously i need some new terminology for the species i grow)
thanks a bunch!

 

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEF FRONTIERS!

I've never been one for recommending to keep any marine life form for the sake of correcting or managing a problem with the aquarium -- other than snails. I believe in keeping the lifeforms you want to truly keep and taking care of problems and managing other issues the way they should be handled. That is, take care of the cause rather than address the symptoms. Hair and other algae indicates the availability of nitrates, phosphates, iron and a few other trace elements, along with some organics.

The 90 gallon aquarium is too small for Tangs in general.

Many Tangs won't eat hair algae or, if they do, they won't eat the long threads. They will often eat the very short, almost invisible growths. The long hairs would first need removing before the Tang would keep it under control. But then, the herbivore snails will do about the same. They won't eat the long hairs but will eat the short growths.

Tangs in general prefer most types of Caulerpa sp. and others. I covered that in this post: Macro Algae for Tangs.

Regarding your listed chemistries:
The calcium and alkalinity are not in balance.

The introduction of fishes into an established reef tank should be very slow, like one fish every two or three months. It may be that during the introduction of the new fishes, the water quality went off. You may want to read this for additional information: What is Water Quality

Regarding the possibility of the fishes not getting along with the new fishes, I'm not sure. I don't know a fish called the Blue Wrasse. Maybe I'm just calling it a different common name? Do you know its proper scientific name? The Blenny should have no problem with either of the two fishes you've introduced.

I'm uncertain about your question of acclimating a new fish. I would first put the fish through a quarantine process. Going into quarantine I would acclimate it, give it a FW dip and observe it closely according to:
Fish Acclimation Procedure; and
Quarantine of Fish.

 

[NaH2O]

janet - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!! I hope you find the site informative and helpful

To add to what Lee has said about the "bandaid" approach, as in adding a fish to take care of an algae issue, is usually only a temporary fix and other problems will arise later. Something will end up using the nutrients still present after the hair algae is gone, whether it is cyanobacteria, another type of algae, etc.

What model Aqua C do you have on the 90 gallon?

What is your maintenance schedule? How much and how often are you doing water changes? Do you blast the rocks off with a powerhead prior to your water change? Are you using RO/DI water? What are your nitrates? What kind of substrate do you have in the tank?

Phosphates can be a little tricky. If you are getting any type of reading, then you probably have a phosphate issue. The tricky part comes in when they test 0. You can still have a phosphate problem when they test 0, and this is because the algae has used up any available inorganic phosphate. If you are getting a phosphate reading, then you have enough phosphates to feed the aglae until they're happy..... plus extra phosphates in the water column that your test kit is picking up. Think of it like a huge plate of chocolate chip cookies at a party. Everyone gets as many as they want until they are full, then there are cookies still left on the plate after everyone is full. The cookies left on the plate would be equivalent to the phosphates in your water column. You can do spot testing to determine the source in your tank, but for now, lets see about your maintenance routine. Some people would suggest getting a phosphate remover on the tank, which would be a good idea to help control it from the start, but we're back to the "bandaid" approach again. Until you figure out where the nutrients are coming from, then you might have to battle the problem again.

Hope this helps!

 

[janet58]

you guys are awesome! To answer your questions, i have an ev-120 skimmer than puts out about 1/2 cup skimmate a day, so i think it's doing a decent job. i do a 20 gal water change every 2 weeks using r/o water. my nitrates are at zero. i have heard the theory of the phosphates being high even with a reading that is minimal, so i have a phosphate absorber from two little fishes that i run continuously. i believe my hair algae problem has gotten better in the last six months, so i think i'm going in the right direction. i do have several snails and little hermit crabs that help clean up, but i thought the tangs would also help in the effort. they didn't seem to touch the macroalgae. i hand harvest it when it starts taking over, but i leave some in because i thought it helps with absorbing phosphates and other undesirables. Besides, a little of it looks kind of cool! i also stopping any any trace elements or products that might be feeding the algae problem, so now i just rely on water changes, ca/alk supplement, a little strontium, and lugol's iodine for my soft stuff. From reading your info on acclimating fish, i didn't do it properly (it's quite a process to do it right) so that may have been the problem.
As far as the substrate goes, i have none. i used to have a bioball system to grow the nitrofying bacteria, but i heard that they can over produce bacteria and cause an overabundance of nitrates. i got rid of them slowly and since i have a well seasoned abundance of live rock (over 15 years old in my tank), my lfs said the live rock should be enough to keep the nitrifying cycle going. The chemistry hasn't seemed to change since i converted. i have thought about adding substrate, but i have some cool stuff growing on the bottom of my tank i don't want to bury. as far as my chemistry goes, that may be why my alk is only 2.5. i can raise it artificially, but it seems to float back down, and i think that stability is more important than always fluctuating my values. I'm probably wrong, but that's how my limited brain works! Any thoughts?

 

[NaH2O]

janet - I'm glad to read your response. Its good to see these answers, and I'm also glad you are using a phosphate remover for the time being. Manual removal will definately help, especially for the critters that eat the algae. Your snails will do a better job (as Lee stated with the fish) getting the algae when it is short. If you are still looking for a critter, then I would think a small rabbitfish would be better than a tang, or possibly an urchin. Again, tank size will be a factor, along with not getting to the root of the problem.

Have you ever blasted your rock with a power head when performing water changes? Your rock has been around for quite a long time, and you might need to free up some detritus from the rock. It will make a big mess in the tank if you don't do this often, but just siphon it out with the water change. If you have a filter sock, then you can stick it on for a day or so, in order to polish up the water. I have a couple of threads for you that might take some time to read...and also require your thinking cap . Mojoreef talks alot about how really old rocks sometimes need to be removed from a system and put in total darkness, or sometimes literally boiled outside for a few hours. Here they are: Let's Talk About Controlling Algae in a BB System, and the other one Phosphate Build Up

No problem on the lack of substrate. My main display is substrate free as well, and my closed loop is designed to keep detritus from settling on the bottom.

With you phosphate testing, what you can do is more specific water samples. You can test your water at various parts of you tank. Pull a sample from inside the rocks, pull a sample from the overflow, and the sump (if you had substrate, then I'd suggest that, too). Sometimes people find higher values in one or more of these areas (and substrates if used) than in the water column. When this is the case, you can determine where your problem is coming from.

Here is an article by Randy Holmes-Farley on Reef Aquarium Water Parameters. This Reef Chemistry Calculator will help you determine how much you need to dose of a supplement to raise your alkalinity. It is not balanced with your Calcium (which would be 4.45 meq/l at 450 ppm of Ca). What are you using to dose for Ca/Alk? You might want to stop dosing for calcium to bring the level down a bit. I personally don't like calcium higher than 420 ppm. What does your newly made salt mix test at?

Hope you find some of this helpful!