Tank crash questions

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Oh and thank all of you! I feel very welcome here:) and you all are very helpful to me! I will be sure to ask any questions to you guys first. I do have my 29g biocube (with two percula clowns, a niger trigger, and a few coral) running also and it is doing pretty well except the nitrates are pretty high. I'm doing water changes so hopefully it and my other tank will recover soon. Any other things I could do?
 
Water changes are right on the money. Keep doing them!
Check the amount you feed, almost everyone (myself included) overfeeds their fish. It's hard to figure out the right amount. The best advice I have heard is to feed a little and wait until it is all eaten. feed a little more. Watch for the fish to stop their "I'm starving to death" frenzy, but would still eat more. Stop there. Do that twice a day and you should be good to go. Next time you go to Barbie's store, show her the amount you are feeding and see what she thinks. Small tanks are much harder as you don't have as much room for error...
One other thing about feeding, ask Barbie, or go to the fish forum here (there is a nutrition sticky) and find out about nutrition. Most fish need more than one type of food to do really well.
I know it's tough, but patience is the key!!
 
Markee said:
Oh and thank all of you! I feel very welcome here:) and you all are very helpful to me! I will be sure to ask any questions to you guys first. I do have my 29g biocube (with two percula clowns, a niger trigger, and a few coral) running also and it is doing pretty well except the nitrates are pretty high. I'm doing water changes so hopefully it and my other tank will recover soon. Any other things I could do?
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Feeding could definately be an issue, but it would help if there was a better explaination of your tank and how you have it running. How much live rock/sand is in there, is there a skimmer/fuge/sump, are you using HOB filtration? I ran a 20 long, and a 10 gallon nano for quite some time and could never keep the nitrates low enough. Bio load is probably a big part of it. Adding certain macroalgae to a fuge or sump can be beneficial in keeping nitrates and phosphates down.
 
In the tank that crashed, there is about 30lbs of LR and I don't know how much sand this is but I measured and there is exactly 2 1/2 inches of sand. We have a bacpac skimmer and I don't know what HOB filtration is but we do have a filter where we change the filter pads often. The only thing is we didn't really know was what a water change is. We would always wait until the water was sort of low and add some tap water, then check the salt lever with the plastic hydrometer we have. Barbie said the thing that saved our lives for so long was that we have hard water at our house. All my fish were fine. One day we were at a Coral Reef, with Steve, and a customer told us about Barbie's shop and we didn't even know there was another in Spokane so we decided to go check it out. We brought some water and she sold us some live rock (21lbs) and we added it right when we got home and the next day all our fish died :( I think we probably just did something wrong..
 
Well we bought him from Steve and he said he would be fine until he got a little bigger because he is very small. About 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. We would just bring him back when he outgrew my tank, or, we have been looking into getting an already up and running and well established larger tank and when we find one, he could always go in there. But he is eating really good and doesn't bother the pair of clowns I have, but if you really think he is harming the tank I can take him back...?
 
A good thing might be to do a little research on the trigger family in general Markee. There are only 2 triggers that I know of that are reef safe, and even then that is a gamble. Sid is right about the size of the tank and your niger, I have found that if it fits in his mouth, he will try to make it work.
A good book to procure for yourself would be either of Scott Michaels books on Marine Fishes or Reef Aquarium Fishes, very informative and something good to read on the side.
 
The thing is, with the trigger, a 29 gallon tank can only handle so much 'bioload.' Ignore any "inch per gallon" rule that's been told to you. That rule is worthless. In a 29 gallon tank, I'd have no more than 2 or 3 small fish. When I say 'small' fish, I'm talking, Percula clown or smaller. It's also important to take each fish and the bioload they create, into consideration. Any trigger is a voracious eater. Because of this, they also create a lot of waste. A 29 gallon tank just can't hold enough live rock, to be an adequate filter, for this amount of waste. Another thing to consider is swimming room. Triggers need a lot more room, to swim, than a 29 offers, no matter the size of the fish.

If at all possible, I'd recommend returning the trigger. It'll save a lot of hassle, in the future.

As for your filtration.

In Marine Aquariums, 100% of the filtration, can be accomplished with quality live rock, live sand and a skimmer. There's no need for HOB filters, and they typically become "nitrate factories," contributing to nitrate problems. Any filter media, in the HOB filter, that traps detritus, will create nitrates, unless rinsed, every couple of days. The only way I'd recommend using a HOB filter, is if it were only used for Carbon, with no sponges, or other mechanical filtration media, in it.
 
I have both Scott Michael's "Marine Fishes" and Ronald Shimek's "Marine Invertabrates" books and they are very loved and I hightlight and tab them often:) and in the book it says nigers are harmless to corals so I figured it would be alright. But still if you guys think its a bad idea then I can take him back.
 
I think the main thing with the trigger is the size of the tank he is in. Each fish is different as far as being safe with coral but having a trigger in a tank less than 75 gallons is asking for a disaster. They are very messy eaters and a lot of food gets left behind to decay in your tank causing high nitrates and eventually leading to a tank crash in a system of this size.
 
Markee said:
Well that just breaks my heart :( do I have to get rid of him right away?
Click to expand...

charlie said:
Are you serious about creating a good environment for your critters?
Click to expand...

Markee said:
Well yes...
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Then you've answered your own question.

The sooner you get your tank's bio-load more in line with the size of your tank and amount of live rock, the sooner your tank will start recovering and water quality will improve.

I'd also suggest doing large water changes, weekly, until you have your nitrates as near zero as you can get.
 
returnofsid said:
Then you've answered your own question.

The sooner you get your tank's bio-load more in line with the size of your tank and amount of live rock, the sooner your tank will start recovering and water quality will improve.

I'd also suggest doing large water changes, weekly, until you have your nitrates as near zero as you can get.
Click to expand...


Excellent call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
By the way, it is now official that all the fish in the tank that crashed are now dead. We were going to try to fix the problem but it would just be a pain and we have been wanting a larger tank anyways so we will just take the tank down and focus on my biocube for a while.
 
Markee please bring the rock back in from that tank and I will buy it back, if you're taking it down. I'll help you any way I can. I really am sorry for your losses. If the tank is empty, you can do large volume water changes to stabilize it again, either way. What a bummer.

Barbie
 
Sorry for your loss. Hang in there Markee.
Not a bad plan to focus on one tank for a bit. Practice all the good habits that you have learned, setup a schedule for maint, water change, and testing. Get all the bugs worked out. When you are ready to start again, you should have the patience to take it slow and make good decisions along the way.
Let us know if you have any questions.

-Todd
 
We will try to bring it back to you later this week. maybe even tomorrow if my mom can take us. But yeah, this really is a bummer. I really wish I could have done something to save them. It is really strange to be how everyone can look healthy and act healthy and be gone the next. Hmmm.. well I guess I have learned from this and now know what I can do better next time. Thanks for all the help.

-Markee
 
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