Quick help? Mini cycle

M

morningdew

New member
New to hobby.

I have been running a 40 gallon breeder with live rock and small CUC and over the last month added some coral 3 pieces and just recently a clown and a Kole Tang. CUC and Tang are fine but Clown doesn't look to hot. Plenty of flow-2 Ecotechs and a small Aqueon for surface flow. Seeing a small bloom and not sure why. Just did a water change and waiting to see if clown comes around.

My question is, should I quarantine the clown? Only option I would have is a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and a small powerhead. I have all HOB products and no sump.

Temp 79
Nitrate zero
Salinity 35 ppm

Not sure what else to test for. I use RC Salt.

Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
Your tank is way too small for the tang, is it beating up on the clown? You had a bloom of what? Roses? How long ago did you add the fish? I assume you didn't quarantine them, a better description than "not looking hot" would give us a much better idea as to what advice to dispense.
 
I would agree the tang could be beating up on the clown. There is just not enough information to form an opinion about anything else.
 
thegrun said:
Your tank is way too small for the tang, is it beating up on the clown? You had a bloom of what? Roses? How long ago did you add the fish? I assume you didn't quarantine them, a better description than "not looking hot" would give us a much better idea as to what advice to dispense.
Click to expand...

This :thumbsup:
 
He is swimming very slowly and almost stops swimming and even turns sideways sometimes. Seems like he may be laboring a little. I will test for ammonia.

It's not the Tang. They were added together. Everything I've read says they should get along if added together. LFS made the recommendation. He has no signs of nips and at least during the day they are getting along fine and are friendly to one another. The bloom I am referencing "Mr Roses" is the brown dusting over the live rock the last two days. A simple need more info would suffice. But yeah, thanks for all of your help. What fun, let's troll the newbie section and make smart *** comments.

Trying to save my fish. If anyone has some serious recommendations I would appreciate it.
 
I'm sorry if the truth hurts, but it is in fact the truth that we are giving you. We have no reasons to give you miss information, but the LFS does. MONEY> You are adding a very aggressive fish with the tang.

I also believe that you're adding your fish too soon and should wait for the nitrifying bacteria to grow some more before you add fish. Put in a clean up crew first then add one or two small fish, then two week or a month later add another one or two.

Hey it's your tank and whatever decisions you make will directly affect it and it's inhabitants.
 
If your lfs told you to put a kole in a 40b they don't have your fishes best interests in mind. It's a really common thing to get off on the wrong foot that way but you can fix it by returning the fish and doing more research going forward. Perhaps the things you are reading address whether clowns and tangs are compatible in a larger tank? Here's a good website where you can learn about fish before you buy them http://www.liveaquaria.com

It would help to know how you cycled your tank, depending how big they are a kole and a clown all at once could have overwhelmed you bacteria's capacity to turn their poop and pee ammonia into nitrates that don't hurt their gills to breathe.

Also if you don't quarantine fish before you add them they can have a disease but not show symptoms until they settle in to the tank. Either because they just caught a cootie or because the lfs keeps a little medicine in the water all the time to make them look healthier than they are.

Also, there is a product called Prime and one called Amquel, both are ammonia buffers that you can add to the water in an emergency that will make things safer for your fish until you figure out what to do. I like to keep some on hand just in case, if you get a positive test for ammonia you can dose the tank by the directions on the bottle. I'm not so sure about your nitrate reading, it would be unusual to have 0 in a new tank (unless it isn't cycled at all I suppose, that'd be ruhl bad)
 
PS try to keep an open mind when you read people's posts. There are def some weirdos around that like to feel big by acting superior to noobs but for the most part people are trying to help you cause they want to see you and your fish happy. There are a lot of nice folks around here and we have all made a weird joke or something that just didn't come out right when we typed it. I find it helpful to note how long someone has been around, the old timers mostly know what's up (I guess that means you shouldn't listen to me though :p)
 
CStrickland said:
PS try to keep an open mind when you read people's posts. There are def some weirdos around that like to feel big by acting superior to noobs but for the most part people are trying to help you cause they want to see you and your fish happy. There are a lot of nice folks around here and we have all made a weird joke or something that just didn't come out right when we typed it. I find it helpful to note how long someone has been around, the old timers mostly know what's up (I guess that means you shouldn't listen to me though :p)
Click to expand...

Not all of us that are new to RC are new to the hobby. I've been in it for many years quite a few years ago and have had several tanks. I've only listed 3 between my current tank and my signature. I do agree with you that we are all here to help. But like me I will state the facts and sometimes it's taken the wrong way. I don't sugar coat anything, but I do tell what I believe to be the truth and have peoples livestock interest at heart. :thumbsup:
 
Ok. Thanks all. I will test for ammonia levels and see if that's it. As for the Kole I don't know what I should do. He seemed to be more concerned about it nipping at coral. I will have to see about getting it back to the store if they will take it back. The tank has cycled and has been running with nothing but live rock for 5 months which is why I was perplexed by the algae bloom. I appreciate the insight. Sounds like too much to fast. Thought adding the two together would be better. My only other thought is why are the tang, CUC and coral all doing well and the clown not so much. Perhaps it is just a sick fish which would be really too bad.
 
How do you know it's cycled? Have you added ammonia up to at least 2 ppm and it was gone in 24 hrs? If not you don't know if it's cycled or not. Also once any tank has cycled you need to ghost feed it as if you had fish in it otherwise the bacteria won't continue to grow. They will last a while but to what degree can you put fish in?
 
Well I guess I don't know for sure. That could be the issue. I am just perplexed why everyone else seems to be doing okay.

Should I quarantine the clown in a bucket with a heater and a pump? I would have to use fresh mixed salt water. I use distilled for everything. No tap or RO.

I'd like to try and help the little guy out if that will help I can do it but I don't know if that's what is best for him or not.
 
Yes they both should be quarantined. But to save the clown I would do a bucked of fresh mixed sw and get it to temp with a pump and the same PH as your other tank. I would also constantly test ammonia and get an ammonia badge. Ammonia will build up rather quickly and you can use something like Prime, Amquel or any other water conditioner from your local lfs It can be added quickly. Other than that you will have to do large wc's I would do 50% as the ammonia will continue to build as there is nothing to consume it. Or you can bring both back to the LFS and then test your cycle which would be the better option IMO>
 
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