A Few Questions...

[RichardB]

1. Name a few hardy or ick resistant fish.
2. I see a lot of pods running around in my tank, I have a AC modded fuge, Am i ready to get a mandarin?
I have a tank with soft corals and lps doing fine and growing great. I added two clown, one died the next day and the other seemed to have caught ick and dies 3 days later? The one died recently had a bruise on one side. The water tested fine but I doubt my test kit now.
3. Can I have corals do fine and fish die if there was something wrong with my water quality?
4. Since some green algae is competing with coralline and taking over my rocks, what do i do to fix it?
I do 10%WC every week, no skimmer, use tap water, salinity 1.026.

 

[bimmerzs]

@RichardB wrote:

Use ro/di water and invest in a skimmer at some point. Please post your actual water test results for ca, alk, nitrite, nitrate and ph.

Cheers,

 

[matt_longview]

Tap water is a big issue. You'll fight algae outbreaks constantly using tap water and eventually the metals will build up (water evaporates out of your system, the metals in it do not... then you replace that with more water with more metal) and once the metals get too high your tank will crash. It's simply a countdown without a 100% water change... and that would be insane too... so don't try that!

Anywho...
1. Clowns are very hardy. With correct acclimation, water parameters, tank size and tank mates any fish that is healthy when purchased should thrive. Do your research on each type of fish before purchasing.
2. How large is your tank and how long has it been running? Take your water to a good LFS and have them run tests on it as well. Post your test results. You should have 0 ammonia, nitrites, and phosphates. You should have very low (below 10ppm) nitrates. Calcium 420+, pH 8 or 8.2ish, alk between 8 and 10.
3. Yes. Your corals may have slowly acclimated to poor water quality. The fish may have transferred from good to bad in just 30 minutes or so and stressed out. I two hour drip acclimate everything that goes into my tank, not sure of your acclimating process...
4. Grow chaeto in your fuge. Leave your fuge light on 24 hours a day. Feed less to reduce nitrates and phosphates, reduce your display tanks photoperiod.

Good job on weekly 10% water changes. Once every 4 of those or so I would do a larger percent... 20 to 30%. I run a skimmerless system as well but I use purigen to remove proteins and chemi-pure elite as well. I also do two small water changes a week and one large water change monthly. That doesn't seem to work as well on larger setups though. If your tank is bigger than 40 gallons or so you should definitely look into getting a skimmer.

 

[etphi]

How long has your tank been establish? Even though you have a lot of pods now, a mandarin can wipe out the entire population in one day. Also how big is your tank? A mandarin is consider a fish for experts in my opinion. If you get lucky you might get one that eats frozen food.

 

[reefer55]

the rule of thumb is about 60-80 lbs of LR per mandarin, plus a large, prolific fuge. I think you should put off the mandarin until you get a larger tank, IMHO, it and you will be much happier. Put a green chromis in there if your other damsels have died. They are just as hardy, much less aggressive, and one heck of a fish as they mature. I would reccommend switching to RO as soon as you can. You may also want to up the light on the fuge so that your chaeto can consume nitrates and phosphates. Also, instead of a thirty minute drip, do a 1 hour-2 hour drip, depending on the time you have. The slower they are acclimated, the better chance of survival they have. You may want to consider building a sump/fuge, even if it is just with a ten gallon. I can help you with building it if you want, just pm me on either here or fishbox (cichlidkeeper).