Im sending my friends tank into the ER....

R

ryan

Finder, Filleter, and Fryer of Nemo
Aug 20, 2002
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0
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Fort Wayne, Indiana
A friend of mine has kept a 20long salt water tank (with live rock) for over a year now, and it had always looked good so i didnt inquire anything about it. however in the past weeks it has been completely overrun with fuzzy green algae. After asking some questions and doing a handful of tests and finally a thorough visual inspection i found the following things wrong.

fuzzy green algae all over everything

red algae on sponge of the powerhead

old, gunked up media in the 2 HOB filters

nitrates off the chart

water changes have NEVER been done

sick looking fish

all hitch-hiking inverts (fans and snails) hidden until i hand removed some of the fuzzy green algae, they peeped out, btu were gone again by the next day

Tank spec's: 20 gallon long. 2 AC 150s with sponge and old carbon. 1 powerhead/sponge combo. aprox 20lbs live rock. some sort of florescent lighting. inverts:the fans, worms, and snails they got with the live rock. 1 small yellow tang and some other small tang are the only fish (they plan on upgrading the tank eventually)

I need to know what to do from here (i kinda volenteered). My plans thus far are to remove the media from the filters, change the sponge, remove as much algae as possible, water change, and drop in this phosfate remover i found in their cabinet.

Any suggestions/ comments/ insults welcome :p

also exactly how do i do a water change with salt water (im a freshwater man myself). As in do i vac gravel? what ratio of salt to water and do i still use water conditioner? anything else?

sorry for the long post, any replys will be greatly appriciated

ryan
 
First off get those tangs out of there. Way to small of a tank to have to tangs in. I am sure there is plenty of territorial fights, between the two. Take them back to the LFS, they are also too big of a bio-load for a 20g tank. Do a water change as soon as possible. For the water change get some Ro/di water stick the salt in, (sorry don't know the ratio of cup to gallon) usually I use the hydrometer. Then let the water sit for 24 hrs at least, mixing it with a powerhead or an airstone. Make sure its temp, and salinity are matched up to that of the tank. As for the gravel vac, i am not sure what type of subtrate hes using. I'd suggest if he isn't using one to go with a DSB here's an article to change to a DSB: http://fishwhisperer.homestead.com/articles.html

Remove a lot of algae by hand or by siphoning.
Do a 30% water change ASAP. Do them reguarly, Get those FISH OUT OF THERE. Again sorry to repeat 1. they are to big for that tank 2. they are gonna die soon. Also no filter media, after a couple of weeks poop and food gets trapped in the media, then the clean up crew can't reach it and u got yourself a nitrate bed. Unless your friend is gonna upgrade to a 75 or bigger tank, a tang is outta the question.

Good luck I hope all turns out good:)
 
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