Broad Question

Boxcar Muzzdogg · Jun 8, 2009

I have just started working at a new store and am in need of advice on maintaining these fish tanks, if anyone is willing to give it, for various problems. Before I get started, this is not meant to be a discussion on how bad fish stores are/how appalling lfs employees are/horrid tank conditions at lfs's. I am looking for constructive advice from those willing to give it.

Firt things first: for one thing, this water is of comepletely different parameters than I am used to. The water is somewhat acidic, 6.0-6.6, and is soft. I do not know what sorts of minerals or trace elements it contains because I have no tests for those things, and there is no pre-filtration for this water. After my cleaning regiment, the ammonia levels are down to around .20 ppm or less, nitrites at 0ppm, and nitrates at 10 - 15 ppm.

The first problem is an algea problem with every type of algae you can imagine; green spot algae, hair algae, brown algae, black algae, and worst of all blue green algae. I have never had to deal with any algae other than brown algae in any tank, commercial or personal. While the algae infestation has been significantly reduced since I have started, it is still growing at an extrememly rapid rate, covering significant portions of the tank mere hours after it has been cleaned.

The people who were in charge of maintaining these tanks before I arrived were feeding by mixing every food you can imagine marine/freshwater/flake/pellet/live/seaweed, into a mash, then injecting it into the tanks. This has been stopped and normal and proper feeding regiments have been implemented, but I am wondering if the former methods are still having effect on water quality.

I have been doing regular water changes, yet am having problems keeping fish healthy. Because of the standard overcrowding of commercial tanks, fish are always stressed, but it is possible to keep them healthy as I have done before. The livebearers are the worst, always getting ich and bacterial infections and dying in droves. However, even normally hardy fish like danios are dying in higher than normal numbers.

I syphon and change 10-25% of the water in every tank once a week. If I tried to do them anymore often I would be hospitalized for exhaustion, and the fish would probably be dead. My biggest question here would be, should I continue with this regiment, or does anyone think the water changes are disturbing the fish?

Another problem is with the saltwater systems. I am less experienced in this area, but these particular problems should not be occuring. I am seeing tank raised false perculas die constantly. Tangs are not doing well either. The clowns will look healthy and swim naturally for two or three days, then die. This also happens with damsels, although not nearly as much. Tang are coming in looking great, then usually go through a week or more of illness, then die. Other types of clowns however, last much longer, anenomes are thriving, firefish gobies doing good. I am trying to limit the saltwater orders until I can fix the problem. Again, I am not provided any equiptment for water testing beyond the standard test kits. And no, I do not have the money to purchase these things on my own.

Any advice would be appreciated. Now have at it!

saltynay · Jun 8, 2009

You can raise the ph by using calcium sources in the tanks like shells or crushed coral gravel, of course keep a close eye on the ph when doing this.

My lfs has a nerite snail in virtually every tank who keeps algae levels down. It would also help if you put some more live plants into the water loop to extract the nutrients the algae is using.

I don't know

A UV light on your main filtration system inlet will reduce your nastis level significantly. You sould also have dedicated quarintine tanks for new arrivals. My LFS both have a wall separated from the main filtration system saying "Quarantine - fish that are coming soon" or something to that effect. Each tank has its own filter so doesn't infect any other tank and normally for crowded fish the tanks have lots of high nutrients absorbing plants like elodea to keep levels down. Your ammonia level is high it should be 0 not 0.2 this is causing broad spectrum stress on the fish.

I think you need more water changes and you should request to have a large filtration system which cleans all the main tanks. This can then have a flow off point added and then water changes on all tanks are near instantaneous with the exception of the quarantine and the marine tanks which would need to be on a separate system. Target should be 50-60% water change per week so 20% water change every 2 days would be good.

I have no idea on the marine front except I though anemones were notorious to be hard to keep dependent on species

aaronnorth · Jun 8, 2009

The first problem is an algea problem with every type of algae you can imagine; green spot algae, hair algae, brown algae, black algae, and worst of all blue green algae. I have never had to deal with any algae other than brown algae in any tank, commercial or personal. While the algae infestation has been significantly reduced since I have started, it is still growing at an extrememly rapid rate, covering significant portions of the tank mere hours after it has been cleaned.

The ammonia from the overfeeding/ strange feeding method will have more than likley caused the algae problems.
I think the best way is to tackle one algae at a time!
Starting with the Blue green algae, make sure the Nitrate levels are above 10ppm,
this next part goes for the majority - make sure the tanks are free of fish waste & rotting plant matter, make sure there is enough circulation going around the tanks, make sure the filter(s) are clean.
Anything rotting will produce ammonia - even if it is undetectable it is still enough to trigger an algae attack.

clean every tank as much as possible, then do a 50-80% water change on all the tanks to remove the algae spores. Cover the tanks up so no light gets in for 3days. Stop the feeding aswell. After the blackout is finished, do another thorough clean, fllowed by another 50-80% water change to remove all the spores again.

It is hard to do this when operating a business i understand, but it will be better in the long run. I am unsure of your setups & filtration systems. The reason it may be re-appearing is because the filter is running several tanks, therefore it is moving the algae spores around every tank.

Thanks, Aaron

Boxcar Muzzdogg · Jun 8, 2009

Thanks for the advice. However, blacking out the tanks would get me fired and buying all this equiptment like UV sterilizers and new quarantine tanks is out of the question.

A correction to my first post; the pH is less than 6.0. I have some spare crushed coral I can put in if you think that will help. Alkalinity is extremely low.

As for the aglae situation, several tanks are hooked up to one filtration system. As far as growth, it has slowed tremendously, although still to quick for my liking. I can't get the nitrates up unless I hold off on water changes, but then the stress is increased, and I won't be removing decaying organic matter.

Furthermore, I cannot do gravel syphoning at a faster rate. I can cheat and do partial water changes without a syphoning, and do a water change in every tank at least twice a week, maybe more. What do you guys think?

Off topic, how do I take the "overtype" off?

aaronnorth · Jun 9, 2009

Thanks for the advice. However, blacking out the tanks would get me fired and buying all this equiptment like UV sterilizers and new quarantine tanks is out of the question.

thought it might be.

As for the aglae situation, several tanks are hooked up to one filtration system. As far as growth, it has slowed tremendously, although still to quick for my liking. I can't get the nitrates up unless I hold off on water changes, but then the stress is increased, and I won't be removing decaying organic matter.

Do you know what the nitrate levels are now? In a shop they are usually above 10ppm due to high stocking levels. If not, then you can buy some potassium nitrate (KNO3) which is a inorganic source of nitrate in powder form. You can add it directly to the tanks or mix it into a liquid solution, and dose the amouts required.

40g to 500ml of water and adding 10ml per 100L of water would give you a value of 5ppm

it is also very cheap: http

/www.gardendirect.co.uk/potassium-nitrate-p-210

Furthermore, I cannot do gravel syphoning at a faster rate. I can cheat and do partial water changes without a syphoning, and do a water change in every tank at least twice a week, maybe more. What do you guys think?

Higher frequency of water changes will help to remove & dilute ammonia, and to also remove algae spores. If you clean the tanks free of algae, then follow up on a water change everyday, or every other day then in a few weeks you should notice a significant decrease oon algae. The after that you can just revert back to a minimum of a normal clean & water change per week.