New To The Forum But Not The Hobby...

[WilliamToth]

I grew up having fishas my parents turned one of the bedrooms into the "fish" room. Tanks were lined up around the room with a different pecies in each tank. Neons in one, mollies/swords in another,one had kissing fish and another had angels.So over the years and even when i moved out there have always beent at least 1 tank of fish somewhere in the house, usually Betta's.
 
2 years ago for Christmas my wife gets me a saltwater tank setup, so i dig out a long 20 gal and get it all laid out with 15 lbs of live rock.I used Instant Ocean for the salt and let it cycle for 6 months.3 months after buying 5 Damsels and a yellow Tang, we had Hurricane Sandy hit Connecticut and we lost power for a week.Everything died so i started over and after 3 months of cycling added 2 clowns and a Flaming goby. All went well for almost a year until we had a 3ft snowstorm and lost power for another week.i cycled again for 4 months and after adding 2 clowns and another Tang. the Tang died within a week so i bought a Lawnmower blenny.
 
6 months everything went well until i came home to find all my fish gasping for air at the top of the tank.My first bacteria bloom!!! i dug out a 10 gal,filled it with tap water,added salt to 0.024 and put the fish in. i tore down the tank and started from scratch.meanwhile all the fish lived and after cycling the tank again i moved the fish back in.
 
now i am experiencing another bacteria bloom and i have moved the fish out again.I will let this one run its course and afterward let it cycle again,but if these 3 clowns dont make it or something else goes wrong i will go back to freshwater.
 
Thanks for letting me join and hope i can help someone also.
 

 

[AmtotheBurr]

That sounds like a horrible series of events! Hope things go better for you and welcome to the group

 

[BaylorPerez]

removing the fish and putting them back into the tank is a bad idea, during a bloom what you want to do is remove some water(do a traditional water change 20-30%) then replace the water, i would keep doing that until the bloom is gone, but wait a couple days between each change. as it gives it a chance to make a new colony of bacteria(good bacteria). as well as you could get a sponge filter(one that goes over the filter intake for added mechanical filtration).
 
Once this is done you should be good after about 3-5 days. but you can take more water out or keep more in. all depends on what you want. When you keep changing the fish between tanks it adds stress to them, which can potentially kill them. But when doing saltwater changes, you may want to have plenty of Gal(liters) on the side so you can just replace any water without having to do a reverse osmosis(turning tap water to salt water). this would ensure that no fish die while you change the water. and also saves you more money without having to buy more fish

 

[gmc1]

Have you kept saltwater fish Baylor?

 

[BaylorPerez]

ive tried to at one point, hod mostly puffer fish in my tank before i had to move(this was a 500Gal) so i had to make sure i had fish i wanted

 

[gmc1]

500 gallon.wow you got any pictures

 

[BaylorPerez]

i wish i had pictures of my old tank, i would love to have it back but im doing 2 20gal freshwater tanks atm

 

[gmc1]

That's a shame.what salinity did you keep your puffers at?

 

[BaylorPerez]

.003 i believe. it was awhile ago, but if i do remember correctly i was either .003 or .0035

 

[WilliamToth]

SO its been 10 days and the bloom is over without touching the tank. today i plan on changing the filter and adding 4 inches of water to the evaporated level....anything i need to do  or how long should i wait to add new fish?