Recovering my tank

[Zachy Yonk]

Hey,

SO I have a 55 gallon, and I recently went away to college. My family said they would take car but I got home to all of my fish gone except for my snowflake eel. The filters, and heater are all shot, and I keep fixing them. What would you recommend to be used for new filters, and a HOB protein skimmer if needed. I can't do a sump sadly since it's to much plus I would need to reorganize everything in my room to accommodate that. What would be my best option for anything to help keep the tank alive. I plan on doing a 50% water change and treating it I am also gonna setup a new quarantine tank once I fix this tank up. I do have fish coming in on Tuesday. Thanks for all the help.

Thanks,
Zachy

 

[Diesel]

Oh boy....... fish coming on Tuesday already?
It will take a lot longer to recover your tank.
First things first.
Any pics of your tanks right now?
Po4?
No3?
PH?
NSW?
Ammonia?
Nitrite?
ALK?
CAL?
MAG?
What kind of filter you have now?
Avg Temperature?
How often you change water and how much?

 

[Zachy Yonk]

I change the water every two weeks, And I haven't tested in a while. I know my levels are off. My friends ordered the fish as a congrats for an event, and they kind of sprung it on me today. So I don't really have a choice. I currently have 2 aquaclear 70's I believe on my tank. I know I need a powerhead, and I plan on doing a 50% water change later today. The average temperature is also 72-80 degrees it doesn't really go above 74 but I had an issue with the heater and it did shoot up at one point.

 

[Diesel]

What kind of fish did they got you?

 

[Zachy Yonk]

They got a couple from liveaquaria. They got 2 black and white ocellaris clown fish, an arothron dog face puffer, and 2 engineer goby's. They also got the create your own reef cleaner package with a bunch of crabs 2 shrimp, and a few other inverts. All I have right now is my live rock, and snowflake eel.

 

[Diesel]

Ok, well without knowing what your parameters are I wouldn't take the chance on having these in your tank.

About your Snow flake.............. You know it can be housed with some invertebrates, like anemones and corals, but not crustaceans.
The wild Snowflake Eel is a nocturnal predator, ambushing fish and crustaceans.
In the tank, it will take frozen or freeze-dried krill, fish, shrimp, and most meaty foods but so now and then it will corner a small fish or shrimp as well.

 

[Zachy Yonk]

Yes I do know that about the snowflake eel, and I told them that I will take the measurements later tomorrow before I do the water change. The snowflake eel I have is relatively not a huge size. What I was thinking of doing was setting up a 10gal quarantine tank for the time being. I also feed my eel frozen silversides.

 

[Diesel]

Yes I do know that about the snowflake eel, and I told them that I will take the measurements later tomorrow before I do the water change. The snowflake eel I have is relatively not a huge size. What I was thinking of doing was setting up a 10gal quarantine tank for the time being. I also feed my eel frozen silversides.

Make it a 20 gallon QT as we talking more fish here.
Will tag @Humblefish and @melypr1985 in here to help you out for the right inexpensive QT.

 

[Zachy Yonk]

Alright thanks so much for all your help I am pretty sure I have a 20gal laying around somewhere

 

[Humblefish]

I would start by reading this article: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

 

[Zachy Yonk]

I would start by reading this article: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

Thank you for that article it helped a lot. My levels are good my ammonia is zero, my KH is a little high it was at 24 before my water change and dropped to 17 now. I also tested nitrate, and nitrite and both came back 0. I setup a quarantine tank last night a little 10 gallon. Currently I have a juvenile hippo tang, and a small anemone in there. That is currently my tank setup. I plan on getting more live rock for it though.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Hi Zachy!

Welcome to R2R!
How does juvenile hippo tang and anemone feel in new tank?
I hope this forum helps you to solve the problem

Good luck with your new changes
- Zhenya

 

[Zachy Yonk]

Hi Zachy!

Welcome to R2R!
How does juvenile hippo tang and anemone feel in new tank?
I hope this forum helps you to solve the problem

Good luck with your new changes
- Zhenya

Hey Zhenya,

Hippo tang isn't doing to well he has ich and I have him in a little 10 gallon trying to treat him with a small dog face puffer. It doesn't seem like anything is working. I've heard to use copper but I don't know if the copper is working because everytime I test the levels it looks like it's still zero to me. My sister picked up kordon ich attack I don't know if it's any good. But if there is anything else out there that can help me save the two before they are not able to stay alive anymore that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Zachy

 

[SandJ]

Thank you for that article it helped a lot. My levels are good my ammonia is zero, my KH is a little high it was at 24 before my water change and dropped to 17 now.

I may be thinking about something else, but isnt a KH of 17 high still high?

 

[Zachy Yonk]

I may be thinking about something else, but isnt a KH of 17 high still high?

Yes a KH of 17 is still high but what I was saying was it went from 24 which is an insane number to 17 so it was dropping slowly.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Well if it's possible, buy or rent a strong UV sterilizer and use that. When done, store the UV. It takes a few days to remove the spots, but it works.

 

[Zachy Yonk]

Well if it's possible, buy or rent a strong UV sterilizer and use that. When done, store the UV. It takes a few days to remove the spots, but it works.

Oh really I didn't think a UV Sterilizer would be used for that. Do you have any UV Sterilizers that you would recommend?

 

[SantaMonica]

Yep a strong 57 watt one works great, in the tank for a week or two, no need to stress the fish taking them out. But you need to start it as soon as you see the spots.

Since yours is already going, and out of the tank, do a 3 minute freshwater dip (temp matched), followed by the full strength copper treatment.

Then maybe get the UV for next time.

 

[Zachy Yonk]

Yep a strong 57 watt one works great, in the tank for a week or two, no need to stress the fish taking them out. But you need to start it as soon as you see the spots.

Since yours is already going, and out of the tank, do a 3 minute freshwater dip (temp matched), followed by the full strength copper treatment.

Then maybe get the UV for next time.

Alright thanks I'll look into it, is deepblue a good company to get a UV from?

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

We have never bought from deepblue, so don't know.

We use Aqua UV brand 57 watt model. Can probably get it at a lot of places.