Long time lurker, newish tank, confusing water levels, need help please

[Debramb]

Interesting that you brought this up. You are behaving like an addict. Most addicts do not self enroll into a support group. Usually there is an intervention of people that care. That in itself is what most people are trying to accomplish here. You are asking us how to do drugs and still live a normal life in society. Now you are even asking which drugs to quit. ("suggestions on which fish to start with if it came down to removing based on size and need and type,")
The first step in caring for your addiction is admitting you have problem. Up to this point you are in denial.
If you were authentic with your statement on doing tons of research and caring about your charges, you would not be in this situation at all. I believe you are reading what you want to and interpreting it so you believe this is ok. It is not.
You need to understand that there are many people on this forum that have much more experience than you. You need to respect that and consider their advice, because they actually care and are willing to take time out of their day to help others and you.
You can go back to lurking and not admit the real issue. But you will just end up homeless in Oakland.

Well I guess I’ll go back to lurking. This has been a giant waste of time. 2 pages of the same answer for something I already acknowledge in my first post.

If this was an addiction support group and I came for help with my drug addiction because my life was going down hill, the “support” I would’ve received from this group would have been “stop doin drugs”.rather than, hey the ultimate goal is to get you to this result, it’s not easy but here are some tips you can use to help along the way.

I would’ve expected methods to help the water quality until I can get a bigger tank, suggestions on which fish to start with if it came down to removing based on size and need and type, rock work organization, other things to add or remove that could help.

If these were dogs in a bathroom then one dog in a bathroom is too many and everyone who has dogs in a bathroom or fish in a tank is being cruel. I just don’t agree. Sorry if that makes me evil. But the fish aren’t breathing heavy, they’re not fighting or showing any agression, they’re not stressed, not getting diseases or parasites, and they’re well fed. I spend several hours each day with the tank checkin on one by one looking for any marks, parasites, I make sure no one is missing or stuck under rock work, or looking too skinny, I check for fin rot, swollen or bloody eyes, and evaluate their growth over time (most of which are obviously larger than they were two months ago, some even doubled in size). And I spend even more hours researching and trying to learn.

Fish wholesale distributors will put 10 tangs in a 2’x2’ Tank. The fish store will put 2 tangs and an angel in a 1’x1’ tank and the hobbyist community proudly supports these places and continues to give them money. The suggestions of bringing them back to the lfs where the fish will be put in ultra low salinity 1’x1’ tank with a pvc pipe seems worse to me, and absolutely no knowledge whatsoever as to where they’ll go next. But hey, once back at the lfs, who cares right? Sounds elitest and hypocritical to me. Maybe the lfs elsewhere are better but out of the only two in my county, one has a better selection of products as used to have more unique fish but exuberant high prices and a priority of selling as much as possible even if it means duping a new hobbyist with bad info. The other store has poor inventory in both product and fish, but has good prices but also bad quality of fish (several sick or no doing well in their tanks).

I’ll go back to figuring it out on my own I guess. I thought of the idea of a larger sump to get me more water volume, perhaps it wi atleast give the better water quality until I can get my larger tank (bare minimum 90-120 days until delivered from the date of order) and can start thinking about which fish create the most effect on water quality, need the most space, difficulty of replacing, and potential lifespan and age they are now to help me decide which is worth rehoming or keeping.

Until then,I decided to use an api test kit instead of the Hannah to cross reference results.

Ammonia somewhere between 0 and .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate between 20 and 40
Copper 0 (Hannah reads .15 for both my tank and a fresh batch of salt water)

If Red Sea pro coral silt is supposed to get me alk of 12 and I’m getting 11.1 I’m not worried.

Since I’m not dosing anything I’m told to have a calcium level greater than 600 would be darn near impossible unless I’m using a contaminated water source. I made a new fiend who is a hobbyist just he other day who offered to test my water and give me a good idea what it is in case I’m performing the test wrong. His tanks are crystal clear with thriving coral.

Until then, I removed the cuprisorb from the media reactor and put in some carbon, did a 25g water change

Dude, I’m trying to help! Consider adding a canister filter, no sump needed, buy some pods and I trust you’re upping your game, new system coming, great, start planning a dream build in your new house!
Debra

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

So you definetly have a problem, but its in your mindset. There is a difference in caring about animals and obsession. Caring means providing everything needed over what you want or need. Obsession is putting needs or wants over what ever it is rather healthy or not.

First issue is LFS talked to you and tried to explain. He sees you throwing money and continually allowed you to get in trouble rather than cut you off. He is treating you like a drug dealer does and doesnt care. A good bar tender would have cut you off and made sure you were ok.

You stated your getting bigger tank. Since your not going toreduce live stock, then lets focus on getting temporary setup for fish to give them a better home temporarily.

You can purchase large plastic tubs that go from 100 to 300g and I believe 500. Dont buy metal ones. You can plumb these together and more live rock and sand to each and even setup a couple tubs for sump to add skimmers and such. You can then split up livestock into different tanks. This will help with crowding. Then when you setup your 1000plus gallon tank, and have everytging stable, you can SLOWLY add livestock.

You can even setup a build thread and ask where to purchase, ideas to setup, etc. Since money doesnt seem to be an issue you can hire people to maintenance your tanks for you. But right now, your problem is not fixable until the situation changes and your wasting money. We dont want to see you throw money away, dieing livestock and you leaving hobby.

People have taken time to reply. I will now be running late for work because I love seeing people succeed. But we cant fix the issue. Only you can at this point. We all care but get frustrated just like you do. So lets atleast eleviate the main issue and break up the tank into temporary larger ponds. Pond tanks are actually pretty neat and alot of people do this. Just plumb together.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Everyone got alittle upset over animal loss first

It's not even about dying fish at this point, it's about the conditions of the living ones!

@Caliguy even if your water quality were perfect, the fish are too crowded!! Do as others have suggested and get another 300-500 gallons and split the fish up among those tanks (including the current one... don't just buy a 250 and move ALL the fish into that... it will still be too small!!)
Your comment about "Fish wholesale distributors will put 10 tangs in a 2’x2’ Tank. The fish store will put 2 tangs and an angel in a 1’x1’ tank" is completely irrelevant (or possibly proves our point...) since many fish die in this process and the ones that live don't stay there for very long.
And this: "if there enough swimming room for the fish, meaning is 48” x 22”x 22” enough space for that sizable hippo tang" is flat out wrong!!!

 

[Idech]

Truth is I got tricked into this hobby by my lfs who told me they can have me set up in 24 hours with an aio, a large 20”+ puffer and once a month water changes.

You can’t blame a salesperson who’s doing their job for your own decisions.

Having this many fish in a tank is animal abuse. If you don’t see it this way, then you shouldn’t be in this hobby. Even if your fish are fat doesn’t mean they are okay.

We take those creatures from their perfect life in the ocean (most of them at least) to put them in glass boxes four our enjoyment. The least we can do is at least give them a little room to swim and places to hide in peace.

 

[Reefer911]

Whatd you drop, about 10k before learning what to do?

 

[nothing_fancy]

This is absolutely wild. The OP has been properly dressed down by a few here, which I totally understand but I dunno if that's very helpful... Some folks have suggested purchasing a bigger tank...of course. Im not sure if it came up in any of the other posts since I was distracted by all the puffer fish, a foot long lion fish and I think I saw something about an eel...This is truly the Noah's Ark of tanks. That being said, why not just go to U-Line or someplace where you can get a couple of 100g horse troughs. Get the water right for fish only, get some canister filters or rig something up and take a few months to properly setup a 500g if you want to keep some of those fish. Maybe save your 130 for some of the fish you can't keep together in the same tank and just kind of start fresh and take your time. There's plenty of people here on the forum that would be helpful with info in setting up a big tank properly and hopefully helping you look out for the well being of all your fish.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

@Caliguy Lets try this, what is the vision you have and want out of a tank. How do you want it to look like when finished and all livestock. Do you want fish to school around corals? A predator tank with possible live prey? A Reef tank worthy of being featured? Do you want automates maintenance? Do you want people to maintenance for you? Do you want it to be turn key or something completely custom?

What is your budget? Which doesnt seem to have one lol and if thats the case there isnt much restriction. Do you have size limit? You stated youll be moving in a year so what size will be possible now vs then? Are you willing to break everything down to move?

Once these are answered, we can then work with what you have, maybe implemant several temp plans for livestock or come up with a whole different list. If i want schooling and such reef I would go with small fish like vanderbuilt chromis, mini dart fish, or fish that dont go over 3 inches. 6 line or 4 line wrasses, royal gramma, some small gobies like eviota, neon goby, maybe couple large like yellow watchmen etc, do possum wrasses, etc and other schooling fish mixed in. This will give a ton of room and offer the look you seem to want, you can still go over board but easier to fix.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Ok, here is where everyone starts over.......
He' asked a question, and everyone is killing him over _____NOT THE QUESTION______
How about we keep the bashing to NONE, and try to help. There are many many things he can add to this tank to help keep water quality prestine, how bout we start there folks

 

[Reefer911]

Yeah I guess three pages of evisceration is enough. I hope the OP can recover and learn to take it slow. Nothing good happens fast in reefing.