HELP! I don't know what to do.

[claudius2maximus]

Let me start off by saying sorry for the new thread.

My buddy and I have been working on a LRWFO tank for about 6 months. We have a few hard corals that look really spiky and a Kenya Tree. about 3 weeks ago we started to lose fish 1 at a time. As one dies we'd replace it, with something similar.

For live stock we had 2 Ocellaris Clowns, 2 Tomato Clowns, 2 Four Stripe Damsels, 2 Domino Damsels, 2 Green Chromis, a Neon Velvet Damsel, a Yellow Belly Blue Damsel, a Raccoon Butterfly, 2 Shrimps, a horseshoe crab, an emerald crab a blue starfish, about 40 small hermit crabs, a couple of snails and a slug.

It's a 55 gallon with a fluval 303 canister we have 2 fluval power heads for current flow with the small filters on those and a protein skimmer. as afr as lighting we have a power compact with a 10000k and an actinic. we have about 60 lbs of live rock total.

As of recently like i said earlier everything began to die we get up in the morning to go to work and everything would be alive, we;d come back from work at night and there would be like 1 or 2 dead. Then we started to notice small white dots on the backs of the fish near the tail. We've done water changes, test after test and everything chemically is Perfect! we began treating for ich, but we didn't have a hospital tank so we just treated the whole tank with everything inside.

As of yesterday pretty much everything except, the velvet, 1 chromis, the horseshoe, the hermit crabs and the corals, are dead.

Now my buddy is moving and I am still going to be helping him with the tank, Is it better to start all over again at his new house or should we keep treating the ich as much as possible. We would love to save the rocks as the are all live Fiji rocks, the kenya tree is about the size of one you could get for $100 in a pet store. and whatever else we can save how can we save what we have and get rid of the disease, with out having to restart a new tank with the move coming up.

we are also in the process of making a refugium to replace the canister filter.

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND!

Some observations and thoughts that might help you answer the question:

1. No one should own a Horseshoe crab. They are not aquarium marine lifeforms.

2. The tank is over crowded, creating a lot of stressors on the inhabitants

3. Get rid of the hermit crabs and go with snails for clean up crew. Crabs are not fish and coral friendly as they get older.

4. Get rid of the slug. Many release poisons and if it dies, it could take out the entire tank.

5. The tank is not suitable for any starfish. The blue star is too much of a mystery. They die and we don't really know how to keep them alive.

6. Whomever is giving advice on your system is not reliable -- probably someone I would guess that sells things for aquariums.

7. The fish are diseased and need treatment. Most likely Marine Ich. The thing to do is read and follow this: Curing Fish of Marine Ich

8. A refugium does not replace a canister filter.

9. Find someone else to provide you with general advice. Better yet, start doing a lot of reading.

[claudius2maximus]

here's an update as far as today goes, everything except, the snails the horseshoe and like 10 hermit crabs are dead.

as far as over population we were told that we had enough and we weren't planing on adding more. We are getting a bigger tank for his new place, we are only keeping the live rock and the 2 soft corals we have.

when we purchased the horseshoe it was from a store that supposedly "specialized" in marine life with the best selection in Nassau County. Now they definitely had a large selection of marine fish. what drew us to the horseshoe was the fact that it was stirring up the sand which we liked, because we were having issues with red slime at the time. about 2 weeks later and a vigorous schedule with lighting and feeding we got rid of the slime. the horseshoe added a different taste to the tank so we left it alone.

My buddy bought the slug on a whim cause the guy at a different place said it would be perfectly fine in the tank with out any issues. we rarely saw the damn thing because it always hid by the filter tubes.

The emerald crab was removed because 1 night i saw it grab a clown and drag it under a rock. i managed to save the clown but it died the next day anyway. that night the crab went down the drain.

like i said earlier as far as the fish go they are all now dead. From the reading I have done and research that my buddy does everything says that the refugium is a much better filtration system then a canister, mainly for the reason that its going through natural filters like sand, mud, plant life, etc ... before re-entering the tank.

now I did neglect to mention this is my fish tank period and my buddies first marine tank. he's always had great success with fresh water, so I'm looking at this as a learning experience. and the second time around we would have better luck.


if you could please be a little more specific with how was the tank over populated, or how horseshoes are marine life. i would appreciate it so i can educate myself farther.

[leebca]

The Refugium is not a filter. Water does not go through the substrate. You need to search the Internet for what a refugium does and doesn't do.

Regarding the Horseshoe Crab:
Actually, the Horseshoe crab is one of those invertebrates that should not be in the home aquarium. They really can't be kept for their lifespan. They get to about 2 to 3 feet in size.

Now, let's take a look at a posting:
Horseshoe Crab, Limulus polyphemus at MarineBio.org

From the above:
1. They grow large;
2. They are not tropical -- they prefer cooler waters of the Atlantic northern coast;
3. They take so long to reach sexual maturity that their numbers must be kept high or they will easily become extinct. Their eggs supply a lot of other marine life a means of sustenance.

The conclusions:
1. Not suitable for a home aquarium;
2. In a tropical marine aquarium, they slowly cook to death -- water temperature should be around 70 or less.
3. Harvesting/collecting them should be crime -- it most likely will be soon.

I understand your explanations, but the explanations don't make the actions the best choices. For more info about stocking limits, please read this: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR