HELP! NastayNatron's tank

[lo_yyc]

Hey everyone,

My roommate, NastayNatron, is on vacation right now and I'm taking care of his tank (or at least trying to).

I was out last night and when I came back, I found 1 dead fish and I haven't seen a few of the other ones yet. I know that Nathan mentioned once or twice that sometimes if 1 fish dies, it is toxic to the rest of the ones in the tank and it can kill all of them, so I'm worried that some sort of chain reaction started while I was gone.

The one that I know was for sure dead (that I've taken out now) is the Foxface Rabbitfish, and the ones that I haven't seen yet are Anthias (I don't know what kind - I know there are 3 and 1 of them is a male square spot, but I don't know what kind the other 2 are).

The tank is looking pretty cloudy, but I checked all the things I know how (emptied the skimmer cup yesterday, checked the refugium, no leaks under the tank, and I've cleaned the glass, but I know that probably won't do much) and it's still pretty cloudy. I'm sure that's because the tank hasn't had a proper water change since Nathan left, which was a week ago I think (I just got back from vacation myself).

Anyways, he said that someone would probably be able to give me some ideas. I guess that I know the ideal thing would be to do a water change but I don't know how to do it exactly and I'm not sure if he has any salt water mixed or not.

Anyways, I really appreciate the help, I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

-Lauren

[marie]

Do you have any activated carbon? adding some to the tank will help.

If he has a reactor with carbon in it already on the tank, exchange it for fresh stuff (don't forget to rinse it well before adding to tank) or even putting some fresh rinsed carbon into a media bag (nylons work well for a bag in a pinch, cut the toe and part of the leg to make an approx 10"to 12" long bag and use those plastic bread tags to seal the open end) and placing it in the sump will help a little

[Cal_stir]

is there anything being dosed to the tank like calcium, alkalinity, kalk?

[bignose]

Lauren check to see if he has some premixed water if not get a 5G pail and mix up some salt water. If you don't have ro water use some dechlorinator it's better than doing nothing. How big is the tank? must be a fair size if there was a foxface.

[pirate]

Do you know how big the tank is? ( even a quess in feet overall ) How cloudy is it? Pea soup or bathroom mirror after a hot shower? Are you adding anything to the tank while your looking after it? How full was the skimmer cup? Is it flowing all over the outside? Or staying inthe cup?
Do you know what kind of fish and or corals are inthe tank? Was the tank all cloudy when you came home or after you tried to get the dead fish out? Have the other fish started to show up yet.

[lo_yyc]

OK, first - thank you SOOOOO much!

I found activated carbon and a filter sock - will that work if I just fill up the filter sock and place that in the sump?

For dosing, there's calcium and alkalinity that both work on a dosing pump, but I'm not totally sure how that's set up. The display thing says that the pH is 8.6, but I don't know what it's supposed to be.

I think he has some salt water mixed, but I'm not 100% sure. I didn't know how else to test it so I tasted it and it tasted different than the RO water (I think, anyways) - but I'm not sure how salty it should be.

I think it's 125 gallons, but it's about 6 ft by 3 ft by 2 ft or so.

It was definitely cloudy like a bathroom mirror after a hot shower when I got home (before I took out the fish). I'm not adding anything to it except food.

Yesterday when I emptied the skimmer cup, the rest of the water in the sump was clean - I was just emptying it to be safe, so it shouldn't have overflowed into the tank. I just re-emptied it now to make sure as well.

So far I haven't seen the missing fish, but there's no way to see if they're behind the rocks.

As far as the fish I can name, the ones I can still see are:

-female square-spotted anthia
-copper banded butterfly
-tang - like Dory on Finding Nemo
-orange clownfish
-3 cardinals
-leopard wrasse (still alive)
-another tang, I don't know what kind, but it's black and yellow/white striped and has like flowy fins (sorry for the poor description)
-a third tang, it's the kind that either comes in blond or dark or whatever and has lipsticky looking lips
-flame angel fish
-coral beauty
-diamond goby
-black clown fish (can't find)
-male square spotted anthia (can't find)
-2 other, smaller anthias (can't find)

Hope that helps a little, I'm sorry I'm so clueless.

Thanks again

[Cal_stir]

ph 8.6 is high, sounds like too much alk, does he have a alk test kit?

[lo_yyc]

He does have an alk test kit - I just did it and it says the pH is 8.3, but I've never done the test before so I'm not 100% confident that I know how to do it.

[Cal_stir]

you mean 8.3 dkh? what kind of test kit is it, just follow the instructions, 8.3 dkh is not bad, maybe try the test again

[lo_yyc]

No, that's right - it's 8.3 dkH.

But..... now that I took out the dead fish it's actually looking like it's started to clear up a bit, I'm not sure if that's possible, but it sure is what it looks like.

And the fish are looking a little more active than when I first came home, so that's probably a good sign, right?