Bio Overload Update

[mkhordiav]

Thanks everyone for the advice on my obvious biological overload problem.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=663837

Upon reading this post, with all the "get rid of your fish" responses, it made me mad for a day or so, because all the research I had done pointed that the fish were compatible, and the stocking level of this 25g tank would be alright-now everyone's telling me to get rid of my fish I worked so hard to obtain.

Here's what's been done now. I removed the Tomato Clown, leaving only a 2" Koran angel, 1" Coral Beauty, and the tiny Picasso in the 25 gal tank. (A friend of mine had better plans for the clown, so she inherited it!). I've got a Corallife superskimmer on order coming in tomorrow pm, and I'm planning to upgrade this tank to a 40 gallon at the end of the month. I'll keep tabs on the nitrate levels and continue the weekly water changes.

Thanks everyone for the valuable assistance, I've got no hard feelings!

-Jeff

[kau_cinta_ku]

i am not gonna rag on ya cause i know how hard it is to get the fish you want so bad but the tank won't support them for long but you got rid of the only fish that would be a good size for that tank. and the coral beauty will be good but the trigger and korean angel will outgrow that tank soon. so just make sure you are willing to upgrade the tank for their needs or find someone with the tank that is fit for them. but it is great that you are tring. keep it up

[Randall_James]

Well you are half right, compatible yes, in a 125G or larger tank. I would either plan on this upgrade pretty quickly or keep looking for some new homes for your guys until you can upgrade.

Nano tanks are pretty tough to stock as the bio-load gets heavy very quickly.

You might look at
Royal Gramma
Fire Fish
Ocellaris or Percula's *smaller species
Many of the Goby's
Smaller wrasses *I like the yellow coris myself

There are obviously others but I think you get the idea. This hobby can be a lot of fun and rewarding but it also is easy to get in over ones head pretty quickly on livestock. We are up against the fact that these fish come from the largest ecosystem on the planet and we are trying to create such tiny slices of it, that it is often hard to get the proportions correct or even close to livable for the livestock.

[spamin76]

It's not going to solve the problem 100% but it is a huge step in the right direction.

This will buy you another year or so I would guess but you will need to make another upgrade.

I don't know about your space issues, but in my experience the cost difference between a 40 and a 55 is typically very small - like $10-15 think you can squeeze a few more bucks out for a few extra gallons?

I know it must be frustrating, believe me, I mad a similar mistake before - I had a picasso in a 30 with a lunare wrasse for about 6 months before I realized what I was doing. I upgraded to a 90 as soon as possible and that has held me over for a good 3 years, though I know another upgrade is looming since my picasso just keeps getting bigger and bigger.


Good luck.

Just keep researching, and keep up on your maintenance, and you will succeed. It is not at all unreasonable for triggers to live 15+ years in captivity, so you might have some of these fish for quite a while. But that's what it's all about IMO. :D