sick tank--HELP!!

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#1
Aug 4, 2010
7
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#1
Hi,
My dad recently passed away, about six months ago. He kept up a saltwater fish tank that I believe is either 150 gallons or 175. When he got sick it was very unexpected, and we didn't have any time to think about the tank-and when we did, we came down to one that was filled with algae. My sister and I have been routinely doing water changes every three days or so, and it got to the point where we needed to use medicine on the tank. We're using Algaefix for salt water tanks. I'm writing because I want to know if there's anything that we're missing... My family owned and ran a pet store for quite some time, so keeping up the tank is not the problem-it's just getting rid of all of this algae. We're losing fish, and we really want to keep it healthy. Please let me know if there's anything that I'm missing here... Thank you!
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#2
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
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ft. lauderdale
#2
Sorry about your father and Welcome to the site! How many and what type of fish? What size water changes are you doing? What are the tank dimensions so we can figure out out much water you want to be changing each time... What type of filtration do you have? live rock?
 

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#3
Aug 4, 2010
7
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#3
Thank you-- right now we have four fish in the tank. A flame angel, a tomato clown, a butterfly, and a yellow gobie. We're doing 30-40% water changes at the moment. It's a 150 gallon tank, so... We have a drip filter, a protien skimmer, and a trickle filter. We have live rock, anenome, starfish, and two powerheads. We have A LOT of coral. All different types.
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#5
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
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ft. lauderdale
#5
btw 30-40% is a good number id keep doing them every week till thing change... Increasing the flow (more powerheads) will help and so will cutting down on the lighting. how many hours do you have the lights on and what type of lights are they?
 

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#7
Aug 4, 2010
7
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#7
The algae is green and hairy, but we also have dark green algae that sticks on the coral like paint. Um, there's red algae too on the back glass of the tank but we scraped all of that off and sucked it up during a water change last night so we're hoping that will keep it away a little bit... We have a few snails, no crabs or shrimp- but we are planning to go buy some soon. The lights are on for nine hours, and they're coralite lights. We feed them every other day frozen brine.
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#8
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
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ft. lauderdale
#8
Green hair algae is a PITA! Sry lol ... Theres a few fish, ect. that eat hair algae but you still have to get your phosphates down which is most likely the cause. Your on the right track with the water changes tho! Foxface are know to eat hair algae and so are lawnmower blennies I belive, Lettuce Nudibrach's, some blue leg hermits, and the best would be a Sea hare! If your lucky enough to find a Sea hare your going to want to get rid of it/trade it once the algae is gone otherwise it will starve... If any of the rocks are small enough to remove to a seperate container you can scrub the hair algae off with a toothbrush and just rinse the rocks in the old water from the water change
 

TRe

TRe

Elite Fish
#9
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
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ft. lauderdale
#9
the cleanup crew would be first on my list along with continuing your water changes... Get more snails and some blue leg hermits, cut the lights back to 6 hrs a day... btw brine isnt the best thing to be feeding your fish. Its fine every once in a while but not everytime. Try and switching it up with mysis, pellets, seaweed
 

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#10
Aug 4, 2010
7
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#10
Lol, it is a PIA, I know. My mom and I are going to go to this fish store that's nearby us and get some of the fish you mentioned, and the blue leg hermits. Would doing the water changes like we are bring down the phosphates, or is there something we have to specifically do? I know feeding them brine every other day is not good--if I had known my sister was doing that I would have stopped her a while ago... But that's definitely changing. Thank you, by the way... This is really helping us out. It's much appreciated :)
 

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TRe

Elite Fish
#12
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
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ft. lauderdale
#12
a Foxface will be fine with the fish you have in there... Yes water changes alone will bring down the phosphates but where are you getting the water for the water changes?
 

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#15
Aug 4, 2010
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#15
My dad has a giant filtration system in a room that makes the salt water. He'd been doing tanks since he was a teenager so he was pretty much an expert with all of this... Wow about the foxface, we'll definitely be careful when if/when we get it. I just ran to the store and bought some blue leg crabs and turbo snails. The blennies just came in yesterday (epic fail) so there was no way I was buying them... They looked awful anyway. The foxface they had looked like it was going to die, so needless to say I'm going to run to the store that my dad used to go to some time next week to see what their fish look like.
 

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fishtanknoob

New Fish
#17
Aug 4, 2010
7
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#17
Hey again-I thought I'd give a bit of an update.
The snails are REALLY helping the problem. My sister and I managed to get a lot of the hair algae off and it's starting to look a lot better! Thank you for all of your help :)
 

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