I am now taking care of this tank

[FordForever]

Hey everyone I have been a member for a long time now and after literally years of lurking the saltwater forum I am now in charge of a rather large tank. The tank is not mine but I am responsible for it due to someone elses financial issues. I am attempting to care for the fish for free because I care about the welfare of these fish. Here is the break down as well as some of my questions/issues:

You can see a picture using this link: http://imgur.com/9iCTK

The tank is 110g acrylic with a sump. The sump has a heater, skimmer and a canister filter next to it. There is also an overflow with bioballs as well as bioballs in the sump/refug.

Params:

pH: 8.0
Amm: .25 ppm
NitrI: 0ppm
Nitrate: 30ppm

Critters (I am going to do the best I can here):

Yellow Tang
Blue Tang
Lipstick Tang?
Manderin Fish?
2 Little clownfish
A little red fish (this fish has no boyancy control)???
Box Fish (tiny looking little puffer?)
Cleaner Shrimp
Blue Damsil?
Pink little octopus looking thing with no eyes that lives under a rock lol?

Obviously first thing that I need to do is get the water changed to bring the nitrates down. Also, the LFS that was taking care of this tank removed all of the substrate because the original owner complained of algae. That is another issue. There is green algae everywhere which I would assume is a nitrate and maybe phosphate problem. I only have a API sw test kit. I also have a hydrometer as well as a truck load of FW care supplies.

I also spent an hour yesterday tearing algae off of all the rocks but you can see from the picture that there is still a lot in there. I will continue reading around here but if anyone has some initial advice it would be greatly appreciated.

- John

[Ashurbarnipal]

Get GFO for the phosphates. I used phoszorb to lower my phosphates to zero in no time.

I wouldn't worry about the algae TOO much. I've seen worse, tangs and removal of phosphates will take care of them in time..

I'd remove the bioballs, too. I've heard that can be nitrate traps. Also, I recommend doing several smaller water changes instead of one big one.

Also, mandarin might be a problem. They need copepods to survive, I think, but you can buy those on liveaquaria

Can you get a pic of the octopus looking thing?

[Lady Hobbs]

Was that cyano algae?

[Ashurbarnipal]

Hmm, yeah, I actually couldn't see the algae too clearly. That could be a problem if there are corals in the tank.

[FordForever]

I don't know the difference in algae but it was a lot worse yesterday. It covered every rock. The algae is green like hair so I would assume its hair algae.

The mandarin has been in this tank for at least 6 months so I hope he is not missing something he needs. I will attempt to get a picture of the octopus guy but he almost never comes out.

I am going to do a 10% water change tomorrow.

It turns out that the octopus is actually a pink brittle starfish.

[Ashurbarnipal]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=2190+3058&pcatid=3058

I'd recommend getting this just in case.

Also, a starry blenny could clean the tank, though I'm not sure your tank could handle a new addition well with those readings. Maybe once it's settled down.

[Ashurbarnipal]

Also, it never occured to me, but what's the model of skimmer, cannister filter etc? What kind of gallons per hour do you have in the tank?

Those look like anemones, maybe LTA in your tank, and they need lots of flow.

Also, I think the red fish is a hawkfish. They don't have swim bladders.

[FordForever]

I have taken more pictures to help. I also have an unidentified component which you can see in the first picture below:

http://i.imgur.com/yke9G.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CK5zJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BjzDo.jpg

Im not sure if that thing is just a pump or a filter. Looks like its rated at 19G / Min.

I have been having a lot of trouble with this skimmer. The part that has the sponge seems to control the height/strength of the bubbles. I can't get it set correctly. There is also a lawnmower blenny in there somewhere forgot about him.

Thank you again for the help.

[Ashurbarnipal]

Hmm, I don't know anything about that brand of skimmer, sorry. Nor am I sure about the unidentified component.

I'm still pretty new to actually keeping SW, but I've been researching p heavily for over a year.