75 gal reef tank

[Jim Flanders]

My name is Jim

My name is Jim (tarzan) and i have a 75 gal reef tank that has been set up about 5 months. The tank looks great with a great growth of xenia on about 100 lbs of rock. It has a yellow tang, coral beauty, trumpet coral, yellow stone polyp coral, pipe organ coral, bubble coral, snails, crabs,sea squirt and star green polyps and some damsels. I have added clowns and pygmy angels only to loose them. I have a Motorized 150 protein skimmer with pump, a model 125 wet/dry filter and HQI 150 X2 blue 40wx 2 withfan and a powerhead. I think the ph is changing from morning to night. Could this be part of the problem is loosing fish that I am trying to add. If not any ideas?
I would like to add a 155 bow front but want to get this problem straight before making the jump.

 

[Cougra]

First off, welcome to Reefsanctuary! I hope you enjoy your stay here.

The pH naturally changes throughout the day as different animals respire at different rates and the amount of desolved CO2 fluctuates (thus making it more acidic) This pH fluctuation can be minimized in many different ways. Measure your pH first thing in the morning just before the lights come on and measure it at night about an hour before your lights turn off for a couple days and you'll see what kind of fluctuation you have. If it's more then .2 then you need to take steps to minimize it (some people will debate that .2 is still too much and although I agree that 0 fluctuation is best it's not always possible to achieve.)

1.Make sure your tank has good water circulation throughout the day and good surface movement to aide in gas exchange. Protein Skimmers, overflows and turbulent water are good for this.
2. If you have a sump or refugium with a lot of algae in it, keeping the lights on 24/7 or on a reverse schedule as the lights in the main tank will help balance the amount of CO2 produced between day and night. (Photosynthetic life forms produce more CO2 then O2 at night and more O2 then CO2 when the lights are on.)
3. Other people drip Kalk at night when the pH tends to drop more because it has a high pH and a lot of other benefits (doing a search will explain these a lot better)

As for why your fish are dieing when they are introduced may be harder to determine.
How do you acclimatize them to the new tank?
Have you ever tested the water from the LFS and compared it to the water in your tank? (Ask for a seperate samle of water, don't use the one that the fish traveled in as the water chemistry changes during transportation.) If there is a big difference in water chemistry/quailty then the stress of transfering the fish from one environment to another could be a problem.
How long do the fish live in your tank before they die?
Were the fish eating at the store/ at your house?

 

[Gina]

:hallo: Jim! Welcome to RS!
Happy to have you with us!

 

[cheeks69]

What are your levels ammonia-nitrite-nitrate ? Do you normally order livestock online or at the LFS ? How long have the yellow Tang and Coral Beaty been in the tank ? Normally these should be last additions especially the Yellow Tang can become very territorial.

I have added clowns and pygmy angels only to loose them

Pygmy Angels do NOT get along only one is recommended per tank unless you have a large tank with alot of rockwork and even then they should be added at the same time and should be different sizes

BTW welcome to RS !