I need help with reef fish.. I think I'm a moron or something..

[cwegescheide]

Alright let me start off by saying I honestly feel really bad for causing the untimely demise of these fish but I think there is something about my tank that is causing them not to do well.

Let me start off with my water parameters:
temp constant between 80 - 80.5 (neptune)
salinity 1.026
ph 8.2 - 8.4
nitrate < 5 ppm
nitrite 0
ammonia 0

circulation consists of a return pump running approx 600gph and 2 tunze 6100's on a controller in a 90 gallon tank with about 80 lbs or LR in it.

OK the fish story...

First I was really stupid thinking I could put another dwarf angel in my tank with my CB.. Well the flame angel is now a real ANGEL.. That was about a month ago. Then a couple weeks later I put in a pretty good sized wrasse and some chromis. Well the small wrasse beat him up so now the Flame Angel has a buddy up there with him... At this point I really felt terrible because the first time was a mistake and the second I should have known better. Another thing is when the wrasse died it was in my tank decaying for a couple days and fouled my tank and my purple tang succomed so now the death toll is up to 3.

I waited a few weeks so my nitrites/amonia were zero and I thought since I didn't have any tangs 1 and only 1 would be safe to add to my tank so I got a nice looking Naso from the LFS. I'd say he was about 5.5" long or so. Pretty decent sized.. He did fine for a few weeks...

Well I came home from work this past friday and noticed I didn't see my Naso swimming around. So I looked thru the rockwork and I spotted him stuck in a couple rocks and of course... Dead. NOW I feel like a REAL JERK and a little PO'd of the money I've wasted to boot. OK now here is what I think my "issues" are:

I work away from home m-f. I do have a daily auto feeder which dispenses 1x (now 2x /day) a quantity of food that I put in each dispenser section. My tank has no problems with neusance algae AT ALL so I think there is very little for them to pick at other than the food I was giving them. Tank inhabitants include a medium sized wrasse, CB and two small chromis. Not exactly a high bioload. My feeding would consist of a good sized pinch of flake/cyclopseez per day. I also think some fish have a hard time swimming in my tank because of the 2 6100's in there. I know the reefs are pretty tough to swim too so maybe thats not an issue. Am I not feeding them enough? My water/reef is pretty imaculate. Its been running ~10 mos. I also think I've got PLEANTY of rock in there and the Naso might have somehow gotten himself stuck behind the rockwork in there and couldn't get himself out.

Now I'm totally afraid to add another fish. What the heck am I doing wrong? I don't want to kill another fish mainly because of the guilt but also dont want to waste another 50 bucks or so.

[VSpeck]

the naso's like to swim so 90 probably wasnt enough room you know what killed the angel and the fish decaying was probably what killed the purple. try again just make sure params are stable and you will be fine just take your time on deciding on fish

[Reefeross]

Sorry for your losses...I wouldn't be too worried about adding more fish, just make sure params are go of course. Shake it off man, I only see one real mistake and that was adding the Dwarf. I dunno, that Naso might have gotten stuck...But he could have been succumbing to some disease in your tank and wedged himself in there like Regal Tangs do. Then again if he did okay for weeks...

[Scottkelly911]

If you've got a lot of rockwork, get yourself a flame hawk, a Mandarin goby, a chalk bass and be done with it for a while. Maybe a few Tiny Yellow Pilot fish, but they'll eventually outgrow the tank, but they sure are neat fish and school amazingly.

[Sk8r]

Tangs and angels are fish that are best qt'ed for the full amount of time before entry into the tank---they're ich-prone.
Two tricks regarding aggressives: withdraw the resident same species to the same qt tank and deprive them both of territory. Put some pvc pipe in there for a refuge. Neither will be the 'owner' and things may go more smoothly.
If you have a fight going on, douse the lights and if ambient light is too much, throw a sheet over the tank. This sends everyone to cool off. Sometimes fish get up on the other side of the bed the next morning, see the rival, and dimly remember, duh, they were there yesterday, too, so it must be ok...they're not great thinkers.
Then you've got the fights that just won't quit, in which case you've got to get one out.
Personally, it's why I like gobies and blennies and dartfish. I'm tired of refereeing.

[Octopod 102]

How about some different food? Your tangs would have to like some sea veggie/ nori or some mysis, at least when you are home. I'm not sure how to do that automatically, but my tangs like those two more than any others. What kind of medium wrasse is it? Some are much worse than others - I had a 4 line that knocked off several fish bigger than it, til it finally had to go elsewhere.

[cwegescheide]

Thanks for the input everybody. Yeah I think I am going to try some smaller fish for the moment. I will check into several of your suggestions but for now I think I'm just going to take it easy and not anything for atleast a few weeks.

I appreciate your advice.

Thanks,
Chris

[Angel*Fish]

Sometimes fish get up on the other side of the bed the next morning, see the rival, and dimly remember, duh, they were there yesterday, too, so it must be ok...they're not great thinkers. :lol: :lol: :lol: That's so true!

If you're going to quarantine angels, IMO, it should be with no meds, especially no copper, & in a macroalgae LR rich environment. If you already have an angel, like your CB, it is better to give the fish time in another area to get used to your parameters & to fatten up & get strong for dealing with the stress of moving in with a potential rival

In my experience flames & CB are not easy to combine.

A perfect fish for you as suggested by Scott would be a mandarin, since they pretty much catch their own food in your tank (assuming plenty of LR with pods) I'd recommend the smaller spotted ones, especially if you decide on a pair. Not sure if your "medium sized wrasse" has already consumed your pods or not though - depends on the type.