downsized aquariums, and fish are DYING!!!! :(

[kmorin13]

OKAY, this may be pretty lengthly;

we had a 125 gallon reef aquarium, livestock in it, which we transferred was/is as follows -

one black ocellaris
one orange ocellaris
one orange percale
two chromes
one lawnmower blenny
one foxface rabbit fish
one niger trigger
an assortment of hermit crabs and snails

3 zoanthid corals
2 mushroom corals
1 bubble tip anemone

the 125 gallon had crushed coral for the substrate, and about 75 lbs of live rock. we had a AquaClear 110, and a fluval 306? for filters; one powerhead and two T8 bulbs; one blue one white bulb. and a heater. this tank was THRIVING.
was beautiful and everything was working wonderfully, but we had to downsize it to a 90 gallon due to limited space.

we had gotten crushed oyster shells, 2 bags, so we decided that would make a good substrate, we put them in the bottom of the 90 gallon.

we also purchased 75 lbs of liverock at 1$ a lb off someone who needed to get rid of it; and we placed this in the tank and built it up as we saw fit. we were also told that liverock would help maintain a stable pH, which we were having trouble with. we took the LR out of the existing 125 gallon tank and placed it in the 90 gallon as well.

we turned off the 125gallon system; moved the UV sterilizer, fluval, powerhead, heater and lights over to the new tank. took 1/2 the water out of the 125 and put it into the new tank. we placed the fish in buckets, alternating the 3 buckets with the airpump; and we placed all the corals in seperate containers for 10minutes max.
we took the rest of the water we needed out of the 125 and put it into the 90 gallon, trying to save as much as possible. in all we only needed to prepare about 15 gallons of fresh saltwater, from the tap which we dechlorinated; which was added in last finally we added some "cycle" to the tank.
we did a nitrite test prior to starting this, and they were undetectable in the 125.

we put the corals in after the liverock. then we added the fish. then the anemone. and finally the rest of the water. booted up the system and all was working wonderfully.

we waited an hour or so and finally did another nitrite test, when they read off the charts high. we did another water change (about 5%) and waited an hour to test again and.....we were out of testing drops.

everyone in the tank was happy and thriving at first. tips on the BTA were inflated, all fish swimming happily; tested pH and it was at 7.6 so we added sodium bicarbonate; shortly after this, most fish were on the ground breathing heavily, gasping for (air?); all corals were not looking bright and happy, had shrunk and shrivelled. turned lights off in the tank ; but UV sterilizer is still running.
levels in new aquarium are reading :
pH - 8.0 (with addition of sodium bicarbonate to keep the pH up)
temp - 79 F
salinity - 1.019 - 1.020
nitrite - read through the roof earlier today; went to retest and OH JOY, i'm out of test liquid.
nitrate - same as above.
free ammonia - undetectable
total ammonia - visible

so far we have lost the niger trigger and the foxface. two of my favourites in the tank. i'm attributing this to the higher nitrite levels? low pH? addition of sodium bicarbonate?
so we would like to know ---
how to stabilize pH?
how to lower nitrite/nitrate/ammonia levels?
is sodium bicarbonate safe to be adding?
how to ensure this doesn't continue to happen?
so frustrating! still new to this, so please be nice.

 

[bigben2057]

Not to be mean but i dont believe you were keeping an anemone or corals with t8s ....i wont say anymore

 

[Wolfsblood]

Adding fish to a tank with nitrite through the roof was probably not a good idea.

 

[kmorin13]

in regards to my corals and BTA..

lol well be amazed, and believe it; see the attached photos. not home at the moment or i'd take more for you. trust me when i say they were thriving. we had them living and growing beautifully under a marineland LED light. we just recently upgraded to the two T8's. it's very VERY doable.

 

[kmorin13]

if you re-read. it says the nitrites weren't anywhere to be found when we initially added the fish. it was after we added them that we did a second water test an hour later, to find them through the roof.

 

[kmorin13]

Not to be mean but i dont believe you were keeping an anemone or corals with t8s ....i wont say anymore

please see the attached pictures.

 

[kmorin13]

Adding fish to a tank with nitrite through the roof was probably not a good idea.

if you re-read. it says the nitrites weren't anywhere to be found when we initially added the fish. it was after we added them that we did a second water test an hour later, to find them through the roof.

 

[bigben2057]

That anemone is in very poor health... t8s are a downgrade fomr leds

 

[kmorin13]

That anemone is in very poor health... t8s are a downgrade fomr leds

please tell me how that anemone is in poor health? the camera it was taken with is off of a cellphone; they really don't do it justice. i see the tentacles with their bubble tips; and it's green in colour. it looks just like the ones i see in other pictures...

 

[Wolfsblood]

Originally it said they were sky high....anyway you are going to need to do way more than a 5% water change.

 

[kmorin13]

That anemone is in very poor health... t8s are a downgrade fomr leds

just spoke to my fiance, i had the number wrong; they're T5's not T8's.

i guess i look like the fool now

 

[kmorin13]

Originally it said they were sky high....anyway you are going to need to do way more than a 5% water change.

what would you recommend? how many? how frequent?

any input is appreciated, thank you.

 

[Wolfsblood]

50% at least and re test tomorrow.

 

[kmorin13]

50% at least and re test tomorrow.

50% in one shot? thanks for the input; will recheck tomorrow.

 

[Wolfsblood]

Yea high nitrite is going to be far worse for them than a large water change. I really hope that they make it

 

[kmorin13]

Yea high nitrite is going to be far worse for them than a large water change. I really hope that they make it

oh me too. the two losses we've had already are heart breaking enough. i've taken the fish, anemone and corals out of the display tank and put them in a smaller quarantine tank that's already well established and has been running for awhile now, all seem much happier for the time being, until we can get this under control. thanks again!

 

[bigben2057]

Well from that pic its white no anemone ever should be white, being white means its bleached and lost its symbiotic photosynthetic algae that it uses for nutrition, being under t8s i expect this, it wont last much longer.. nitrite killed the fish, the tank was not established enough to take an influx in the bioload all at once, it would have been better for both tanks to be concurrently running and slowly moving over liveztock

 

[Wolfsblood]

Oh that is good to hear. At least you don't have to be in extreme panic mode

 

[kmorin13]

Well from that pic its white no anemone ever should be white, being white means its bleached and lost its symbiotic photosynthetic algae that it uses for nutrition, being under t8s i expect this, it wont last much longer.. nitrite killed the fish, the tank was not established enough to take an influx in the bioload all at once, it would have been better for both tanks to be concurrently running and slowly moving over liveztock

i coulnd't agree with you more on that one. if it had of been possible to keep both up and running, we would have. however, limited space meant one had to go immediately.
all the water, filters, etc were directly from the 125 gallon, so we didn't start from scratch which is better then nothing.

in the photo the white on the anemone isn't it's colouring, it was edited with a low grade photo editor and unfortunately doesn't look as healthy as it is. it's still growing and eating, has it's green colour, and is actually doing quite well. like i said, it's under T5's not T8's as i had previously thought.

thank you though.

 

[Holygral]

I know its not what you want to hear but your nem is bleached badly. Low grade photo editor/ Hum then whys the Clown normal color? You cant keep a nem under a 2 bulb T5. You dont want to hear it but when it dies, it will probably take your tank down rest of the way.