Frustrated

[rikbar]

I have had a saltwater tank up for about 1.5 years now, granted I have moved the water, rocks & fish around. First was a 55, realized it was to small, moved everything to a 150, realized it was to small, moved everything to 180, realized didn't have enough equipment to run this, LR, water movement and the sort. Now back down to a 75, all I have left is a snowflake eel and a vlion, and a humma trigger, who resides in the first 55. All this time I have fought ich, and some other stuff I don't know what it was. I have killed a dogface puffer, porc puffer, valantine puffer, longnose butterfly, mandrine, I think that is it. Is it time to stop killing fish, and go back to fresh?
A little discourged would be a understatement at this point. Am I just moving to fast? Maybe someone can help me out here.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for your time.

 

[oyf709]

Sorry to hear wat happen to all those fish, and I sure feel your pain.However, you might be doing too much to the tank and increased the stress lvl of your fish.
The more you put your hands into the water and moving structure or even changing new tank will scare the fish for sometime and their immunity will go downwards.Also, a new tank suppose to cycle for at least a month i suppose, if you didn't dothat it might also the reason why your fish are dying.
As what you can really do, maybe try to look over the internet before purechasing a fish, gather enough info for it and right before you buy it, ask the LFS one more time just to ensure your reaserch.That will at least cut down 90% of your problem on "tank is not big enough",therefore cut down the chances that you need to move everything to a new tank and save money =)
HTH. Gl

 

[KMyers18]

I cant believe you killed a porc puffer 8O Those things will live in a ditch The butterfly i can see but a porc 8O Those are one of most hardy fish you can have

 

[grimlock3000]

I would say do not quit now. Sometimes you need to just sit down, look at what you have, and think it over.

With a marine tank, patience is the key. You have done multiple tank swaps in a realitively short ammount of time. Each one of these is a large stress to the system and can not be taken lightly. Remember that each time you change something in a tank, you can also screw something up. It is better to make small changes slowly over time then to make huge changes at once.

Why don't you post your tank setup? Post all the lifeforms in the tank, equipment being used (lights, filters, skimmer, overflows...), how much LR is in the tank, clean up crew etc, etc... Then let us know what you think is wrong with the tank currently. Once we know what you have and any possible problems, we can help you out more.

 

[rikbar]

thanks everyone, thats why I got the porc puffer, was told and read that they could live through anything, don't know for sure what happened.
Right now I have a 75g-right now the only thing in it is a v-lion & a snowflake eel. I have a seaclone skimmer, regular florecent lights, and 2 1200 maxijet powerheads. there is probably around 80-100 pounds of liverock, sand substrate. I have a uv turbo twist x somthing on the way, should be here tomorrow. Don't know if I even need it or not. There are about 10 hermit crabs, 10 turbo snails, and I don't know how many littler snails. thats about it. Everytime something happens to the tank, I get different advice from different sources. gets alittle confussing.
hope we can get something figured out.
Well anyway thanks for everyones comments.

 

[kukki]

id just stick to a tank size if possible for as long as you can hold out for... im new to aquariums period and im working on my 29gal, i really would already love to get a bigger tank but because of money / space issues, im glad i cant lol

i have my first 3 fish in there now.. they seem to be doing great, but i know im way not ready for anything else or moving them or anything like that, id just say dont give up and keep reading, i know i always am

id add another maxi jet 12 or 900 , or a sump .. and you didnt say you had a heater.. im sure you prolly do ! but if not id add one as well... even if your temp stays pretty high at times in the room.. its a good backup at least.. a 20 gal or so (correct me if im wrong here lol).. a 20g or bigger sump / fuge with a nice pump and over flow, would help out alot...

 

[rikbar]

I do have a heater, sorry for not adding that in. I have thought about the sump idea, but just got more confussed on how to go about it. What would adding a sump do for me? Does anyone have a website or something that has some good directions?

 

[kukki]

adding a sump would give you added water volume for one, which is always a good thing, helps keep water more stable ...

it keeps your water level in your tank the same all of the time, it will never be lower than you set it, even with evaporation it will only lower the level in the sump, not tank

its a place to put things like a heater or a skimmer or things you want to hide

you can make part of it a refuge and grow things there, such as micro algae

there are alot of benefits and for some reason i cant name them lol.. im just drawing this big blank ..... someone else will add in everything im sure

just search google or on these forums there are alot of ideas and discussion, i think im just in lazy mode today and my brain isnt workin

 

[morgan24]

don't give up. just keep coming here for all your help and questions u have. the people here are awesome and they will try to help as much as they can, I really can't help much i'm still new to the sw thing, but i come here every day and read post and learn something new every day

 

[rikbar]

I don't think I am going to give up just yet anyway. Just about to hit my limit on bad information, and the such. I fought ich for about a month and a half, thought I had it beat, put the fish in the tank and am back fighting it again. I did hypo, that is the reason for uv steralizer. It seems like everyone has a different method thought I had this beat. Thought maybe someone could see something wrong with my tank. I have a 300g pond w/ doviis, a 180 with redbelly piranhas, 150 w/ discuss and assorted plecos. never had as much trouble with the discuss as I seem to have with the salt tank. Just hope someone seems something I haven't.
Thanks for everyones comments.

 

[kukki]

you will get it worked out... i have not had to fight the diseases yet or ich or anything, no looking forward to it, hopefully it wont happen anytime soon.... with what all is happening, have you looked into the water you use or anything ?

 

[rikbar]

Yes I have checked the water that I use. I use tap water, I have tested it and have found nothing wrong with it, no nitrates, ph is at 8.2 or so, I haven't tested for phosphates and some other stuff, but don't have any algea problems or anything like that, just the ich and fish dieing.

 

[flanque]

Hi,

I think the key here is patience. You really do need to take your time, months in my view, to set things up.

Also, when I choose my fish I always spend at least ten or more minutes watching the behaviour of the fish in the tank at the LFS and take a very good look at the quality of the fish. If I see any signs of disease or fin rot, etc I do not bother with it. That's the only way you can do it in my view.

If you have a spare tank, you could move the inverts from the main tank into it, and then treat the main tank with some more harsher remedies for your diseases. Whitespot/ich is a prick of a thing, and there are some good remedies which work on fish but nuke your inverts and corals.

If it were me, I would not add any new stock to your tank now and concentrate of resolving each problem one by one. Make sure you have sufficient good bateria levels in there, do water changes using treated water (if possible) with a monthly wait period between them and if you want to use remedies, make sure you come back here and ask first.

The bottle labels are not always right, and they don't take into account your specific situation, but the collective input and experience here can at least guide you better than what a 2c label can.

 

[rikbar]

I think that my water quality is good, I haven't had much of a problem with any of the quality, except for maybe nitrates which will go up to about 80 on my test kit. That is when I do about a 30 gallon water change, this will get it back around 40. I have never got it any lower then that, I blame this on the not so good skimmer, but I could be wrong. I was thinking that it might be a temp. change that is causing the ich, I am just out of ideas. Once again thanks for everyones comments and thougths.

 

[kukki]

i think i would do what flanque suggested with removing inverts and such.. or qt'ing one or 2 fish and treating them for along time and see if they get any better - **and stay better** in the qt first.. then if they do fine its something else .. if it were me id qt everything i could.. maybe 1 or 2 or so to qt tank . fix their problems and slowly restock the main tank with them .. and let things slowly progress from there

 

[oyf709]

As for the ich, i would say the best solution could be taking your fish out and put them in a seperate tank which seems like you alrdy have extra tanks.Since it is only a fish only (i assume from the fish u are keeping) tank, it would be way easier to starve the ich to death.Before puting your fish into the new tank give them a 5-10min fresh water bath and i think this should be able to do the trick.
Correct me if i gave the info wrong cuz personally i never had ich.Oh maybe add some cleaner shrimp? from wat i heard they will eat the becteria

 

[rikbar]

I beleive this is what I am going to do. I really appreciate everyones help. It looks like I should be able to gain some control here.

 

[specialk]

all I have left is a snowflake eel and a vlion, and a humma trigger, who resides in the first 55.

Are these fish all in the 55? or
Is the EEl & Vlion in the 75g and Trigger in the 55?

I agree with qting these fish and treating but vlion and copper dont do well together so you have to be careful when treating the lion with copper.

If they are all in the 55g together I could see them getting ich, I would say Stress. The Volitan is a docile fish and Triggers prey on Volitans, if the Trigger is not picking at the lion it will be a matter of time.
Lions can go with certain triggers (Crosshatch, Niger, Pinktail) but not Hummas, than it will become a stress issue. The 180g will ease the stress but that Trigger will grow and the attitude in it will change.

Kaye

 

[rikbar]

The trigger is in a 55 and the snowflake & lion is in the 75, I plan on keeping the lion & snowflake. The trigger will go back to the LFS.
If I take the fish out of the 75 and Q, use Hypo again, and use a UV Stearlizer on it, do I still wait the 4-6 weeks?
Thanks

 

[Blazeherd2306]

For killing ich, the first thing you should do is move your fish to a quarantine tank. Just let your inverts stay in the main. Right before place your fish in the QT tank, give them a freshwater bath, like oyf709 said

Before puting your fish into the new tank give them a 5-10min fresh water bath and i think this should be able to do the trick.

. After you give them a freshwater bath, put the fish in your QT and leave them in there for 3-4 weeks and treat them with a proper medication until the ich is gone. The reason you have to wait for 3-4 weeks is because you have to let the ich in the main tank finish its life cycle. You said you run a UV sterilizer on the tank? If you do the ich will probably die faster, but be on the safe side and wait 3-4 weeks for the ich to die. And the next time you choose fish, do what flanque said and observe them for 5-10 min to make sure the fish is healthy and disease free. Another way a breakout of ich can occur is if the fish are put under stress.
HTH