Losing the battle!

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AFIHVK

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 27, 2013
Messages
3
Hey everyone, new here and in desperate need of help....
Tanks been going strong since march... Every thing has been trial and error thanks to the bad advice of an aquarium who helped us set up.
We finally fixed the coral dying issues and now my fish are dropping like flies! We lost 6 fish this weekend.
Ammonia is just showing in my tank. .25 (only just a tiny bit) and despite my efforts to water Change the fish keep dropping!
Tank is 330 odd liters - 4 foot tank. We were given very basic wave makes which don't move much water at all.
I've just upgraded to a tunze skimmer and think maybe adding a wave maker that's stronger might help circulate any fish waste that may be causing the ammonia... Thoughts!? It's heart breaking that I've lost over $150 worth of fish in only days! After having a tank running fine for so long :(
 
Anything changed to the tank to start the fish dying? Like anything added at all? What kind of filtration do you use and what is your maintenance schedule look like? How much live rock does your system have? What kind of fish did you lose and is there any remaining livestock?
 
What 6 fish did you have in a roughly 80 gallon tank? if they were larger tangs and such, you added too many. You can use a product like prime or amquel to bind the ammonia, but any ammonia in an established system is a bad thing. It's quite obvious you don't have the bacteria colony sufficient for your bioload. How often are you feeding? How much are you feeding?
 
I have 2 in tank filters with foam pad nitrate and phosphate removers. I have a tunze skimmer finally upgraded from a aqua one skimmer that easy doing anything. The fish I added were anthias.... But the back was fine up until they were added, the our sand sifting gobe got a cut on his side which killed him, we removed him straight away. Then 1 anthia who was being picked on by the largest anthia... Then they just kept dropping off! My male wrasse was stressed majorly when I brought him home as the bag they out him in leaked and he was only in 2cm of water which meant I had to quickly try to get him acclimatized to my water much quicker then I would normally.... But there is a major anthia who is a pig and won't let the others eat... She hogs the entire tank! There is ample room but she will charge from one side of the tank to the other just to ensure she gets it all (I feed the spiraling shrimp) and there is always enough for them) I plan to upgrade a wave maker to help move the waste and am doing a major water change today in hope it fixes the issue....
 
So, what exactly are you saying? Your anythias killed the 6 fish? Food laying on the bottom caused ammonia that killed the fish? if the anthias was such a pig, it would not have let food hit the bottom.
I think what I'm hearing you say is that you are grossly overfeeding to make sure all fish are fed and this is making your tank crash.
I would be cutting back on feeding as well as vacuuming out that stuff on the sand bed.
Feed every other day, and a lot less.
 
Mr_x I am not over feeding at all. I was advised by the aquarium and many places online that anthias are finicky and need to be fed more than once a day. So I feed one tablet of spirilina shrimp in the morning and one when I get home at night. They eat most of it and anything that does reach the bottom is eaten by my leopard wrasse who constantly eats from the rocks an sand bed.
Today I had enough. After another reading on my tank saying everything was fine from the local fig shop I pulled out the life rock my anemone hides behind... And as suspected my anemone was dead (mouth gapped and completely shriveled) so I took it out did my water change and hopefully that should be the issue resolved... I know to trust my instinct rather then the advice of my aquarium shop again! I have had no luck with any of them...
 
An anemone with mouth gaping and shriveled is not necessarily dead.
It's best to feed fish a varied diet, and I know people who feed their anthias along with the other fish. You will be able to tell if fish are underfed, before anything bad happens.
I would still cut back on feeding.
 
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