Fish Killer

[Starchar]

I am a new member to the community and thought that perhaps I could get some advice here.

I bought my wife a 29 gallon bio cube at Christmas so that we could east into the hobby. Nothing fancy and the tank was recommended by a friend.

I have had the tank up and running now for about 2 months and my levels are doing well. I have about a dozen snails, 10 or so blue hermits a sand sifting starfish and a large starfish (not reef friendly). I have about 30lbs of live rock and about 40 lbs of live sand. My rocks have a nice population of coralline algae and I have a healthy population of copepods.

That being said...my fish keep dying. The levels of the tank are great and the temperature is stable at 78.

To date we have lost:

1 Yellow Tank
1 Lion fish
1 Mandarin Goby
1 Blue Damsel
1 Diamond Goby

The Lionfish/Tank/Damsel kill happened within 1 day. The Tang had developed Ich and we treated (copperfree). The Tank was the only fish showing signs of Ich and was actually the last of the 3 to die.

I had the water tested and everything was good and then purchased the Mandarin and Diamond Goby. The Mandarin died within 36 hours and the Diamond another 48 hours later. I think that the Mandarin was just a freak issue perhaps ill prior to my purchase. The Diamond on the other hand was really active even up to last night. It burrowed under the live rock and I had not seen it all day. I found it just a few minutes ago dead. Is it possible that it buried itself?

Frustrated and not wanting to kill any thing else, could use some support.

Starchar

 

[Blueocean]

I've had no experience with salt water. I know how to do freshwater but the guy at tropical fish store in Tri-Citys WA said not to buy the bio-cube because the filtration isn't worth crap. It doesn't get the adequate filtration also that the lighting isn't enough for what it comes with. My guess is if all your levels check out then your not getting enough lighting and it stresses the fish. Sell the bio-cube for what you can then get a 20 gal set up. Or just stick to freshwater like me. You can find lots of beautiful freshwater fish. Good luck

 

[Crepe]

Ok:

The lionfish and the tang get way too larger for a 29g.
The mandarin would starve in a tank that small and that new.

Possibly with a goby as well.

Leave the tank fallow for awhile. You've had ich.

 

[trackfast]

Did the LFS test the water with strips or vials/chemicals ?

 

[mr_X]

please research anything living before you purchase it. crepe is right about the fish, but he forgot the sand sifting star. that won't survive either in your tank. not enough food for it i'm afraid.

you'll run into this again if you add fish that aren't meant for small tanks. they get stressed out and their immune system lowers, and parasites are now able to get the upper hand.

you should buy your own test kits to be able to monitor your delicate system more efficiently.
API sells a saltwater master kit for about 20 bucks or so that will be fine for you. you should have this if you intend to purchase any more fish.

how did you set this aquarium up in the beginning? you put the rock, sand, and water in and then what?


btw, it has nothing to do with filtration.

 

[Starchar]

Ok:

The lionfish and the tang get way too larger for a 29g.
The mandarin would starve in a tank that small and that new.

Possibly with a goby as well.

Leave the tank fallow for awhile. You've had ich.

I am aware that the tank was too small for both the Lion and the Tang. We were intending on going ahead with a larger aquarium and moving the Bio Cube to the den after a few months and a little more experience. No intention of keeping them there.

As far as the Mandarin, at what point do you know when you have a large enough population to support them? My aquarium is teeming with copepods.

The Diamond was being supplemented with mysis shrimp.

That being said....plan on keeping the tank vacant while I research this. I don't want to kill anything.

Thank you.

 

[Starchar]

Did the LFS test the water with strips or vials/chemicals ?

Tested with chemicals in vials. Using one of the Master Saltwater test kits.

 

[Starchar]

please research anything living before you purchase it. crepe is right about the fish, but he forgot the sand sifting star. that won't survive either in your tank. not enough food for it i'm afraid.

you'll run into this again if you add fish that aren't meant for small tanks. they get stressed out and their immune system lowers, and parasites are now able to get the upper hand.

you should buy your own test kits to be able to monitor your delicate system more efficiently.
API sells a saltwater master kit for about 20 bucks or so that will be fine for you. you should have this if you intend to purchase any more fish.

how did you set this aquarium up in the beginning? you put the rock, sand, and water in and then what?


btw, it has nothing to do with filtration.

Thank you Mr. X I think that I will take the sand sifting star back to the LFS they are pretty good with store credit.

I put the rock, sand, water in the tank and then just let it cycle. I had the water tested every week until the readings were safe. I then added a damsel, turbo snails, and the hermits. The tank seemed to be doing well. I have done partial (20%) water changes after adding the livestock about every two weeks.

I did forget to mention that when I purchased the the Mandarin and Diamond that I bought three more pieces of base rock to add to the tank. I followed the LFS instructions and rinsed them well before adding to the tank. I added the base rock a couple of hours prior to the fish.

Again, I appreciate the comments. I have been reading for several months and there appears to be a variety of opinions out there.

 

[mr_X]

yep. in some cases there is more than 1 way to do something in this hobby.
when you cycled the tank with the rock, did you notice elevated ammonia and nitrite? why i asked about how it was done was because i wanted to rule out that the tank may not have gone through a cycle. or at the least, didn't have a strong enough bacteria colony to support the amount of fish you put in.

a mandarin will not survive in a 29. you just can't have a large enough pod colony to keep one. at best it will survive for a few months until it depletes the pod population and then slowly starves.
btw, how do you know your tank is teeming with pods? are you referring to copepods or these guys-

copepods are too small to see without some difficulty. they are the ones you see when you put a flashlight to the sand bed when the lights are out. they are about the size of a grain of sand.

 

[Starchar]

Those are the guys which, by your post, I am assuming are not Copepods. I described them to the LFS guys and they indicated that they were Copepods. So if they aren't them, I assume they are bad?

The tank levels seemed to spike at first and then came down. I am picking up a Master Test Kit today so that I can start monitoring it on my own. I plan on letting the tank sit as is for a bit until I have a better understanding of things.

Thank you,

Chuck

 

[David S]

As you've had ich you need to leave the tank empty for 8 weeks to eliminate the parasite from your tank.

No there not bad.
but as Doug has said a mandarin won't survive in a tank that small unless you manage to buy one which will eat prepared foods.
Plus by adding more rock you may have started a mini cycle as well

 

[mr_X]

no. they aren't bad. they are little detritus(left over food and fish poop) eating crustaceans called amphipods. they are too large for a mandarin to eat however.

 

[Starchar]

Nice! I thought for sure that I perhaps some massive destructive population of creatures. Nice to know that if I do they aren't them!

I purchased the Master Kit and did my own testing.

Results:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
pH: 8.0

I am guessing that my added base rock didn't start a new cycle. I added a bag of activated carbon in place of about half the Bio Balls just in case there was some unknown toxin in the tank from an air freshener, windex, etc. I discussed with the family the importance of not using any chemicals near the tank (just in case).

I still plan on leaving it vacant for bit.

I will keep you all posted. Thanks for the help on this!

Chuck

 

[mr_X]

ok chuck. btw, you might want to get a reactor for the carbon. it works a lot better when water is forced through it. you can always use that reactor later for phosphate removing media as well.
check out the 2 little fishies phosban reactor or the ones from bulk reef supply.