I am trying to figure out what I am doing that is causing my fish to die at 3 weeks. This is the second fish that I have had die right at the 3 week mark. (They were from 2 different stores btw). My specs are I have a 40 gal tank with about 50lbs of LR. I have a 2 inch sand base. I run a remora protein skimmer and 2 power heads. I have been running my 350 magnum canister with nothing in it just for more water movement. I'm debating pulling that alltogether though since I read many opinions on filters being a nitrate factory. My tank is 6 months old and my levels are: SG- 1.025, NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3-0, Phos -<.05, Cal - 420. My pH is at 8.4 which is a little higher than it had been about a month ago. I switched my salt to Reef Crystals and my ph went up a bit with it it seems. I am thinking I need to get my salinity down but I am going to do that gradually with my pwc. I do pwc of 15% every week. My temp is the only thing that I have a harder time controlling in this heat. It does get as high as 84 if the air isn't on in the house. When the air is on, it stays around 82. Normally, it gradually goes up during the day about a degree from 83 to 84. I do keep a lid on the tank, but I have to because I have a cat. I do at least prop it up on the front of the tank so that it is open a bit on the front and back to vent. My lights are on 9 hours a day and I am getting some good corraline algae finally growing on the rock after 6 months. So, the last fish I lost was a royal gamma at the 3 week mark and that was a couple of months ago. This time I lost a yellow dwarf angelfish ( I forget it's official name- sorry!). It was fine last night and I didn't do anything in the tank or put anything in there since I've seen it swimming all around last evening. This morning I didn't see her anywhere and after searching in my rock, I finally found her hiding and almost gone. She wasn't on her side or anything, just kind of breathing hard till she passed. I am so sad that I lost this fish, she was just beautiful. I see nothing else wrong with her, no visible sign of disease. She was eating fine when I fed her last evening too. The only other fish I have are 3 chromis and a clown which are all fine. So any advice would be appreciated as I don't want to get another one until I figure this out. When the last fish died I did have NO3 of about 20, but I've gotten that down since I've had this fish. I have fed a variety of frozen foods and mysis shrimp and also some flake foods. I had also offered algae sheets although I never see them eat those. I do not have a ton of algae on my rock and I know they do like to eat off the rock. Could that lack of algae have starved her, she did eat the food I offered though. Did I feed it wrong, is it my temp or salinity? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Donna
Donna
