Am I doing this right?

[fredandfred]

Here is my setup. I have a 110 gal XH FOWLR with about 100 lbs of LR. Could probably use more. I am using a wet/dry with no bio balls but LR rubble. My skimmer and heater are in the sump pulling out crud and maintaining temps. I have a decent pump moving lots of water. About 260 watts of light on a timer. Things look pretty good and checking all the stats my tank is where it should be chemically. Every now and then I do lose a fish, maybe once every 3 to 4 weeks. Does this sound normal or am I missing something?

 

[mykpoz]

when you say your stats are where they should be... can you post actual numbers?

nitrates, nitrites, amon, pH, temp, salinity, etc

do your fish act strange before they kick off? Also, what sorts of fish have you lost?

 

[fredandfred]

Tank

I can't give any numbers since all I have is the strips. What else could I use? A Naso Tang, a Lawnmower Bleny, Bird Rasse, and a Coral Beauty. I have two Tangs left and one is a Purple Tang that at the moment looks like he's covered like it's Ich. I had quarantined him about a month ago and he cleared up overnight. A guy at my LFS said he has had those and they get these dots when they are stressed. I am adding some pics. Also I have 2 Pajama Cardinals and one has some hazy stuff over his eyes. I'm really getting close to changing hobbies.

 

[fredandfred]

Now could someone tell me how to include photos?

 

[Hara]

hit the reply button at the top of the post (not the quick reply), and you will see the place to browse to add your photo, then submit

 

[Brenden]

A fish every 3 to 4 weeks is definitely not normal. I QT all my fish (thanks steve-s) and have had deaths in QT but I have never lost a fish in my main. First thing I would suggest is getting some good test kits and posting your parameters like mykpoz suggested. I thought the strips had a reference sheet that gave a estimate reading from the colors?

 

[lando]

Your setup sounds good. Can you list the dimensions of your tank? Quantitating your parameters is a good idea. Those test strips are not the most accurate. Loosing a fish every three to four weeks is way out of the ordinary. How soon are they dying after you put them in? How are you acclimating? Are they eating? If so, what are you feeding? What is the timeline of the losses? Need to know NH3, NO2, NO3, Ph, SG and temp for now.

 

[fredandfred]

What else can be used besides the strips that would give me a good reading. My tank is 48 x 18 x31. As far as food I give them flakes, vegy type flakes, shrimp, The Lawnmowere survived a tank change and had been going for about 5 months. The others not quite as long.

 

[fredandfred]

Here is the fish with the covered eyes.

 

[fredandfred]

Here is the Purple Tang with the spots. I know this belongs in a different group but wanted to see if all of this is related.

 

[seaham358]

Sorry to hear your having troubles, take things slow for now and try and figure out what the problem is and work on a cure. Add no other fish to the tank until things are under control.
I'm no expert on fish disease, but I would say you may have some type of bacteria problem.
what type of water are you using? tap, ro, ro/di.. I'll let some others who may have more experience with illness jump in. I would think about running a UV light if you have one or can borrow one.
the tank set up sound good so you are doing well on that end. Salifert test kits are easy to use and IMO are some of the best.

 

[melosu58]

The cardinal has a bacterial infection and the tang has ick. You probably should Quantine them and treat

 

[flame82]

oooooo looks like a nasy case of ich all over head to tail. if you have a qt take them out and zap it with copper in the qt look up steve-s he has a good post a few weeks ago about the same problem. and just to let you know their are sides of this some wont use copper and some will. i just found that copper kicks it for good and then you need to keep the tank complete steady cause purple tangs get laterial line and ich extremly easy from bad tank conditions and poor feeding. so copper, keep tank steady!!!, and feed plunty of greens and soak the food with garlic and selcon i battled ich for two months until i kicked its butt and a year later i still have not had a lick of problems with my tangs
hope that helps