Kinda Urgent help needed please

[jbowles]

I have a Damsel in my tank, actually the only fish i have ever had in there. Anyways he has been acting really wierd lately and i was wondering if i should be concerned. For starters it is urgent for one reason, I have some new critters being delivered tommorow. For 1 he is like flashing the rocks quite a bit, which i have always seen him do here and there but not as much as in last couple days. I have had him in the tank for a little over 2 months and his only tank mates are 2 zebra hermits, 2 dwarf blue hermits, 1 red legged hermit, and 4 turbo snails. The only thing i have added to the tank recently was 11 pounds of live rock over a week ago. It looks like he is missing a few scales from rubbing the rocks and there is no dots or anything on his fins. There is no slimy ich type stuff on him. I have an anemone and 2 x feather dusters coming tommorow , do you think it will be ok to add them? I really have nothing else to do with them since i don't have a quarentine tank. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[melosu58]

Start off by posting your water parameters. If you just added some LR I`m thinking the die off from them has an ammonia spike going on. Did you cycle the tank?

 

[jbowles]

I cycled the tank when i first set it up without the LR. The guy at the LFS told me it would be fine to add the LR to the tank as i can afford to. He said since it is pre-cured it should not cause an amonia spike. I checked the Ammonia with my instant ocean test kit and it shows 0.2. The scale with this kit goes from 0 up to 0.8 .

 

[melosu58]

It wasnt all the way cured or you would not have had the small spike. Ammonia at any level is lethal.

 

[jbowles]

ahh so am i in for some trouble? or do you think since it has been a week and only went that high i will be ok?

 

[roka64]

I would start some PWCs to reduce the ammonia. Make sure you premix your water for at least 24 hours with a ph and heater (to bring up the PWC temp's the same as your tank's).

 

[CaptainAhab]

Why not remove the rock and finish the curing outside the tank? That and a water change may get you back in line. Then you can reintroduce the rock when it's fully cured.

Getting the rock out will eliminate the source

 

[roka64]

DUH! Even a better idea! LOL!

 

[CaptainAhab]

Sometimes it's just there, staring you right in the face....

 

[roka64]

LOL! Tell me about it! Just like my not using a ph to pump water back into my tank (I lugged it up a ladder until one day....)!