Fish dying?? Help

[Chireaux]

I have a 55g, 110 aquaclear hob, powerhead, 2 clown, coral beauty, pseudochromis, 30 lbs LR.

My 2 clowns and coral beauty are sort of just sitting at the bottom not moving very much. The cb seems to be turning on the side at times. They dont seem to be eating. They physically look good just not moving. Last week it was just one of the clowns doing this, but it was only for a day. I was doing 5 gal water changes every 2 weeks but just started doing every week. I feed them once per day. I also had a nice little button polyp on one of my rocks which is dying, along with many snails seem to by dying too.
I dont know if I could be underfeeding the fish or if the problem is bc I dont have a skimmer (which I am ordering).
Also wondering if the problem is associated with high diatoms in tank right now, (which actually seems to be getting better).

Im using filtered water from a place called windmill express that is supposed to be RO and is cleaned on a daily basis. I had the water tested and had trace amt of phosphates in it. Wondering if this could be the prob?

My amm, nit, ph, salinity Has always been good. I check it myself and at the LFS. The only thing is a trace amount of phosphates in the water I was using.

Any suggestins?

 

[carey]

I'm not sure what youre reading on your water are, but i would def. be doing water changes every week and more than 5g. I used to do almost 20g a week on my 55g. I also was running a skimmer and managed to keep it at 0 on everything.

How is the flow in the tank, maybe there's too much for them to swim around?

 

[Jereli]

Usually when there is issues with fish especially more then one fish it has almost always been poor water quality. When you say your water has always been good, what numbers do you consider good? I had a lfs tell me my ph was good at 7.6 before when I first started out. Which now I consider pretty low.

 

[Grizz]

Sounds like something got into your tank some sort of chem. are you running carbon ? if not start and do a large water change 50%

 

[Ausfish]

My guess is you either have insufficient filtration or too little flow. Can you state the overall turnover/hour?

 

[Chireaux]

I have one powerhead, but they seemed to be swimming fine up until now.

 

[Chireaux]

I do have a carbon filter in the tank also.

The filters are rated for a 110 gal tank.

 

[Chireaux]

My numbers are 1.024,
Amm, nitrate, nitrite all 0
Ph 8.3

 

[Grizz]

Did you change food type or feed old food i had a guy feed moldy food once wiped out about $ 1500 worth livestock

 

[Jereli]

Have you checked temperature

 

[Grizz]

forgot to ask

 

[Chireaux]

The food I have been using is "ocean nutrition brine shrimp and flakes" I bought some frozen food last night but haven't fed them that yet. Its definitely not old though.

Temp is 78

 

[Chireaux]

I guess I'm leaning toward something in the water. Does everyone agree 50% water change is good. Do this all at once?
I would probably need another heater to do this right?

 

[Chireaux]

Carey, I have a 1400 koralia powerhead, This is not too much for a 55 is it?

 

[carey]

LOL. I think it kinda is. If you just have the one and maybe angle it right it might work out ok. I'm running 2 1400's in my 125g and its a water storm in there. LOL

 

[Grizz]

Try aiming the PH at the water surface.If your not comfortable changing that much water all at once do a bunch of small ones 5g every other day. You want match the water in the main tank Temp. ph. are the main thing Good luck

 

[Chireaux]

Fish update.....I went to the fish store and bought an airstone. He said sometimes the hob filters don't get good oxygen exchange. I ran that all last night. Woke up this morning and the coral beauty was laying on it's side on the sand, hardly moving. So I don't think it is the powerhead or an oxygen issue.
I changed 15 gal of water this morning. He actually perked up and swam around a little but now just hiding in a corner at the bottom (but upright). The clown is also sitting at the bottom of the tank and not swimming very much.
I'm hoping this works out... Thanks for the suggestions. I will probably keep doing 5 gal changes from this point on.

 

[adeian]

My fish were doing the samething, not swimming much and everyone hanging around at the bottom of the tank. I had just done a 15g water change and cleaned the tank.

Turned out my Nirates had jumped from nearly 0 to 160ppm. I did a 50% water change right then and two more 20g changes over the next couple days. The little guys started perking up once I got the nirates down to around 60ppm and were back to there normal selfs once I get it to around 20.

 

[Chireaux]

New theory.
Could it be that my pseudochromis is secretly attacking my other fish at night and causing them to hide and be stressed? The coral beauties fins are pretty nipped up. I was wondering if it could have been the hermits also, bc he was lying on the ground all morning. One of the clowns fins look bit also.

I don't know if you can see his fins in the attachment but that's where he has been hanging out the last 3 days.

 

[Grizz]

Im still leaning toward the water have you checked the Alk and the ph. as you said once you changed out 15 g they perked up a bit and check for nitrAtes also as they can creep up fast How are the fins on the pseudochromis are they torn also?