DonCollins
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi Guys,
I did a search and did not find a definitive answer. I am at a loss right now and I hope someone can come up with something I am missing.
I have kept marine fish since December 2006, starting with a 55 tall and have never had serious problems until recently (I even successfully moved them from Lakewood to their new 125 gal home in Seven Hills & they were fine for 3.5 years after the move). I even had some of my original fish 6 years after I started in the hobby!
In October 2012, when hurricane Sandy hit, we lost power for 6 days. A generator kept the tank warm and some filtration/aeration, but that is about it. All but 1 fish survived that ordeal, but sadly soon after they all started dying. I assumed at that point it was due to the stress of the power outage. When the last one died, we decided that it was as good of a time as ever to do a full reset (our stand was falling apart and needed to be replaced, so that was the reason for starting over and we wanted to run fallow to rid a minor ick problem).
By March 2013, new set-up is up & running, original 125 gal. tank, original live rock re- cured, new sump up and running (eshopps sump w/ micron bags, skimmer, UV Sterilizer, heat, and carbon bag), ran fallow for 5 months to be sure to clear parasites, clean-up crew in place (turbos and hermits) and all numbers point to a cycled tank. I add 2 Maroons (with proper acclimation) which both die within a day. Test water, everything seems in order (PH 8.0, Ammonia ~0, Nitrite ~0, Nitrate ~5.0, temp 78.) 25% +water change, wait a week, retest, numbers come back similar so I try again with 2 more perc this time in a 20 gal. quarantine tank (filled with water from DT). They lived in quarantine for 2 weeks and then I tried again to introduce to DT (all parameters WNL). These both die within hours and the clean-up crew starts dying off. I took water to LFS, they confirm parameters WNL, and recommend adding Nutrafin cycle before adding new fish (possible mini-cycle?). So the same routine, 25%+ water change, add Nutrafin cycle, waited a week, retested, numbers were all good, so got 2 more Percs, quarantined at least 2 weeks, but upon introduction to DT: same thing, dead within hours! I also introduced a cleaner shrimp at that time which lived in DT for at least 7 months. I got a final pair of percs, they lived in quarantine for 5 months, but died within 2 hours of introduction to DT! (During these months, I let the DT run fallow with some turbos and a few blue-legged crabs, & that cleaner shrimp, performed water changes at least twice a month if not weekly, & monitored tank parameters.) It also appears currently that there is not much if anything living from the clean-up crew. I don’t understand since the QT was set up with water from the DT, so it has to be an immediate problem with livestock entering the DT. I have obtained fish from 3 different LFS, so it can’t be an issue with that. QT & DT are changed with water from the same place using the same methods, both have heaters that keep temp around 78, filters, protein skimmers, & lights on similar schedules. Parameters tested are temperature, salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. If anything, the QT parameters tend to be worse/spike more due to small volume. The only differences between the tanks are that the DT has live-rock & live-sand & the QT does not. The live-rock is what was in the previous tank, but the sand was new when we set up the “new” DT. We went through the same process of curing and then cycling as we had the previous two times.
The DT parameters when I lost this final set of fish shortly after acclimation: 8.0 PH, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, under 5.0 Nitrate, Temp 78, skimmer and UV working properly.
Everything lives in the quarantine, nothing lives in the main tank....
Thanks in Advance,
Don
I did a search and did not find a definitive answer. I am at a loss right now and I hope someone can come up with something I am missing.
I have kept marine fish since December 2006, starting with a 55 tall and have never had serious problems until recently (I even successfully moved them from Lakewood to their new 125 gal home in Seven Hills & they were fine for 3.5 years after the move). I even had some of my original fish 6 years after I started in the hobby!
In October 2012, when hurricane Sandy hit, we lost power for 6 days. A generator kept the tank warm and some filtration/aeration, but that is about it. All but 1 fish survived that ordeal, but sadly soon after they all started dying. I assumed at that point it was due to the stress of the power outage. When the last one died, we decided that it was as good of a time as ever to do a full reset (our stand was falling apart and needed to be replaced, so that was the reason for starting over and we wanted to run fallow to rid a minor ick problem).
By March 2013, new set-up is up & running, original 125 gal. tank, original live rock re- cured, new sump up and running (eshopps sump w/ micron bags, skimmer, UV Sterilizer, heat, and carbon bag), ran fallow for 5 months to be sure to clear parasites, clean-up crew in place (turbos and hermits) and all numbers point to a cycled tank. I add 2 Maroons (with proper acclimation) which both die within a day. Test water, everything seems in order (PH 8.0, Ammonia ~0, Nitrite ~0, Nitrate ~5.0, temp 78.) 25% +water change, wait a week, retest, numbers come back similar so I try again with 2 more perc this time in a 20 gal. quarantine tank (filled with water from DT). They lived in quarantine for 2 weeks and then I tried again to introduce to DT (all parameters WNL). These both die within hours and the clean-up crew starts dying off. I took water to LFS, they confirm parameters WNL, and recommend adding Nutrafin cycle before adding new fish (possible mini-cycle?). So the same routine, 25%+ water change, add Nutrafin cycle, waited a week, retested, numbers were all good, so got 2 more Percs, quarantined at least 2 weeks, but upon introduction to DT: same thing, dead within hours! I also introduced a cleaner shrimp at that time which lived in DT for at least 7 months. I got a final pair of percs, they lived in quarantine for 5 months, but died within 2 hours of introduction to DT! (During these months, I let the DT run fallow with some turbos and a few blue-legged crabs, & that cleaner shrimp, performed water changes at least twice a month if not weekly, & monitored tank parameters.) It also appears currently that there is not much if anything living from the clean-up crew. I don’t understand since the QT was set up with water from the DT, so it has to be an immediate problem with livestock entering the DT. I have obtained fish from 3 different LFS, so it can’t be an issue with that. QT & DT are changed with water from the same place using the same methods, both have heaters that keep temp around 78, filters, protein skimmers, & lights on similar schedules. Parameters tested are temperature, salinity, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. If anything, the QT parameters tend to be worse/spike more due to small volume. The only differences between the tanks are that the DT has live-rock & live-sand & the QT does not. The live-rock is what was in the previous tank, but the sand was new when we set up the “new” DT. We went through the same process of curing and then cycling as we had the previous two times.
The DT parameters when I lost this final set of fish shortly after acclimation: 8.0 PH, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, under 5.0 Nitrate, Temp 78, skimmer and UV working properly.
Everything lives in the quarantine, nothing lives in the main tank....
Thanks in Advance,
Don
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