New 65g Salt Water Tank

[squallius]

Hello,

Could use some help.
Having problems with a new tank.
Set up first week in January with live rock.
Let the Nitrate Cycle Run for 3-4 weeks. Water quality good. added Chromis.

Started adding more fish- Chromis, Small Angel, Orange Dotted Goby, Jawfish, 4 Clowns, and more. Added Fish at different times- maybe 3-4 at a time.

Everybody has died, except for the Orange Goby. All the fish ( except the Clowns) seemed to develop Ich, and then 2-3 days later died.

The invertebraes ( 30 hermit crabs, 2 rock crabs- came with live rock, a cleaner shrimp, Pacific Pistol Shrimp) are all doing well.

PH is balanced, water quality good.
Water temp flucuates about 2-3 degrees each day- from 76.5 to about 78 or so.

Not sure what is going on.

Any thoughts or questions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Squallius

 

[Purevil21]

I couldn't say, Ich can spread quickly.

Did you QT fish that you purchased? It also seems like you may have had too much bioload for your tank and introduced too much too quickly. You can experience spikes from that. I was told when I started that SW tanks are like race cars, the faster you go the harder you crash. I'm pretty sure a few guys on here can offer you some good insight on what happened. I'm sorry to hear about your losses though, good luck moving forward and welcome to AA.

 

[mr_X]

too many fish for that tank first of all. at least 8 you mentioned, plus more.
what are your parameters?
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
ph
salinity

also, what test kits are you using?

the 2 degree temp swing didn't kill the fish.

 

[squallius]

New 65g Saltwater Tank

Thanks for the comments. Just joined the site, and trying to figure out how to navigate. Should I stay in this Portal, or ask the question in the Saltwater Forum area?

Anyway, I think you are right- probably too many fish at the same time.
The orange Goby seems to be doing fine- except looks like he has some Ich on his pectoal fins.

Scared to bring in any more fish until I figure out whats happening.

Have waited over a week, to see if any other changes, but everything seems tobe doing fine.

Any suggestions on fish to try- 2-3 Chromis, or Anthias? Not sure.

Also, the 4 clowns all died at the same time- Water temp was moving up and down 3-4 degrees before.

Thanks again.

 

[squallius]

I couldn't say, Ich can spread quickly.

Did you QT fish that you purchased? It also seems like you may have had too much bioload for your tank and introduced too much too quickly. You can experience spikes from that. I was told when I started that SW tanks are like race cars, the faster you go the harder you crash. I'm pretty sure a few guys on here can offer you some good insight on what happened. I'm sorry to hear about your losses though, good luck moving forward and welcome to AA.

As far as the QT- Floated the Bag for 10 min, then added some tank water, waited 5 min, then poured fish into small container, netted and entered into tank. trying not to add the store water into my tank.

 

[Purevil21]

Before you add anything else you need to ensure your water is stable. As Mr. X said, what are you parameters and how are you testing for them? The test strips are highly inaccurate. On a side note, in such a small tank you should never keep more than two clowns and you can't put more than one species of clown in the same tank. What kind of clowns did you have?

 

[Purevil21]

As far as the QT- Floated the Bag for 10 min, then added some tank water, waited 5 min, then poured fish into small container, netted and entered into tank. trying not to add the store water into my tank.

Ok, that is not QT. To QT livestock you need to have separate tank set up to isolate your new fish until you can be sure it has no parasites or illness. If the animal is sick you can treat it while it is in the QT.

 

[squallius]

too many fish for that tank first of all. at least 8 you mentioned, plus more.
what are your parameters?
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
ph
salinity

also, what test kits are you using?

the 2 degree temp swing didn't kill the fish.

I think you are right on the number of fish. Too many at the same time- no one seemed to be happy in the tank before- Have a center stack of live rock, with a few small frag corals.

I have the water tested at the store- maybe I should buy the kit and do at home? As of a week ago- No signs of amonia, nitrate, nitrite. The PH was low ( I want to say ~7 about a month ago), and I added a powder from the store, to bring it to about 8.3. The salinity was in the acceptable range.

Good to hear the temp isn't killing them. I bought a heater and set it at 76 degrees- seems like it never needs to turn on.

Not sure what is causing the ich. The last 3 surviors were orange anthias, and they died one by one, building on ich. The cleaner shrimp was doing great business until they died.

Thanks again,

 

[Purevil21]

You shouldn't really float and add water, the best method of acclimating is a drip acclimation. You put the fish is a clean container with the water from the store. Get some small air tubing and start a siphon, secure one end in your tank and tie the other end in a slipknot. Tighten it until the water just begins to drip rather than flow, put it into the container. Continue the drip until your have doubled or tripled the water in the container. Then you are good to introduce the livestock.

 

[mr_X]

also research the individual fish. anthias won't work in a 65 IMO.
you also have to give time for your bacteria colony to grow to meet the bio load. adding one fish a week or every other week would be a safer plan.

i would invest in a saltwater master test kit from API. they are pretty cheap and may save lives.
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Saltwater Liquid Master Test Kit

 

[Purevil21]

Ok, ALWAYS test your own water. I check mine daily just to ensure that everything stable. The LFS should just be verifying your test from home. More then likely your fish died of ammonia poisoning. There was too much waste in the tank due to the high bioload that became ammonia, were you doing water changes? What kind of filtration and lighting do you have?

 

[Purevil21]

BTW, Mr. X here is the man, he has helped me a ton and is always on here, so I would definitely recommend talking to him when you need help.

 

[squallius]

Before you add anything else you need to ensure your water is stable. As Mr. X said, what are you parameters and how are you testing for them? The test strips are highly inaccurate. On a side note, in such a small tank you should never keep more than two clowns and you can't put more than one species of clown in the same tank. What kind of clowns did you have?

Great advice on the clowns. Thanks.
2 perculas regular color, and then 2 which were darker brown.

I will get teh water checked tomorrow for more accuracy.

 

[Purevil21]

The darker clowns may have been fudge clownfish, or maybe a cinnamon clown. Yeah, you shouldn't mix clown species, they will fight a lot of the time.

 

[squallius]

Ok, ALWAYS test your own water. I check mine daily just to ensure that everything stable. The LFS should just be verifying your test from home. More then likely your fish died of ammonia poisoning. There was too much waste in the tank due to the high bioload that became ammonia, were you doing water changes? What kind of filtration and lighting do you have?

Have not done any water changes. Have been adding about 3/4 gallon of distilled water each day for evaporation.

I think you are right about the waste in the tank- the hermit crabs and the worms in the live rock seem to be giving off waste all day long.

I will confirm the type of filter and the lights- I think it's a wet dry- with the large black section in the tank, which drops down into the acrylic container below with bio balls, filter material ( not sure if this is set-up right), protein skimmer, and then this bring the filtered water back to the tank. The lights come on at 2:30pm anf turn off at 10:30pm- two are white and 2 are blue- will confirm the exact type.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[squallius]

You shouldn't really float and add water, the best method of acclimating is a drip acclimation. You put the fish is a clean container with the water from the store. Get some small air tubing and start a siphon, secure one end in your tank and tie the other end in a slipknot. Tighten it until the water just begins to drip rather than flow, put it into the container. Continue the drip until your have doubled or tripled the water in the container. Then you are good to introduce the livestock.

Great advice.

I am going to move to this intro. method. Thank you.

 

[Purevil21]

No problem, yeah you need to do water changes bi-weekly. About 20%, mix your water up the day before so that the salt can fully dissolve before you put it in the tank. This is to help keep down nitrates and waste. It could have compounded the bioload issue, with a high bioload water changes need to be more frequent. Without doing them at all you allow waste to build up and really throw off your water quality.

 

[squallius]

The store I buy the fish from has salt water. Should I but it there?
In Miami- I am thinking this is ocean water?

What do you think?

Thanks,
Lou

 

[squallius]

No problem, yeah you need to do water changes bi-weekly. About 20%, mix your water up the day before so that the salt can fully dissolve before you put it in the tank. This is to help keep down nitrates and waste. It could have compounded the bioload issue, with a high bioload water changes need to be more frequent. Without doing them at all you allow waste to build up and really throw off your water quality.

The return water tube to the tank seems to have some waste build up in it. Is this normal, or is this because their is too much waste in the water/system?

Thank you.

 

[Purevil21]

It is probably salt creep, if it is white and crusty that is what it is. No, they are probably using RO/DI water and mixed their water with salt same as you do. Seawater can have harmful bacteria and other thing you don't want in your home aquarium and they don't want in their display tanks. Never trust the water from the LFS. The only time you can make an exception is when transporting a sea star, or something that can't be exposed to air. some of the LFS water will have to enter the system then.