Stingray992
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi,
I'm new to the saltwater world (aquarium world in general) I have a 29 gallon tank and I just had the male in a pair of clownfish die last night. My first mistake, I am learning, is that I did not wait for a complete cycle to add hardy fish. I started with 17 pounds of live rock, 1 1/2 inch thick bed of live sand, and used microbacter7 to give a bacteria jump start. My local fish store said I should add invertibretes so we added hermit crabs, snails, a serpent star, and an urchin. After about a week running with the power head and protein skimmer, we added 2 clowns, a Fiji yellowtail damsel, pajama cardinal, law mower blenny, and a cleaner goby. After about a week the male clown began getting chased by the female and looked to be getting ick and the cleaner goby also looked to be getting ick as well as the pajama cardinal. We dipped them with formulin and they seemed to be doing better. The male clown however got better and then started to loose his color, look ashy and continue to be bullied by the female. I talked with the local fish store and they said we needed more hiding places and to add more rock if we can afford it, if not add some of the fake coral to increase hiding places. We added some fake coral as we are about an hour away from our local fish store. After adding the new items, the male clown was breathing heavily and laying on the sandbed. When we got home he was laying on his side in the sand not moving, pulled him out and was totally unresponsive. All other fish and invertibrates Are doing well. We are at week four of he cycle and the levels have consistently been, specific gravity 1.023, alk 300, ph 7.8- 8.4, temp 76, nitrates 20, nitrites 0, ammonia 0. I am thinking he just never really got over the stress of everything and ended up dying from it but I really am not sure as there are things I probably should have done differently. So now I am troubleshooting. Any advice?
I'm new to the saltwater world (aquarium world in general) I have a 29 gallon tank and I just had the male in a pair of clownfish die last night. My first mistake, I am learning, is that I did not wait for a complete cycle to add hardy fish. I started with 17 pounds of live rock, 1 1/2 inch thick bed of live sand, and used microbacter7 to give a bacteria jump start. My local fish store said I should add invertibretes so we added hermit crabs, snails, a serpent star, and an urchin. After about a week running with the power head and protein skimmer, we added 2 clowns, a Fiji yellowtail damsel, pajama cardinal, law mower blenny, and a cleaner goby. After about a week the male clown began getting chased by the female and looked to be getting ick and the cleaner goby also looked to be getting ick as well as the pajama cardinal. We dipped them with formulin and they seemed to be doing better. The male clown however got better and then started to loose his color, look ashy and continue to be bullied by the female. I talked with the local fish store and they said we needed more hiding places and to add more rock if we can afford it, if not add some of the fake coral to increase hiding places. We added some fake coral as we are about an hour away from our local fish store. After adding the new items, the male clown was breathing heavily and laying on the sandbed. When we got home he was laying on his side in the sand not moving, pulled him out and was totally unresponsive. All other fish and invertibrates Are doing well. We are at week four of he cycle and the levels have consistently been, specific gravity 1.023, alk 300, ph 7.8- 8.4, temp 76, nitrates 20, nitrites 0, ammonia 0. I am thinking he just never really got over the stress of everything and ended up dying from it but I really am not sure as there are things I probably should have done differently. So now I am troubleshooting. Any advice?
