new 55 gallon tank

[sstanle4]

We have 2 biocubes and now we have a 55 gallon tank with about 75lbs of rock in it and about 1 to 2 inches of gravel. We have 2 clowns, a tribal blenny (about 4 or 5 inches long), a 6 line, and a royal gramma. The last night we found the royal gramma had died and the small clown is no where to be found. Do you guys think that the tribal could have gotten him? We had everything but the tribal in there till Saturday and that is when we added the tribal. What do you guys think?

 

[Sniperhank]

I would be less likely to point fingers at the blenny and more likely to look towards ammonia/nitrites due to it being a new tank.

 

[sstanle4]

It has been cycled and everything so everything is perfect

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Just because it has been cycled doesnt mean everything is perfect. Check the tests, it wasent the blenny.

 

[Sniperhank]

A new tank is far from perfect. Still lots of fluctuations up to a year into its existance. I learned that the hard way with my 36 gal.

What are your parameters? How did you acclimate the fish? How long were they in the tank?

 

[sstanle4]

Lets see. The ph is 8.0, ammiona 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate about 40. We acclimated them flotting them and then adding half a cup of water in the bag ever 5 mins for all total of 20 mins. We got the clowns, 6 line, and royal about 3 weeks ago and the tribal on saturday. The only reason I even say maybe it was him is because he is a good 4 to 5 inches long and the clown is only about 1.5 inches and the royal was only about 2 inches

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Why would you add fish so quickly???? I have had a cycled 30 gallon tank for over 3 months and have only added 2 fish. You have to go slow so that you dont add too much waste into the system to fast, thats the first thing that was wrong.

Second, you should have acclimated the fish for much much longer then 20 minutes. Saltwater fish are very sensative as you already know so you should have drip acclimated for about an hour and a half. To make your own acclimation system get a few feet of cheap airline tubing and tie a knot in one end, create a suction, and have a drop of water drip every second for about 1-2 hours.

Lastly, you need to do waterchanges! 40 nitrate is way too high, do a 40-50 percent right now and get those trates down before more fish die.

My opinion is that between the three things that were wrong, the fish died of stress and high trates and were eaten by the CUC or other fish.

 

[Jason M]

I drip for an hour to two hours. Depends on the fish

 

[Jason M]

I drip overthibg but coral because coral need water movement to breath. O just float them for 15 minutes and then dump a little tank water in before I drop them

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

I drip for an hour to two hours. Depends on the fish

Yup definitly. I try and go for about an hour and a half because i can only put the fish in a bucket with a small amout of water so its a bit stressful im sure. But the moral of the story is that you definitly need to drip acclimate

 

[Mrc8858]

Nu-nu is correct it was a combination of the above...with a bad acclimation you weakened the immune system stressing it out opening up the door to more problems which the 40ppm of nitrates is a major issue in a marine tank...mine are never above 0-5 ppm and should never go above 10

 

[sstanle4]

Ok.

We found the Clown dead in the Gramma's "home" this afternoon.

We just checked our parameters. Ammonia 0. pH 8.3. Nitrite 0. Nitrate 40. I'm sorry. But this does not make sense to us because we also have a 30 gallon tank with two clowns and the nitrates have gotten up to 80, if not more, and stayed like that for a couple of days and the fish were fine. We have been trying to bring the nitrates down, but it's coming down slowly. It takes time to bring them down.

As for the acclimation of our fish, that's how we were told to do it by 4 lfs in our area and by people online. We have acclimated many fish like this and these are the first two to die on us. AND we acclimated them over two weeks ago. Why would it just now happen? And why would they both die at the exact, same time? This is why we don't understand what's going on.

 

[Mrc8858]

It's all on the fish my buddy with a fish room has a group of "cyclers" that can hang strong in every spike of the cycle while some fish of the same species can only handle slight changes in parameters..it is a kinda strange occurence of events but you have to go with what you know and the only thing wrong with all the information given to us is acclimation and nitrates

Edit* and why do you say nitrates come down slowly because technically they go down as fast as your pump/bucket is flowing

 

[sstanle4]

Well. We are going to take the acclimation out of this equation (if that's ok) because we believe it's been too long to that to be the problem. Yes, our nitrates are high, but we've had higher. When our nitrates were 80 in our 30 gallon tank, it took us a week to bring them down to 40 doing 10 gallon water changes every other day. We were told not to do it all at once because it would cause a huge swing in everything else and would kill our fish faster than what the nitrates would do by themselves.

 

[Qube]

Well. We are going to take the acclimation out of this equation (if that's ok) because we believe it's been too long to that to be the problem. Yes, our nitrates are high, but we've had higher. When our nitrates were 80 in our 30 gallon tank, it took us a week to bring them down to 40 doing 10 gallon water changes every other day. We were told not to do it all at once because it would cause a huge swing in everything else and would kill our fish faster than what the nitrates would do by themselves.

I had a similar problem shortly after starting my 28g. Total water volume is 20g with the rock and sand, so I knocked out a 10g (50%) water change to bring my treaters down drastically. I had no ill effects from either the fish or corals. I say do a big water change and then another sometime next week if needed. Once you get them down, start to think about how it is happening. Really can be only a couple of things, but over feeding and too little flow would be at the top of my list. Hope it works out for you!!

 

[Qube]

Trates, not treaters... Stupid auto spell.

 

[sstanle4]

Ok when I get home this afternoon I will do a big 20 gallon water change and will go get 2 wave makers. Then on Saturday when I get home from work, I will check everything again and I will post what everything is.

 

[sstanle4]

Ok got wave makers and did a 20 gallon water change and got the nitrates down to 20

 

[Qube]

Sounds like you're on your way! Monitor your trates, maybe knock out another large water change in a couple days (if you want to bring them down further). Just make sure you stay on top of your weekly water changes and watch the over feeding...

 

[Jason M]

Another thing about acclimation by floating is there maybe a 10, 15, maybe even 20 degree difference.by the time u get home and the bag is brought up to ur tank temp really fast. That is always a problem unless u keep it the same on the trip home which is hard to do. I know u rules out the acclimation but just a thought