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Aquarium Advice FINatic
I am really new to all this, but after only a couple months, I'm already hooked. I have been having a problem with my fish dying left and right in my tank. All the amonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, etc. levels were perfect. I was told that perhaps since one of my fish was a cowfish (not the first one to die, though), that it could be a chemical problem caused by him being stressed and dying. Poison or some such. Since then I have changed 200% of the tank's volume over the last two weeks or so. I assume that whatever it was, it's gone. I had a bag of carbon in there for a while, too. Anyway, stuff kept dying. Now, I'm being told it could be a biological problem (ich, or some other parasite). I was told to get a UV sterilizer. I have a 9 watt sterilizer, 100 gph pump, and 42 gallon tank. Could anyone make any recommendations on how long I should wait before adding new fish to the tank? (i.e. how long it would take a sterilizer under those conditions to remove any biological problem from the tank).
Also, I was planning on adding filter feeders to the mix at some point (yellow sea cucumber, xenias, and maybe a couple other things). Is there any way to keep them fed with a UV sterilizer running?
And if any of this sounds stupid, please fill me in. I'm learning this stuff for the first time, and anything that would prevent me from having to flush another fish would be appreciated.
Also, I was planning on adding filter feeders to the mix at some point (yellow sea cucumber, xenias, and maybe a couple other things). Is there any way to keep them fed with a UV sterilizer running?
And if any of this sounds stupid, please fill me in. I'm learning this stuff for the first time, and anything that would prevent me from having to flush another fish would be appreciated.