Fish are dying!

[avyandjoey]

I have been watching them like a hawk. The fish at first swim around all happy a good and within a day they seem disoriented start swimming upside down or kinda tread water in a upright position then they pass just ordered the stability product online. Once I get it I'll start adding it to my tank.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

its probably still cycling, test for niTRITEs as well. My last tank i set up took 5 months to process nitrites, it was infuriating.

 

[Braver69]

You might want to test for high levels of copper. If it killed the cuc quickly and fish keep dying, that might be a possible cause. Possible you got a rock that was used in copper treated tank and it is now leaching it?

 

[JuicyJ]

You might want to test for high levels of copper. If it killed the cuc quickly and fish keep dying, that might be a possible cause. Possible you got a rock that was used in copper treated tank and it is now leaching it?

I would really be curious about copper levels. If it was used in the past it may be leaching out now. Something else to check may be stray current in the tank. If you can't keep a damsel/chromis I wouldn't try anything else until you figure out your problem.

 

[Dozer1one]

Any amount of ammonia is toxic to fish. I suspect your tank is still cycling and is not ready for fish. Please test every few days and monitor your params for the next two weeks without adding anymore inhabitants and report back with your results. Thanks!

^^^ agreed. What do you keep your salt at? If I missed the answer to this I apologize

 

[FTDelta]

Ha no just over a month. I know it's still in its cycling process but aren't fish supposed to help with the cycling process?

No. It's considered inhumane and cruel.

 

[avyandjoey]

^^^ agreed. What do you keep your salt at? If I missed the answer to this I apologize

 

[avyandjoey]

We just recently in the last few days had a ammonia spike which is probably a result of the fish dying. We're not going to add anything else till levels get back to 0.

 

[Green Chromis]

:fish1:I would add a Polly filter and do a 20 to 30 percent water change. Continue dosing carbon and keep testing the water. The Polly filter will remove any metals that maybe contaminating the water. :fish1:

 

[avyandjoey]

Thankyou for the advice on the Polly filter. Didn't know it helped remove stuff like that.

 

[jcdeng]

fish dying can be from many things, but you have mention that your CUC also died within a few days that is a sign that your tank did not finish cycling. Some ppl add fish to help their tank cycle but those ppl only add cheap fish b/c they are expected to die in the process.

If you plan on adding more fish from now on, use dr tim's one and only, pour the right amount into tank 1/2 hour before u add the fish and the fish should be fine. It really does work IME.

Good luck and enjoy your tank

 

[Jrbutitta]

whats your temperature at? still haven't seen your salinity levels... have you checked? from reading all the previous posts Im inclined to think that its copper. Some local fish stores use copper to keep their fish free of disease. YOU DO NOT want copper in your tank. I have set up two tanks almost exactly as long as you have cycled.. I know its quick for a lot of reefers here. But that shouldn't cause your fish to die almost instantly.

 

[avyandjoey]

whats your temperature at? still haven't seen your salinity levels... have you checked? from reading all the previous posts Im inclined to think that its copper. Some local fish stores use copper to keep their fish free of disease. YOU DO NOT want copper in your tank. I have set up two tanks almost exactly as long as you have cycled.. I know its quick for a lot of reefers here. But that shouldn't cause your fish to die almost instantly.

 

[mbingha]

I don't know anyone that has used a hydrometer, and trusts it. I worked in an lfs in college and we had 5 of them and you could use all five in the same tank and get wildly different readings. Also if you have ammonia, you likely found the cause of your fish deaths. Also no mention of nitrite... that's another big killer, nitrate, not so much.

 

[Kyle918]

We float fish for about 10min and then add some of our water do it again after another 10 after this process a few times try to pour some of old water out and add more water. Process usually takes about an hour.

I think this is part of your problem. That is too long of an acclimation. From the time the fish is bagged, ammonia is rising and ph is dropping. You want to acclimate for no more than 20 minutes. I QT all my fish and set my salinity and temperature to that of the tank I bought the fish from. This way, the acclamation process is dramatically reduced. Over the several weeks in the QT, I raise the salinity to match that of the display tank, making that transfer quick as well. I do a water change on the DT and use that water to do a water change on the QT. Over time, the QT water parameters will match that of the DT.

Any ammonia is toxic. It should read zero, if not, it will stress the fish and at levels of .25, it is lethal to most salt water fish.

For the nitrogen cycle to be complete, the tank should be able to process 2ppm ammonia is 24 hours or less. If you dose pure ammonia from ace hardware to a concentration of 2ppm and it is zero in a day and nitrites as also zero, then the cycle is complete and your bio filter is solid and the tank at that point is ready for the first fish.

 

[gaberosenfield]

Wow Kyle918, I had never thought to test whether a tank is cycled like that. Great advice! I will do this on my next setup I'm planning Thanks!

 

[gam3ovr]

I think this is part of your problem. That is too long of an acclimation. From the time the fish is bagged, ammonia is rising and ph is dropping. You want to acclimate for no more than 20 minutes. I QT all my fish and set my salinity and temperature to that of the tank I bought the fish from. This way, the acclamation process is dramatically reduced. Over the several weeks in the QT, I raise the salinity to match that of the display tank, making that transfer quick as well. I do a water change on the DT and use that water to do a water change on the QT. Over time, the QT water parameters will match that of the DT.

Any ammonia is toxic. It should read zero, if not, it will stress the fish and at levels of .25, it is lethal to most salt water fish.

For the nitrogen cycle to be complete, the tank should be able to process 2ppm ammonia is 24 hours or less. If you dose pure ammonia from ace hardware to a concentration of 2ppm and it is zero in a day and nitrites as also zero, then the cycle is complete and your bio filter is solid and the tank at that point is ready for the first fish.

I'm curious about the water change from the DT to the QT. Never seen that before but in principle, makes sense.

Any supporting data on this?

 

[ganjero]

It has been mentioned in the thread but I don't think the OP has addressed this.

Check the salinity from your source (LFS, online vendor, etc). If the difference is significant (please post and we can tell you) you need to either change your salinity to match the source or using another tank for acclimation (this tank should have the same salinity as the source) where you will match salinity to your display over a 1+ week period, this is specially important if the source's salinity is lower than yours. I found this to be the main reason why I couldn't keep fish alive for more than 3 weeks when I started.

Tip: Hydrometers are not accurate but they are constant, so if you don't want to spend money in a refractometer you can have your LFS or a friend measure your salinity with a refractometer until you achieve your target salinity then measure the same water with the hydrometer use a sharpie to mark where the hydrometer shows your target salinity, that point should remain the same. I can explain more if you need me to.

 

[Kyle918]

I'm curious about the water change from the DT to the QT. Never seen that before but in principle, makes sense.

Any supporting data on this?

I don't have any supporting data on it but it is mentioned in the stickies someplace. Really, it is a large scale version of acclimating from the LFS bag to the QT, IE removing some water and replacing with water from the QT. I've also read of people doing a variation of this. Say every other week doing a water change from their DT then the next week making fresh salt water. So long as you aren't using water changes to remove excessively high nitrates or phosphates I don't see the problem.

Maybe this is worth a new thread :bounce1: I haven't really seen a discussion about it, just briefly mentioned as a technique during another discussion.

 

[JonJon12082]

I think this is part of your problem. That is too long of an acclimation. From the time the fish is bagged, ammonia is rising and ph is dropping.

I agree. There is a great sticky note thread on acclimation at the top of the new to hobby forum, you should check it out. Popular consensus says 20 mins is to long for acclimation in a bag. Good luck though